finola - two months!

Dear Daughter,

I have begun to fall in love with you.  Sure, I have loved you from the start...but now that I have gotten to know you a bit more I can't help but adore what I see.  Especially now that you smile and make little baby noises like "ahhh" and "eeee" and "goooo!" and try your best to "talk" to me.   We have great "conversations."  I know exactly how to make you laugh and smile --  which makes me feel pretty talented...because I'm really not all that funny.  I especially like when you make serious eye contact with me while breastfeeding and I smile at you and you smile back and milk runs out of your mouth.  {Yep - total overshare - but I'm sure there are other nursing mamas out there that find this magical and not weird/awkward.}

Anyway, you are pretty much a peach.

Here are some photos of you from month two...

snoozing with dada

goofy grins - with spit bubbles

the 'ford V' hairline

meeting great grandpa

sleeping through another fun outing

still unsure of the whole 'camera in the face' thing.  give it time, girl.  give it time.

the elusive missing sock

Your personality:  Patient and tolerant and sweet.  Sure, there are those rare occasions you get annoyed {um, scream your head off}, usually when I have to set you down to handle something to do with your brother...but in general you go with the flow.  You love to look at your brother as he talks to you and plays around you.  You make funny faces when he hugs you and kisses a little too roughly...but you never cry when he does it, so maybe you like it???  You still rarely cry in general - in fact, you tend to just breath heavily and grunt before you will actually deign to cry.   And your cries are kind of like, "Heeeey!  I'm here!  I want a little attention!"  rather than the really sad, inconsolable cries.  I have actually only seen you shed tears once...but that was enough - so sad!  You are not naturally smiley...but I know how to get you to smile and make happy noises/faces, moments that I now totally live for.  Your smile is completely infectious, and I love that your eyes get really big and you take in deep gasping breaths when you are happy.

on a date with dada

Your relationship with your big brother:  He adores you.  You are still not sure.  You stare at him a lot like you are trying to figure him out.  (Don't worry - I am, too.)  You are very tolerant when he grabs your hand roughly, yelling "Grab! Grab baby hand!" or pats your tummy just a little too aggressively, or tries to give you "big uuuuugs!" while I'm feeding you, or rubs his head against your feet.  (Yeah, that one confuses me, too.)  

kisses on mama's 32nd bday

You love to eat:  Mama milk...and a bit of formula every now and then.  You have gotten good at taking the bottle...but you hardly ever get one.  You eat fast and are easy to put back to sleep, so I rarely make your dada get up at night for a feeding.  Plus, I hate pumping and don't want to compromise my milk supply this early.   

You sleep:  GREAT!  You still wake up for a feeding twice a night, but right around seven weeks you started sleeping 4-5 hour stretches at night, which has helped Mama get some better rest.  I also was able to start doing a normal bedtime routine with you, putting you to bed about the same time as your brother - 8pm.  I'd like to make this earlier...but that will come when we start officially sleep training you.  Still waiting for you to sleep all the way through the night - not holding my breath!  You nap about 3-4 times a day, for 1-2 hours at a time.  I do the "two hours of wakefulness max" rule and that is working great.  I continue to put you down awake, and you soothe yourself to sleep.  Thank goodness too, because with Cormac around I don't have time for a rigorous soothing session with you.  Sometimes I basically have to throw you in the crib and then go deal with a "toddler crisis."  

tired mama, tired baby

You love wearing:  Jorts!  You {I} love baby jean shorts.  All the sweet dresses are great for dates and church...but we are veeeery casual most days so you sport a lot of cotton onesies and often a pair of girlie jorts.  

"I love my jorts!  Can't you tell by my expression?"

We call you:   "Toots" - because you tend to do a lot of passing gas.  "Girl" or "Sister" are still my standbys.   Cormac still calls you "Beeeeeebeeeeee" most of the time...but at 8 weeks he started saying your name!
"Din-ola!" since he cannot pronounce F's.  

You love:  Being held.  Whether it is in our arms or strapped snugly in the Bjorn, you love being close to our chests.  You also enjoy hanging out with Dada at night.  You get really alert and nuzzle your little face against his.  He will blow on your face and you throw your arms and head back and make a squeaky noise.  You also seem to really like the tummy time mat.  You have started to bat at the toys that hang above you and grip the rings.  You also grab my necklaces, shirt, and hair quite often.  You even were mad once and pinched my arm really hard!   Baths.  You do wonderfully in you baby tub, and don't cry except for sometimes when I take you out.  You still like the Bjorn and the swing okay...but I use those only if you are awake and I really need my hands free to get something done.  

You look like:  a little old man - still!  You have bulgy blue eyes and ears that stick out just a hair more than your brother's did.  Your eyebrows are still invisible, but your eyelashes are growing in and getting slightly darker...and they curl up in this super cute girlie kind of way.  You still have a "stork kiss" on the back of your neck, and your sandy blonde hair is getting longer.  It swirls around on the top of your head into the tiniest little curl!   Sweet girl, you may not be a looker yet...but you are my little doll with the infectious grin!  Oh, and I am in love with the upper thigh fat rolls you have.  They are currently my favorite spot on your little baby bod.

Mama feels:  Pretty dang good!  I started working out immediately after everything checked out great at my six week postpartum appointment.   I still have 5-7 pounds to lose to be back at my pre-baby weight...but I haven't started cutting calories yet, and am not too worried about it.  I will crack down once I stop breastfeeding you, but for now I enjoy every bite.  I am running 3-5 times a week with a trip to the gym on the weekend.  I am not ready to bring you to the gym playroom yet, even though I could.  In my opinion you are still too tiny.

Your health/measurements: 
Weight: 12.5lbs...the rest I forget and they didn't give me the printout! (will update later)

This Months' Memories:

• Fourth of July @ Mimi's! This was your first time meeting most of your relatives on your Dada's side.  They passed you around and you endured all the commotion really well.  You will have to get used to that.  Mimi's house can get loud - and Gramma and Grampa's might be even louder!!!

meeting great grandma

• First zoo visit.  I have no photos of this.  But it should be noted that it down-poured rain and you and I took shelter under a tree, only getting slightly wet.
• A night out with Mama and Dada.  We got a delish dinner out with you while Cormac played at home with the babysitter.  After dinner we drank a couple beers on a patio until it got smoky and we had to bail.  It was kind of fun having you out with us!  

"Look at you!  You've got a baby...at a bar!"

• Your brother's 2nd bday party!  You wore your party dress and were passed around a lot.  Mostly you snoozed.

snuggles from mimi during cormac's party

Milestones/Accomplishments:

• You had your first real smile!  At about 5 weeks your Dada got you to grin at him, and since then we have been coaxing them out of you every day.  I love to spend time looking into your eyes, making goofy faces, and being rewarded by your elusive grins, coos and giggles.  
• Way better head control this month!  
• You bat at hanging toys and are very interested in gazing into the mirror on the tummy time mat.
• Slept six hours straight - our longest stretch yet!

Now, of course I like to compare what you and your brother looked like at the same ages.
Here you both are at two months...

(He definitely had a bigger, rounder head.  Your ears stick out more.  You have more hair, less eyebrow.  Your noses look pretty similar.  He had crazier facial expressions.  I think you will be more chill.  Here is the post I wrote about his second month - just for fun.)

Finola - You are a little piece of baby heaven.  You put up with a lot.  You take it all in stride.  You seem to love both us and your brother, despite the chaos we mix you up in.  I seriously fall more in love with you every day.  As I like to say - you are a good one.

Love, Mama + Dada

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