Our little Farrah is two months old.
You have such long fingers and long toes and big feet. Everyone says you're going to have the Brooks' height and big feet. I always say that I hope you stay little, but that if you don't, then I'm glad I got you little for awhile as a baby then.
"She has so much hair!" everyone says when they see you - friends, family, and strangers. I love hearing strangers ooh and aah over you.
You have a really good complexion and color. You only have slight baby acne or just heat rashes at times, but nothing severe.
You sleep so much better when it's warm, like outdoors. You simply love the outdoors!
You had your 2 month appointment, and you weighed 9 lb 14 oz (15th percentile). You were 21.25" long (6th percentile), and your head circumference was 28.25" (50th percentile). Your pediatrician said that the shape of your head is likely making such a size difference and it isn't that you have a big head. You are on the right growing curve, so there is no concerns about your small size.
Five Weeks
At 5 weeks, I started putting you in size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothing. If you get off your schedule of being up for 45-60 minutes, and sleeping on your cue of yawning, then you easily get overtired and overstimulated and it's hard to get you back to the schedule and to sleep.
There is so much to consider, so many different parenting techniques. None more right than the next, but entirely different. I started Babywise because I felt like I needed a routine, time when you slept in your crib. Then you hit a growth spurt at 5 weeks and it made me question my supply, so I talked to another mom who doesn't implement a schedule and feeds on demand which is good for her supply. I try to incorporate both.
I weighed you this week and you weighed 9.2 lbs! My guess was around 8ish. When you were 5 weeks and 1 day old, you showed us your very first intention smile when Daddy got home from work. He was holding you and you looked right at him and smiled so big and bright! You are full of smiles lately.
You've been waking early from naps so I hold and rock you back to sleep. Sometimes I fall asleep too. I looked at your sweet face and reminded myself that these are the days. The days I dreamed about as a little girl, hoped for as an early adult, and couldn't wait for as a new wife. And you, daughter, are so perfect.
I touched every inch of your face. Your perfect pointy chin, your teeny tiny round lips, your round cheeks, your little nose, your cute eyebrows, your eyelashes that sure are growing long and beautiful, and your long hair. I understand why you love being held, you want to feel loved and safe. That's ultimately what I want too, and your dad too, and your brother and sister. We all just want to be loved.
I hope I'm your best friend. I hope you always feel loved and accepted by me. You are my world. My dream. My everything. You make our family whole, and my heart whole.
You seem to hate being swaddled and you're breaking out if it making it almost pointless anyway. But you still need to be swaddled because of the way your startle response wakes you. This week, your second nightly feeding shortened to only one side. This is moving in the direction of dropping one of your nightly feedings!
You are dealing with a lot of gas pains. I try to always burp you but you don't always burp. You also seem to struggle for bowel movements. It's really hard seeing you in pain and there's not a lot I can seem to do to help. I try to help in a lot of ways. I sit you up and pat your back a lot, you like that position. I do tummy messages and hold you vertically. I bought gripe water and gas drops and Gerber Sooth probiotic drops that your pediatrician recommended to help mature your digestive system. I give you warm baths and put warm wash cloths on your belly. I've made several calls to your pediatrician to make sure I'm doing all that I can for your little body. I hate seeing you cry out in pain. It makes me cry too.
Six Weeks
You kind of cry a lot right now. Finally, your dad said to me, "Just do whatever you can to not let her cry." So that night you slept in bed with me. That was the first night in such a long time that I didn't get up through the night, at all. Not to pee, or not to check on you. I woke up throughout the night, but I never had to physically get out of bed. That was so lovely, and so needed.
You sure give us a lot of smiles, between all your gas pains. I considered that your pains might be things I've been eating/drinking, so I tried cutting out cow's milk and ice cream. I also started to limit my caffeine, but I picked that back up because I read that caffeine does not mess with your digestion, just your sleep, and you nap really good. I've still been swaddling you even though you cry when I get it out. You definitely have a "witching hour," or a couple, in the evenings when you won't settle down for a nap.
You used to struggle in the mornings to have a bowel movement. Like every single morning. Lately it has moved into the nighttime. We have spent some nights where you and I are basically up all night. Yes, all. night. long.
I would consider this to be one of our roughest weeks. We had a long outing in St. Louis for your sister's softball game, and you cried a lot on the drive there, on the drive home, and that night. I gave in and broke out the pacifier. You don't really seem to like it, but at desperate times, it's pretty handy to have, and I don't even regret giving it to you. I plan to get rid of it at the age of one so that you don't get too attached to it.
Seven Weeks
This week has been a favorite. You smile so big at us for good lengths of time. You really concentrate on who you are looking at and it is so fun to watch your smiles.
We had two nights in a row where we fell asleep on the couch together, and the following night, you only woke up once to nurse! I laid you down at 10:30 and you woke up at 3:15. You nursed, went right back to sleep, and slept until 6:35! Your schedule is pretty normal. We still base your schedule off the Babywise principle, but we are not strict about it. I just decided to stop trying to put you to sleep during your fussy evening period, and although that becomes an extra long wake-time for you, it works. I usually cluster feed you before bed and either rock or hold you until you fall asleep so that none of us are ending our day stressed with crying it out.
I have been pumping to get my body used to it for when I return to work, and I am going to provide you fresh breast milk that is pumped the day prior. That will be so much easier than worrying about frozen milk all the time. I noticed a blister on the center of your upper lip and it made me nervous. I read up on it and blisters are normal for babies from either the breastfeeding or even bottle feeding.
You comfortably wear 0-3 or 3 month clothes, and still size 1 diapers. Your eyelashes keep growing so long and dark and pretty. When you were first born, they weren't very long and I was a little disappointment by that, but they are pretty now!
You and I have taken many baths together and that's a lot of fun. You really seem to like feeling that warm water on your body and wiggling under the water. I have given up on swaddling you because you seem to get so upset about it. You still love being warm, so you sleep in sleepers and sometimes with a blanket for weight on your legs.
You are usually only waking once a night, but that may be because I'm not laying you down until 10:30 or so when we go to sleep. You got the meet your cousin Lindsay this week! She took a week off work in Arizona and even spent the night with us. You woke her up throughout the night, but she didn't seem to mind. She really loved holding you and giving you a lot of loving!
Oh, something I wish someone would have told me ahead of time is that Lanolin ointment stains shirts...
Eight Weeks
Every time I lay you down, you stretch and wiggle, but you usually self-sooth yourself to sleep. I will pat your back and rub your face and that helps put you to sleep, too. You always love being warm and cuddled close.
Lately, you have been drooling, blowing bubbles, stretching, and turning in circles in your crib. You are really cooing and giggling. This is what it is all about. It is impossible to see you smile so big and not be filled with complete happiness inside. You have such adorable expressions. One of my favorites is your raised eyebrow, wide eyed, tall neck look. Your dad's favorite is your furrowed eyebrows. You are really acting like a big girl this week.
Taking you to daycare wasn't as hard as I anticipated. I think I had really prepared myself in the weeks prior. I cried the night before while talking to your daddy about it, and when I sang you a bedtime song that night. But when the first day came, I knew it was something we had to do. The second day was harder because it felt like the new "norm," and I liked our normal routine of staying home together. The third day was the worse, because by then I had not seen you a lot in the last couple days and when I did, you were a little fussy and tired from the new schedule, and I was really missing you. I felt like we hadn't had a lot of eye contact, and you didn't show any emotion when we dropped you off at daycare (no sad tears) or when we picked you up (no joyous celebration). Of course, that's because you are an infant, but I couldn't help but to think that you were okay without me. And you fed from your bottles just fine. But after picking you up on that third day, you were full of smiles and eye contact, and I was reassured that you weren't mad at me, and that everything was going to be okay.
The two nights before daycare, you were only waking up once a night to nurse. Our schedule got a little messed up once daycare began, but I know we'll get back on schedule. You really are sleeping well, and you are eating less during your dream feeds.
