Monday, August 17, 2015

Two Months

Ivy is two whole months old (tomorrow). Every time she does something new, I melt with simultaneous extreme love & excitement for a milestone, and extreme fear that life is moving so fast.

Ivy is such an easy baby, still. She has been sleeping "through the night" (at least 5 hours) for over a week, and has just about made it to eight for a record the other night. I tend to wake up before her a lot of the time, either because I'm uncomfortable (I try to give Cory lots of space, but we only have a queen bed, so I tend to end up in strange positions so that he can stretch out a bit without smooshing the baby) or because I think "holy cow, she can't still be asleep!" Or because she starts wiggling in her active sleep phases, which she does a lot as she starts thinking about waking up, even though it could still be almost an hour before she actually does. Then she will have some breakfast and fall back asleep, and doesn't really wake up for the day until around 11. I tend to stay either in bed, letting her sleep on me, or very close to it (like folding laundry at the foot of the bed), as she sleeps so much better when she's got her cheek on my breast or an arm flung over some part of me.

During the day, she is getting busier and more vocal. I put her in her little play gym, where she stares at the dangling toys and flaps her hands and kicks her feet. She spends a lot of time in my lap, either with her back against me, looking out at the living room, or lying down (though she barely fits anymore) with her head on my knees and her little feet up my torso, or over my shoulder, practicing holding her head up. She takes little teensy catnaps on the couch next to me, or sometimes in her MamaRoo, or there on my lap. We have lots of kissing sessions and chats. And then we go to bed at 9 or 10 and she nurses to sleep with no fussing. (Of course, earlier in the evening during the witching hour she gets a bit fussy, but it's nothing that Cory and I can't handle with a bit of dancing and walking around.)

She's also learning to smile. She's got tiny little flashes of them now, though they're not super sustained and don't happen all the time. They started on the changing table, mostly when she didn't have any diapers on, but I see them now when she's in her little play gym. Sometimes she'll coo and I'll look over and she's smiling at her toys.



I feel pretty confident with her now. I'm still a little hesitant of taking her to restaurants or other places where people might not like having a crying baby there, but I haven't had to leave any public places to soothe her yet. One thing I'm not so good at, however, is figuring out how to get anything done around the house when we're alone together. She will sleep for short bursts during the day, or be happy in her play gym or lying on the couch for a few minutes, but that's only long enough for me to make food usually. I have a whole list of things I need to do (clean out the cat box, clean the bathrooms, that kind of thing) but she can't be with me when I do them. I'm sure it'll get easier when she actually has cohesive naps rather than lots of little catnaps, but for now I have to wait for Cory to come home and hang out with her so I can do chores. And take showers and such. I'm thinking I'll try to go to the La Leche League meeting that's this Thursday evening, hopefully I can find some mamas who I can start hanging out with. Making friends is hard.

I go back to work in just a few short weeks and I'm dreading it more and more as it approaches. This morning as I laid in bed with Ivy cuddled up against me, it made me so sad to think that I won't be able to have peaceful sleepy mornings like this for much longer; I'll have to be up and getting ready to take her to daycare and me to work. Speaking of daycare, we're having a family meeting tonight to talk about our prospects. The centers are still chock-full, but two coworkers have recommended two separate in-home daycares to me, so we need to call them and set up a time to meet them. One of them has very reasonable rates but she's not as experienced as the other. I'm still having a hard time just calling the providers to inquire - I just want to stay home and take care of her myself!

Although I don't want Ivy to keep growing, I am really looking forward to this fall and winter; to share pumpkin patches and Christmas trees and family get-togethers and handmade sweaters and footie pajamas and maybe even SNOW with her. So excited.

The Cutest

8 comments:

  1. She is just adorable. Chubby cheeker!

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    1. You should see her profile! It's all cheeks!

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  2. She is so beautiful!. I'm sometimes lazy about commenting, but I've really enjoyed following your pregnancy as we had similiar issues (I'm also hypertensive) and our babies are just two weeks apart! Do you have a baby carrier? I picked up a Baby B.jorn at a conseignment shop and I started wearing it while I would vacuum as the sound soothers her, but I've found I can get laundry and other chores down while she's in the carrier. Also you may find that the backround noise of a restaurant may serve as white noise. We've been to two familiar places, one was a pizza joint and I knew it was big enough that I could bring in the stroller and I ate with one had and rocked the stroller with the other to get her to go to sleep. We also went to a bar and I just placed the infant carrier seat under the table. Slept soundly. The thought of going back to work really sucks. I haven't set my alarm clock since the morning of my C/section. But then the other day, my biggest accomplishment was finishing two loads of laundry, so maybe I will be ready. Ivy is so beautiful!

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    1. It's funny, right around the time I got pregnant a bunch of ladies (including you) got pregnant as well, so it's been fun keeping up with all of your journeys as well! I do have a few baby carriers; a Moby Go, an Ergo (both of which she's too small for still), a Baby K'Tan and an Infantino mei tai (which I think is my favorite so far, but it's a pain to transport because of the long straps). We just got back from taking the dog out to play where we used the mei tai, in fact. I think as it cools off (it'll be 100 here today, and we don't have air conditioning) I will be much more of a fan of carriers. :D

      We have been to three restaurants, I think - one of them we ate outside so it was pretty easy (she was in her stroller or being bottle fed the whole time), one was at a pizza place with family who all passed her around, which kept her busy, and one just the other day that was a completely new place and we weren't sure if the stroller would fit. It did, though, and the new sights and sounds kept her interest.

      I can't wait to see more photos of your little one! So far she's pretty darn cute! :)

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  3. WOW! Two whole months already??? She is so beautiful! Its such a blessing to have gone through so much, to end up with the perfect family. I'm sure you're loving every moment with her :)

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    1. I still have moments where I can't believe we're at this point. It seems like such a long road but it's much easier now that the road is in the rear view mirror.

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