Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

The good news of the week is that Paela met her birth weight at her two-week check-up on Monday. The pediatrician then gave us conflicting instructions: we no longer have to wake her to eat, but don't let her go more than 3-4 hours between feeding times. I don't think our pediatrician listened well when we told her how very long Paela can sleep. At any rate, we're letting Paela sleep more now, but waking her sometimes still (surely five hours between feedings is too much even at night?).

She's also been more and more alert in her non-sleeping time, which makes feeding her a little easier (though I still have to prod and we've taken to stripping her down to her diaper and turning the fan on). It also makes it so we have to learn how to actually put her to sleep instead of her just being asleep on her own. When is she old enough to learn how to put herself to sleep? My arms are getting tired of bouncing already!

Monday we also took a trip down to Santa Cruz to visit the beach. Paela and I caught naps on the drive. We also got to walk around in a bit of rain, and Paela experienced her first lightning and thunder. I don't think she noticed, but Wayne and I enjoyed the storm from the car while she ate.

Speaking of firsts that Paela ate through, we felt an earthquake Tuesday and a smaller one on Wednesday. It was Wayne's and my first time feeling an earthquake too! He was in class at the time, and felt the whole building sway. I just felt rumbling, and watched the cereal box balanced precariously on top of the fridge to see if it was going to fall. When it didn't, I decided I wasn't in that much danger and could finish feeding Paela. Ha. Wayne pointed out that by the time the cereal box fell, I should have already been in a safer place. In my defense it took me a minute or two to figure out that it was an earthquake and not the neighbors using power tools! When Wayne finally could call me on the cell phone (lines were blocked out for a bit), Paela and I drove down to campus to pick him up and ended up going out with people from Wayne's class for Chinese food until 10pm. Paela slept in her Moby the whole time.

For Halloween on Wednesday, we went to Karl and Angela's and made haunted houses, caramel fondue, overdosed on sugar, and watched Arsenic and Old Lace. It made for a fun evening, but I'm pretty sure Paela didn't like all the sugar. Thursday night she had a bad night for sleep -- way overtired and we couldn't get her to sleep. That was when we decided we should let her sleep when she can instead of waking her as often as we had been, because who knows when she'll not be able to fall back asleep and stay asleep? You can't take these times for granted, my friends! Friday afternoon, Paela and I finally got some much needed rest, at least more than the catnaps we had gotten during the night. I didn't do much else in my brain-dead state on Friday, until the evening when Chris and Alyssa invited us for games. Wayne spent some time cleaning and organizing his studio on campus. Paela loves to snuggle in her Moby and sleep, so we went back to campus with Wayne after the games, and stayed until late. I read up some on baby sleep -- apparently letting them sleep in movement isn't "real" sleep since they don't fall into deep sleep. Who knew?

Saturday Wayne experimented with a new method for helping Paela relax herself to sleep: let her cry for five minutes and then comfort her, then cry for 10 minutes and comfort, etc. He said she took half an hour to put to sleep this way. Which is about how long it takes to bounce her to sleep. But without the bouncing. Hmm. But could I do that? I'm not so sure....

Last Sunday we made it to Sacrament meeting; perhaps today we'll try for more? I'm sure Paela would just sleep in her Moby the whole time anyway!