2 month update- "Is that mustard or poop?"

Again, I couldn't pick my favorite, so you get all 4!

Grace is 2 months old now and absorbing the world around her like a sponge! She loves car rides and being outside, still loves bath time, and her favorite thing right now is her swing, which she was pretty skeptical of during month 1. She has gotten to a point where she's almost sleeping through the night, only getting up once to eat. One night, she slept for 7, SEVEN, hours!

This little girl is growing by leaps and bounds, both physically and mentally. She is now 10 lb 11oz (a little over a 4 lb weight gain since birth) and 23 inches tall. It was a bittersweet moment packing away her clothes that no longer fit, especially the outfits she only got to wear once!

She's learned to drink from a bottle, which is a good thing as my first full day away from her will be this Saturday! I am SO proud of her. But the joy did not come without a few hiccups, mainly in the form of a 6 week growth spurt. That was a tough week. By week 6, I felt like a walking zombie, feeding on demand and having little semblance of a schedule. I felt crazed not knowing when she'd need to eat again or how long the next nap would last. I felt insufficient not being able to keep up with her demand during evening cluster feedings. I would be in the shower or go out to lunch with friends or family and I'd be anxious the whole time on pins and needles not knowing if she'd wake up and start wailing, or need to eat even if I was next in line at the grocery store. So I'd stay in. I wore pajamas or yoga pants all day with a shirt stained from leaky boobs, under a messy bun of hair that hadn't been washed in days. There were some nights I'd be holding Grace, both crying because I couldn't produce milk fast enough for her, and think, “Wow. I didn't even go outside today. Not even into the back yard.” If you've read this article about a day at home with a newborn, it is pretty accurate! I wasn't feeling like myself and I was slipping, quickly. By the end of week 6, I felt something had to change.

I have a few friends who had recommended the book, Moms on Call, and praise it for helping them get through these difficult weeks, develop a schedule, and help their babies get to a point where they're sleeping through the night. Shut up and take my money! At week 7, we started the schedule suggested in the 0-6 month book, and by day 3 I realized Grace is pretty much already on this schedule without me even trying to implement it! I started saving a little bottle of pumped milk from earlier in the day and will feed that to her before she nurses and goes down for the night, so the evenings of tear filled cluster feeding are over.

Now I don't agree with all of the book's suggestions or follow the schedule to a T (I feel like it caters to those whose schedule doesn't change every single day, and definitely doesn't fit perfectly for someone married to Mathias where you may have to jump in your car and run an errand at the drop of a hat!) But it does give a great blueprint, helps me know how long I have until she'll need to eat again (so I can leave her with a grandparent or go grocery shopping ...yay!) and allows me to have peace of mind jumping in the shower when she's down for a nap, or know if I need to bring a little bottle of pumped milk somewhere.

I'm showering regularly, getting really good at grabbing things with my feet and doing things with one hand while holding a baby in the other, and I'm making it a point to leave the house every day...even if some days, it is just to the back yard ;-)

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Related posts: Birth story / Month 1