One month down...hundreds to go!

9/23/10 marked Marian's one month anniversary. It did go by quickly, but only in retrospect!
We marked the day by taking her to the pediatrician, poor dear -- fortunately she's not due for immunizations until her two-month. Instead, we found out that she's 9lbs3oz, and we learned how to put her on a sleep schedule. Basically, we put her down at 8pm every night, awake or not, and we wait out her crying, and she falls asleep. The longest she's cried is about 45 minutes -- the MD said we can check on her every 15 to make sure nothing's wrong, but we have to wait 2 hours before we can soothe her. We've never had to do that -- her average crying jag is 15 minutes and then she crashes out. When she wakes up again, we feed her, change her, and put her right back down, preferably awake. In this way she learns to self-soothe. The idea is that eventually as her sleep cycles end and she wakes up, she'll learn to just go right back to sleep without needing us to intervene.
Her longest sleeping jag has been 4.5 hours, but the average is more like 3. Lately it's even shorter -- she hit the 6 week mark and is experiencing a growth spurt (apparently 6 weeks is a common time for a growth spurt) and she becomes hungry within practically an hour and a half of being fed, when as I said it used to be more like three. We're starting to feed her more per sitting to see if we can satisfy her. So far we can't seem to stuff her for long. But the book says these "cluster feedings" last a couple days and then chill out, so hopefully that will be the case. Steve and I are still alternating nights for who gets up to feed and change her, so each of us is getting mostly-consistent sleep every other night.
This Wednesday I'll have my 6 week postpartum check up to see how I've been doing. I'm hopeful that everything will be fine and I can exercise again -- I really miss it. And I really need my ab muscles back (what there was of them) because my back is compensating and getting achy. Marian's 9 pounds can feel much heavier after a long enough time holding her. Holding her though, no matter what, is such a sweet feeling.
For most of her life during her calm and awake states she will go through a repertoire of mouth movements and gestures that make it look like she's trying to orate. She's becoming more diverse in her vocal range as well -- "ahs" and "icks" and grumbles and squeaks and squeals and sighs. Those who meet her and know babies almost always describe her as alert, but she's upped the ante for the last few weeks: she's been in nearly constant movement when I sit holding her against me on her belly. It's like she's trying to mountain climb: her legs are kicking, her hands are grasping, she's looking up over my shoulder like the horizon is right there, calling to her.
Get used to that, kiddo -- it really is.