Amelia Jane - two months old

Eight weeks have gone by, and suddenly our newborn isn't so "new" anymore. I think it's safe to say that she is a full on active baby and no longer a newborn. The change is pretty remarkable.

Just a recap: after her first week, she really started fussing. Well, fussing that turned into full on screaming that lasted pretty much all day every day. By the time we reached six weeks, it was to the point where I was just walking around in a daze, shushing her, rocking her, trying to feed her, bouncing up and down, etc. None of it helped, so we decided to take her to the chiropractor. Within minutes of being adjusted, seconds really, she was a different baby. It was such a relief! Now we can love her and enjoy her. 

It's a little hard to recap the month since the first half and second half were completely different. I've written about how being adjusted helped her already here, so I'll just focus on the last two to three weeks.

Once she was more comfortable, I was able to focus on her sleeping routine/schedule and figure out if she had any obvious signs of being tired. Spoiler alert: she doesn't. It seemed like we'd have one good day and then one bad day over and over again. Finally, I dug into a few old blog posts both on this blog and other blogs I'd read in the past that had example schedules for babies this age. You'd think after having done this a few times before I'd remember, but I really didn't at all.

She was staying awake way longer than she should have, and the result was that she was quite over tired all the time. Once I started putting her down for a nap after only being awake about an hour, she fell into a great routine and we've all been happy and more relaxed because of it.

If I time it right, I am able to wrap her in her snuggie while she is awake and leave the room. She usually looks around and fusses just a little bit for about 10 minutes or so and then falls asleep. She wakes and falls back asleep like 3 to 4 times before falling into her deep sleep. I don't take it for granted that I can lay her down awake already. I was surprised myself when it worked!

Our general routine right now goes mostly like this. She wakes up to eat around 4:30-5:30. She usually wants to eat again around 7:00, and then I try to keep her up for a little while. She'll nap again around 8:15, wake up, eat, play, and nap again until 12:00 or so. At this point, my goal is to keep her awake until the big girls are ready for naps. I've actually been pretty successful at this, which means I have a couple of hours (or at least one) a day where they are all napping. It's been so good for my mental health and I've been able to keep the house a littler neater, get work outs in, read a little, and/or prep for afternoon activities.

After she wakes up, which could be anywhere from 3:00-4:30 (!), she eats, plays for an hour, takes another nap, and then is up until her bedtime which is around 7:30. Bedtime isn't set in stone though, because the older girls stay up later and sometimes she is hungrier and wants to eat before she sleeps, which pushes bedtime back a little. If I dream feed her before I go to bed, she usually sleeps until 5:30 the next morning, which is awesome. Four naps a day may seem a little excessive, but I know the morning two will reduce to one as her wake time gets longer, and eventually, the late afternoon nap will also disappear. I'm not messing with it for now.

Nursing is going really really well! I've heard that one should wait until you've done it for six weeks before throwing in the towel and that is so true. If I would have based my feelings about it on how things were going just two weeks in, I wouldn't have wanted to continue. I was so sore and it was painful pretty much every time. At six weeks in, it's completely different. It doesn't hurt at all. I'm not engorged, even in the mornings, since my body has gotten used to our routine. She's gotten really good at latching quickly and appropriately so I haven't ever felt like she's not getting enough or unhappy. The only little hiccup we have is that she really doesn't like being covered up while we're in public. Maybe she gets hot, but she will latch and unlatch over and over and usually doesn't eat as much, which then means she eats a lot more later. It's not a big deal, but something I should note. If I used the nursing cover instead of just a blanket, it'd probably help a lot. I've just been lazy and haven't taken the time to dig it out of the endless pit of the diaper bag.

I also should note that she just started making eye contact with me and smiling in the middle of nursing, which is pretty heart stopping. She really captures her mama in those moments. I love this stage.

Around six weeks old, she started smiling, just a little bit here and there. Being adjusted and having her more comfortable probably helped, but mostly it was just good timing. She is sneaky with it, smiling for only a second or two before resuming staring. If you aren't careful you'll miss it! Just this week, she's started smiling and cooing for other people consistently. Her interaction time lasts a lot longer and she seeks me out with her eyes more. It should go without saying (but I'm going to say it) that she's getting to be more and more fun.

She is still wearing 0-3 month clothes comfortably. I'm really tired of most of her clothes (it's the third time around for a lot of them and my sense of baby style has shifted but I don't want to spend the money on more clothes so I'm just waiting it out) so I won't mind when she switches to the next size. I might even pull them out early, even if she hasn't actually grown out of the the 0-3 clothes. They are already in her dresser, just in the bottom drawers, so it wouldn't be too difficult to do. We shall see. The weather will play a huge factor in this as I only have the summer clothes ready for 3-6 months.

If the girls would have gotten sick of her, this would have been the month since she cried her way through the first half of it. Thankfully, they really didn't seem to mind and still love her dearly. Audrey's taken a little more ownership over her "tistah" and Josie is still showering her with physical adoration (smothering? almost... she's a little overwhelming) all the time. Millie girl seems to be getting used to it and doesn't cringe every time, so that's nice to see. She is juuuust starting to watch them as they play around her, and I'm sure that'll take over as she keeps growing and developing.

They help me come up with new nicknames for her all the time. Currently, we call her Millie, Mil mil, Millie McGee, Amelia Be-deyle (a play off of Amelia Bedelia), and Millie girl. We've just barely scratched the surface, I'm sure. We sure do love nicknames over here!

And now for the comparison:

Still looks so different. We still hear that she looks more like Audrey, which I can now see a little more. Mostly in the mouth, which isn't surprising. We found pictures from the past, showing how much Audrey looks like her grandma Annette, and Amelia looking more like her daddy (and I'm sure that there are similarities between mother and son). Josie continues to look more like me and not like her sisters! Genetics are so fascinating.


And already, this next month is flying by!