Sooo big! Lura has been growing at a good rate (though Mommy has had to work pretty hard to help her do so!), and she's already outgrowing some of her smaller onesies. Not this gown, though, at least not in the sleeves... She's five weeks old in this photo.
On 10 October 2003, Lura's Auntie Gail went back home to Hawaii after helping us out for a week; she left us with a full refrigerator of food to reheat when we need to snatch a quick meal between feedings for Lura. It was great to see her, and we'll look forward to showing her how much Lura has grown when we go to Hawaii for Lura's first Christmas!
The next day Mark had his first afternoon "home alone" with Lura, as Cheryl went into Los Angeles to a bridal shower tea for her friend Donna. Cheryl had a good time, and Lura didn't give Mark cause to have to call her up on her cell phone! He was quite relieved when Cheryl got home in time for the next feeding, though.
The day after that, Cheryl and Mark were scheduled to be at the hospitality and information table at the coffee hour after church. Some of our friends had offered to take over our shift from us, but we'd been taking Lura to church for a couple of weeks (though we stayed in a side chapel with an audiovisual feed, in case she got restless) as a rehearsal for her upcoming baptism, so we just went to the coffee hour with her afterward on this Sunday.
You couldn't see Lura in the previous photo because of the stroller's hood, but she and Cheryl wore matching outfits!
Here's Lura at six weeks. Of course, we put her on her back to sleep at night in her cradle (she's not quite ready to turn herself over), but as we mentioned, we've been giving her some "tummy time" each day to make sure she isn't uncomfortable with facing downward when it's time for her to push up and learn to crawl. She's been getting better and better about it, with less fussing; sometimes she even falls asleep next to Cheryl on the couch after being fed.
Another thing to which we needed to introduce Lura, in order for her to start getting accustomed to it, is the bottle. We have been told that it is good to avoid giving a bottle to a baby in the first month, to avoid confusion, but that the baby should be introduced to it by the third month in order that he or she won't refuse it later. So we tried a few ounces of formula in a bottle on the night of 15 October 2003; Lura did fine for awhile, but then got upset so we stopped. We'll be bottle-feeding her every few days.
On 17 October 2003, Mark's Dad came into town to meet his new granddaughter for the first time. He's an old hand at the Grandpa game; before he came here, he had an embroiderer back in Missouri sew "Grampa's Girls - Marci, Allegra, Stella, Lura" into the shirt he's wearing in the photo. During his brief stay, he showed us a thing or two that he's learned about holding and calming babies in the course of raising four children and four grandchildren!
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