This is it...

Today is my last day at home, on maternity leave with Ruby. She turns 18 weeks tomorrow, so I know that I'm truly blessed to have had the extra time to stay at home and bond with her. Today is the day I will say that I have a perfect baby- nobody could possibly tell me different. Sure, we've had our challenges with the bottle, sleep, reflux, etc. but today, well today she is just perfect. I just put her down for her morning nap, and instead of 'working' towards getting her to sleep, I just enjoyed the moment. We rocked, cooed, smiled, she now touches my face with her hand, runs her hand through my hair, and just smiles and is happy. There is nothing more wonderful in this world than looking at your child looking at you, with pure happiness. I didn't rush her to sleep today, we took our time. She is perfection in my eyes. I am so blessed with Ruby, and am so excited to watch her grow. With Ginger, it was all new to us. We didn't know what to expect, and that was definitely fun. But with Ruby, we get to take our time and enjoy where we are at the moment, instead of wondering what's next, in front of us. Ruby is definitely our little gem, heaven on earth in my eyes.

Mission Accomplished: Swaddle

Sure does feel like I'm accomplishing a lot these days! We have finally (FINALLY) broken free from the need for a swaddle, and I am happy to report that Ruby has let it go without too much of a fuss. We have been in between for a few weeks now- her fighting the swaddle, but needing it to calm and fall asleep. We took the 'book smart' approach- one arm out for a few days, then both arms, then yesterday she spent the day at my folks house (who always are bewildered that children these days are swaddled past a few weeks of age). That means that there was no swaddle at all, and the girl did great. So we decided to just give it up completely and last night she only woke up once (at 2am, to nurse) and then slept nicely until 6:45am. Not bad! She takes a little more rocking to fall asleep, but all in all, I am SO happy that she no longer needs to be straight jacketed to fall asleep. One more vice we can get shed!

On another note, I went back to trying the playtex drop-ins (bottles we used for Ginger) despite having some success with the MAM bottles, and Ruby now loves them! Well, for Ruby, anyhow, which means she will latch and take 2-3 ounces without much of a fuss. Still working on getting her to take 5-6 ounces (which is the recommendation for her age) but she'll occasionally go to 4 oz if she's hungry enough. Our big word for Ruby continues to be: PROGRESS. She's not the easiest baby in the world, but she certainly is the most beautiful! :)