Dear Laurel,
You are two months young today! The 62 days that you have been in our lives have definitely been challenging, but it’s starting to feel very normal now. You have had a couple of milestones, like rolling from your stomach to your back three times in one day (although you have not been able to repeat it since then), and you have also started smiling a little bit. You also smile at walls, ceilings, and when you are fading to sleep, so daddy and I look forward to more smiles genuinely directed at us.
Your favorite things at 2 months are your activity mat, watching tv from your swing (you’re probably not really watching, but it usually appears you are), bathtime, sucking on your fist, and staring at ceilings and walls. Speaking of walls, you seem to love daddy’s wall of butterflies and blossoms in your nursery. You often stare at it when you wake up.
You have recently become a very noisy sleeper. You tend to moan and groan a lot and we are not sure if it is gas or if you are working that hard to break out of your swaddle. You don’t seem to like swaddle blankets too much, but because of the startle reflex, you can’t sleep without being swaddled just yet. If we don’t swaddle you, you just flail around and scratch up your face. We have tried almost every swaddle, but you manage to break out of all of them. I think one reason is that you love to stretch your arms and legs so much. You did this when you were in the womb also. I could feel what felt like you stretching, but I wasn’t sure. It’s clear to me now that is what you were doing. Last night, you slept your longest stretch of sleep since you were a few weeks old, 4 1/2 hours! Then you slept another 3 1/2 hours and then finally another 2 hours before waking up. I assume this was to make up for not sleeping well at all the previous day. You did not seem interested in sleeping past 4am and didn’t nap more than about 20 minutes at a time, so it was a rough day.
On Monday, we have to go for your two-moth check-up and vaccines. I am curious to see how much you have grown. I think you are close to 12lbs now and you definitely seem to have grown a couple inches, so we’ll find out for sure. This will be your first round of vaccines, so hopefully it goes well and you still love me afterwards! I moved the appointment to the late afternoon so daddy could go with us and be there to help soothe you (or soothe me!!). I anticipate lots of cuddling Monday night 🙂
The next month will be very interesting for us. You start daycare in just a few weeks when I go back to work. I know this will be very difficult for me. I have definitely gotten used to staying with you all day. I plan to go back on a Thursday instead of a Monday so the transition is a bit easier. We’ll do a few trial runs so we can get a feel for the routine. The one thing that will make the transition easier is that they have cameras in each of the classrooms so mommy and daddy can log in from work to see how you are doing. It will be tempting not to watch you all day! I hope you enjoy daycare and make some friends.
I can’t wait to see what the next month holds!!
I love you!
Mommy
This second one is a great belly shot! LOVE IT! She’s so cute!!!