The first six weeks is the hardest

Well that is what everyone keeps telling me, and that at 6 weeks miraculously you will turn a corner. I'm not exactly sure what is supposed to be around that corner but am looking forward to it.

At five weeks Alexa is getting bigger (8pds, 13 ozs), feeding stronger and sleeping much better than before. Her lungs are also growing stronger as evidenced by louder and more piercing screams. She still doesn't sleep quite as much as we'd like - getting on average 10 hours every 24, but this an improvement on the first 4 weeks. I think she is a spirited baby and is easily stimulated by what is going on around her - thus she finds it difficult to sleep during the day (unless lulled into a sleep by the pram) and much easier at night when she can't look around. This was recently put to the test on Sunday when Joanne and Simon visited midday. Alexa had been awake from 7am, and we were hoping she would go down, but the new faces were too interesting and she was still awake at 4pm when they left and boy was she grumpy. So while Jo cycled off & David went for an afternoon nap, I took a screaming Alexa for a brisk walk around Clapham Common using the sound of the traffic to soothe her.

This morning I took advantage of the NZ time differences to call home while feeding her. Gran (Lynne) was able to hear the contented gulps of the first few mouthfuls, than an hour later, and still feeding, Grandad (Hamish) was able to diagnose (over the phone) when the milk supply was running low. Grunts and squeals of frustration was assuaged by swapping breasts as suggested by Grandad, his 30 years experience milking cows paying off. "Well it's the same mechanism really isn't it?" commented Grandad. He seems to have more sound advice than the local midwives!

Alexa has just started grinning. She rewards me in the middle of the night when I go to pick her up with a big open mouthed smile, and an occasional gurgle. This makes up for having to get up at 1am, and again at 5, then 8. We have tried to capture this new look by photo, but to date it has remained illusive and refuses to come on demand. We'll keep on trying so stay tuned for this pic in the future.