Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Ava Rose at 2 Months

Baby girl is two months old!  Where, oh where, have the last eight weeks gone and what were we doing with our lives before now?

Fun new facts:
  • Still only takes a pacifier about half the time, but she has found her thumb and that seems to be her preference.
  • She loves to mimic faces and will stick her tongue out and try to move her mouth to form "words"
  • Sleeps in four hour increments and wakes us when she is hungry
  • Coos, giggles, and makes "ahhh" sounds
  • Still doesn't have very good control over her arms and "flails" them quite a bit
  • Her hair has grown back and is longer than it was when she was born
  • Loves long walks in the park, mommy's milkshake, and being held on daddy's shoulder
Weight:  Unknown.  I stepped on a scale with her and the difference was 8 pounds and that was a week ago but we will find out for sure at our upcoming 2 month appointment. 


Length:  Unknown, our appointment is this week and we will find out.  But she is fitting well in her 0-3 month clothes so I know she has gotten quite a bit longer.

Eyes: Brown eyes with a bit of green, I'm not sure what color they will eventually be.  My husband says they're gray.

Clothes:  We retired her newborn clothes at the 7 week mark.  She still fits the onesies but the sleepers were just too short.  Now we are comfy in our 0-3 month clothing and we have so many more options!  None of her shoes or socks fit well yet so we are still wearing our newborn Zutanos.  I plan on buying another pair in a size up.

Diapers: We still fit newborn diapers well, however we didn't want to keep buying them in bulk knowing that any day now we would have to move up to size 1 anyway.  Right now we are on our last pack of newborn and have restocked our drawers with size 1.

Sleeping:  Getting more consistent, she wakes us when she is hungry and usually goes back to sleep easily.  The trick is to get to her before she gets too fussy.  We still co-sleep some nights and others nights she sleeps well in her bassinet.  We have to swaddle her arms down though, all the "flailing" keeps her awake.  Oh and she makes all kinds of noises at night, I peer into the bassinet thinking she's awake but she isn't so I guess it's part of dreaming.

Likes:  Mommy's voice :-)  finally someone appreciates my off key singing.  She loves to sit up so she can look around and she is interested more in toys, particularly rattles.  She also loves to be carried, R puts her in the ergo sometimes but mostly I wear her in my JJ Cole Agility sling.  It's the best way to get her to nap.  She also has a fondness for Led Zeppelin and R has the proof on video.  Also she seems to like getting her hair washed and in recent weeks she has started to enjoy 20 minute increments in her Mamaroo.

Dislikes:  Being naked, daddy's beard, and being ignored.

Feeding:  Breast milk only, daddy gives her a bottle in the morning and she gets 3 at daycare; we nurse in the evenings and night.  I'm pumping 6-7x per day.

Ava's favorites:  Zutano shoes, a variety of rattles, her Mamaroo, Halo swaddle sacks, sleep gowns, cuddles, Led Zeppelin and the Beatles

Milestones: First smile, first Mothers Day together, first cookout, first visit to church, first day at daycare, first visit to the park, first "coos", and she found her thumb.  She also sent mommy some beautiful flowers on my first day back at work.

Mothers Day 2015

 We celebrated my first Mother's Day.  Nugget sent me flowers on Friday before the holiday and she gave me a bar necklace engraved with her name and a Kate Spade bow trinket box.  I was able to get lots of snuggles and cuddles after our Panera lunch.
 Unfortunately she wasn't in a mood to pose with me on Mother's Day.
 R took some photos of us after a nursing session and we also inked her footprints to hang on our bedroom wall.

First Visit to Church
 We were invited to attend our niece's christening in Greensboro in May and I was nervous about attending with such a small baby.  I wore her in my Agility sling but she was so fussy I had to step out of the service a few times...I think we saw a total of about twenty minutes of sermon and then she magically went to sleep during closing prayer.
 At least she looked cute.

Miscellaneous pictures from the month




 She is holding her own bottle in this photo :-)
 Memorial Day 2015 - she did so well during our cookout.  R wore her for most of the afternoon.
 This is how she sucks her thumb.
 First walk in the park, nugget is deep in thought.  

 All wrapped up in mama's sling.
Flowers sent to me on my first day back at work.

Postpartum:  The first month was rough, especially early on because I was still healing.  Ice packs, Ibuprofen, and docusate sodium were my best friends.  I was cleared for work at my 6 week appointment and was told I could resume exercise as normal.  The second month of my maternity leave was much better physically but I had to work to improve my confidence as a mom.  Especially when she went through her "purple crying" phase and basically screamed at me for hours every day.   I'm focused on getting my tone back and trying to ease back into working out.  Which isn't fun since none of my nursing bras are very supportive.  I'm not dieting and I don't care to since I'm trying to produce enough milk for my baby to take to daycare.  I'm still very hormonal and I am more sensitive to things than I was before. Since I'm still wearing the baby weight, I needed new clothes for work so basically I've had to do a lot of shopping (and trying not to buy too much since I'm hoping to get my weight down over the next several months).  Right now R and I are both focused on eating healthfully and getting some regular exercise and we've been trying to support each other's goals by trading off childcare responsibilities.

Going back to work:  I'm not sure I'm ready to talk about it in detail after Nugget's eight week mark.  The first day was rough, it's been four days and it hasn't gotten much better.  Emotionally I'm a bit of a wreck and I have some mama guilt.  I miss her terribly when I'm away from her and it's stressful to rely on pumping enough milk during a work day.  Maybe I'll be able to blog more about my work experience after a few weeks when I'm back in the groove.  For now it's a bit raw but it's good to know that my patients and coworkers missed me.   

Daycare:  I had my child ready for daycare - cute washable, personalized bottle labels; monogrammed daycare bag packed with extra clothes, pacis and blankets, a new mermaid lunchbox with ice pack to transport her bottles...boom!  On the outside we had our shit together.  On the inside I was a hot mess...we dropped her off, met her teacher, cuddled for several minutes before our goodbye, and then I cried in the parking lot for 45 minutes.  Now R is on daycare drop off duty until I can get myself together...at least now I can break down out of public view.  I always knew I would go back to work, I make more money than daycare costs, good insurance, manageable hours, an office that locks and the flexibility to pump, basically I've got a dream job in a great location with fantastic coworkers - and as grateful as I am, for now I just miss nugget.  She will be in this daycare for the summer and will be starting a church daycare in the fall, I feel that both are more than capable of handling her needs and have been more than accommodating and friendly to us.  I just don't know if I would have ever been ready to leave her.  We are adjusting to our new schedule and I don't take for granted the time that I do have with her.

The journey continues, I'm looking forward to our 2 month MD appointment and to managing our new daily routine.  

2 comments:

  1. OMG the bathtime picture with her tongue!? So cute!

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  2. Awww. I almost wanted to cry reading about your back to work emotions. I'm 3 weeks away from going back and I am already having anxiety about it. I love how helpful your husband is! I'm definitely jealous of that! Ava is just precious! I love all the pictures of her!

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