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two months as of November 5, 2018
The past two months have flown by. I don’t know why, but when I pictured my maternity leave, I didn’t expect it to fly by so quickly. The first month was filled with lazy days, recovering from surgery and sleeping beside Polly every chance I could get. In the second month, Polly really woke up and we were able to get a better picture of what life would look like with her in it. I worked considerably more in October than I did in September. I barely blogged, but I did start reading again. Polly and I began to venture out away from home a bit, visiting friends + family, heading to doctor’s appointments, and figuring out how to grocery shop together.
Height + Weight: We went to the doctor for Polly’s two month checkup last week, so I’m armed with actual numbers! Polly’s weight has increased to almost twelve pounds — she weighted 11 lbs 15 oz — and she’s grown from 20 to 23 inches. I was looking back at her birth photos a few days ago and she looks so tiny. I can’t believe how much she’s already grown in just eight short weeks.
Clothes: This is where I tell you how sad I am that we’ve already grown out of an entire drawer of clothes. I had to clean out her dresser last week and make some significant changes to her wardrobe because gowns don’t quite cut it any more and she’s filling out all of her 0-3 month sleepers. She’s wearing mostly 3-6 month things now and a size zero moccasin.
Sleep: What a difference a month makes! Just two weeks ago, I thought we would never get more than a few hours in a row and now she’s almost sleeping through the night. The night before I went back to work, she slept for 8.5 hours and she’s slept seven hours or longer every night since then. The key is definitely getting her down at the right time, but during the week she didn’t wake up until I was almost ready for work every morning.
Schedule: Our Moms on Call schedule for eight weeks is pretty much spot on. She’s taking three bottles, three hours apart, while she’s at daycare and I’m able to keep her on a three hour schedule once I’m home in the afternoon. Polly stays with my aunt, Heidi, and she’s notorious for keeping her kids on schedule. I can’t believe how far we’ve come in her first week, but it so much easier to care for her when you know what to expect from your day!
Health: Polly looked perfect at her appointment last week. We talked breastfeeding, which is still going really well, and I’m considering a break from dairy when we get back from vacation. Obviously, if I was super concerned I would go ahead and cut it out now, but I think I can be more focused and diligent once we are back to cooking at home. I think she’s likely just a gassy baby (my first two were formula fed and had similar issues), but we’re going to experiment just in case. Her umbilical hernia has almost completely corrected itself and she has an almost innie these days. We didn’t really have any questions or concerns at this appointment and the doctor said everything looked great.
Crying: She isn’t much of a crier unless she’s desperately hungry, then there is nothing you can do to soothe her except nurse. She did cry pretty bad during her immunizations, but quickly recovered when I fed her (see? nursing fixes everything!). She has had a few serious crying jags, but she’s a mostly happy baby if you pay attention to her eating and sleeping cues.
Likes: Maybe I said this last month, but Polly really likes the light fixtures in our bedroom. She also loves being worn in the Solly Baby Wrap, worship music at church, nursing, and silly faces.
Dislikes: Polly obviously doesn’t like posing for pictures, but I think that’s pretty typical of most babies. She also hates it when we sneeze or cough, especially if I am nursing her. She also gets really upset if you offer the pacifier when she’s hungry.
Milestones: She’s now holding her head up like a champ. I can hold her up on my shoulder and she loves to look around! She is consistently drinking from a bottle, gives tons of social smiles, laughs occasionally (1-3 syllable chuckles), and started “school.”
Places She’s Been: Besides daycare, she’s watched football at her Nana’s, been to work with mom a few times, had another doctor’s visit, saw a matinee movie, and visited both girls at school.
Special Moments: We celebrated Polly’s first holiday — Halloween! — this month. I debated whether to drag her to the pumpkin patch or dress her up for trick-or-treating, but I’m so glad I did. She was an adorable pumpkin for a mid-week celebration and we let her wear her Minnie Mouse dress on Halloween night. Both girls thought it was so fun to include her in all of our fun.
This might seem like a silly special moment, but we finally bought a couch last week and when I walked into the living room to Josh and all three girls piled on top of him watching a movie, I almost lost my cool. These are the moments I live for — just every day moments where she fits right in. He also tried wearing her around the house during the witching hour one night last week and I kind of adored how sweet they looked, even if it didn’t make her very happy.
Mama, Daddy + Big Sisters: I wish I could properly convey how obsessed we all are, but you’ll have to take my word for it. We all fight over who gets to hold her, but since I’m separated from her during they day, I don’t feel at all bad about not sharing! We are only just settling into our new normal, but it’s hard to imagine how life was before she was a part of it.
1. Evenflo Lyric Musical Bouncer | This was actually my sister’s bouncer that she used for Vera, but she was kind enough to bring us all of her larger baby gear so we didn’t have to waste money on things we wouldn’t necessarily use for very long. The first few times we put her in this one it was a NO GO, but the more we practice, the more she loves it. It has two different height settings and although it has a toy bar across the front, we haven’t actually used that yet. She prefers sitting near a window where she can see outside or being in a busy room filled with activity. This little guy is the only reason I ever get to take a shower or cook dinner for my family.
2. Philips Avent Freeflow Pacifiers | I’m embarrassed to tell you how much money we spent looking for a pacifier that Polly would take. Obviously, I tried to force her hand with all of the really cute ones first (Gum Drop, Bibs, Natursutten, etc.), but she eventually fell in love with this cheap one that my mom picked up at the grocery store. At least there is a clear version!
3. Turban Baby Hats | I know that I can buy a more authentic looking (read: actually knotted) version of these, but I wasn’t sure how she’d like them, so I started with a really inexpensive multi-pack from Amazon. Josh doesn’t love bows and it’s cold outside, so this is a pretty cute alternative. I’ll probably upgrade to something a little nicer in the next few weeks, so I’m all ears if you have a favorite Maker to recommend.
4. ComoTomo Bottles | We started introducing a single bottle, every other day, about a month after Polly was born. Admittedly, this is the only bottle we’ve tried, but it seems to be going really well. She can’t get as good a latch on the bottle as she does on the breast, but she’s been using these at day care for the last week with no complaints! Since she’s getting regular bottles during the day now, we’re strictly breastfeeding when we’re together, and we don’t seem to have any issues going back and forth.
