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