Mira Celeste — one week today
Saturday, March 27th, 2010 | Uncategorized
Our sweet girl Mira is one week old today. We are just starting to learn about her, and she is slowly starting to be awake for enough minutes at a time that we can believe she is starting to learn about us.
She has a few similarities to Stella at the same age — a great sleeper who learned to nurse fairly quickly, and who only really cries when she is hungry or needs to be changed. Lucky, lucky mom and dad! She sleeps most of the time, likes to be swaddled, prefers to be in warm, calm arms and of course, likes to be fed on demand.
But in all kinds of subtle little ways, she is very different than Stella. She breathes so quietly you usually can’t hear her (I could always pick up the sound of Stella breathing, even in the hospital). Mira’s little sounds are more like squeaks and purrs (Stella squeaked a little, but she also had a little breathy sigh). Mira’s cries sound like a little kitten (in the same circumstances, Stella was even less inclined to cry…..but when she did, she would hold her breath and then scream with incredible volume).
Mira regained all of her birth weight by her first doctor appointment at 4 days old and had no jaundice that anyone could tell (Stella was slower to regain weight and did get a little jaundiced, although nothing she needed to be treated for). Mira was bright red at birth and has mellowed into more of an orange color (Stella was very pink), and she has jet-black hair (Stella had brown hair). Mira has a larger torso than Stella did, with shorter arms and legs. She weighed almost a pound more than Stella did at birth, for almost the same length (20 inches vs 19.5, although we’ve since been told those birth length measurements are not terribly accurate…at her 4-day appointment, Mira was measured at 19.5, and we don’t think she actually shrunk!). Mira’s little cord stump is healing more quickly than Stella’s did. Mira has almond-shaped eyes where Stella’s were always more rounded. Stella was puffier at birth, too, and had more baby acne/eczema issues initially than Mira has had. I think Stella has her daddy’s eyelashes and eyebrows, and Mira doesn’t. But she looks like she will have brown eyes, just like her sister and just like her daddy.
All in all, Mira is incredibly soft and sweet and kissable, and five of us are standing in line to give her kisses every few minutes (that’d be me, her daddy, her sister, her grandma, and the dog….). Stella is careful and thoughtful of her baby sister, anxious to make sure she wears a hat, going to look for her if she is out of the room — but she does like to pull off Mira’s little mittens.
We are so incredibly lucky to have two dear little girls in our lives.
