Azra's 43 days old!

Well we are past the postnatal and newborn period and the magic Turkish 40 days. Maybe this is so in many cultures but for the first 40 days in Turkey the baby shouldn't be taken outside and shouldn't have visitors outside of the family - as I understand. My friends were joking that the mother should be in bed in this period and fed 'lohusalik sherbet'- lohusa means postnatal. Unfortunately, I don't even know what this sherbet is made from, let own spending this time in bed! They say that this 40 days is the most difficult. I guess it is the getting used to the baby, the stress this may cause in your relationship, getting used to being tied to the house (in the case of the woman unfortunately- no such thing for the man- although I am not really complaining I haven't left Azra for more than 20 minutes when I have had to do something and as yet I can't imagine leaving her). Let's see if this is still the case in a month. I have come to think that no matter how much men think they want a child that it is really only the woman who really understands what it entails and who is prepared to deal with those things. Maybe I am wrong but it certainly seems to be like this. For a woman who is breastfeeding it is much more difficult, especially in terms of freedom. Perhaps however it is hormones that helps women deal with this - perhaps??? But anyway the first 40 days are over and if that is the most difficult part then we should be able to cope with what is coming. What was difficult? The constant breastfeeding- sometimes I would feed her only to have to feed her another 20 minutes later. Or the crying, the gas problems, being able to go to the toilet or have a shower in amongst all of these things, getting used to be 3 people rather than 2 people and a cat! Not understanding what the problem was but knowing there was a problem. Now we are slowly getting used to our new life and wouldn't change it for the world!
Here we have Husnu and Azra. It looks like there is some resemblance afterall, even if not physically! If only we could get Azra to sleep so easily all the time life would be much easier!
In the last week we have seen a bit of development in Azra. Everyday pretty much she gets bigger and in the last week we have seen her limbs fill out and become baby plump! She is about 4.4kg now. Her sight has developed quite a bit, you can see now that she is actually looking at things rather than just looking into space. When I take a photo now she looks at the camera even without me saying anything! Yesterday she saw me putting the carrier on and she even stopped crying and started brightening . She is regularly smiling at me now, even when doing mundane things as changing her nappy. She smiled at her dad for the first time yesterday as well- made his day! She can sit up better now as well. She seems to hear as she turns her head towards sounds. She is getting over her gas problem, not to say that it doesn't cause her problems on occasions but she lays in bed (or wherever) merrily passing wind and there is usually no crying to be heard- maybe I shouldn't say this, maybe tonight she may have gas pains!!! She seems to have gotten over the green poo problem. I guess it is just a matter of the development of the digestion system. She also seems to not be as unhappy at night. We had a regular crying hour from 8-9 sometimes earlier sometimes later and that doesn't seem to be as regular or at least as intense anymore or maybe we are getting used to it and getting better at handling it! We would regularly be practising our singing skills, strengthening our forearms carrying her on her stomach as she likes, dancing with her. Again though, maybe I shouldn't say anything as we never know what will happen tonight! I like this photo. It is like she is thinking, she was twirling her fingers at the time and touching her chin with one of her fingers.
And the last one is the first time she wore a dress. This probably won't happen much (at least when I am dressing her) so I thought I should record it! We bought reusable nappies a week ago. My environmental conscious got to me and I bought a trial pack. Today I got around to finally trying them. As soon as I put the nappy on, Azra started crying. I guess she didn't like it, and it was huge! There were 4 layers, 2 of towelling, one of cotton and one of leakproof outer pants. It would be rather difficult to dress her in some outfits with such big pants! Anyway they only lasted for about an hour! I guess I am too used to disposable nappies like Azra. You would have to change her after every toilet going pretty much otherwise she would end up a mess! They don't absorb like disposable nappies. I will have to satisfy my environmental conscious with everything else I do- recycling, buying locally, using cloth and water to clean her bottom rather than wetwipes etc. I can't imagine what made me think I could use reusable nappies. Lucky Azra didn't like them! I try to imagine being wrapped with a similar product- uggghh!