Blankets, blankets, everywhere

Ruby received another blanket yesterday. This one is a handmade quilt — the second we’ve received from a relative of a friend that we’ve never met. Apparently, quilters have a hard time finding people to give their quilts to. Ironically, Ruby’s Nana has taken up quilting as a hobby since retirement, and I’m sure she’d love to get in on the quilt-giving action.

Ruby has now received six hand-made blankets since birth. Believe it or not, each one gets used. There’s the upstairs-play blanket, the downstairs-play blanket, the other-peoples-houses-play blanket, the make-the-stroller-soft-and-cozy blanket, the wrap-the-baby-up-to-sleep blanket (in several sizes), and the keep-the-baby-warm-while-walking blanket. On top of this, she’s got a bunch of non-hand-made flannel blankets for warmth, propping, and drool protection.

Here’s the latest addition. Ruby seems to like it.

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What goes in, must come out

Ruby’s been spitting up a lot lately, and she’s been hitting me way more often than she gets Kate.  I went through 4 shirts yesterday.

Overall, this isn’t too much of a concern.  It’s something that babies do.  Unfortunately, it seems like she’s always got a haze of spit-up smell hovering around her.  We bathe her about every other day right now, but I think we might need to up the ante.

Her weight gain has slowed considerably.  We don’t weigh her very often, but I was surprised that she was only 12lbs 4oz on Wednesday — I thought she’d be up to 13lbs based on her previous trajectory.  But I think now that she’s teething, she’s become a bit fussier about eating.  The week or two before Kate went back to work she was eating small amounts very frequently.  Now that she’s being bottle-fed two or three times a day, I think she’s going to go back to bigger meals, less often (good news for the bottle-giver!).  This might help her gain weight faster, or maybe not.  Maybe she’s just getting more exercise.

At the other end of the baby, she’s now hit the one-poopy-diaper-per-day milestone.  Unfortunately, the amount of poop is often more than the diaper can handle and so we’re having blow-outs every few days.

Oddly enough, one of the best things to do with Ruby is change her diaper.  She loves to be naked on the changing table, and the height of the table puts our faces right in front of each other.  She laughs and giggles and kicks around, and we both have a ton of fun.  This is a nice change from the first month or two of her life, when we had to run the blow dryer to distract her from crying every time she got up there.

Ruby’s first head cold

Ruby woke up this morning with sniffles and a cough.  She’s also been sleeping a little more than usual.  We’ve had a few friends other the past few days, and some of them were coming off of colds, so she probably picked it up from them.

No sign of fever or anything — just a snotty, dopey baby.

Update: after having an especially nappy day, she seems to be more or less recovered.