New this month...
Gosh where to even begin! My favorite of course!
Smiles, smiles, smiles! Oh I love this little girl's smile! It is so very sweet! I can tell she's still thinking hard about them and she doesn't just give them up easily. Not that she's too serious or cranky otherwise but it's almost like she's a little insecure about it yet. As if she's thinking, "If I smile, I'm not sure this lady will smile back!" So she starts with a little feeler smile and then that will bloom into a bigger, less reserved one. It cracks me up when she decides to practice her smiling when she's supposed to be eating, cuz you can't do both at once! She mostly only smiles for me, but she has smiled a few times for others too and is doing so more and more everyday. I feel like Austin had a silly, uninhibited smile, even from the beginning so it will be interesting to see if she will have a more reserved personality than he does.
McKenna is incredibly attached to me. She will fuss for just about anyone else, including Brian. I know that's still pretty normal at this stage, but I'm sure it's also influenced by her being the second child. When Brian is home, we go with the man-on-man defense. He is wonderfully feeding, entertaining or corralling Austin, while I'm feeding McKenna. Because of this, Brian doesn't get to hold her very often. Even when he does, the evenings are more likely to be her fussing time, so it can be a short-lived holding. So all that to say, she doesn't get much "practice" being held by others. We're gonna have to keep working on this cuz it would be nice to be able to leave her with Brian or a sitter from time to time! I could really use some time for a pedicure!
She had her 2 month appointment today. She's 23" long (75%) and 10lbs 8oz (50%). Unfortunately she only gained 4oz in the last 3 weeks, which is about 1/2 of what they'd like to see. She was 60% for weight at her last appointment and dropping 10% isn't good. But she's thankfully eating well thanks for the Zantac (Hallelujah!!) so I'm not too worried about it.
Still a wonderful sleeper! I am so thankful but also feel guilty! We have settled into a pretty good routine/schedule. I hesitate to call it a schedule, cuz that sounds like I dictate what happens. The only time I intervene is if we have some place we need to be at a time she would need to eat. Other than that I try to follow her cues. I have encouraged the eat-wake-sleep cycle that BabyWise teaches. We did that with Austin and I really feel that it contributed to some good sleep habits cuz it helps them learn to fall asleep on their own - without having to be nursed to sleep. It is interesting to me that while her routine started out different from Austin's, it's starting to resemble his more and more. And not that you all care the details, I wanna record them anyway, so I remember!
7:00 wake, eat, sometimes go right back down, otherwise she's up for about 1 hour and sleeps again.
10:00 wake, eat, up for 1.5, then down again. Sometimes up for less, because we are going somewhere and she zonks out completely in the car.
1:00 wake, eat, up for about 1/2 hour to 1 hour, depending on what we're doing. Bath time usually falls in here, cuz I have to have all the dishes done to give her a bath. That keeps her up a little longer. Sleeps until 5 or sometimes 6.
5:00 wake, eat, up until 8ish usually. Sometimes takes a snooze in here. This is her fussiest time but is pretty much only fussy if the previous 3 naps didn't go well. Like if the got interrupted by an appointment or an errand or something.
8:00 eat again, sleep around 9:00. 8:00 is Austin's bedtime, so I put her down on the couch or our bed until he's good and asleep and then move her.
11:00 Will occasionally wake for a nightcap. She didn't used to but is starting to do so more and more. It's weird to me that whether she does or not barely affects what time she wakes in the middle of the night. If she doesn't eat then, she's up a 3:00, if she does, then maybe 4:00. Sometimes, she'll go as late as 5:00, but that's rare.
Night feeding: Up just as long as it takes to eat and get a fresh diaper. With getting her back to sleep, I'm up about one hour. With Austin, I was only up for 20 minutes or so by this point, because he ate so much faster, was usually pretty dry and went back to sleep on his own when you laid him down. Because I don't want her waking Austin, I make sure she's really out before I put her down. If he's woken up in the morning, he doesn't go back to sleep.
She's usually pretty flexible on eating times. If we're stuck in traffic or something, she only gets upset if she's overdue an hour or so. But she's not flexible on sleep. When she's tired, I have to get her down quick or else she gets really agitated and then has a hard time going to sleep. And then the rest of the day is rough.
McKenna is hitting all her milestones good! She's tracking well for her age. She LOVES her mobile. Gets a huge smile on her face as soon as I set her up under it. She's following them around in a circle pretty well! And she makes great eye contact and will follow your face/eyes well. It's so fun to see these little social steps develop.
She has the shriekiest cry when she's really upset. Sooo drama! =D After her vaccines on Thursday, she cried for another 5-10 minutes. She calmed down for a minute right afterward and then let loose! It's like she gets upset just remembering how awful it was! (Becca, reminds me of a Friends episode)
Such a snuggler! Austin wasn't much of a snuggler, so I am loving this! She loves to be upright on my chest/shoulder. If she's having a hard time falling asleep or staying asleep for her naps on our bed, I'll often lay down next to her until she goes out. If I put my head near her's, she will more her head until it's touching mine. If I move, she tries to move so she's touching again.
She's still liking being swaddled. By this time, Austin hated having his legs swaddled and I could really only swaddle him after he was asleep. We've discovered the trick to calming her down when she's tired is to wrap her up quickly! She fights it a little but her eyes roll back pretty darn quick and then she's out!
Her hair is growing so quickly! Still crossing my fingers she won't have a little old man hairline for months. It's looking like she could be in the clear!!
Her eyes are very blue still. I want to say that by this time, Austin's had started turning more grey, so I'm crossing my fingers that her's might stay blue. Brian has such beautiful blue eyes - I have always hoped that one of our children would get them! But if not, I'll settle for the eyelashes! Which I'm pretty sure she got too!
She's definitely a binkie girl. She pretty much needs it to fall asleep unless she in the car. As soon as she's mostly out though, she spits it out and stays asleep without it. I don't know if she just never wakes up once she's down at night or if when she does wake up, she doesn't need it. Either way, we haven't had more than a few binkie wars - where I'm sticking it back in for her every few minutes!
Okay, I didn't realize how long my list was getting! That's a lot of info, and prolly pretty random info for most of you, for a kid who's life consists of so few activities. But I'm constantly wishing I could remember specifics of Austin's infancy as we're going through the steps with McKenna. I don't want to be wishing the same thing again later. Plus, everyday is such a joy! Albeit, a crazy busy joy, (um...no one told me how "go, go, go" my life would be with 2 under 2! Or I didn't pay attention when they did) but a joy, nonetheless. And savoring life to me is also savoring all the minute details!
1 comment:
She doesn't fuss for Auntie Becca and I get great smiles from her! :) Prolly cause she knows I'm that handsome little Sammy's mommy and she wants to impress me ;)
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