Hellobee

Olive turned 2 months old on the 5th! She is a sweet, mellow baby that very rarely cries. Although she is the master grunter of all time. My friends with two kids have told me that their second child is much more mellow than their first child because you’re more mellow as a parent, and second children are used to sharing their parents’ attention. I’m not sure how much truth there is to that because my younger brother was an extremely fussy and colicky baby that would scream bloody murder every time my mom tried to give him a bath or put him down! But Olive is definitely much more mellow than Charlie was at her age, so hopefully that’s a good sign!

2 Month Checkup

Olive had her 2 month checkup and vaccines this week. She weighed 10.2 pounds, which is the 25th percentile for 2 month olds, and the 50th percentile for 1 month olds. Not too shabby considering she’s more than doubled her birth weight of 4lbs 15oz! She just started wearing some of Charlie’s old newborn clothes, and it’s so funny to see her in them.  She’s also in the 50th percentile for height (22 1/2 inches), and between 10-25th percentile for head circumference — it is hard to find hats that fit her little peanut head.

Olive got three shots and one oral vaccine at her checkup, and I think she hated the oral vaccine most because she threw it up all over me! The shots made her cry for a couple of seconds, but she was a trooper. It was still heartbreaking for me to see her cry. I guess being a second time mom hasn’t toughened me up that much. Later that evening, Olive started crying inconsolably. She’s such a mellow baby, it was the first time I’d really heard her cry more than a couple of seconds and it was really shocking. We gave her some acetaminophen and though she was fussy for a couple of hours afterwards, she was fine the next day.

Milestones

I have been a little worried about Olive because while I’m pretty good about not comparing Charlie and Olive to other kids, it’s difficult not to compare them to each other. Olive is 2 months old, but her adjusted age is 1 month old since she was born a month early. By one month of age, Charlie was cooing, smiling and giggling, but Olive hasn’t hit any of those milestones. She coo’d once for Mr. Bee and that’s about it. And while she smiles regularly (especially in her sleep), they’re random facial movements and not the social smiles that count as a milestone. It’s still too early to worry, so I’ll just keep on chatting with her and hope I get those smiles soon.

Olive also developed a little baby acne a couple of weeks ago. It’s not as bad as Charlie’s was (baby acne is usually worse in boys), and it looks like it’s going to be gone soon.

Sleep

It’s already a blur if Charlie slept this much, but Olive sure sleeps a lot! She usually has 2 short alert periods each day, during which time she usually hangs out in her bouncer and checks out her crazy older brother.  She regularly does a 5 hour stretch (which is considered sleeping through the night) and then another 4 hour stretch most nights, but I consider sleeping through the night to be at least 10 straight hours. Some nights she just has trouble sleeping and is wide awake for a couple of hours though. She’s not an excellent sleeper, but she’s not a bad sleeper either so I can’t complain. She loves to sleep in my arms, but she also sleeps very well in her crib.

Umbilical Hernia

Olive has an umbilical hernia the size of a walnut. Evidently it’s usually a harmless and common condition in preemies that usually resolves itself before the age of 1. I won’t post a picture of it here, but this is what an umbilical hernia looks like. You can see it through her onesie in the picture below. Our pediatrician thinks that it’s probably large enough that it’ll require surgery when she’s 3 or 4. Poor Olive… that means she’s going to have to live with this big ol hernia when she’s aware of what it is. It is really freaky. It gets bigger and smaller and easily collapses when you push it in. It makes me scared to do tummy time!

I love spending time with Olive and can hold her all day long, but I just feel bad for Charlie because I don’t want him to think that I’m favoring her. He’s been such a good boy towards Olive. While I look forward to when she’s a little bit older and can interact with Charlie, for now this newborn stage is pretty wonderful. Having two kids is insanely hard, I’m not going to lie. But I feel like now our family is really complete.