Over 7 weeks have passed

Our little Mercy is a little over 7 weeks old now. She is growing so much and starting to interact with us by smiling and cooing. It is a sweet age.

At about week 5 she began to sleep for about 8 hours straight at night. I thought it was too good to be true and she would surely go back to waking every 3 hrs to eat, but she hasn't! She sleeps from 8 to 10 hours straight for over 2 weeks now. I am amazed and shocked. We have never experienced this at such a young age with our babies. Keith and I are resting well!

We are still working with her on the infant potty training. For several weeks she hardly had a stinky diaper because we caught them all in the potty. However, over the last week we have missed them about as much as we have caught them. One particular day we didn't get her to go pee or poo in the potty, so I knew she was boycotting the whole thing :) We could always tell with Maleah, because she was a grunter. Mercy is not. She becomes very relaxed and concentrated at the same time.

She may also be working herself into eating about every 3 hours instead of 2.

Speaking of eating, the other day we were at the dinner table and I had to nurse Mercy. When she had finished I put her up near my shoulder and began to gently pat her on the back. A few minutes and out came a good burp. I immediately told her that she was a good girl and expressed my praise to her for burping so well. I look over at my other little ones who were looking at me with a questioning expression on their faces and I quickly realized that we had been scolding them for burping at the table and here I am telling the baby "Great Job!" They couldn't understand. Funny how age changes things! I can just see myself telling Joshua, after a great big burp, "Good job, buddy! See if you can give mommy another one." He would love it :)

It is also time for me to start getting back into shape. I have committed to walking for now and hope to add other elements of exercise as I build up my strength. I would like to lose about 10-12 pounds. It will be harder than it used to be. I am not as young and spry as I was with Madison (I dropped all my weight by the time she was a couple of months old) and so I know that I will have to work hard at it.

I have just about all of my energy back. I am looking forward to building my strength back. It is time. Mercy was worth every pound, though.

Thankful that some things are getting back to normal,

Nichole