Sunday, January 6, 2013

January Sixth

Eleanor Margaret turned two months old this weekend.  Oh my.  How she has changed! My little newborn is all baby now, complete with chubby cheeks and a big round belly.  She makes us laugh every single day and keeps us on our toes as she continues to change and amaze us.
At two months old, I can hardly remember what she was like as a newborn.  We spent Christmas with my sister and brand new niece Kolbie.  Although Kolbie was born bigger than Eleanor, it was hard to imagine my baby girl ever being that tiny.  Eleanor is so big now and full of personality.  Where she used to only smile while sleeping or on accident, now she will smile at you.  We make funny faces and voices and noises and she is so amused.  She makes these laughing motions but no noise comes out. 
Highlights this month were Eleanor's very first road trip to Missouri.  She was such a good girl in the car and slept most of the way.  Traveling with a baby hardly added any extra time to our trip.  Eleanor also miraculously grew eyelashes this month.  One day there were none, the next they were there.  And I am obsessed.  Everything about her amazes me.  I still look at her every day with wonder and awe at what God has done for us. 
Of course we are still loving our little photo shoots, and this week Alex was with us to help get lots of smiles out of her, as evidenced by all these happy photos.  I think her photo shoots will have to be a two person job from now on. 

I can't say enough about her, or enough about how much I love being her mom.  Despite loving our time together, we decided to start taking her to the babysitters twice a week so I can get work done at home.  I was amazed how completely ok I felt dropping her off with Shannon.  Of course I trust Shannon, probably more than myself, with children.  Loving and trusting your babysitter makes it so much easier to leave your most precious cargo behind.  Eleanor sleeps all day when she is there.  It is my theory that she just misses me so much that she doesn't want to wake up and deal with me not being around.  Good theory, right?!
Sometime this month I realized I could be Eleanor's mommy and be myself all at the same time.  That realization allowed me to let go of some lingering pressure and have more fun with this new life.  Now I get out of the house without her, workout regularly, and enjoy my time spent with her even more.
At two months we still don't have a schedule.  Feedings and naps are still by Eleanor's request.  I actually don't mind.  Because we are nursing, we can go with the flow, and no matter where we are I can feed her. 

While we were on vacation we switched over to disposable diapers, but now that we are home we are using cloth again, and loving them even more than before.  She fits into her BumGenius pocket diapers really well now and they look so cute on her.  They are velcro and so easy to change.  We love them very much!
Eleanor has been a great sleeper since the beginning but this month she has amazed us with longer stretches of sleep.  We got our first six-hour stretch on Christmas Eve that left us refreshed and joyful on Christmas morning.  Since then we can usually count on at least a five- or six-hour stretch every single night.  Otherwise, there is absolutely no pattern.  Sometimes she is in bed at 8pm, other nights we try and try but she doesn't go to bed until 11pm.  The biggest change this month is having to physically put her to sleep.  When she was just a newborn all she did was sleep, but now we have to pull out all the stops: swaddle, pacifier, white noise, etc.  Most of the time it isn't so bad, and it gives Alex a very important role, he is almost always the one to put her to bed at night. 
We have a big month coming up for Eleanor.  She will take her first airplane ride when we travel to Chicago.  She is also getting her very first pet.  I hope they fall in love with each other and are the best of friends!

Happy Two Month Birthday Eleanor! We love you so much!


No comments:

Post a Comment