Caroline turned 6 weeks old on Thursday (4/20).  Sometimes it is very hard to believe that she's already 6 weeks old.

They say that the "fussiness" reaches a peak around 5-6 weeks and after that it starts to get better.  We're finding that is probably pretty accurate.  She's been inordinately fussy the past week, and has been very hard to get to sleep in-between feedings.  This makes her over-tired and then she starts crying and screaming.  We're hoping that the 5-6 weeks peak is on the money and that she starts improving soon.

Well, we're now facing a mini-crisis in the feeding department.  Caroline has decided in the past 24-48 hours that she doesn't want to take a bottle, even with pure breast-milk in it.  We were at our wits end trying to figure out what we could do to reverse this, so we called the lactation consultants at Overlake Hospital.

The people that work there really have a lot of knowledge about how to handle these types of situations.  Apparently, it is extremely common and happens in a very high percentage of babies.  Armed with the advice they've given us, we're going to start with their re-acclimation regimen and try to get Caroline back on the bottle.  I expect that sometime in the next week, she'll be back to her old ways.  Once she's back to taking a bottle, Krista can resume getting some much needed rest at night.  She deserves it.

OK, so when I started this little blog I promised myself that I'd never be one of those Dads that puts things up about bodily functions.  I'm afraid that I'm breaking that promise now.  Readers with weak constitutions should probably stop at this paragraph and read no further.

Today Caroline had perhaps the messiest (and smelliest) diapers that I've seen.  One of them required 2 priests and a bottle of holy water to exorcise the demons that were in it.  I was searching the basement for my chemical/biological/nuclear gear and a gas mask.  I swear, I find it hard to believe that something so positively vile can come from something so enormously cute.

Fortunately for Krista and perhaps unfortunately for me, I bore the brunt of these unprovoked attacks on my olfactory senses.  No doubt she's got reinforcements in there plotting for future campaigns.  I'm just not sure whether or not I should consider it "friendly fire."

Wow, Caroline slept a long time last night, giving Mommy and Daddy the chance to sleep as well.  She had her last evening feed at around 12 and she went to sleep shortly after that.  Daddy waited until she was good and asleep and brought her up to the bedroom and placed her in her bassinet around 1:15.  She slept from then until around 6:30.  I believe that's the longest stretch of continuous sleep that she's had and it is certainly the longest time she's gone in-between feedings.

This is a good sign for her development, and she may be starting to sleep throught the night much sooner than anticipated.  Of course, she's doing lots of things sooner than expected.  Heck, we half-expect her to be solving differential equations before she reaches her first birthday...  he he he

Today was Caroline's 1 month checkup with the pediatrician.  When she was born, we had additional screenings done, beyond what the state of Washington normally requires for newborns.  ALL of Caroline's screenings came back fine, and she is in perfect health.  The doctor examined her and said she's beautiful and doing great.  She had her second hepatitis B vaccination and she wailed when the nurse stuck her with the needle.  All was better soon though, as she calmed down once we got her back in the car and started home.

Here are her key stats as of today:

• Height:  21"
• Weight:  7lbs, 9 ozs