4 weeks old

hana is now 4 weeks old. i'm not sure where the time went. at her last pediatrician appointment, she was 9lbs 9oz (on 1/3). they say they gain about an oz a day (give or take - breastfed babies are leaner...) so that would make her about 10.5 pounds now. today we measured her (as accurately as one can do that at home) and she appears to be 23" long now. she's still a big girl, but she's not a chubby baby... more long and skinny like her father.

i currently have a cold and hana has been a little gurggley in the chest but from what i have read in the books, that's about normal. she still sleeps pretty well and nurses often. in the past couple of days, i have noticed that she's very alert in the early afternoon. it's not so easy to just nurse her and put her down for a nap. she's calm and she wants to look around and stuff. that's been a lot of fun, especially now that i have let go of the idea that i'm going to get to take a nap at that time. she makes pretty good eye contact now when she wants to and she makes noises now that are not fussing or crying - guess they call that cooing n' such. although she is a good sleeper, she resists going to sleep when she's tired. i think she thinks she's going to miss something. but sadly, all she would miss is me sleeping right next to her. maybe that sort of thing entertains her... babies are such simple creatures. but once you can get her to settle down, she falls asleep pretty quickly and stays that way until it's time to eat again - or if she's got a really big fart or something.

we have also started doing "tummy time". now that babies are put to sleep on their backs, they don't get as much opportunity to strengthen their neck muscles like babies of yester year who were put to sleep on their stomachs. so now we have to do some tummy time to strengthen her neck muscles. she has already been holding her head up for short periods of time. and in her first session of tummy time, she did well. she didn't fuss at all, just did her little baby push ups for about 5-10 minutes. and bailey, our cat, came to "help out". it's sort of neat to see her push herself up and get stronger. boy do they grow fast!