Turner Blogcast Station: 2 Months

Month 2 went a billion times better than Month 1!! I feel like I'm getting the hang of this "having a baby" thing, and I'm really enjoying watching her grow and get new skillz (yes, skillz with a z because they're that awesome to watch!) My friend Tamara had her baby girl, Hannah, on Oct 3rd, and I really truly forgot how teeny tiny my daughter used to be. We went to visit them shortly after Hannah was born, and Bryann and I both held her and said "There's no way Callie was ever this small!" even though Callie was 6 oz. smaller when she was born! Just goes to show you how fast they grow and you don't even notice! As cute as she was when she was a newborn, I wouldn't trade these days for newborn days again.

Breastfeeding is a billion times easier. Sleep is a billion times better. Going places produces a billion times less anxiety. We've got this thing figured out! I took her on a wine tasting day-trip with some girlfriends, I've taken her to book club gatherings, and dinner out with friends, and Wine & Dine parties. We figured out the bottle feeding thing, so I can have more than 1 drink. I started working part-time from home, and we have a pretty great routine going during the day. Mostly the Baby Whisperer routine of Eat, Activity, Sleep, "You" time, and she does really well entertaining herself in her Pack N' Play.

We are past the super fussy phase, and we have the 5 intervention line-up to intervene when she does get fussy. First, give the pacifier. Second, bounce her a bit or rock her. Third, swaddle her up. Fourth (if 1+2+3 doesn't work) feed her. Fifth (and rarely needed because she zonks out with the 1+2+3 intervention) Shushing, singing, or white noise. With these powers combined, we have a calm, quiet, often sleeping baby.

Stats: 10 lbs. 6 oz., 22 inches long and 15 inch head size. She's dropped in percentile for height and weight, but both have dropped proportionally to each other, so the Doc said not to worry about it yet.

Health: She has some dry skin on her face, and we saw the beginnings of "diaper rash" this month. I'm not sure if it's "diaper rash" so much as general moisture rash in her fat folds. Her blocked tear ducts is all cleared up though, and she spits up slightly less often than she did last month.

Sleep: I almost don't want to write about her sleep for fear of jinxing what we have going. We moved her from the co-sleeper on our bed, to putting the co-sleeper in her crib in her room for her 1 month birthday present. (More a present to us, really!) Since then, she's been sleeping progressively longer stretches at night. The first night we put her in her crib, she slept for a 5 hour stretch! We both woke up in the middle of the night wondering why she hadn't cried yet, and if she was still alive! Since then, she slept for progressively longer and longer. She dropped the 11pm and 1 am feeding right away, then dropped the 3am feeing a few weeks later. Now she usually falls asleep for good around 9:30, and then sleeps until about 5am. Then she goes straight back to sleep until around 8 or 8:30am. My sanity took a drastic change for the better once we moved her to the crib. I'm not sure if she's really not waking up as often, or if it's because I was interpreting her sleeping grunting sounds as waking sounds, and waking her up to feed more often than she needed to.

Getting her to bed is still kind of a struggle. We have a bedtime routine of feeding around 7pm, then wake and play time till about 7:45, then change, swaddle, feed, story, lights out, white noise on, put in bed. She'll sleep for about 30-40 minutes, then she'll wake up again. Then we're in and out of her room, sticking the pacifier back in for the next 40 minutes, until she goes to sleep for good. I do feed her again most nights between 9:30 and 10pm. Most of the time, she's asleep and it's a nice "dream feed".

I'm not sure what to do in the meanwhile hour because 90% of what I've read says she's really not old enough to just let her cry until 3-4 months. So I guess for the next month, we'll continue what we're doing, and hope for the best.

Clothes/Diaper Size: Callie is still in her Newborn or 0-3 month clothes. Also still wearing the size 1-2 diapers from Costco.

Diet: Exclusively breastfeeding. We started her on a bottle at around 5 weeks to try to get her used to it (not out of necessity), and it didn't go well to start off. Bryann took over a feeding every evening, and she cried and squirmed and fussed and got milk all over her face. He was pretty stressed out about it. I even tried to bottle feed her once, and I think it went worse for me. She was looking at me like "WTF?! I KNOW where the boob is! Don't try to pull this shiz on me!" It got better with more exposures, and we even got to have a "Date Night" while Reezy babysat and took over a feeding!!

Baby Gear Love: We've been using the BabyErgo every time we take her out to places. It is the most amazing contraption EVER! Also, we've really enjoyed the Bob stroller. It's been a very strange Indian Summer (still sunny and low 60's) so we've been going on lots of walks around the neighborhood and to Cook Park down the river trail.

The Pack N' Play has been used on a daily basis, as has her baby papasan (not sure what else to call it... It's a floor seat that bounces and vibrates and has dangling birds for her to goo at) as places to put her where she can entertain herself for a few minutes if we're busy doing something. She's also been napping well in her swing
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Nicknames: Goo Goo, Callie Bear, Callie Flower, Callie Lily, Stretchy Moo, Fussy Wussy. Reezy's favorites are Gal Pal Cal and Dumple Bumple

Favorite Songs/Lullabyes: Blackbird, Die Nachtigal (The Nightingale), Dona Nobis Pachem, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, multiple and varying versions of "Good Morning to You". I tried to change it up a little bit this month.

Milestones/Firsts: Calista started social smiling this month, which is the best thing ever to see! She's also started speaking, saying highly sophisticated things like "Goo", "Goo Goo", "Ooh", and "Gah". Callie's also getting a bit more physical. I caught her rolled over on her side twice, and she's extending her legs and kicking with a good amount of pressure. She also has more control of her head and can *almost* keep it upright when we've got her balanced.

Likes: Watching her bears on the mobile in the Pack 'N Play. Watching the birds in her swing and baby papasan. Talking. Going on tours around the house and looking at stuff. Bath time. Getting kisses.

Dislikes: Being cold and wet after a bath, having clothes put on her

Things I Don't Want to Forget: Most of my "Don't want to forget" moments are watching Bryann and Callie together. He's so wonderful with her and he loves her SOOOO much! He makes goofy faces, or says ridiculous things in baby talk, and I've even caught him SINGING! *GASP* Some things in particular though:

Her first night in her crib, we went a little overboard in taking precautions to make the transition smooth. To make it as familiar an environment as possible, we put her in her co-sleeper in her crib, a smelly tshirt underneath her, on top of her, and hanging on the crib rail behind her.

When the Braves lost the playoff series against the Dodgers, Bryann was heartbroken. But when he picked up Callie and she smiled at him, he told her she just made it all better. My heart burst. <3

We were watching an episode of HIMYM on TV where Robin and Barney get engaged, and Bryann starts tearing up a little bit - I thought at how cute the scene was - but then he said "I don't want to give Callie away at her wedding!" I also pointed out a cute scene in a commercial between a dad and his daughter and told Bryann he missed it. He said he looked away on purpose so he wouldn't cry.