First Growth Spurt Complete!

Well, Ryan and I made it through last week virtually unscathed. We probably have a few more gray hairs and darker circles under our eyes, but I am sure it is only the first of many to come. For those whom we haven't spoken to, Lacy hit her first 'growth spurt' last week which consisted of almost constant feedings every hour to hour and a half. Sleep was nearly impossible because as soon as I finished one feeding and closed my eyes Lacy would roar with hunger yet again. I literally didn't think that a baby could eat as much and as often as she did.

As quickly as the growth spurt came it vanished and she has been very close to sleeping 6 hours at a time at night. Her parents grogginess has finally cleared and we can function like normal adults and carry on real conversations without zoning out or rambling on in broken and incomplete sentences.

After the 'spurt', as we refer to it, we noticed not only a change in ourselves but a change in Lacy. She is so much more animated now. She is smiling real smiles and most noticeably when I go to wake her up from her naps. She now recognizes our voices and turns her head towards us. She is starting to bat at objects on her play mat and likes to stare at herself in the mirror. (she gets a big kick out of that!) Her hair gets lighter and lighter every day. When I say lighter I mean more red. She has the blondest eyebrows and eyelashes and all the hair coming in is coming in blonde, but the hair on top has a red tinge (when its clean). We shall see!

Due to the warmer temps I have been able to get out during the day with Harley and Lacy for walks around the neighborhood. I would say she loves them, but the moment we walk outside she is asleep! We took her out to lunch twice last week and although all the ladies stopped to coo and ogle her she still didn't open her eyes. It is amazing the copious amounts of people who stop to 'see' the baby. Everyone from elderly ladies to little tots, to the muscle bound gym rats to women wanting to have their own, but the most interesting of them all is the 'advice giver.' The completely random stranger who comes up to you and says, "she should be wearing a hat" or "when my kids were young...", which is all fine and good until they start dragging on in their stories and you are left holding what feels like an 80 pound car seat for 15 minutes listening to a complete stranger talk about how at 4 months her child was talking, walking and reading.  Tangent aside I really do enjoy showing off our little girl.

This weekend we had my Mom and Bob come down for a visit.  It was a short one as they arrived on Saturday afternoon and left Sunday pm.  G'ma needed her "Lacy Day Fix" as she calls it.  The weather was great on Saturday and we took several walks and even ventured out to dinner at a 'hippie granola' restaurant that opened up in Shirlington.  Lacy Day was an angel and again slept through all of it.   Saturday afternoon she developed some sort of a rash so we spent a good portion of time washing all her clothing, bedding and blankets making sure it wasn't the detergent.  The rash is still visible, but it seems to be deteriorating and she does not seem to be bothered by it.  It is probably more bothersome to her parents!  Still not sure what caused the bumps.  Again, babies are weird.  

Sunday our old neighbors came to visit us from Greensboro, NC and brought their 8 month old daughter, Avery.  We had a great time catching up on the 2 months that they have been gone from our Fairlington court.  Avery has grown so much and is crawling very fast.  Harley had to be on guard most of the visit.  She was a living, breathing teddy bear to Avery.  Lacy slept through most of the visit, but was awake to meet Avery for the first time.  

Lastly, we got word from our pediatrician that a VCUG would rule out any serious issues with Lacy's kidney and has given us a referral to make an appointment at a hospital of our choosing.  A VCUG detects if all the urine is leaving the kidney and into the bladder and nothing is being left behind that could cause an infection.  The procedure sounds worse than what I have been told it actually is.  It requires a catheter to be placed into her bladder and a dye will be inserted to determine how the kidney filters the liquid.  Fingers crossed all will go well, although we do not yet have an appointment scheduled.  If the procedure shows no anomalies no further tests will be required (or so we have been told).  We will keep you all posted when we know more.

Love to you all!