Lucky #7

Kinsley is 7+ weeks and 7+ lbs!

This past weekend was a milestone weekend for us! On Friday, Kinsley had a ped appt and her weekly weight check...and our 7-week-old broke the 7 lb mark, at 7 lb 3.8 oz to be exact! We are just now getting her close to what the doctors suspected would have been her birth weight had we made it longer in the pregnancy. I am so proud of her! She is tracking a good 2 - 2.5 lbs behind her baby friends that were born around the same time as her but at full term, so that's right about where we expect her to be...and she's doing great! I did confirm with the pediatrician that developmentally, she is doing really, really well...but I have to keep reminding myself that her development is based on her gestational age, not her actual age...in other words, developmentally, she is that of a "2 week old," not a 7 week old...tracking back about 5 weeks. And even though that's the case, in the words of our pediatrician: "this baby is firing on all cylinders"...of course, that made me feel good! She's lifting her head all the time, pushing against anything with her legs to "propel herself" up or forward, constantly active and moving, starting to find her smile (see previous blog posting), her grunting is turning into more baby-like sounds, and we are moving from 2 oz of food per feeding to 3 oz...but we are still feeding every 3 hours, even at night. :)

So to celebrate our good doctor appt on Friday, we met up with my mom and dad for lunch at CPK...Kinsley's first restaurant outing! This was big for me too as we had to feed her while there (bottle, I am not one of those breastfeeding-in-public-kind-of-gals) and change her for the first time in a public restroom - good thing we were in a clean, newer restaurant! After lunch, it was off to so a little outdoor shopping on a beautiful Friday with mom at The Forum...I think I had a teeny, tiny little pre-Mother's Day shopping spree for myself. Needed to find some summer clothes that fit a little less snug than my regular "pre-baby" clothes do right now...ahhh, the joy of carrying a little baby weight as we near the summer months - the word "bikini" just plain scares me.

I capped Friday with dinner on the patio at Aomi with Philip and Kinsley...and have I mentioned that this entire time Kinsley was a PERFECT ANGEL??? She was incredible...she is proving time and time again that she loves to be outdoors, loves to be in her car seat & stroller, and loves to be out of the house to go on a walk or a car ride. It is funny to see people's reactions when they peek in and see her...they all think that she is "sooo tiny," always asking how old she is. I always jump to her defense, telling them she was just a little early. And maybe it's just me, but I just don't see her as tiny anymore...to me, she's getting to be a big girl, but then again, I am her mom. And it's been fun chatting here and there with other mom's that I run into at the store...like there's some new common bond that we have because of our strollers - or should I say, what's in our strollers. :)

The rest of the weekend, we tried to continue on Friday's success, also going out to La Parilla Saturday for our 2nd family dinner outing...we did go at 5:30 to beat the crazy crowds, but still, we went. Sunday was time with both sets of grandparents. It was a great weekend. Just one more step in getting some aspect of normalcy back into our lives after spending pretty much the first 6 weeks of her life caged up here at the house since she was premature...it was nice to get out. I could get used to this. After weeks of being in NICU and having to "stay at home," I feel like we are finally having the "maternity leave" that we expected to have. I can't believe how fast it's gone...

Content in her car seat...loves being in the car and in her stroller...and would you just look at those cheeks?

Kinsley falling asleep with a full tummy as mommy and daddy get ready to leave to go have dinner with her Friday night.