Eyes open

[mmcirvin]

She only has her eyes open for a few minutes each day, so it can be hard to catch her looking around.

Comments

[twillis.livejournal.com]

"Are you talking to me?"

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

It was all I could do not to title this "You'd better cooperate or it could jeopardize your credit rating."

[2wanda.livejournal.com]

She hasn't officially woken up yet. Babies stay pretty sleepy for the first 4 days to a week after birth. She will be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in no time, and then you'll be wondering, "Doesn't this child ever sleep?"

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

She does have a sort of not-all-there quality that you don't see in older babies, at least not in neurotypical ones.

But there are glimmerings. This afternoon she spent about 15 or 20 minutes with both eyes open, just looking around with those languid turtle motions and her little turtle face, and you could see something just starting to work in her head, maybe a notion that there is a visible outside world. But just barely.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

...The sleepiness is now a major trial, because of the admonitions that for newborns on-demand feeding isn't enough, you have to wake them up every couple of hours around the clock and get them to feed.

We're trying to breastfeed and baby is still just learning herself. It can often take an hour of waking up to get her to the point where she can latch on properly without falling asleep as soon as she's attached to Sam, and by the time she's done there's not much time for Sam and baby to nap before the next feeding time. I think Jorie has finally gotten the hang of it to some degree, though.

[asienieizi.livejournal.com]

"the admonitions that for newborns on-demand feeding isn't enough, you have to wake them up every couple of hours around the clock and get them to feed."

Interesting. Times have certainly changed since I was an infant.
(I was a Spock baby.)

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

This sort of advice keeps bouncing around the space of possible advice with a time scale of decades.

I think the idea in this case is that pediatricians want one-size-fits-all advice they can give everyone, and the danger they're worried about here is breast-fed newborns failing to thrive. A newborn younger than about six weeks who is seriously dehydrated becomes sleepy rather than visibly hungry, so if the baby becomes dehydrated because of early breast-feeding problems, demand feeding could send it into a death spiral. After the kid's about a month and a half old, they say you can just feed on demand.

This was probably less of an issue in the era when essentially all American children were bottle-fed.

But examination of her diapers reveals that Marjorie is clearly not dehydrated, so I'm thinking we can be less fundamentalist about feeding schedule.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

...It's interesting, too, that our family doctor just told us to demand-feed, whereas La Leche League instructions and lactation consultants say you need to start with the schedule.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

...Interestingly, some sites claim that epidurals during delivery contribute to extra sleepiness in newborns. I wonder how long that lasts.

Then there's her own chosen lifestyle. In utero, the definite pattern was that she was really active between about 1 and 6 PM and somnolent the rest of the time.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Uh, for "PM" read "AM".

[hemlock-martini.livejournal.com]

Once she's got them open for about 15 minutes at a time, get her started reading A.R.K. archives so she knows what to expect in her new home.

[graydon.livejournal.com]

Daaaawwwwww!

[asienieizi.livejournal.com]

What you're seeing there is a very early attempt at mind control.
"You will cater to my every whim. You will buy me the best diapers, , video games, designer luggage, many ponies, braces, cars, the finest universities..."
Don't fight it. It's a lot less painful if you go peacefully.

[manfire.livejournal.com]

I'm only awake for a few minutes each day too, so I like her style already.

That hardly looks like

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

Harlan Ellison at ALL! Congratulations!

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

Years from now, she'll catch a rerun of Star Trek:TNG and the Borg will subconciously remind her of her first sightings of her own father, who seemed to have mechanical lens and flashing light attached to his face.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

At least I turned off the autofocus assist lamp. She'll have the cats to thank for that; they hate it.