Emelia at two months

Oh, this little baby. She’s still practicing her head control.

And being awake more.

Because being awake is really hard when you’re two months old but a month behind being born early.

This past month, like the month before, has flown by. For me, at least. She’s two months, but still behaves very much like a four week old. She slept through her first Thanksgiving.

Nicknames: Meals, Melia, Mealie

Weight: 10 lbs 9.5 oz (38th percentile on regular growth chart)

Length: 21.5 inches (16th percentile on regular growth chart)

Head circumference: 14.9 inches (49th percentile)

Diaper size: 1

Clothing size: 0-3 months

Eating

She’s nursing every three hours at night, and usually during the day unless she’s cluster-feeding. I’m exclusively nursing her now, save for the occasional bottle when I’m gone. We’re actually talking about trying to do one bottle a day because she HATES her bottles now. She’ll get this face, and push the nipple out with her tongue or do a spectacular gag or pretend to be asleep and it makes me kind of feel like Aw mah baybee!!! but then it sucks too because she HATES her bottles.

I’m pumping once a day in the morning, getting anywhere from 3-10 oz depending on when she last nursed. I have to bring my hospital grade pump back, and will have to go back to my standard pump. Boo. I’m feeling weirdly nostalgic about this hospital pump as it saw me through the weeks of exclusive pumping. I sometimes look back to the NICU days and laugh to myself at how freaked out I was that Emelia would prefer a bottle to me since the girl wants to just nurse constantly now.

Sleeping

I’ve had a few nights with her where she’s up a lot, but overall, she’s going 3-3.5 hours of sleep. She’s still really grunty right before she falls asleep, but I think it’s getting less. I’ve been sitting up for at least one of the feedings in bed because it gets her to drink more before falling asleep versus laying down with her. She apparently just gets too comfortable with me.

She’s not on any sort of nap schedule, so she’s sleeping in my arms or her crib throughout the day. I wasn’t good about this with Olivia and I want Emelia to get used to sleeping in her crib. It helps (or doesn’t help?) that our hand-me-down swing, the same one Olivia used, finally kicked the bucket and died so we have no swing. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise because she won’t be reliant on the swinging motion for her naps like I had to break Olivia of.

Milestones

She’s officially smiling for real. It’s one of my favorite baby milestones. She smiled at me for the first time December 4th when I was holding her and then on the 6th (her official 2 month birthday) she smiled up a storm for Chris and Olivia and life is pretty much awesome right now.

She’s also been cooing and making noises that aren’t her usual baby grunts and turning her head when we talk to her. Being 5 weeks early, she still acts very much like a four week old with how much she sleeps, so these little milestones mean so much.

She does great on tummy time (until she’s had it and it’s game over) and is lifting her head and turning it from side to side.

Health

We’re still dealing with reflux, but I think it’s been a bit better since starting the probiotics and chiropractor visits. She’s unloaded her entire stomach twice on me last week which was fun. So time will tell. We have gas drops, but haven’t really used them even though she continues to be gassy. It seems to have lessened a bit.

At her two month check, her pediatrician gave me a referral to the Children’s vascular anomalies clinic for her hemangiomas. We counted 10 0r 11 of them at her appointment and she’s concerned some may be possibly growing on her organs. I haven’t been called to schedule yet, but she wants to do an ultrasound if I can’t get into the clinic for a month. I was invited to join a FB support group by another H mama, but I don’t want to think too much about all this until I have to because there are so many ways this could all go.

She also has a touch of torticollis on her left side. It’s not as bad as Olivia’s was, but she favors her left side and I’ve been trying to get her to turn her head the other way when I can. The chiropractor seems to be helping so far, and the pediatrician is willing to let me do chiro versus sending her to physical therapy. We were able to do this with Olivia, so I’m hoping it’s the case with Emelia too.

Likes

Looking at lights, especially the dimmed overhead light in our bedroom at night and Christmas lights. Nursing. Looking at Toby or her sister. Her glowworm and bouncer when it’s making music and lighting up. Her hands. Baths with Mama. Her Boppy ComfyFit carrier when she’s not trying to nurse. Skin-to-skin.

Dislikes

Being hungry. Her car seat, but luckily, it’s not for every ride. It’s when she’s hungry or has been in there for a while that she gets angry. Basically being hungry.

Undecided about

Tummy time. Being swaddled. Pacifiers.

Looking forward to

Her smiling and interacting with us more. Having her sit in her high chair reclined at the table with us for meals (baby-led weaning—we’re getting ready for you!) And CHRISTMAS! This baby has presents, a Christmas outfit, and we are set to enjoy a Christmas with another miracle baby.

Past monthly updates

One month