Adelaide {2 months old}

Dear Adelaide,

You are two months old, baby girl! Where the first month of your life seemed to whiz by, this second month has crawled along. Every day I find it hard to get the most ordinary things done because my time is spent with you. When you nap, I rush around trying to get the cloth diapers washed, the dishwasher unloaded, the carpet vacuumed. And then you wake up, and we play or take a walk or nurse or just sit together talking and cooing back and forth.


Our days kind of look like this:

Wake up between 8 and 9 a.m. Diaper change first, then if you're in a good mood (which is most days), we lay down on the floor and play with your activity center and try to get in a couple of minutes of tummy time. You don't particularly like tummy time, but I prop you up on a small pillow and try to get you to lift your head to look at me. Yesterday you did a really good job for quite a long time, because I held Eric Carle's Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? in front of you and you seemed really interested in the bright colors and beautiful animals in the book.


Then when you've had enough of playing, we go to the rocking chair in the living room and get comfy. You nurse, and I burp you over my shoulder often to make sure the least amount of air is trapped as possible. Your tummy still gets really upset with gas, and you still have trouble passing it. Your daddy and I continue to do lots of tummy massages during your diaper changes to help you out. But we can tell you're slowly figuring it out! Even though you constantly swallow air when you're eating, you are starting to toot and poop on your own. This may sound gross, but trust me: any parent who has a baby with gas problems knows the pride I feel when you let one rip on your own! :)


You'll usually fall asleep after nursing, and if I'm lucky I can put you in the swing for you to sleep for an hour and a half or so before waking up again. Sometimes I put you down and you wake right back up and want to be held. If you have a particularly difficult time falling asleep but are showing me that you're tired, I'll put you in the Moby wrap and carry you around. Sometimes we take a walk. You always fall asleep in the Moby, usually within 15 minutes.


When you wake back up, we do a diaper change, and then fill our time with walking around, listening to music and dancing, reading books, sitting outside on the porch if the weather's nice, and lots of talking to each other. A couple hours later, we'll nurse again, you'll nap again, and we repeat until 10:00 p.m. or so. Then we change into pajamas, I'll take you to our bed, and we'll nurse until you fall asleep next to me and your daddy.


Wake up the next morning and do it again! Every other morning, I give you a bath, and in the past week, you've started to play in the water! You'll kick your legs and arch your back at the same time, and the water will splash a lot when you do this. It's so cute! You smile a lot and love for me to pour a cup of water all over your body.


At your two month doctor's appointment, you weighed 12 pounds 5 ounces (in the 88%), and you were 23 and 1/4 inches long (in the 84%). Your head circumference is 16 inches (in the 90%). A very proportional baby! :)


At two months, you are:

• Starting to suck your hand. When I see you do it, I pull your had away from your mouth so hopefully you won't suck your thumb. I do it about 100 times a day. I think I'm going to lose that battle!
• Cooing and squealing, a LOT! You're not really laughing yet, though you do show when you're extremely happy. I think you'll laugh any day now!
• Intently watching everything around you, all the time. I can just see you soaking up your surroundings. I talk to you about everything you see. You focus on people's faces and I'm constantly being told how alert you are. People seem surprised at that, but you've been that way since you were born!
• Sleeping 3-4 hours at a time. Sometimes you'll be sweet and give mommy and daddy 5 hours, but that's rare.
• Holding your head up for a LONG time when held in a sitting position, though still you're pretty wobbly sometimes. You love to sit up on my lap and you'll coo and squeal and smile a bunch. I'll stand you up too, and I can feel your strong legs trying to hold you up!
• Becoming more comfortable being put down for short periods. Sometimes if I need to fix food or take a shower while daddy's at work, I'll put you in your vibrating chair and you'll look around and sit contently for a while. Usually you'll use this time to practice sucking your hand!
• Still making a lot of noise when you nurse. Lots of grunting and smacking your lips. Sometimes you'll take a break and look up at me and grin. I'll talk to you a little and you'll break out in a huge smile. You do this really cute look, kind of looking away and smiling, and it seems like a shy look... it's really adorable!
  

I can't believe how much you've grown and evolved over the first two months of your life. It's amazing the speed at which you're developing! To think that just a couple of months ago you were still in my belly waiting to come out! It seems like so long ago... I can't even quite remember what it felt like to be pregnant. And now, these long days (when you're incredibly fussy and uncomfortable and I have no idea what it will take from one minute to the next to keep you calm) will pass and fade a little, and we'll be on to our next great thing! Which, hopefully, will include lots of laughing and playing and babbling! I am feeling what all mothers must feel: for time to stop so I can enjoy your little self (which seems to be growing oh so fast!!!), but also to speed up so we can experience your personality more and more. We love you so much!

Love,
Moma/Mommy/Mama/Ma/Whatever you want to call me!