Bailey: Month Two

Bailey turned two months on January 11, 2014. It's SO crazy that she's been here for over 2 months now. In some ways, it feels like she's been here forever and in some ways it feels like she just got her. The second month was easier than the first month, by far. Any new moms out there reading this, it's true what they say: it gets easier! Sure, we had our moments, but everyday we seem to get more into our groove and everyday Bailey seems to become more and more a real person with a personality all her own. I'm trying not to wish away a single moment of today for tomorrow, but I can't lie-- seeing how far she's come from month 1 to 2 gets me SO excited to see how far she goes from month 2 to 3! 

 Age: Two Months

Weight/Height: Little chunker has GROWN this month! She's finally just over 8 pounds! Yes, I realize the majority of babies are BORN at or bigger than this weight, but it's been a long time coming for us, so I'm super excited! She's visibly bigger and filling out. She's got a few ADORABLE baby fat rolls that I am literally obsessed with. I could stare at them all. day. long. She's also gained 1/2 an inch in length, bringing her to 21 inches long.

Bailey is measured on a different "scale" than full-term babies. There is a separate scale for preemies, giving them extra time to catch up with weight and height gain. Right now, on the preemie scale, B is coming in in the 25% for weight and 5% for height and head circumference. At her 1 month appointment, she was in the 5% for all 3 areas, so the doctor is SUPER happy with her weight gain (which makes me SUPER happy as nursing is TOUGH and it really makes it all feel worth it!) and is also very happy with her height/head, as it's stayed consistent. Doc thinks she might just be a slow grower and a lil' peanut, which is A-OK.


Sleep: We have a night time routine down pretty well now. At about 7:15pm, we head upstairs and change her diaper and put her into PJ's. Then, the Hubs reads her a book or two and then, at about 7:30pm, I nurse her while the Hubs grabs a shower.

We were doing nurse then book for a while to try to avoid "nursing her to sleep", but it just wasn't really working for us, so we switched the order. Yes, that might be creating a bad habit. No, I really don't give a crap. It works. And, I have no intention of stopping nursing anytime soon, so what do I care if she nurses to sleep? I'm OK with it. 1 big lesson I'm learning is you gotta pick you battles. This isn't a battle worth fighting to me. Anyway- generally we nurse from 7:30-8:15-- 15ish minutes a side, with a short break between for burping and swaddling her. Then, I rock her for a few minutes just to make sure she's out-out. Most of the time, she is and I just put her down and we're good to go. But, sometimes she wants to nurse again (called cluster feeding which is totally normal) and/or needs to be rocked even longer. So, sometimes by 8:15pm I'm outta there and she's out like a light. Sometimes (though not very often) it takes to 8:30 or even 9pm.

Then, she's out til the Hubs gives her a bottle with my pumped milk and her vitamin D supplement  (apparently b-milk lacks vitamin D) and does a diaper change at about 11pm, right before he hits the hay. I go to bed around 9:30pm, giving me 5 GLORIOUS hours of uninterrupted sleep. Seriously. Makes me feel like a whole new person. Most the time the Hubs has to wake her up for this feeding, so starting this weekend we're going to stop this and see what time she naturally wakes up on her own... we'll see how that transition goes. MAYBE we'll be able to drop 1 MOTN (middle of the night) feeding! We'll see...

Anyway, so she eats around 11pm. Then, she wakes me up sometime between 2-3am and we nurse/diaper again. Then, she sleeps again til about 6:30am, when we start our day.

So, I think we really only have 1 MOTN feeding. Then 11pm one is sorta one, but since the Hubs is still up, it's doesn't feel like it. At 8 weeks, I think that's pretty darn good. I know there are some miracle babies out there that can already sleep through the night at 8 weeks. Well, great for them, but we're not there. 1- Bailey's still just too small. Girl JUST hit the weight most babies are BORN at. Her tummies just too small to go all night. 2- B-feed babies tend to wake up at least once, as b-milk is digested faster than formula. So, I don't think we'll be in a "sleeping through the night" situation anytime soon. And, I'm OK with that. She's a GOOD baby... she goes RIGHT back down each time when she feeds, so it's not like it takes hours. Honestly, she's never had one of those nights (I say as I knock on wood), so I'll take 1, quick-ish MOTN feeding as long as she needs it.  

Awake Time: No real changes here... Bailey has been able to stay awake for LONG stretches, if she wants, since pretty early. The doctor even commented on how alert she is. We've fallen into a pretty decent routine at this point... she spends about 15-20 minutes of wake-time after each day feeding where we "play" on her play mat, read a book, sing songs, or swing her in swing. Sometimes she'd stay awake much longer, if I let her, but then she'd get to a not-very-fun overly tired fussy stage, so I intentionally try to encourage napping about an hour after each nursing session. So, sometimes I lay her in her crib awake and she puts herself to sleep (usually for the first and second nap of the day) and sometimes I have to rock her or let her sleep on my chest (usually the later naps of the day). Sometimes she flat out refuses to nap and that's OK. The process so far is working for us.

Nursing/Eating: Nothing really new to report, which is actually great! No news is good news, right? It's still going well. She's still going between 10-17 minutes per side, both sides at each feeding. She's going every 3 hours during the day, every 2-ish in the early evening, then every 3-4 overnight. It's going really well. I am beyond happy with how nursing has been going for us and I can only hope it continues to go this well, especially when I go back to work. I still LOATHE pumping, but I continue to do it to keep the freezer stash up and so the Hubs can give her a bottle each night. While pumping is a pain, it's not TOO bad and easy to keep up.


Likes: Staring at lights.  Girl LOVES lights. She also loves being held (duh!), but also likes some "alone" time lounging in the boppy or in her swing.  

Dislikes: Music. I mean, I wouldn't say she dislikes it per say... she just doesn't care at all about it. If she's having a meltdown, singing to her doesn't help at all-- she could not care less about it, as a matter of fact.

Hit or Miss: Baths... I think if we get the temp JUST right she likes it, but if it's a little cold, she hates it. She's still hit or miss with tummy time, too. Just depends on her mood.

Looking forward to: First smile and giggles!!!

Don't let this gas smile fool you... we're still waiting for her first social smile. In the mean time, I'll enjoy these gas smiles! :)

 

Special Moments/Milestones: Bailey started coo-ing. She isn't really doing it in response to anything and hasn't been having a "conversation" with us yet if we coo-back, but we're getting there. She also has better and better head control everyday. She started grasping stuff in her hands and loves to pull my hair and the strings on the Hubs hoodie or the collar of his polo shirts.

Doc said she has GREAT head control and, based on her head control, alterness, ability to grasp and her coos she doesn't expect Bailey to need the extra time for development based on being a preemie. She still gets the time, just in case, but doc said she thinks B'll develop on time, as though she was a full-term baby. So, that's exciting!

And, of course- we had her first Christmas, which was a special moment. Obviously girl had no idea it was Christmas, so next Christmas'll be fun when she's more interactive and such. But, this year's was fun, even if she did sleep through 90% of it. :)

Happy two-month birthday, baby girl!