Here's her 2 month picture:
We had her 2 month checkup last week. The pediatrician was pleased with Rebecca's growth and development. She weighed in at 10lb 12oz and measured 23in long. By comparison Daniel was 11lb 10oz and 23.5in. I thought she felt bigger to me than I remembered him being but turns out she's a little smaller.
Right now she's in the 41st percentile for weight and 65th for height on the CDC charts but if she follows Daniel's path she'll becoming increasingly light for her age. Given that the CDC charts include formula-fed infants as well, who tend to put on weight more quickly for a number of reasons, and that long lean babies run in our families, neither we nor the pediatrician will be concerned if she's on the lower end of the chart so long as she is eating well and developing properly.
Rebecca is eating quite well. She nurses 6-8 times a day and is starting to spend more time on a side and in a total feeding. Daniel was regularly getting a bottle or two a night for his early weeks but because of her wonderful sleep schedule from day one, I'm able to nurse her for every feeding. I think we could count the number of bottles she's gotten on one hand. That's about to change soon though-next week is my last week of maternity leave then Kevin will be home with her into late July. But I'll be pumping at work, and have over 200 oz of milk stashed in our freezer, so she'll still be getting breast milk even when I'm not there to physically deliver it to her. Daniel adjusted well to taking bottles and I have every reason to think she will too.
I feel a little guilty to even admit this when so many of my friends' babies don't sleep well, but Rebecca's a wonderful sleeper. She regularly sleeps 10-11 hours at night. In the evening she'll usually nurse on one side for a very long time, close to an hour, then drift off to sleep for a bit, then either she wakes or we'll wake her to change and swaddle her and let her nurse on the other side. She usually falls asleep doing that or shortly after, and then she's down for the night. She sleeps till around 8-9 most mornings, which has been awesome for me while I'm on leave but doesn't mesh well with my work schedule. So this next week we'll cut out that last feeding at night and change and swaddle her before the long feeding then put her down. Ideally she'll be waking around 7 so I can get ready then nurse her right before I leave. It's nice that my biggest baby sleep worry as I head back to work is having to adjust her schedule so she won't sleep so late!
She had been napping for about an hour and a half in the morning and 2-4 hours in the afternoon but for the last week or so she had been napping more fitfully and often waking after only 45 minutes. Since we wanted to start transitioning her from napping in the bouncer seat to napping in her crib anyway, it seemed a good time to introduce a swaddle for naptime to see if that might help her sleep a little longer and consolidate her naps. A few days in it seems to be working well. Today she napped twice for over 2 hours each lying swaddled with her head on my nursing pillow (a good transition from the upright position in her bouncer to lying flat in the crib).
The swaddle is just a short-term tool. Within a few months she'll be rolling over and we'll switch to sleep sacks, but Daniel had no problem with that adjustment so I'm not anticipating a problem for her either. It's amazing how much the first kid sets the expectations. Daniel was generally an easy baby, so we expected him to adjust to change well, so we had the confidence to do what worked in the short term without the fear that we were setting up a long term habit he'd have to unlearn. That worked well with him so we're doing the same for her. Of course they are different kids so what worked for him won't always work for her, but it gives us our default plan.
One thing we haven't had need for with either kid is the pacifier. We offered them to Daniel a few times and he didn't have much interest or need. So far Rebecca seems the same way. I think we may just be blessed with two kids who are exceptionally good self-soothers with little need for attachment items like pacis, lovies, or a favorite blanket.
Another thing we learned from our experience with Daniel was that he hated bathing in his baby bathtub but loved when one of us sat in the tub with him and held him in the water. That's all we've done for Rebecca and she loves it. Daniel's a poky eater so while he's finishing his dinner I'll take Rebecca up and we'll sit in the tub together. She loves for me to drip warm water on her tummy and she especially likes having her hair washed. When Daniel comes up he likes to help bathe her.
Rebecca is not much of a crier. As long as she's fed, rested, and clean she's usually a very content baby. But she does get lonely if I set her down and go to the other room for very long. And thus far, she's very partial to Mommy (no surprise as she spends far more time with me). She can sit in my lap, perfectly happy, but then I hand her to Kevin and within minutes she's crying. Once they've been home together for a few days though I know they'll find their groove. She adores Daniel and likes to look at him and smile but being a toddler, he doesn't always love on her as gently as she'd like. He likes to give her kisses though!
Just like Daniel, she loves being worn in a carrier. For the first 8 weeks or so I exclusively used my ring sling but now that she's got better head control and is a little bigger I've been using my beco carrier to distribute her weight more evenly over my shoulders. We went to the Dallas Zoo last Saturday and while Daniel excitedly looked at the animals (a topic for another post), Rebecca slept most of the day away in the beco. We fit right in with the marsupial mammals in this picture!
I've enjoyed my time at home with Rebecca. She's such a mellow, happy baby and quite the little cuddler!
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