2 Months

This past week Maddie celebrated 2 months of life. And what a difference a month makes! Her first month of life was, well, mostly difficult but dotted with moments of pure joy. The second month? Pure joy dotted with only the slightest bit of difficulty. Maddie is a love. She hardly cries, except when hungry, tired, or poopy. She coos and smiles almost constantly because her father or I cannot stop talking in sing-song voice and making crazy sounds just to see those glorious wide eyes turn to smiling eyes. She is sleeping like a pro, 8 hours in a row last night! Nursing is fabulous, she gets the job done in 25 or 30 minutes and nothing makes her happy like the boobie. It is so wonderful to know we always have an ace in the hole, should something upset her.

Maddie's first shots were Friday. She made it through the first two with not even a peep. The third caused her to whine and fuss for just a few seconds, and before we picked her up off the doctor's table, she actually gave her daddy a big, wide smile. She was much braver than I. Next time maybe I won't be such a chicken and hide behind her dad (I did watch, I just couldn't be the one to hold her down on the table.


She now weighs 11 pounds, 5 ounces and is 23 3/4 inches long (85th and 97th percentiles, respectively). Our little peanut is more in the realm of a brazil nut, relatively speaking. She is the size of an average 4 month old, according to our wonderful pediatrician. I'm not sure if all doctors are like Dr. T, but I leave his office feeling like a million bucks. My baby is "beautiful," she is sleeping "like a pro," "ahead of the game," and "cute." Not that I need a doctor to confirm all these things which I know for myself, but boy does he do a wonder for the mommy esteem.

I love being a stay at home mom. It is so wonderful to wake up with this little angel of a baby, spend all day with her, and put her down at night. I love seeing my wonderful hubby as a dad. He is proud, absolutely smitten, and just as crazy as I expected. We are officially twitterpated.

the days fly by

seven weeks and counting...

My baby is getting so big! And she is the delight of our lives...smiling, cooing, making funny faces. We can't get enough of her sweetness.

The thing with parenting is, just when you think you've gotten it down, something changes. She was sleeping 4-6 hour stretches and then she wasn't. She was going down easy to sleep, now it's taking a while. She seemed to ease off on the nursing and then she was back to every 1 1/2-2 hours. But it is all worth it, because now in my seasoned-parent-mindfulness, I know that all things are just phases and she will soon move on to new (greener) pastures.

Our first trip to visit family has been scheduled for 3 weeks from now. We're so excited for Maddie to meet the Painter family, including Grammy and Papa, Uncles and Aunt, cousins, as well as great-grandmas and grandpa. It will be so wonderful to have her with my family after so many weeks without meeting these wonderful people.

Maddie did great on an all-day outing for her daddy's birthday. She slept in the car on the way to Napa, continued to sleep all through breakfast, nursed at the first winery, put on a smiling and cooing show for the adoring fans, slept to the next winery, nursed, and slept the way home. What a good girl!

She's also now fitting into some "big girl" clothes, much to her father's chagrin ("I'm not ready for big girl clothes! Put her back in the onesies and sleepers!") But she has so many cute outfits...I can't keep her in 0-3 forever! There are so many moments when I'm snuggling her (after nursing, in the middle of the night) when I think to myself, if I could just keep her here forever, this perfect little size with the sweet breath and kissable neck and little sighs. But I know my love will only continue to grow with each day she's with us!