Beginning to settle in

Annika is 17 days old and we slowly figuring each other out.  She's a very cuddly newborn, good eater, and sleeps for about 3 hours at a time.  At our 2 week check-up, she weighted 6 lb 13 oz. and after being weighed at Jonathan and Brenda's house, is probably up another 10 oz. or so over the course of a week.  That's some pretty solid growth!  Annika has a few times during the day that she's fussy but, with the help of her grandma's, I'm figuring out ways to help calm her.  My goals is to start getting out of the house in the morning to go for a longer walk.  The Pediatrician suggested being outside at least 20 min. each day to help her brain learn day vs. night.  The only tricky part is that her eyes need to be open and we haven't quite managed that yet. 

Annika's Grandma Ina visited us from Grand Forks, ND.  She arrived on the 9th and stayed through the 15th.  She had a lot of snuggle time, which is exactly what she came for.  My mom came back to visit on the 15th and then left this morning.  It's been great to have their support and I tried to take advantage of their helpfulness.  It was especially nice to have Ina here to help the day we applied for Annika's passport and I was very productive in getting errands accomplished with my mom's help yesterday morning.

Getting Annika's passport was an experience.  We had hoped to be able to get it while Kyle was still here but her social security card had not arrived yet.  Kyle had to fill out extra paperwork and have it notorized, in order to show that he gave parental permission for her to have a passport.  Typically, both parents listed on the birth certificate need to be there in person when applying for a child's passport.  That was a small hurdle and easily taken care of.  The more difficult task was the picture.  The first place we went basically told us that they didn't want to attempt an infant picture and that we should go to Costco and then apply at another location.  The photo guy at Costco was very patient with us, as it took a good 15 min. to get Annika to wake up from her nap.  It took even longer to get her to sort of look at the camera and keep her eyes open.  The picture we got there had quite a few shadows and the guy told us we could come back and have the picture re-done, if the passport people rejected it.  Our last stop was at a Municipal Court building.  The passport lady did say that the Costco picture wasn't good enough and she said that they could take the picture there.  After another long attempt, an acceptable picture was completed.  Ah.....check that off of the list.  Annika's passport should be here within the next couple of weeks.  Then we'll be ready to travel!

Annika with her Grandma Ina.

Practicing using the moby and going for a walk around the neighborhood.

Reading to herself :)

I have been blessed with so many friends coming by to meet Annika and bringing food for us to enjoy.  I really appreciate their thoughtfulness and will definitely be bringing food to my friends with newborns in the future.