Peyton Brooke {4 Weeks}

Peyton turned four weeks old on Friday, June 11th. She continues to grow and learn everyday and I love being at home with her so I can enjoy it all! I promise I won't continue to bore y'all with these weekly updates for the rest of her life. This upcoming week, I'm switching to monthly updates so you'll only have to endure this once a month for the next year. You're welcome. I realize that my child is not nearly as exciting to all of you as she is to me...but after all, here you are reading this anyways :) On that note, here is what Peyton's been up to this past week...

I can't believe that this little munchkin turned a month old this weekend!

We started a new routine doing tummy time everyday this week. I didn't like it at first because I felt like I was suffocating her, but she's already making a lot of progress picking up her head and turning it from side to side. I love watching her learn new things!

She had been doing all of her sleeping (at night and daytime naps) up to this point in her pack 'n play which is set up in our bedroom. However, we started putting her in the crib for her daytime naps this week! At first, she would only sleep for short periods in her crib (I don't think she was a fan of the hard mattress), but now she will fall asleep on her own in it and take a 2-3 hour nap with no fuss.

Daddy gave her the very first bottle this week as well! We wanted to make sure that we had good breastfeeding habits established before we introduced a bottle. The very first time we tried to give her the bottle, she did not want to take it. It took about an hour of Jared relentlessly trying over and over again to get her to take the bottle before she finally took it. He read online about holding her in the breastfeeding position and holding the bottle under your armpit to trick her into thinking that she was breastfeeding, and it worked like a charm! After that, she took the bottle with no problem from then on. Now, he can even hold her normally and she takes the bottle right away. Jared gives her one bottle of breastmilk every night now and it makes things so much easier for mommy :)

We received our newborn photos from our photographer this week and I am so in love with them. You can see some of my favorites from the shoot on this blog post. 

Peyton started cooing this week and it is the most adorable thing ever. She makes the cutest little smiles and noises at me all the time. I absolutely love it! She already focuses well for her age and she will also follow your face with her head and eyes now. I'll move my face away from where she is looking while I'm talking to her and she will immediately turn her head to keep watching me the entire time.  

Mommy has a new secret weapon for calming her down...Disney songs. Every afternoon around 4:30-5:00, Peyton starts to get a little fussy. She's probably just ready for a change of scenery by that time because she's be starting at my ugly mug all day long. During this time, she wants to be held and moving around. One day this week, I was desperately trying to calm her down so I sat in my glider with her propped up on my knees and turned on Disney Pandora on my phone. I then proceeded to rock the glider and make her little arms and legs dance while I sang along to the Disney movie soundtracks. She instantly calmed down and loved it! So now every afternoon, we have a Disney dance party in the nursery. I'm not sure who enjoys this more, Peyton or me...ok, let's be honest...I do. 

Feeding patterns: Peyton was on a steady routine for feeding, up until this week. She must have hit a growth spurt because she fell into a cluster feeding routine for a few consecutive days. Instead of eating every 4 hours like she normally does, she wanted to eat every 3 or sometimes even 2 hours. Since she was eating so much more frequently, this threw off her sleeping routine as well so we were basically out of whack all week long. Luckily, she took to the introduction of bottle feeding pretty quickly and easily so that was a relief. She now gets one bottle of breastmilk every night (around 7 or 8pm) from Jared. 

Sleep patterns: Peyton's sleeping routine got a little messed up this week due to the cluster feeding. Not only was she eating more frequently, but she was also needing her diaper changed much more often due to the extra food intake. Between all this eating and pooping, there was little time left for sleeping. Her naps during the day and first part of the night were about 1-2 hours long and then she slept for one long stint late at night around 4 hours in length. 

Peyton currently loves...mommy singing Disney songs to her, WubbaNub pacifiers, her play mat, staring at light fixtures and ceiling fans, being talked to and watching faces, laying on Daddy's chest, holding on to your fingers, being held up to your shoulder, being propped up on your knees so she can look at your face, sleeping in night gowns (but her feet have to be able to stick out of the bottom), flailing her arms and legs, and being naked. 

Peyton currently dislikes...her car seat, being wrapped or confined in any way, anything that covers her arms/legs/hands/feet, being dried off after her bath (she doesn't hate the actual bathing part so much anymore), being burped, being in her swing or bouncy seat for too long, having a wet diaper, and when she knocks her paci out of her mouth and can't get it back. 

I have officially lost 29 pounds of my pregnancy weight. Only 16 pounds to go! I can't wait until I go to the doctor at the 6 week mark so I can get cleared to start exercising again. Mommy is ready to get back to looking like her old self again :)