This week with Coraline was better than the last. She is spending a lot more time “talking” and cheerful when she is awake. We are still working on nap times, but thankfully she seems to enjoy sleeping in her stroller outside, and that is how she napped most of the weekend.

She likes to eat her hands, but still hasn’t quite figured out how to use that to soothe herself. In fact, she breaks out of the swaddle one to three times at night (yes, through tight velcro!) and cries only after she doesn’t find her hands satisfactory.

Jameson was home for this photo shoot because Great Aunt Carol and I took them to the zoo! It was a great trip.

We’ve found cleaning her little neck rolls to be more challenging than we realized, and I have to make much more conscious effort with it since the skin under there is irritated right now. The woes of chubby babies! The bigger she gets, the more we think she might actually look somewhat like me.

This week she started looking upwards instead of letting her head just fall to the side. She enjoys looking at the ceiling fans and in particular her mobile over the changing table!

Coraline and I took a couple self portraits on the porch; we are really enjoying the porch in the front and the swing in the back depending on where the sun is during the day. She loves to sit upright with her back patted, or over the shoulder where she can look around.

We also enjoyed the pleasure of a little visit from Great Aunt Carol again; it is nice to have an hour or so of not holding a baby, as cute as she is.

I successfully went to two more lunches without having an awake baby, but I have found that I need to rock her the entire time or she wakes up! The movement seems to be necessary, but as long as I get a one-handed meal then we are good. It has been nice to feel confident going out again after our rough week or so where she wouldn’t nap.

Now, if only we could get her to take that bottle… we are still working on it without success and I just bought a couple more. We have tried mOmma, Medela Calma, Breastflow, Tommee Tippee. The only one she will take an once from is the mOmma one. I have  just purchased Playtex and Dr Browns to try next. My original focus was to get bottles that encouraged breastfeeding with wider bases and specific technologies, but at this point, I would like her to take anything. Wish us luck!