Hellobee

I can’t believe another month has passed!  Some weeks felt incredibly slow, like when I found myself at the peak of newborn fussiness, and other days zoomed by… where all he did was nap all afternoon, while this mama caught up on her blogging!  Here’s a brief breakdown of what these past two months were like for me:

Weeks 1-3: PURE JOY. My baby slept around the clock, and barely fussed except when he was hungry. I was still running off adrenaline from new mommyhood and found everything my boy did endearing and sweet. I forgot how wonderful it felt to hold a teensy tiny newborn again. I was in love.
Weeks 3-7: PURE HELL. This period left me wondering, “What the heck was I thinking?? How could I forget how torturous this newborn stage was?!” – I was so tired – nursing every other hour for 24-hours day after day was leaving me ragged.
Weeks 7+:  REALITY.  Things have been calmer from here on out.  There are good moments, and there are bad ones.  Jaren’s getting more consistent with his wake, sleep, and eat times.  I’m getting longer stretches of sleep, and he’s going longer between feedings.  Things feel pretty good as we start seeing the semblance of a rhythm and I get my confidence back as a mom.

Stats

Height: 23.5 inches (77th percentile)
Weight: 15.1 lbs. (96th percentile)
Head Circumference: 16 inches (91st percentile)
Clothes: wearing 6-month onesies and sleepers
Diapers: almost out of size 2’s, and can fit size 3’s

• At 5 weeks – he started cooing and smiling a lot.
• 5 weeks 4 days – we transitioned him from our room to his room, but he continued to sleep in the co-sleeper.
• 6 weeks 5 days – we transitioned him to his crib both for naps and at night.
• At 7 weeks – the first time he had only one night waking (he slept from 11:30-3:30 am, then from 4:30-7 am), but this still isn’t consistent.

A lot has happened this past month, and he is a BIG baby!  Although we don’t have a predictable schedule in place yet, we do have a routine.  We follow an eat/play/wake routine.  If he falls asleep nursing, a diaper change is just the trick needed to wake him up.  He usually stays up for an hour before his first signs of tiredness start to show (zoning out, yawning), where I’ll promptly prepare him for a nap by changing his diaper, putting him in his swaddle, shutting the curtains, and turning on the white noise machine.

We’ve tried in vain to get him to take a pacifier.  I guess both my babies were not meant to be pacifier babies!  However, we noticed he started sucking his fist at 5-weeks old and he often does this when he’s starting to get hungry or sleepy.  We also started putting him down sleepy but awake around 7-weeks, and happily discovered that most of the time he can fall asleep on his own with minimal fussing.

2-Month Vaccinations

He got the standard 2-month vaccinations this month (3 shots and 1 oral vaccine for the rotavirus).  He seemed fine right afterwards, and even took a short 45-minute nap, but as soon as he woke up he was fussier than normal.  I tried shushing, rocking, and patting him but he just seemed so uncomfortable.  I finally gave him a small dose of infant Tylenol, and put him down for another nap.  He pretty much slept all day from 2-6 pm, and finally woke up to eat.  Even though he slept all afternoon, it didn’t affect his night sleep at all.  In fact, he only woke up once in the middle of the night.  He slept from 8-11pm, then again from midnight-4 am, and finally woke up for the day at 9 am.

I love our son so much.  As tired as I am, I look at him through the eyes of a mother and often stare in wonder at the peaceful, happy baby he is.  I can’t stop munching on his enormous cheeks, and find myself squeezing his chubby arms, thighs, wrists, and belly every chance I get.  It’s incredible how fast he is growing, and I’m excited to see how his personality takes shape in the coming months!

NOELLE

Unfortunately, not all months are fun and games… and month 28 with my firstborn was a particularly brutal one.  Her worst week this past month happened to coincide with Jaren’s worst week of sleep (between weeks 6 and 7).  Lucky us!!  That was the week when I thought, “what the heck did we get ourselves into?!” – it was the week where I really wanted to escape my life, only to discover that there’s no way out.

Things have improved since then, but we definitely have a very opinionated, independent girl on our hands.  She wants to do EVERYTHING herself, from opening her own vitamin bottles to dressing herself to cleaning her own snot (yes, she tried to use the NoseFrida on herself).  This past month, a few new things occurred:

• She reads books to herself.  She kind of memorized Brown Bear Brown Bear, so she’s been reading to ME lately while flipping through the pages.
• She learned how to put on her shoes correctly.  She knows that the left shoe goes on the left foot, and vice versa (most of the time).
• She can say her name correctly now!  Before, she was calling herself Yoelle.  I have no idea why she wasn’t able to say the first syllable of her name because it’s pronounced the same as her favorite word, “No!”
• She can count up to 30 now.  I teach her her numbers by randomly counting out loud while we stroll to the park (I’ll count houses, flowers, clouds, etc).  She has a great memory, so she can easily repeat it back to me after just hearing me recite them a couple times.
• She knows how to “pump a swing” on her own, meaning she doesn’t need us to push her anymore.  Growing up too fast.
• She insists on sitting on a regular chair like the adults do.  No more high chair for this little lady!

I’m really tempted to get a learning tower for our kitchen.  I’ve been wanting one for so long, but always manage to talk myself out of it.  We have a pretty spacious kitchen, and she always wants me to lift her up so she can see what I’m up to.  I think this would really allow her to thrive as her need for independence continues to increase.

This month, I constantly found myself on the offensive with her, trying to nip tantrums in the bud before they even start.  We’re guaranteed either a tantrum or a huge whiiiiiiine almost every time we say no, or if we pull her away from an activity too quickly.  I often arm myself with premeditated words and have to think 5 steps ahead before I approach her.  It’s draining, and by the end of the day when both kids are down, I have nothing left in me.

I reread one of Mrs. Bee’s old updates on Charlie, and she gave me words I so needed to hear:

I didn’t get around to doing a 28 month update for Charlie last month because it was a brutal month. Charlie was throwing a lot of tantrums; I feared that the terrible twos had finally set in, and my sweet little boy was gone forever. A friend of mine with 2 kids older than Charlie and Olive told me that during the 2′s and 3′s, there is a continuous cycle of two good weeks and two bad weeks. Then from the age of 4, it gets better with 3 good weeks then 1 bad week. I thought it was an interesting way to look at the toddler/preschool age!

But after the epic month of tantrums, Charlie went back to being his sweet self.

It’s good to know that everything we’re going through is NORMAL.  This too shall pass, this too shall pass, this too shall pass…

That’s pretty much it for us this month!