Two Months Old

Jason, because you were born on the 31st, your Dad & I disagree when we mark your monthly birthday. He thinks it should be the last day of each month & I was marking it as the first day of the new month when there are less than 31 days in the month. Either way, today we are congradulating ourselves for helping you make it through your first two months of life.

If I am honest with you, as I look back over the last month I would have to say that you have been a Dr. Jeckyl & Mr. Hyde baby. We no longer can describe you as the baby that you can forget is around. You have certainly found your lungs to be useful in the last month and have gotten plenty of "exercise" (as Papa likes to call it) crying. Not all days are bad, but when you have a bad day- it is a tough day for all of us.

The greatest thing that has happened in the last month is your smile. At about 5 weeks you broke out that gem, but you were very stingy with it for awhile. In the last couple of days you are definitely more generous with others when they try to get you to smile. You are often adding a full body wiggle with the smile & it is definitely a reward to whoever is trying to entertain you.

Although by this time many babies are starting to regulate their sleeping at night, you are still all over the map. You are usually ready to have your last feeding for the night around 9pm & in bed by 10pm, but your first middle of the night feeding can be anywhere from 1:30am (not Mommy's favourite) to 3:30am (this is Mommy's current favourite). Typically after that feed you sleep until around 6am, but you do throw a few 5am ones at Mommy too. See what I mean? You are all over the map still.

During the day, we are still not on any sort of schedule or routine. Hopefully for both our sakes, this will improve over the next few weeks. I am beginning to believe that you are not going to be a morning person, because you definitely don't start the day happy if you are up before 8:30am. Although, you've only had 9 weeks to sample life, so I do understand that your preference here can change too. You show the promise of being a napper, unlike your sister, but you currently have very restrictive circumstances in which you demonstrate this characteristic. In the beginning of your second month, this only applied if Mommy was holding you & thankfully we moved away from that requirement. However, much of your napping is done in your carseat because that is the only place that you seem to fall asleep & stay asleep. It is a RARE occassion that you nap in your crib- unless of course we have put your carseat in your crib.

Thankfully you are a very portable child, so we have the opportunity to go out & do lots of things with friends. I think your Daddy is whispering stuff in your ear though about shopping. You quite often fuss if we go to the mall- are you in cahoots with your Dad to restrict my spending? If so, keep in mind that this could could come back to bite you in the butt later.

Except for the regulating of your system for sleeping, you are hitting all the expected milestones. You are making lots of sounds now that aren't crying, which is wonderful, & your repetoire of sounds seems to be expanding each week. You are getting very strong with your head, both when sitting and lying on your tummy. Tummy time is not the work with you that it was with your sister. If you are in the right mood, you will spend over 5 minutes on your tummy before you start to fuss by making a sound that indicates that you've had enough. Much of the time you will just lie there, suck your hand & look around.

In the last week you have started to use your legs more when I am holding you in a standing position. You used to just pull them up to your tummy, but now you actually are applying some pressure- good work! You also are starting to move your head around a lot more. You show a definite preference for looking to the right & as a result your head is a little misshapen, however I am told not to worry about it because it will correct itself when you start sitting up.

In the last couple of days you are showing more control of your hands, but you are still pretty jerky with your arm movements. Therefore, you are still swaddled at night to help you sleep better. I think you will be happy when we stop doing this & will choose to sleep with your hands over your head. We've tried swaddling you during the day to see if you will sleep better, but this hasn't worked so well for us.

Overall, you are still a pretty good baby & we are all learning more about you each & every day. At two months you weigh 11 lbs 9 oz and are 23 1/4 inches long.