Two Months With Ivy Jo

Back in January our Ivy girl hit two months of age, and she just couldn't be sweeter.

Two months brought:

A little bit more sleep for everyone involved.  I received my favorite Christmas present on Christmas Eve when the babe gave us her first five consecutive hours of sleep at five weeks old.  It was glorious!  And the trend continued, as she has consistently slept 5-7 hour stretches on most nights ever since.  Granted those long stretches sometimes start at 8:00 or 9:00 pm, which means I'm usually still getting up at least once for an early morning feeding between 3:00 - 5:00 am.  She also greatly improved her efforts in quickly falling back asleep after said middle of the night feedings.  Instead of being up for nearly two hours some nights, she decreased her awake time to only half an hour on most occasions.  Even her naps started to become a bit more consistent, as I noticed more of a pattern to her sleeping schedule on the days we are home.  Some days she doesn't do much more than little cat naps all day long, and other days she sleeps for a few hours at a time.  Five years ago I would have been pulling my hair out trying to force that Babywise schedule, but this time I just take it day by day enjoying the long naps when they come and enjoying my sweet babe on the days she is awake a little bit more.

Smiles!  Oh the joy that comes from those wide mouthed baby grins.   Nothing can melt my heart or change my attitude faster than a happy baby girl.  She didn't start smiling until close to six and a half weeks, but they were totally worth the wait.  Add a few coos into the mix and it's all I can do not to eat her up right then and there.  95% of the time she is a happy and content girl.  She started to enjoy her swing for longer periods of time during her second month of life, especially if she can still see all of the action while she is in there.

And, of course, a trip to the doctor and those dreaded first shots.  She weighed in at 9 pounds, 15.5 ounces, and she had grown to 21.5 inches.  Just like the other girls she sits right around the 50th percentile for height and weight.  Perfectly healthy with just the right amount of chub - just the way we like them.  She wasn't a big fan of her shots and seemed to have a more adverse reaction than the older girls ever did.  It was a pretty sad evening that really tugged at my mama heart, but she eventually settled down with the help of a little Tylenol and lots of snuggles.

What a happy two months it has been!