Six weeks

 Piper is 6 weeks now.  So much has happened in the last six weeks.  Piper keeps me on my toes.  I took her into a check-up this past week and they weighed her at 8 lbs 9 oz and 21 1/2 inches.  So, she continues to be little, still sporting her cute newborn clothes.  I put tights on her on Sunday and they looked ridiculous on her--like pants.  Really, if it weren't so cold outside I'd forgo the silly looking things.  Piper has been on reflux medicine for two weeks now and I think it's helping.  She has many more calm hours and days now than before.  Last week she had three days where she was happy and it was pretty amazing.

 Piper likes her swing better than any of her siblings did.  She likes to look up at the mobile and lights on the swing.  She also loves music and will often calm down when her brothers start singing.  She is fascinated by lights and will just stare at them.  Her feelings for bath time seem to be lukewarm so far.  She seems to like it but doesn't get overly excited yet in the water like Laila did.

 So far Piperleigh has rolled over three times.  She rolled over for my sister when I was down and out with my wisdom teeth.  I heard everyone clapping for her downstairs but didn't have the energy to come down and see her.  But then she rolled over for me last week.  She is also smiling quite often now when she is having a good day.  I am amazed at how patient she is with the boys.  They just love on her so much--touch her, grab her toes, stick their faces in hers, etc.  She just seems very interested in them and today made them all very happy with the sweet smiles she bestowed on them first thing in the morning.

 Piperleigh does not care for the pacifier very often, though we are trying to encourage her to take one.  She will take a bottle if it has breastmilk but hates formula.  So far she tolerates the car seat way more than any of the other kids did and will often go to sleep when we drive places (not a normal occurrence for my kids...they usually all just cried until I got them out of the car seat).

I think she is embarrassed by her silly florescent bow

Overall, Piper seems much happier and easier to calm than any of my kids so, for that I am grateful.  I'm not going to lie though, it has been a hard month with her.  We have seen a whole lot of this crying face.  I'd say we have had more fussy days than happy ones but I'm hopeful that things are getting better now.  Yesterday at church two of my friends were in the hall talking about how much they miss this baby stage and how much they just love it.  I felt a little awkward and wished I could have joined in and agreed with them.  But honestly, this newborn stage is a hard one for me.  I know that part of it is just my personality.  I am more anxious and high strung than some new moms.  But I also wondered what kind of babies my friends had.  I wondered if it was normal for them to have a baby that woke up at 6 AM and didn't go back to sleep until noon--fussing for the majority of that time.  Piperleigh does that often.  Sometimes she will take two 15-30 minute naps during those 6 hours.  But on her good days she will wake up and be happy, and then go to sleep for an hour and a half to two hours.

Anyway, that's Piper at six weeks in a nutshell.  Now I am off to take her from Mike (we have to take shifts) so that he can get his exercising done.  I wonder what I'll write at 12 weeks.  Hopefully the crying and fussing will just feel like a dream...