Wes Wild: 2 Months Old

Little Wes, I love this photo of you so much! Your little face just looked like it was made out of clay! Like I could mold it with my hands! :)

Your second month continued to be just as sweet as your first. We dressed you up as Batman for your first Halloween, but it turned out to be a super cold, rainy night so you couldn't go trick or treating with your sisters. You went out for a sec, and then headed back home with your dad to hand out candy.

The biggest milestone for our family during your second month happened on Nov 8 when your dad deployed to Korea. He was so sad to leave you. He'll be back when you are 9 months old this summer. It was really hard for me to adjust to not having him there to help with you, and the first couple weeks he was gone were hard, but I'm happy to say that we got in a good groove eventually and all is good now.

At the end of your second month, we took a road trip to the other side of Texas to spend Thanksgiving with your Dengler side of the family. You got to meet your Didi and Pops, Aunt Brianne and Uncle Andy and all your other extended family! Your pops flew to El Paso to make the drive with us. We thought it would be an easy trip because you loved your carseat and slept in it really well, but it turned out to be pretty stressful. You would wake up ready to eat and sometimes there was no where to stop and you would just cry and get so upset that you would have these terrible coughing fits. Then once we got to Houston, we hit some horrible traffic and you were so upset and it was all just bad. But we made it to Beaumont and had a great week with family and friends, and I'm thankful for those memories. I think we'll just hold on another major road trip for a while. ;)

You transitioned from sleeping on your Boppy pillow to sleeping in your Rock 'n Play during your second month, but you continued waking up every 3 hours at night to eat. By this time, I was used to it and operating pretty well on 5-6 hours of sleep a night. I realized this month that you didn't sleep as good when your arms were tucked down by your sides, so I found a swaddle that lets you keep your arms up by your face and you started sleeping much better with that.

During your second month, you started having some scary reflux issues. You would sometimes vomit after eating and then choke on the vomit. It was terrifying to watch. You would vomit, then I would immediately have to suck your mouth out with a bulb syringe so that you could breath. The scariest part was when it happened at night. At your two month check up, I told the doctor about it and they sent us to a specialist to do a barium test. You had to lay on this xray table and drink barium (a thick white liquid) out of a bottle while they took xrays. The test showed that you did have pretty bad reflux. I did some research and learned that ready to feed formula worked better for babies with reflux than powder formula so we switched to that and you stopped vomiting immediately. One day, I only had powder formula with me so I fed it to you and you vomited twice after that. That's when I knew for sure that the powder formula was not working, so I stopped feeding it to you. Since that day, we've only used ready to feed formula and you haven't vomited since!

Also at your two month check up, your doctor referred you to a specialist to get your flat head checked out, so we did and you were diagnosed with Torticollis just like your sister, Elle, had. So we started head positioning and stretching exercises with you to work your neck muscles and even out your head.

But aside from all that not so fun stuff, my favorite thing about your second month was when you started smiling! And you have the sweetest smile that just lights up your face. I took a photo of you every time you smiled and sent it to your dad so he could see the cuteness.

We love you so much, Wes Wild, and are having a blast watching you grow!

Elle Evergreen: 2 months old

Little Elle - you are two months old today! I wish I could say I can't believe it's been two months, but unfortunately, it feels a lot longer than that. The past month has been rough! If I could sum up your second month in one sentence, it would be - You did a whole lot of crying. Check out this photo for a visual of what the past month has looked like. ;)

We're not exactly sure what made you so upset this month. We tried holding you more, holding you less, feeding you more, feeding you less, burping you more, bouncing you more, rocking you instead of bouncing you, swaddling you tighter, but nothing seemed to help. 

When you are not eating or sleeping, you have about ten minutes of happiness a day - it's usually the few minutes right after each of your feedings. In those few minutes, you are so cute! You smile and gurgle and throw your little fists around and streeeeetch your legs out as long as they'll go, and we love to watch you.

Outside of those few minutes of happiness during the day, you are kind of a grump. You are not able to be awake and relaxed and just take in the world around you. Instead, you get worked up and fussy very quickly, which leads to crying (and goodness, you have a loud cry, girl!). We are hopeful that your grumpiness will fade as you grow into your little body. You have gotten a bit better over the past week so maybe your third month will be all smiles and coos. I sure hope so! (The internet says newborn crying peaks around 6 weeks, and it does seem like that was true for you so it can only get better from here, right??)

Other highlights from your second month:

You decided that you absolutely hate the pacifier and don't want anything to do with it, but you still like to be swaddled tight to keep your hands under control and you've fallen in love with your bouncy chair (but only when someone is actively bouncing it for you - the minute they stop, you scream!). Unfortunately for mommy and daddy, you do not love your Mamaroo swing that would happily bounce you on its own for hours. ;) 

Your hair took on a life of its own - it's crazy! It sticks straight up all over your head and will not lay down no matter what we do to it. It's also very, very soft, and I love to brush my cheeks against it. 

You celebrated your first Easter. You had no idea what was going on, but we had fun filling your basket with a new swaddle blanket, some wooden toys and teethers and your first teddy bear. (And I couldn't resist putting you in your Easter basket - you fit perfectly!)

You got to meet your biggest sister, Rowan. She came to stay with us for a long weekend, and she thought you were pretty neat. 

Your other big sister continues to love you just as much as ever. Wren still loves to touch your ears and your feet and hold your hands (and she'd love to touch your eyeballs if we'd let her). She has started saying "baby sittsa so cute" all the time, which is the cutest. When you cry, she likes to yell at you "no mo cwyyying, baby sittsa!!" :)

We started sleep training towards the end of your second month. You were averaging four hour stretches of sleep at night so one night, I decided not to feed you when you woke up to see what you would do - and miraculously, you went back to sleep! Since that night, we've put you to bed around 9pm after your last feeding of the day, and I set my alarm to feed you at 6am the next morning. If you wake up in between those hours, we let you self soothe back to sleep, and it's been working great so far. (Hooray for 8 hours of continuous sleep!) We also transitioned you from sleeping in the bed with us to sleeping in your Snug Bunny Rock 'n Play next to the bed, and you love it.

You racked up quite a few nicknames this month, including Elle Belle, Elly Belly, Elly Bean and Smelly Elly. I also like to call you my nugget or "nug" for short, since you are a tiny little nugget.

We pulled out Wren's old bath seat and now you love bath time! We put you in with Wren and you happily sit on your little seat and kick your legs while you watch your crazy big sister play with her bath toys. It's now one of my favorite times of the day, since I love seeing you relaxed and happy.

Oh Elle, I'm so looking forward to your third month and hopefully, happier days. I can't wait for more smiles and more snuggles and hopefully a laugh or two! Your dad, sisters and I love you so much. Happy two month birthday, and may all your days be happy ones!

Two Month Check Up

Wren had her two-month check up a couple weeks ago, and I wanted to share a few photos from the day. We dressed her up all cute (it's not every day we leave the house for something as exciting as a doctor's appointment!), and were so sad that as soon as we checked in, we were told to strip her down to her diaper. (She didn't mind - this girl loves to be naked.)

The doctor joined us in the exam room after the initial weigh in (12lbs 9oz!) to look Wren over and answer any questions we had (I had A LOT). Then the nurse practitioner came in with the shots. She gave two in one leg and one in the other, and even though Wren cried during the shots, she calmed down almost immediately when the nurse was done and handed her back to me. (I surprisingly didn't shed a single tear.) I couldn't get over how sweet her chubby little legs looked with those band-aids. I left them on until the next day just because I thought they were so cute. :)

All in all, everything looked great, and the dreaded two-month shots weren't as bad as we thought they'd be. This girl is one tough (and adorable) little cookie!

Wren Winter: 2 months old

Little Wren! You turned two months old yesterday! I can't believe how much you've grown in the past month. There have been so many new developments. First - and most importantly - you started smiling! This has definitely been our favorite of your new tricks. You are such a happy baby, and it doesn't take much to get you to show off that grin. In the morning when you first wake up, you are especially happy and love to "chat" with me and smile a whole bunch before I get you out of your bed for the day.

And speaking of beds, you're sleeping so good these days! We started a new (and stricter) bedtime routine with you after the holidays, and it has paid off. You're sleeping in 7 and 8 hour chunks now (instead of 3 hours at a time), and mommy could not be happier! :) (It helps that you love your Snug Bunny Rock 'n Play sleeper. I don't blame you. It's so cozy I kind of wish they made them in adult size.)

Other highlights from your second month: You made your first trip to Texas and did great on the way there (not so great on the way back, but that's ok). You got your first cold over the Christmas holidays, complete with sneezes, coughs and lots of congestion, but you're doing much better now. You still really like bath time, but hate having your hair washed, dried or brushed. You figured out how to blow spit bubbles, and your lips are now constantly full of them. You've taken a liking to your swing (finally!) and would spend the whole day in it if we'd let you. You outgrew nearly all of your newborn size clothes (which is fun because we got to break out a whole new 0-3 month wardrobe, but is sad because you're growing so. dang. fast.). You don't like tummy time at all, but you do like to practice holding your head up when we're holding you. You also like to smush your face into our chest/arm/arm pit when we're holding you and root around like you're digging a hole with your head, leaving us covered in spit (sort of gross). You still love a good stretch, and never pass up an opportunity to throw your arms over your head and point your toes down as far as they'll go, pushing your little belly up to the sky as you do. (We really have to get this on video because it's hilarious.) Overall, you seem much more alert these days, and when you look at us, it feels like you're really looking at us (so fun!).

We are so excited to watch you grow, little bird! We love you soooo much. Happy two month birthday, and may all your days be happy ones.

P.S. - Wren at 1 month old here!