Irelyn {2 Months}

Sweet baby girl,

You are two months old (9/5/12)!

You have GROWN:

Head: 14.96 in. (28th %)

Weight: 11.25 lbs. (60th %)

Height: 22.25 in. (43rd %)

We are noticing you have a long torso- you get this from Mommy :).  You grew two inches since your 1 month appointment, but I think it's all in the torso and not in the legs!  You have been wearing your 0-3 month onsies since the end of month 1, and are now starting to wear some of your 3 month outfits, the the pants are still a couple inches too long!  You have officially grown out of ALL your newborn clothes :(. 

Some days I can't wait for you to grow up a bit more, and other days I wish you would just stay my tiny little peanut!  

We conquered the never-ending diaper rash (you were allergic to the cloth diaper detergent... yucky).  We've switched detergent and you are now a full time cloth diaper baby!   You are still on the smallest leg snap of the diapers, but we've taken away one snap around the waist- in sposies you are still a size 1 :).

Everyone says how much you look like your Daddy!  Some days I can see a bit of me in you... mostly around the eyes, but for the most part you resemble Daddy.  I'm looking forward to seeing how you change as you grow and if you start to show more of Mommy in you!

Our nursing troubles seem to be over which is a HUGE relief.  You nurse 6-8 times a day and we give you a bottle in the evening when you tend to be more fussy and finicky with nursing (this also gives Mommy a break and a chance for Daddy to feed you).  We introduced the bottle to you at exactly 1 month and had zero issues- I was a little concerned since the nurses at the breastfeeding clinic said I might have waited too long and you might reject the bottle.  You did great and we haven't had any problems!  This is also a good thing as I've started working on Saturdays, which means Daddy can feed you with no issues while I'm gone- thank goodness!

You are a good sleeper... most of the time!  You slept 6 hours straight at night at 6 weeks, 7 hours at 7 weeks, and you did one 8 hour stretch at 8 weeks old when we were at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Newton!  Usually you go to bed between 10pm-12am (uck) and stay asleep until 6am-7:30am.  Sometimes you are super fussy in the evening and don't eat well, then you wake up at 4:30am for a feeding and I end up staying up with you for about an hour until you conk out again.  You take 2 long naps during the day and 1-2 shorter naps.  Some of our night-time helpers are the vaccuum, dryer, stroller, running water, and going outside- all of these things calm you down INSTANTLY and usually will put you to sleep when nothing else works!  You are good at falling asleep on your own for naps- the pacifier is a big help with this.  You also are a thumb-sucker which helps when the pacifier pops out!  Sometimes you will even stick your little thumb in the hole of the pacifier when it's in your mouth :). 

On another note, car rides are usually an adventure... you really aren't a fan of your car-seat and will cry and cry until the car gets moving- then you cry when we get to a stop light :(.  Sometimes you do great and other times you don't.  We are hoping this gets better as you grow and we take you out more.  Mommy REALLY wants to "baby-wear" you more in the Moby wrap, but you just aren't a fan of facing in, you like to face out so you can see what's going on!  We are looking into getting a different carrier for you.  

Another fun development this month has been your voice!  You are a super chatty little girl and will have conversations with us when we talk to you where you coo and smile and make sounds!  It is SO cute!  I kept waiting for you to laugh and you finally did on 9/19!  It was funny because you were wailing and I was talking to you trying to calm you down and suddenly you stopped crying, looked at me, and laughed (already showing a sarcastic sense of humor)!  Shortly after that you started crying again and we have yet to hear the laugh again, but I'm sure it will come out when we least expect it!

One big thing we've been working on this month has been getting you to turn your head to the RIGHT, you always favor your left side and unfortunately this caused you to get a mild case of plagiocephaly (a flattening of one side of the head).  Your ear was starting to get pushed forward.  You are great at holding your head up when you are upright.  The pediatrician told us how to stretch your neck to loosen it- you HATE this.  We've turned your bassinet so you have to turn to the right to see us, we also do more tummy time to strengthen your neck muscles.  Mommy moves your head to the right as soon as you fall asleep.  It is getting better and is not as noticeable, we will see what the Dr. says at your 4 month appointment, if he hasn't seen enough improvement we might have to get you a special helmet- which we REALLY do not want to have to do :(.

Your 2 month appointment was also eventful in that you had your first round of shots- 4 shots, 1 oral.  Two nurses gave you the shots at the same time so it was over with in about 30 seconds!  You cried and cried but Daddy held you!  Mommy was so sad for you!  We gave you baby Tylenol at the appointment and so you slept pretty good after that, but once we got home you had a breakdown and for the first time I saw actual tears on your sweet little face... that was hard on Mommy.  I knew you were hurting and your poor little legs were red at the injection sites.  Luckily once the second round of Tylenol kicked in you got better and slept. 

We have started reading to you more and you love it!  One prayer I've had for you is that you will LOVE reading as much as your parents do.  I have been impressed with you that when you were 1 month you were focusing on pictures, now you smile and respond excitedly when we read to you!  Your favorite book right now is "Peek-a WHO?"  by Nina Laden; it's a board book and the last page has a mirror which you LOVE.  I am excited for when you're old enough to really enjoy going to the library and story-time!

What a busy month it's been!  Looking forward to month 3!

Love you Ladybug!

Love,

Mommy