Kaitlyn's Second Month

From 4 weeks - 8 weeks we started to see some good changes.  Her first smile was Stephen kissing her cheeks; I think his beard tickles her.  She is definitely ticklish - she scrunches away when you tickle her - but hasn't learned that this is a fun thing, yet.  She interacted with us more and more as the second month went on, which made life much easier.  Those (sometimes rare) moments when she would give you a big smile make the unfortunately not-so-rare moments of crying more bearable.

At my parents house

Her biggest smiles seemed to be when we would stick out our tongue at her.  Make the raspberry sound with your tongue and you're almost guaranteed a smile if she's in a good mood.

Trying to imitate

Skin - a - ma - rink is the song we sing the most to try to make her happy.  When she's going to sleep, You Are My Sunshine,  and For Baby (a Peter, Paul, and Mary/John Denver song) are the songs I sing most often.

We thought my breast milk was coming in more and more, but found out at 4 weeks that she hadn't hit her birth weight yet (not good).  We started supplementing more formula again and having her weighed every week.  It took her about 2 more weeks to hit her birth weight, and we were told to keep doing what we were doing: breastfeed first and then give formula if she still gives hunger cues.

She started doing longer stretches at night, usually 3 - 7 hours.  For a couple of days she did 7 hour stretches and we got excited, but then she went back to a 4 - 5 hour stretch more often.  That's still good, though.  Especially if she'll go back to sleep after the first stretch.

But naps.  Oh naps.  For the first month, she would sleep if she was being held.  As soon as you put her down, she'd be up within 20 minutes.

First Sunday at church (September 29th)

From 4 - 8 weeks, she would not nap for more than 20 minutes, even if she was held.  If I was lucky, I could lay her down for about 20 minutes twice a day.  Which made for long days.  Stephen went back to work when she was 5 weeks old, and my sister started coming over to help me everyday (we call her the nanny).  Without her, I don't know how I could've gotten through.

The dark side of nannying

This month she also decided she wasn't into pacifiers anymore.  Every once in a while, if she's really tired, she'll take one.

We looked at some baby pictures of Stephen and I to see who she looks more like.  You can see some resemblance to me, but she looks just like Stephen.  See for yourself:

This is Stephen

This is Stephen

This is me

This is me

So she resembles me a little, but looks just like Stephen.  Some other things we did during her second month:

At Stephen's grandma's memorial service.  She had just woken up.

This was her minutes before.  Very cute in her dress Grandma and Grandpa found.

How to get a family picture when the baby is crying?  Turn her face away from the camera.

Went to the Washburn's for Stephen's brothers' birthday.  These are all the cousins hanging out.  I don't have a picture that isn't blurry because they're always moving!

One of the twins is living in New York, so we all face timed him.  I love how happy everyone looks in this picture.  We miss you, Matthew!  We were happy to see you. :)

Two months old (October 25th, 2013)

Timberrrrr

Done with pictures

Kaitlyn's First Month

The first week of Kaitlyn's life, we were in the hospital, which I posted about here.  After we got home,  we took it easy for the first week.  A few visitors, mostly family, but we were pretty overwhelmed with the whole newborn stage of life (and my recovery).  But here's a few pictures from her first month.

My grandma, my mom, me, and Kaitlyn: 4 generations.  My grandma took a bad fall not long after this and has been struggling ever since, making this photo even more special.  If you could keep her in your prayers, it would be much appreciated.

She would only sleep if she was being held, and desperate times call for desperate measures.  Stephen plays a game on his iPhone to amuse himself.

We had a cradle set up in our room, but about a week after we got home, Kaitlyn got a head cold.  She was congested and if we laid her flat in the cradle, she couldn't breath.  The pack n play napper was slightly elevated, so it worked better.  The worst nights we spent holding her in a recliner, though.  And nursing in the bathroom with the shower on to steam up the room.  No fun.

Exhausted.

Our first trip out of the house was to my parents for dinner.  Grandma's always happy to lend helping hand.

More alert.

More accurate portrayal of how we spent the first month.  Being colicky, she was pretty much eating, asleep, or crying.

Stephen's grandma, Kaitlyn, Stephen, and Stephen's mom.  A picture that is also extra special.  His grandma was very sick here and this was one of the last events she remembered well.  She passed away on Kaitlyn's one month birthday.  She was an incredible woman of God and is terribly missed.

Matching 49er jerseys for the first 49er game.  Kaitlyn has some growing to do to fit into hers...

First picture in the chair with her bunny.  We have one for each month.

First submerged bath, which she did not like at all.  It may look like she's yawning, but she was crying.  We're still struggling with making bath time pleasant (at 11 weeks).

Proof she's not bald!  Her hair is so blonde, most of her pictures make her look bald.

A week later.

Figuring out this whole infant thing together.

Our cat, BJ, is unamused by the new "visitor" and prefers to sleep in his sunbeam.

And that was the first month!  I will write more about the difficulties, because I think it's important that other new moms know it wasn't rainbows and butterflies for us.  We're both good with kids and babies, but still had a really hard time.  But that's a future blog post!