How was everyone's Christmas/Holiday?! Ours was awesome - the hubbs got me a Nikon D3100 Digital SLR camera {sqeeeee} & a Barnes & Noble Nook Color, woo! I
LOVE both of them so much, but I am really excited to start figuring out how to take better photos with my new camera & posting my new & improved pics here! :) We have a tradition every year where we have my family (& his mom if she comes up) over for breakfast & exchange gifts among the family. After this year, the hubbs & I definitely decided that we need a new {read: bigger} house ASAP, so we are working on paying off our credit cards & a couple other loans so we will be at a better place to afford a nice size "forever home" in the next few years! I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday & that you got everything you wished for like an awesome electronic or even something for the house, like
TV stands for flat screens!
Anywho...this post is
really about my very quickly growing little one! Wow, I can't believe how fast time flies once you have a baby. It seems like only yesterday my water broke & I was delivering her. Now, our lives have completely been changed for the better, but it's definitely an adjustment.
Here's our little cutie at 2 months:
She's getting better at these monthly pics. :) Here are her previous pics for comparison's sake...
My little baby is getting so big, right?! She was 8 lbs. 2 oz. at her 2 month well baby appointment.
This month Baby AJ started sleeping
less during the day - taking shorter naps. I dunno, it seems like she can't get comfortable or settle down. We tried out her crib for naps for a bit & it was working
okay for a couple days & then she just started waking up every time we'd put her down. I have been reading my copy of
Baby 411 & her sleeping issues may be related to her acid reflux. She is doing better at night {thank goodness
:)}, not the greatest but better than during the day. Right now we are trying to set up a routine, but I think it's too early to really "sleep train" + I want to talk to her pediatrician about her reflux & how that may affect how we transition her to her crib. So, we normally start her routine around 7pm & it basically consists of a small bottle (depends on if she's acting hungry), bath {loves them}, lotion/massage, book & another small bottle or full one if she doesn't have one prior to the bath, then I rock her for a little bit. The rocking is sorta a default because she has to be elevated after eating for about 15-20 minutes due to her reflux. She'll normally be asleep between 7:45pm-8pm & then she'll sleep for 30-45 minutes, then wake up - we are trying to work on this wake up, not sure why she's doing this!! Then, she'll be up again until 10pm or 10:30pm & we try
everything to get her to go back to sleep - changing, pacifier, white noise, rocking, etc. but she just won't fall back asleep until around that time unfortunately. Once she does go back to sleep though, shell normally sleep until between 3am-5am & then again until around 8am, which I think is pretty good! When I go back to work, we plan on switching back and forth on the night shift. I figure as long as I get at least 6 hours of sleep on work nights, then I'll be fine. The hubbs & I both telework twice a week, so on the nights prior to our telework days (which are opposite of each other), then the person who will be teleworking will take the middle of night feeding/changing/wake up. Hopefully soon she'll completely sleep through the night & we'll eliminate that middle of the night session.
Speaking of me going back to work - I go back full time on January 10th, which is a short week & a half from now! I cannot believe 12 weeks have already almost flown by. It was nice being home with my baby, but I'm semi-excited to get back to work so that I have some adult time during the day. I love {most of} my co-workers, so it'll be good to hang out with the girls again. I also like what I do for the most part. I am also looking forward to getting my promotion situation ironed out too because we definitely need the money - babies are expensive, lol. And also, it'll help us with saving, paying off the credit cards & possibly us going on vacation sometime next year. My older sister will be watching her until she turns 1 & then we will put her in center-based daycare so that she can be around more kids her age (my sister has a 2.5 year old). I have already started looking into daycare centers because a lot of them in our area fill up like a year in advance! We go to work so early though that I am having a tough time finding a center that will work with our schedules. We could change them, but we both have every other Friday off, which we'd like to keep because we can do some fun family stuff those days. But, we'll see how it goes.
Her gas issues have gotten much better on her new formula - Enfamil Nutramigen. It's expensive, but totally worth it if it helps her. She's able to [TMI alert] poop much easier - she still has blow outs for most diapers. We also give her Mylicon drops before each feeding to help alleviate some of the gas. And it seems to help somewhat. She still has times when she's doubled over pushing to try & poop or get gas out, but it is much less than before, which makes me SO happy. I hated seeing her uncomfortable & in pain.
Developmentally, I think she's on track - there are so many milestones to keep up with, lol...but based on what I read she's a pretty normal 2 {& a half} month old. She is pretty good with her head/neck control - no wobbling really & I don't really support her head when I hold her or when she's sitting on my lap anymore. She's been grabbing onto & holding stuff in her little hands & is following objects from side to side with her eyes. She loves toys that play music, make sounds & have lights - especially her Fisher Price Rainforest play mat/gym:
She'll sit under that thing for like 30-45 minutes at a time! She loves the lights most. She can't quite hit any of the hanging toys yet, so we hit them for her & she loves it & I'm sure she'll soon be hitting them too. Speaking of doing things with her hands - she loves those things - she's always moving them around (unfortunately when she's sleeping too) & sucking them. She also kicks her feet a lot, laughs & smiles all the time. She coos, grunts & yells at us sometimes too when we aren't doing something she wants or doing it quick enough! We have one impatient little baby - my hubby says she gets it from me, hahaha.
I think that's all I got on the little munchkin for this month. Babies are so much wonderful, hard work - I have developed a GREAT respect for single parents. I can't imagine not having my wonderful hubby to help me out with her... she is such a lucky little girl to have such a wonderful daddy! And I am so blessed to have them both in my life! 'Till next time!
