Un-Blobbing
For the most part, newborns are little blobs of cuteness. They don’t do much besides eat, poop, and sleep. Or, if you’re Gracie, sleep, sleep, eat, sleep, poop, sleep, sleep some more, and then eat. She’s an overachiever when it comes to sleeping.
Actually, she sleeps so much that when we went to the pediatrician for her two week check up, I told him I was a little concerned about how much she was sleeping. He sort of stood there for a second and then said, “I don’t think I’ve ever had a parent say that to me before…”
Turns out, newborns sleep a lot. I mean, like, a LOT. I guess I had just forgotten.
Chris and I have been waiting for Gracie to wake up and show us a little personality, but waking up seems to be really stressful and takes a lot of effort for Gracie Girl. When it’s time for her to wake up, she stretches and grunts and groans for about 20 minutes before actually even opening her eyes. By the time she gets her eyes open, she’s so exhausted from the effort of waking up that she usually takes a look around, yawns, and then falls back asleep.
Being a newborn is hard work.
But in the past couple days, we’ve seen the whites of Gracie’s little peepers more and more often. And it’s been lovely! She’s been staying awake longer after she eats and, sometimes, she even wakes up JUST TO BE AWAKE! Not even to eat! It’s a miracle! MY GIRL CAN STAY AWAKE! HOLY COW!
And not only is she staying awake, but (hold on to your hats, people…) she’s making noises!! She’s awake AND she’s cooing! It’s amazing! I didn’t think she had it in her.
When she’s awake, we try to spend as much time with her as we can because who knows the next time girlfriend will actually wake back up. We talk to her, show her things, walk her around the house, put her on her tummy, and lay her on her play mat.
So far, she seems to like the play mat the best. I put her in her Boppy to prop her up so she can maybe reach the toys a little better. She’s still flailing around like newborns do, but every now and then she’ll flail and accidentally hit something.
We count that as playing in our house.
Mostly though, she just stares. She’s a starer. She just sits and stares down her toys. I think she’s trying to be very intimidating. But it really just makes her look even cuter.
Today, Gracie is four weeks old. If she’s this much fun to watch and play with now, I can’t imagine how much fun she’s going to be as she grows. I don’t want to think about that right now though. Right now, I want to see if I can poke her in her belly and make her laugh like the Pillsbury Dough Boy. I think she’s got it in her.
I just have to get her to open her eyes.
There will be much protesting.
21 Comments
Amanda
Such sweet pictures! She is just so precious. Makes me want a sweet baby girl someday!
Chloe
She’s so sweet!!
Cute pictures!!!
Stephanie @ Our Marriage Adventure
Ohh the cuteness. She makes my ovaries quiver!
Ginny
This post makes me so happy because she looks just like she did when I saw her last. I don’t want to miss a second of snuggles with her — tell Gracie Girl to stay just like this until Aunt Ginny can come visit again!
Tressa
Gracie Girl is a DOLL 😉
Jen @ Caved In
You are so lucky Gracie is a good sleeper. Sullivan just wanted to look at everything and fought sleep like crazy. I always laughed when people told me how great it was when they sleep all the time. I hope her good sleep habits continue for you!
Cindy In Owensboro, KY
She is so sweet!! I just want to give her a big hug!!
jody
She is the sweetest thing! Oh man you just want to eat those sweet cheeks up!
Kat @ Living Like the Kings
Oh my gosh we asked our pediatrician the same thing! I’ve heard that newborns sleep a lot but we were having a hellavatime trying to wake her up even to eat! And when she finally did wake up for short periods of time, we threw a party.
AmyLyn
Oh man, I wish, wish, wish my little one slept this much! LOL He is 18 weeks today but even as a newborn he was an underachiever in sleep! And now that he has hit the 4 mos wakeful phase, forget it, I am lucky to get a 20 minute nap every 2-3 hours. LOL ENJOY all this sleep while you can! And she is just beautiful!!!! 🙂
Mindee@ourfrontdoor
I love, love, LOVE newborns! If they didn’t grow up and turn two and make me want to poke my eyes with needles I would have had 10 of them.
Gracie is absolutely perfect Katie!
Karen
She is absolutely precious!! Just a doll! But–Count.Yourself.Lucky. that she sleeps. My daughter as a newborn never slept. She fought sleep like the very devil. As she got a bit older, she’d kick her little legs to keep herself awake. Even now, at age 3, it’s not much better. Countless doctor visits and a sleep study later, she still just hates to sleep. And, she’s still an only child. I’ve shown my husband your posts about how much Gracie sleeps and he just shakes his head and says, “Our model didn’t come with that feature!” So true! Enjoy your little sleepy bundle! I love reading your blog!
Melissa W.
She is adorable!!!! Such cute pictures…they make me want to go for #3 so I can get a girl finally… only for a split second! LOL!!
Mommy, Esq.
I recall she is a few weeks early, right? That is why she’s so sleepy. Ned and Penny were 3 weeks early and I felt like they slept all the time. Josephine was 39 weeks and very “awake” from the beginning. It was an interesting contrast. Enjoy her snuggly sleep anywhere stage! Oh, and let us know – is Bean still in daycare?
Jessica W
Seriously, could she be ANY cuter?! Please, please tickle those cheeks for me, I can’t stand it any longer after those photos!!
Holli
Oh.my.freaking.goodness! The cuteness is too much. She is a gorgeous newborn!!
Ashley @ A Recipe for Sanity
Love that last picture! What a little munchkin. I think she looks like you! 🙂
Lindsay (Young Married Mom)
She seems to have some personality in these pictures already, and it’s so nice for us, your imaginary friends, to get to know your little girl this way. Our Peanut slept like a fiend at the start, too, which I think he gets from his dad–that family can SLEEP. About three weeks in, I sent photos of Jacob to my parents and my dad responded, “It’s so nice to see his eyes open!” Ha! Enjoy this snuggly quiet time with your little angel.
Andrea
Ryan was the same way when she was a newborn, that girl was never awake. I mentioned this to our doctor and she grins and says I can wake her up. The she picks Ryan up and kinda fake drops her back a little bit to startle her. Ryan didn’t move a muscle, she slept right through it. Doc was a
little taken aback that her trick didn’t work, I giggled am little on the inside 🙂 18 months old now, she still loves to sleep but she certainly likes being awake and running around just as much! Can’t believe Graceis already a month old! Such a cutie, can’t wait for a video of those cute coos.
Amy L Butler
Great pics. Beautiful baby girl. Sweet pics of mommy and baby. So glad y’all are enjoying such a wonderful time together. The stories you share are just great. I look forward to them daily.
Rebecca
that second to last picture is pretty stellar.