Dear Lexi,
You are two months old and have officially stolen my heart with your beautiful smiles and sweet demeanor. You continue to be a dream of a child—so good that I’m already ready for you to have a brother or sister, but we’re still going to wait awhile! This past month feels like a fairytale and that life is just too good. The beginning of the month started off with a clogged duct for me—which may or may not have lead to mastitis. I also had a nasty cold, so I’m not entirely sure I had the infection or not, but took some antibiotics just in case.
Then at around 6 ½ weeks you began sleeping through the night. You had always been a good sleeper, only getting up once a night with you, but now you sleep anywhere from 8-12 hours every night. At your two month checkup the Dr. couldn’t believe that and said it was very rare for a baby that young to be sleeping for such long stretches. Although, you sleep for a long time during the night—you still sleep quite a bit in the day. You haven’t developed a consistent schedule as far as how long or when you sleep, but after you wake up in the morning, you usually eat, we change your diaper and you play for about an hour and then you’re ready for nap, which we always try to lay you in your crib for. The only reason you wouldn’t sleep there is if we have somewhere to go, which then you sleep in your car seat. You usually sleep anywhere from an hour to three hours and then wake up and repeat the eating and changing. This time, you usually stay up for about 2 hours and then take another nap. Sometimes you sleep in your crib, but your afternoon naps are usually a little shorter sometimes just 30 minutes—especially if you are in your crib. You prefer to be held for your afternoon naps and usually wake up pretty quickly if we lay you down. You take one more nap in the evening before we put you to sleep for the night somewhere around 11. We’ve also started putting you to sleep awake from time to time. About half of the time you’re already so tired that you fall asleep without a peep, the other half you cry for about 10-15 min. and then fall asleep. I had a really hard time (and still don’t like) listening to you cry it out, but I know it is for your own good.
This month you have also mastered smiling. At the beginning of the month we would get an occasional smile out of you, and by the end of the month it’s hard to find a moment without you smiling. Whenever you see Mom or Dad’s face we see that beautiful smile of yours, and have even noticed a little dimple in your right cheek. You also began cooing and it is the most precious noise I’ve ever heard. Rachel barrowed us a play gym that had a toy on the top that plays music and lights up and you absolutely love it! We turn it on with you in the bouncer and you smile and squeal in delight. It is so fun to watch and listen to you have fun!
As a result of the love for the music toy, we’ve been playing more music for you, and you really seem to like it, especially when we dance. We’ve played a few nursery rhymes for you, but have mostly listened to the Killers. Overall you really enjoy any kind of movement. You instantly fall asleep in the car, and almost always settle down if we pick you up and just carry you around the house with us as we do our business—especially if you are facing outward and can watch what is going on. We’ve tried putting you in the baby carrier a few times and you do OK in it, but I find myself always holding you if I bend over to grab something and sometimes it feels a little awkward. Also, when you’re upset and tired you like us jiggling our arms a little bit to help you fall asleep. The only movement you haven’t seemed to love is the swing. In addition to movement from us, you are quite the little kicker. You love to kick your legs and flale your arms—especially when you’re diaper is off. Whenever we set you down to change your diaper, you usually begin to cry but as soon as we undo the diaper and wipe you, you’re a happy kicking little girl!
You continue to get bigger and stronger everyday! At your 2 month check up you weighed 12 lbs. and 5 oz., which is in the 75% for weight an were 23.5” long which is in the 97% for height. You’ve also gotten pretty good at holding your head up on tummy time. You can push yourself up so your head is at 90 degrees, which the Dr. said is normal for a 4 month old.
You continue to be a good eater. We give you a bottle about once a day and have never questioned it. With the bottle you’ll down 4-5 ounces without a question, and I’m sure would drink more if you could. We always need to put a nuk in your mouth as soon as you’re done with the bottle to satisfy your sucking need and so you don’t get upset the bottle is gone. Since I began nursing you, I always put a burp rag under you chin to help keep you clean and now when I do it, you know you’re going to get to eat. If you’re crying you settle down and look at me and smile while open your mouth and kind of bob your head like you’re ready. It is very sweet! With that, you’ve had some constipation problems this month. You would go 3+ days without pooping, when you were previously going a couple times a day. Additionally, if you were awake, you were grunting, pushing and generally very uncomfortable. The Dr. recommended we add a little prune juice to your bottle and that has seemed to help a lot. The overall consistency has changed from yellow-mustardy and seedy to something that resembles peanut butter.
I can’t believe you’re already 2 months old. You have brought more joy and happiness into our lives than we ever thought was possible. We pray for your safety and health everyday and thank God for blessing us with such a beautiful, healthy and happy little girl. You truly are the sunshine of our everyday!
Love,
Mom
Peanut Smiles 