2 Months, 6 weeks, 1 Month

It's time for a super baby update.  I realize I still haven't finished the birth story or the baptism, but those require their own posts.  This post I've lumped a few things together that I want to remember from the past...oh..5 or 6 weeks.  Read on if you dare.

2 Months: We took Baby R. for her 2 month appointment last week.  She weighed in at a whopping 10 pounds!  Dh and I were so surprised.  I thought she'd be 9 1/2 lbs, but did not think she was at 10 already.  That only puts her in the 27th percentile for weight, but that is up from the 12th percentile at her 2 week appointment!  She's 22.5 inches long (52%) and her head circumference is 15.25 inches (45%).  She's getting bigger and that makes me feel so good.  Even despite her spit-up issues, reflux, and the stress of DH being out of town, she still continues to grow and my body continues to provide enough milk for her to do that growing (my fear has been that my PCOS would create problems with not making enough milk.  So far, my IF body has once again surprised me.)  It still amazes me that I am providing everything she needs to grow healthy and strong through my breastmilk.  Simply amazing.

She also got to start her immunizations.  Since we declined the Hepatitis B shot in the hospital after she was born, these were her first shots.  She was supposed to get immunized against six (DTaP, Rotovirus, Hepatitis B, Polio, Hib, and PCV), but we decided to follow Dr. Sears alternate vaccine schedule and just do two of them.  She got DTaP and Rotovirus this month.  Next month we will take her for a shot-only visit and do Hib and PCV.  We'll wait on Polio and Hep. B until she's older.

She did such a good job with the shot.  DH held her, she screamed for a few seconds, and then I took her and she calmed down.  She was a little extra fussy and the Rotovirus is giving her lots of poopy diapers, but 3 days later, she seems to have taken them like a trooper!

She's wearing size 1 diapers now.  She made the switch (from Newborn size) while DH was gone.  All of a sudden one day I realized how short her diapers were on her. They weren't even coming up close to her belly button; they were far below it.  I pulled out the 1s and they were much longer on her.  We still used up the smaller size, but I guess I thought she would be in Newborn size longer since it said up to 10 lbs, and when she was born that seemed so far off!  She's also said goodbye to newborn sized clothes and is in 0-3 months now.  Depending on the brand, some fit her really well and others are great lengthwise, but too big in the belly.  Despite being 10 lbs now, she's still much longer than she is wide!  And a few 0-3s almost seem like they are close to being too short already!

5-6 Weeks: This is when I noticed a huge change in her development.  This really was the turning point for me in caring for her because she seemed to be so much more interactive and show more of what she needed compared to those first few early weeks.  I wrote down all the differences I saw at that point, so here's the list I wrote a few weeks back.  In no particular order:

• sleeping longer stretches at night (a 4-6 hour block at least)
• showing clear hunger signs (smacking her lips, rooting around, hands in her mouth)
• starting to grab onto things- her bib, my shirt while nursing, the back of the chair while burping, her pacifier in her mouth
• she was able to work her hands out of the swaddle some at night and bring them to her face/mouth
• smiling and cooing
• being mesmerized by the bird mobile on her swing
• bringing her hands together
• kicking her legs like crazy ("exercise time" we call it)
• she seems to be getting into a routine at that point where she eats more frequently during the day (every 2 to 2 1/2 hours), takes 1 or 2 longer naps of 1-2+ hours each, takes lots of cat naps in between the other feedings, and 1 or 2 longer sleep stretches at night.
• her bowels seem to be regulating more
• she has lots more facial expressions- smiles, pouty lip, winks

This age was when things really started to get fun because she would smile back or make sounds to express delight, etc.  Nicknames we had for her at this point were: pretty girl, jumping bean, stinky bum, sweet girl, and wiggle worm.

1 Month: And finally, here are some pictures we had taken a month ago. We decided to try and get a few more shots that we missed for her newborn pictures, and what a difference 3 weeks made from this photo shoot to her newborn one.  She was so much more alert here.

Cute, huh?  I do believe our photographer took two shots and edited them together to form this one because I don't remember her balancing her head on her hands.  Just saying.

She did sleep for some of the shoot, but was pretty content the rest of the time.

This is her baptismal gown before she was baptized in it  DH was the first in his family to wear it, and it was made from the remnants of his mother's wedding dress.  Look closely at the gown.  I have a funny story to tell you about it when I show pictures from the baptism.

I love those eyes of hers.  They are so blue right now, I don't think there's any way they are going to change color.  They are just beautiful.  She can stare at me and I just melt looking at her eyes and face.

OK.  Aside from the birth story and baptism, I think I'm caught up on baby updates...woo hoo!