The Two Month Old

It's hard to believe that Sara is already two months old! She's growing like a weed and is getting into a phase where she's discovering new things each day. It's so exciting to see her becoming more aware of the world around her, and she seems to be enjoying her new found sense of awareness.

We went to the doctor last Thursday for Sara's two month appointment. She weighed in at 11lbs 6 oz and 22 3/4 inches long. She's gaining weight nicely and seems to be the picture of health despite her rough start at birth. I had been dreading this appointment because it brought four shots for Sara. I was so worried about her getting hurt with those needles that I cried about it for days. The pediatrician kept saying that the nurse was very quick and it wouldn't be that bad, but I still had to hide behind Andy for most of it because I couldn't stand to watch. The nurse was very quick to my relief and Sara actually only screamed for a minute and was ok again. I decided to nurse her there right after to help her feel better and was pleasantly surprised that they had a nice room we could go to with a big comfy chair. We've been really happy with this practice and I'm glad that they are so supportive of breastfeeding.

Sara did ok with her shots but she was uncomfortable for a couple days. I kept her on Tylenol for the first day and that seemed to help. She slept most of the morning but was fairly fussy during the afternoon and we could tell she just didn't feel good. She seemed good most of the next day until evening and she started to run a slight fever. A bit more Tylenol did the trick and she has seemed fine since. I felt so bad for her though getting all those shots and then having to feel bad for a few days to get over it. I know this is a lot better than her getting one of the diseases she was immunized against, but it's so hard to have to let your two month old go through that.

In other news, Sara had her third set of visitors for Easter when her Mimi and Gebo came to visit for the first time. I'm surprised they were able to hold out for two whole months, but they really did get a great visit since Sara is so much more alert now. It's a toss up between seeing that new tiny baby right away vs waiting until she's a bit older and can smile and coo at you, but I think they had a good time with Sara for sure. They had lots of nice conversations together and Sara found out that her Gebo can play on the floor with her for as long as she'll stay awake!

It was also good to have Andy's parents come after I had been so sick for a month because they were a huge help in getting the household back in order. Things had really gone downhill with me being out of commission, and they were so great helping us to pick up the pieces. We now have several meals in the freezer, the laundry is caught up, and several things around the house have been repaired! We also learned that we have a new friend who has been keeping up with us on the website from Erwin, so we wanted to say hello to Miss Rose and thanks for sharing in our excitement with Sara.

For Easter we went to Dottie and Jason's house for their annual Easter Brunch. This year was quite a crowd with most of Dottie's astronaut class coming with their families on top of the usual gang of friends. It was nice to get to introduce everyone to Sara and we even got to see Dottie's sister, Neva, again (she lives in Chicago so we don't get to see her often). Sara really enjoyed the crowd while she was awake, but wasn't so thrilled when it came time for a nap and had a hard time sleeping with all the noise. We had a good time though and the food was great as always. It will be fun when Sara is old enough to enjoy the Easter Egg hunt and know what's going on a bit!

In general Sara news, she is really starting to change a lot these days and it's hard to keep up with all her new things. She seems to really be able to focus on smaller objects now and has recently started analyzing patterns on shirts, burp cloths, etc. She seems to be trying to read the wording or figure out the little pictures on things that she didn't really notice before and it's fun to watch her stare at these things. Since she can see a bit better, she's also started to really like story time. We had tried to read to her several times before and she just got fussy, but we started again recently and she seems much more interested now that she can look at the pictures in the books while we read. We'll have to make story time a daily event now that she seems to be enjoying it more!

Sara is also becoming more and more aware of her toys. She really likes her play mat now and stares intently at the objects dangling above her. She is really good at kicking the ball at her feet and still bats at the toys above her. I don't think it's quite with real purpose yet, but she's definitely much more aware of the toys than she was before. I've also switched out the elephant on her car seat with a duckie and she is enthralled with it. She stares at the duck the whole time she's in the seat and has even talked to it a bit. Yesterday the duckie fell down and she was grabing it a little. It looked like she was trying to play with it, but I'm still not sure if her reaches and grabs are intentional yet. I think she's getting close to that though and should be gaining that coordination soon.

Since Sara can hold her head fairly steady these days, we went ahead and got her one of those new Bumbo chairs. They are sort of hard foam chairs that surround her and help her to sit up. She can sit up in this chair and look around. She still loves the TV and looks like a little grown up sitting in her chair staring at the tube! We'll have to start turing the TV off when she gets old enough to really start watching it so she doesn't become an addict like Andy and I. I've also put toys in her lap to touch while she's in the chair and she shows mild interest in them. Today she fell asleep in her Bumbo chair and it was really cute - I guess she can only handle so much fun at a time still!

Sara's other new discovery is the mirror. They have a big mirror at the doctor's office when she's on the table and she really started staring at herself when we were in for her two month appointment. We went out and got a small mirror that we can put on the floor in front of her and she likes staring at it too. I think she's too little to know that the reflection is her, but she likes looking at that other baby in front of her a lot!

It is really amazing how quickly she is learning and growing. Andy and I can hardly believe we have a baby still and she's just growing and changing so fast that it's hard to keep up! She is definitely starting to be a lot of fun with her smiles and coos. She loves her daddy a bunch and always gives him the best smiles. She even laughed a little for him a few days ago which was so cute. We haven't heard the laugh again yet, but hopefully she'll start doing that more sometime this month. We just continue to be so impressed with how much she seems to be taking in and just stare at her all the time.

As for us parents, Andy and I are doing pretty good these days. Andy has been on a normal schedule again for the last few weeks and things feel a lot better having him home more. My stomach seems to be pretty much back to normal now that I'm on the Aciphex and hopefully the ulcer will heal up and be gone for good. We are both pretty tired from a couple of bad nights where Sara decided she didn't want to sleep in her crib anymore. She had two nights in a row where she was waking up four or five times in a couple hours crying and having a hard time sleeping. We ended up having to put her in the swing both nights for a bit. The first night she wouldn't even go back down in her crib after eating and spent most of the night in the swing, but the second night she did go back in her crib for the rest of the night. Last night was the first night where she went back down in her crib the whole night. It was a relief that she slept and we hope she'll stick to the crib like she had been before!

I only have two more weeks of maternity leave and am starting to get nervous about going back to work. It's hard to decide what is right for Sara with her being so little. I like my job and the income means we can do a lot more for her, but I also like being home with her and knowing that she is getting everything she needs. We spent a couple hours in the baby room at daycare yesterday to check things out and I still feel unsure. The daycare is a good quality one, but there are still four babies to each teacher and while I was there each one of them had to cry for a couple minutes at least once before getting picked up. The lead teacher, Rosie, was a very nice woman who genuinely seemed to care about the babies she had. The babies also seemed to really like her and gave her lots of hugs and smiles while I was there. They do lots of fun activities with the babies and keep detailed notes on their eating, sleeping, and potty habits for the parents each day. The babies there seemed to have fun playing, but I'm still worried about how much love and care Sara will be able to get when she's upset or not feeling good. It's such a hard decision to make and I empathize with any parent who doesn't have the choice and has to work. Right now I'm thinking that I will go back and see how she does at daycare. If it's too hard for either of us, I may change my mind!

I guess that's enough Sara details for now - had to catch up after Mimi and Gebo left! Hope you're all having a good week so far and be sure to keep in touch!