Zoey’s got mail!

We just received Zoey’s official Social Security Number in the mail yesterday. It was so cool to see her name printed in the address window and then on the card. So, now she can get a job. …and get a bank account, which is on our list. Seems like the Social Security Administration is pretty quick to crank out numbers… the request was on the same form as requesting her birth certificate from the State of Washington, which we have not received yet. Interesting.

Gosh, she is almost four weeks old. We just can’t believe it. She is settling into a few patterns… I have stopped eating all dairy (no more of a "just a little butter" on my bagel) and chocolate and she seems to be less fussy. But, when she is fussy, it is usually at night, between about 11-3am. It’s on Evan’s shift currently (sorry sweetie). The shifts are sorta working out. I am feeling a lot better after a good 5-6 hours of straight sleep and then naps here and there. I feel bad for Evan who gets the cranky/super diaper change times. We will switch off, I am sure. The bottle is working out great! She takes to it just fine (thank goodness!). She has more "quiet alert time" where she is awake and bright eye’d and just checking things out. She really digs the plaid pattern on the couch (yes, it has red in it, which is one of the main colors she can actually see right now) and she also likes looking out the window — or maybe it is the plant next to the window. Her main form of exercise is squirming all around, even during nursing… ouch!

We also got back her test for the State of Washington Newborn Screening testing, for 5 diseases, Phenylketonuria (pku), Congential Hypothyroidism, Congential Adrenal Hyperplasia, Hemoglobinopathy, Biotinidase, and Galactosemia. This was, affectionally, the "heel poke" test that we did at three days old. The tests all came out normal. YAY! Good job Zoey! Nothing else really new with her… except that she is already growing out of one of our really cute ducky fleece sleeper. Bummer.

I am doing much better than before with the added sleep I am getting. I am starting to get back into teaching. We are working out how to take care of Zoey at that time and the bottles, etc… I am also getting back into my morning walks. I have only gone once so far, but I took Zoey and Murph with me. It worked out pretty well until I had to put Zo back into the car seat. She didn’t like that much. But, I walked about a mile and a half with her in the sling and Murph running around and catching balls.

Evan is doing pretty well. I think he is still really tired with working from home and taking care of me and Zoey and Murph. He says that his coffee headaches starts up even before he wakes up in the morning. That’s no good. So, we have his coffee ready to go as soon as he gets up. He is still pretty chipper, though. We still laugh quite a bit — the measure of a good relationship, right? It is great to know that even when we are both so exhausted that we aren’t at each other’s throats, and actually it is the opposite, we laugh about everything, even Zoey’s record diaper changes which is now 5 in one changing. She really likes those clean diapers to poop in. We have had to raise our diaper count in the diaper delivery service because we ran out.

Murph is doing well. We got her some new "inside balls" (ones that are colorful and clean because they stay inside). Evan tossed her one and she hung onto it chewing it, making it hers for about 20 minutes. It was very cute.