2 months – Peanut Smiles

Katelyn 2 months

August 20, 2017April 13, 2019 peanutsmiles

Dear Kate,

My sweet little Kate. Happy 2 months. Life is pretty grand right now. We are loving the warm sunshine and playing outside and for the most part not having a worry in the world (which means I create them for myself). We are all happy, healthy and loving being a family of five! This month, you really started to fill out more. You’re still 2 lbs. smaller than your brother and sister were at this age but growing at a healthy rate. You continue to be more observant of your surroundings, sleep like a champ and really are just the sweetest, mellowest baby ever and we all love you to pieces.

Stats

Height: 22.2 inches (41.3%)
Weight: 10.3 lbs (30%)
Head Circumference: 15.5 inches (86%)
Diapers: Size 1 (going through about 130 a month)
Clothes: 0-3 month

Sleeping

You continue to be the worlds best baby sleeper. At 5.5 weeks you slept for 8.5 hours straight! Then a couple days later slept for 10 straight hours!! I, however am not getting that much sleep as I never go to bed when you do and always wake up before you because I’m worried about you not breathing or some other irrational thought and my boobs hurt. With that said, you still do have a couple nights a week where you sleep 5-6 hours and I’ll get up in the middle of the night to nurse but you always fall asleep right away. All in all, no complaints on the sleep front and haven’t even needed a nap since your first week home. High-five baby girl!

Your naps are all over the board and are nowhere close to being on a schedule, but have started to develop a routine. Most days you cat nap throughout the day from to 20-60 minutes and this usually happens between every feeding. You eat, play (lay or walk around with me) and then sleep and then rinse and repeat 6 more times throughout the day. Naps are usually had in one of three places: your carseat, the rock n’ play or the bouncer. If I’m really lucky you may take one 2-hour nap at one point in the day.

Eating

Nursing continues to go really well. You have a good latch and nurse on one side about every 2.5 hours or so. I can always tell when my milk is gone or has really really slowed down as you bop your head around and latch on and off. I’m not sure if you’re still hungry or you just want to nurse/sooth yourself, but as long as I put a pacifier in your mouth after you start bopping around, you seem fine.

Spit up has decreased this month, it still happens, especially if you’ve gone more than 3 hours without nursing and I have more milk, but you’ll spit up maybe once or twice verses every feeding in your first month of life. I rarely burp you anymore, just put you upright and you’ll burp by yourself. I have been pretty lax about pumping this go-around and only do it if you’ve taken a bottle or you slept completely through the night and I’m super full in the morning. A mid-day session will give me about 3 ounces and the morning I’ll get 5-6 ounces (especially with righty!)

There were a couple days were you had some angry painful cries so we popped an ounce of apple-prune juice into a bottle and it got you pooping again. However, when I mentioned this to the Dr, she said babies can go as long as 14 days without a poop as breastmilk is just so efficient your body uses everything up and there isn’t much left to poop out-crazy!

Development

You do pretty well on tummy time–assuming we time it right and you don’t have a full or empty belly. You’re lifting your head well and if you have your pacifier, you’ll often fall asleep, so clearly your pretty comfy on the tum-tum.

I’ll probably write this same thing for the next 3 months, but you get more and more alert everyday. You have HUGE eyes and you love to look around at everything. You’ll open your eyes so big, they look kind of bug-like! We’re starting to get lots of comments about how you look similar to William and I think the eyes are a big reason. He’s got some big beautiful eyes (not to mention killer eyelashes, so if you inherit those you’ll be a lucky girl)

Around 6.5 weeks we started to see a very little smile/smirk sneak out of you. It doesn’t appear very often, but we’ve seen it sneak out a couple of times. In fact, the low frequency made me pretty nervous and was worried there may be something wrong with you as Lexi and William would light up every time they saw us. But the Dr. (and your wise Daddy) told me to chill out. 36074786414_b784dec733_o

You may have a fell in love for the very first time, with a pacifier. You love this miracle piece of plastic like nobody’s business. It really soothes you and I love it because it helps you be this calm, innocent little nugget of love that we just can’t get enough of. I would say the pacifier is in your mouth 90% of the time you are awake, and even often while you sleep (side note: which may be why you don’t smile as much, as your so busy sucking ?!?!). I’ve questioned myself a couple of times on if we’re giving this too you too much and building this dependency, but then I read William’s 2 month post and he had a small love affair with his as well and he vetoed it by himself at 6 months. I also decided, that even if you do become dependent on it, I’ll deal with that later and enjoy you as a sweet mellow little babe with this magnificent invention.

Other things you like: the bath, snuggling, blankets wrapped around you–especially by your face. If you’re sleepy or fussy, but fed and changed, I’ll wrap a blanket around you, hold you close and you drift off into lala land. It is a trick of the trade for you sweet one. It’s kind of humorous to watch this unfold. You can be crying pretty good and I’ll wrap you in a blanket and your eyes will look at me and almost say ‘thank you’ as you can see the relief on your face. You also love going for walks–although we don’t go that often as you’re big brother and sister never want to go.

This month, you also made your first trip to the cabin. You did awesome on the 3 hour car ride and slept most of the way. You loved the fresh air and were just a gem!

Auntie Beca got married this month, and you got to come along for the party. Again, you did so good and slept your way through most of it. You had the cutest little dress on, and of course I didn’t get a pic of just you alone in it, but did get one with you and Mommy and Daddy. The big kids were at the cabin and it was so strange to just have one kid again–it felt so easy!

Sibling love

You are one loved little girl! Lexi is straight up obsessed with you. She requests to give you a hug and a kiss every morning when you wake up. ‘Mom, I wanna see Beatle. I wanna give her a Kiss. Ohhh Hi Beatle!! You’re so cute and sweet!’ The moment you start to cry, she runs over to you to put your pacifier back in or cover you with blankets. Total mini momma. With that said, she is a little rough with you. She tries to give you hugs while you’re sleeping and often wakes you up and will squeeze you pretty hard when she wants to snuggle. I struggle with this, because my first instinct is to yell or scold her for being too rough, which always makes me feel bad because her intentions are so good and pure. She just loves you so much and always wants to be with you, but just doesn’t realize her strength or how smoothering she can be.

Kate 2 Months 1 William loves you a lot too and is much more gentle. He loves to lie next to you on the floor and talks to you in his sweet little baby voice. Overall he has shown very few signs of jealousy and I feel his transition to your arrival was much smoother than Lexi’s when William was born. He is much more concerned about Lexi and what she is doing.

kate 2 months 2 Post-partum

Overall things are really great. My mood is fantastic and haven’t shown any signs of post-partum depression. My hair loss is in full effect and you would think I was an animal shedding their winter coat by how much hair I loose every time I shower and brush my hair.

I’m officially back to my pre-preggo weight and can fit into jeans. They’re a little tighter than what I remember, but I can wear them. I even bought several new pairs as the dress code changed at work and we can wear jeans more frequently and my jeans were getting pretty worn when I got pregnant last fall.

I had my 6 week checkup with my Dr. and everything looked good. I have yet to exercise though. I know I should and I want to build up some strength again, but am not motivated enough yet to prioritize it. It will come, eventually.

That is it sweet Kate. You are such an amazingly good baby we are so lucky to have you. It is so hard to believe that you’ve already been with us for 2 months AND that you have only been with us for 2 months. You are the perfect little caboose to our family and am so excited to continue to watch you grow.

Love,

Mama

kate month 2 3

William, William Monthly Updates

William 2 Months

April 25, 2015 peanutsmiles

Dear William,

What a difference four weeks can make. This month has been so fun and much easier than your first month for all parties. You’re GI issues have gotten much better, you started smiling all of the time, sleeping for long stretches at night and are just more content. You have lost that newborn look and transitioned into a cute little baby! This has been a fun month, we celebrated Easter, went to Mall of America twice, took Lexi to the farm to see baby animals and went on many many walks.

Stats

Height: 24.5 ” 95%
Weight: 13 lbs 2.4 oz 65%
Clothes: Right around 6 weeks, 3 month outfits got too short–especially the sleepers with the feet. I still try and put you in a few 3 month outfits because they are just too cute and you only wore them once or twice, but the legs do scrunch up on you.
Diapers: We just used up our last Size 1 Diaper today, but could have easily transitioned into Size 2’s a week or two ago.

Sleep

The big kahuna of babyness and sanity for mama! Let’s tackle night time sleeping first. The first week and half of the month you would wake every 3 hours or so for a feeding and a diaper change. The longest you had ever gone was 5 hours. Then out of nowhere you slept through the night. Mind blown. But it didn’t continue… whah wha for mama. However, you did start sleeping for longer stretches, about 6 hours, every other night or so. By about 7 weeks or so, you were consistently sleeping at least 6 hours during the night for the first stretch. So depending on when I fed you last was contingent on whether you woke up during the night. Part of me liked having you fall asleep around 9 and waking up around 3 so I could go back to sleep and get a couple more hours before your sister woke up. If I fed you at midnight when Daddy and I usually went to sleep, you would wake up around 6 and by the time you were done eating, your sister was up; and those days felt long and exhausting. I digress. For the past several nights you have been going to sleep between 9 and 10 and waking up around 6:30. I’ll gladly take those 9 hours and just pray this is the new norm! I also pray in thanks for the amazing invention of swaddles. We swaddle you every night and wrap your little wiggly arms down tight like a snare drum, which I think is a huge factor in helping you sleep for long stretches at such a young age. For a couple weeks, I also had a beach towel under the terry cloth spit rag on your bed to help give you a little incline while sleeping. I’ve since removed it, but I think it helped make sleeping longer periods easier verses laying flay.

Nap time sleeping is a little more unpredictable. For about the first three weeks of the month, you would snooze between each feeding. Sometimes it was 15 minutes, other times it was an hour and a half, but on average, I would say it was about 45-50 minutes. When I read Lexi’s two month post, I was shocked to be reminded that we were putting her to sleep awake in her crib for naps. I didn’t think we started that for another two months. We have done that with you a couple of times, but most of your naps are taken in the rock-in-play. If I can, I try and put you in there when you are drowsy, turn on the vibrator, give you your pacifier and let you fall asleep by yourself. However, most of the time you fall asleep in my arms and then I put you in there to continue snoozing. You do not like to nap in our arms. I can count on one hand the amount of times you have slept in my arms for an entire nap. You’re constantly moving and trying to get comfortable; usually waking yourself up. You continue to love to be wrapped in your blanket with it touching your face to help fall asleep–and always have your pacifier. Praise the pacifier!

By the end of the month, you started to stretch out your awake time and have stayed awake for more than two hours–where you’ll actually have two feedings without sleeping between. Also, over the past couple of days, you have lengthened some of your nap times to 2+hours, which has been AMAZING as it has fallen during the same time as Lexi’s nap and given me some glorious computer time to shop, do some research on house projects, meal plan and work on this blog! I adore this time and truly feel refreshed to take on the craziness of the evening with you two hooligans, so thank you for that sweet little bud!

Eating

Eating has been going pretty darn good. It feels like you are always hungry. Rarely, in the day do you go more than 2 hours without eating. By the hour and a half mark, you start getting a little fussy and by two hours your are ravenous and refusing your pacifier. There have been several times where we are out and about and I have pushed your threshold in needing to eat. Sorry bud! You still do good with a bottle. I discovered that there were a couple of instances where I had given you a nipple with a medium flow, and that was just too fast for you. As long as you have a slow flow, you seem to do a good job taking it down. Admittedly, you do a much better job taking it from anyone but me.

Mama notes: You continue to eat off one side per feeding and seem satisfied. After letdown, you kind of pop on and off and do this silly thing where the boob is in your mouth but you move your head back and forth as if you can’t latch–it is slightly annoying, but at least you’re still eating. After a feeding, you usually give us one big burp and one small one, and about 50% of the time you’ll spit up a little milk. Exception: when you eat in the middle of the night or right before bedtime and you fall asleep nursing, you rarely burp, even though I try. This go around, I’m much more relaxed about pumping. Depending on how the night went, I may or may not pump in the morning. If I do, I’ll only pump one side and will usually get 5-6 ounces on the left side and 7-8 on the right, assuming you slept through the night. I also only pump once or twice a week in the evening before I go to bed. This mostly depends on how the day went and how full I feel. With Lexi, I pumped every night before bed for 7-8 months and don’t think I skipped one evening. Just too lazy this time around and feeling pretty good about my supply and the stash I’ve built up.

Development/Personality

Throughout the month, you’ve started smiling whenever you see faces and have the two cutest little dimples on each side. I just love how your smile is just a huge open mouth circle and your eyes nearly close. You’ve made a couple of cooing sounds here and there but so far seem to enjoy observing life. They rolling has ceased this month, which relieves me a little as it was kind of scary before. You do a great job on tummy time and have really strengthened your neck muscles and push yourself almost up to 90 degrees on a fairly regular bases. When we do tummy time, you usually last 3-5 minutes before fussing. Also, Lexi loves to do tummy time with you. She helps spread your blanket out and then goes and get hers and lays face to face with you and says ‘Good job buddy. You’re so cute,’ clearly repeating the phrases she’s heard me say.

You love your star. If you’r fussy and don’t need to eat or have your diaper changed, we’ll put you under it, which ironically is counter-intuitive to a fussy baby. Anyways, you just light up (no pun intended) and will stare at it and smile and kick and wave your hands (accidentally hitting all of the other toys hanging). One evening you were happy and content there for over a half an hour while I was making dinner. It was fabulous.

You continue to do will in your car seat, although you don’t seem to sleep in it as much as Lexi did. You usually wake up when we bring you in from the car. You still have a good amount of hair, but it is falling out–especially on top. You have a little case of cradle cap. It is mostly just little white dry patches on the top half of your head. You love the bath and are always smiling and do great when i poor water over your face. You haven’t been a huge fan of the swing. There have been a couple of instances where you’ve been content in it for more than 10 minutes, but usually, you start crying at the 5-10 minute mark.

You definitely recognize me. Daddy thinks you prefer me, I think I just do a better job at soothing you the way you prefer 🙂

You love to go for walks and often are awake for them. You also do really well in the Ergo. It is kind of ‘if all else fails, I know you’ll fall asleep and be content in the Ergo.’ This is really a life saver for me to keep you and Lexi happy at the same time–especially if I’m making dinner and you both need me.

Big Sister

Lexi loves you more and more everyday. She is doing a much better job of giving your your space and adjusting to the lack of attention she gets. She still continues to love to say ‘He’s wooking at you’ and is beam of sunshine when she sees you in the morning. I also just love how she repeats the phrases that I say and is all Mama Lexi to you. She’ll be eating breakfast in the morning and you’ll start to fuss on the monitor and she’ll yell up to you, as if you could hear her, ‘Buddy, it’s ok, mama will be right there.’ Mama is with Lexi right now’ Seriously is so sweet!

I have about 3.5 weeks left before I head back to work and the weather is supposed to be very nice so I’m looking forward to more fun activities and seeing more of your little personality shine.

Love,

Mama