Mia, Month Two

Stats:

Weight: Mia is now at 10 pounds 5.5 ounces. She’s in the 25^th percentile for weight. I was honestly surprised by this, since she feels much heavier to me!Height: 22.5 inches; she’s in the 52^nd percentile for her length.

Size: 0-3 months and 3 months for clothes and size one diapers. 

Appearance: Mia’s hair is what I would describe as a copper color. In the right light, it’s a very bright red. It is definitely filling in more too. When she was first born, her eyelashes were so fair that it almost looked like she didn’t have them, but now they’re very visible. Her eyebrows, on the other hand, are still too light to see unless you’re very close to her face. Her eyes are still deciding on their final color, but we think they’re going to be blue. She still looks very much like Jason, but occasionally I can see my face poking out J

The birthmark on her forehead has faded, but she still has the one above her left eye. She’s chunked up considerably this month! She’s rocking the double chin and her arms and legs are chunkier too.

She has very long fingers!

Food:

We are still going strong with the exclusive breastfeeding! While we aren’t on any kind of ‘schedule’ with her eating, a pattern is definitely starting to emerge. I generally feed her for the first time around 5:30 or 6 in the morning. She’ll eat again at 9:30 or 10. After that, she pretty much eats every 2 hours until about 6 in the evening. At that point, her feedings move to every 3 or so hours until midnight. I generally feed her for the last time sometime between 11:30 pm and 1 am unless she’s particularly fussy. Her feedings generally last around 30 minutes on average, but have spanned anywhere from 15-45 minutes. She smacks those lips when she’s hungry! She’s also spitting up a lot more now which the doctor assured us is very normal for a baby her age.

I try to pump 2-3 times per week. At around 6 weeks old, she must have been going through a growth spurt because she was cluster feeding most evenings. There were a few nights in there where Jason fed her milk I had pumped from a bottle because she wanted to eat so frequently. She had no problem taking the bottle, which I’m glad about.

She still refuses to take a pacifier for more than a few minutes, but she will suck on our fingers. She’s also started discovering that she can suck on her own hands.

Sleep:

While she still sleeps a lot during the day, she has a lot more alert periods now too. Generally, she’ll sleep for an hour or two after a feeding and then be awake for another hour or so. She’s generally awake from about 8 pm until midnight nonstop.

Nights have mostly been going pretty well. She generally sleeps about 5 to 6 hour stretches at night, and one night she actually made it 7.5 hours. I was amazed! Getting her down is still tricky. After I feed her for the last time, she’s usually awake and fussy for at least another hour, sometimes longer, before she finally goes to sleep.

She is still in the pack-n-play bassinet in our room at night, but we’ll probably start transitioning her into her room in the next month or so since she generally sleeps well at night. We did have to remove the individual sleeper seat from the pack-n-play because she outgrew it, so now she just sleeps in the raised bassinet portion. I do try to get her to take at least one of her naps during the day in her crib so that she gets used to sleeping in there.

Milestones:

Mia is pretty much a pro at rolling onto her sides. When we lay her down on her back, she’ll continuously roll from one side to another. During tummy time, she can lift up her head and move her neck from side to side as well.

She’s becoming a pro at holding up her head! While it still wobbles a little bit, for the most part it’s steady and strong. We’re so proud of her!

She is a lot more active now during her awake periods. Her arms and legs are constantly on the move. She’s opening her hands up a lot more as well; they aren’t always balled up in fists.

She mostly follows our faces with her eyes, but she always turns her head and eyes when she hears voices!

She still loves staring at ceiling fans. She also loves to stare at lights, windows, pictures and solid-colored t-shirts!

The smiling has started! Her favorite thing to smile at is the ceiling fan (no idea why!) but occasionally she will smile at our faces when we talk to her. She also sticks her tongue out a lot. Sometimes we play a game where we stick out our tongues right back at her!

She’s also started “talking”. She has discovered her voice, so she babbles and coos a lot while she’s awake. It’s really fun to listen to and chat with her!

She is enjoying her playtime now too. When I put her on her mat to play, she’ll kick and punch and make all kinds of noises. She loves staring at the butterfly mobile on the play mat and punching the giraffe that hangs down off of it.

Things I want to remember about this month:

All of her noises! My favorite one that she does sounds like a very soft scream. It’s kind of an ‘ahh!’ sound.
How she knows my voice. I’m the lady with the food!
She actually gets excited when Jason comes home from work if she’s awake. I can’t wait until she is even more reactive!
We celebrated some holidays this month! For Jason’s first Father’s day, we took him out to dinner and then went over to my parents’ house for dessert afterwards. Mia also had her first Fourth of July! She actually did very well with the fireworks. She didn’t cry at all and they didn’t seem to scare her.
Mia got to meet my grandparents (her great-grandparents) this month! We loved spending time with Meme and Papa!
I like that Jason and I can both comfort her just by picking her up if she’s crying. I hope that she feels loved and secure with us!
She had her first shots this month (at least that I witnessed) and actually did very well. She cried a little while she was getting them, but we were able to comfort her pretty quickly afterwards.
I mentioned this already, but seeing her hold her head up all by herself is so cool! She’s such a strong girl J
She really seems to like being outside. If she’s crying at I take her outside, she stops almost immediately. She’s also very calm on our nightly family walks. I think she just likes having so many things to look at! I can’t wait until the weather is cooler and we can stay outside with her for longer periods.
We had our first family outing to the Austin Aquarium! Mia slept through the entire thing, but Mommy and Daddy enjoyed it!

First Father's Day!

One of her first smiles! The first one caught on camera :-) 

Afternoon nap time

First Independence Day!