Eek! THAT'S where I came from?

Allison's been a busy girl these past few weeks. She's been awake a lot more during the day, and has even been sleeping through the night (by which I mean she sleeps until 5 or 5:30 a.m., which still forces her parents out of bed earlier than we're used to. But it's a huge accomplishment). She can hold her head up (mostly), scoot when you lay her on her back or stomach and hold her feet, and she's even given us a few sweet smiles.

I went back to work last week, and David is now on his second week of paternity leave. He's learning what I already knew - that taking care of a baby, even one who sleeps a lot, is a lot of work. Both of us had a lot of ambitions at the beginning of our leaves of getting things done around the house and writing that next great American novel we've been putting off. But the three hours between feedings goes fast. It takes her half hour to an hour to eat, then there's a few diaper changes, book reading (David's reading her War and Peace and I fluctuate between Dr. Seuss and the Norton Anthology of British Literature), and rocking to sleep. After she goes down for a nap, there's a little time for picking up all the burp clothes, bibs and blankets scattered all around the house, doing some laundry, unloading and reloading the dishwasher, or checking email. Of course, bottles always need cleaning for the next round of feedings. By the time you get a chance to sit down or realize you're starving for lunch, she's up asking for her next meal. Since she began spending more time awake during the day, we've to cut out the parts where we tidy, eat, and sit down. Yes, she's keeping us on our toes, and we realize that this is the least labor intensive part of her infancy.

But we're not complaining. She's a very good baby. And so far, knock on wood, not colicky. Poor thing does have some reflux issues, which causes her to scream in agony one or two meals a day, but the doctor gave us some medicine to curb that as well as the reassurance that she'll outgrow it by the time she's nine months old. The book Happiest Baby on the Block gave us good ammo for comforting her during the rougher times, although it was a bit hard to read at times (long winded and full of cheesy puns). We've become excellent swaddlers and shooshers.

Anyway, here's a link to some new photos, including some shots of her first trip to the zoo, which she slept through (except for the minute when we snapped the photo below). But I got some very cute shots of her twin cousin Ruby.