On the sleep front: the baby slept 9 hours last night. The last few, tucked next to me, but what do I care? I didn’t have to get up or wake fully.
On the obvious conclusion front: if you put on your sweat and milk stained pjs and the aroma makes you think “aw, baby!” It is time to bathe the baby and wash your pjs.
N had her 2 month check up on Friday. I’m always a little confused as to how to count months with babies. Am I supposed to count by the day of the month (thus from May 13 to July 13 is 2 months) or by 4 weeks equals a month? In any case, she’s up to 9 lbs 5 oz, a gain of more than 3 lbs in two months. She’s still in the 10%, where she was at birth, which is perfectly healthy. 25% for length (I have no idea what her percentile for length at birth was) and 75% for head circumference. Thanks to Daddy’s gene for that!
What I found amazing at this visit was something I witnessed in our stay at the hospital. She had to get 3 shots. The nurse asked if I was nursing her, and I said yes. Would I like to nurse her through getting the shot? This often calms the babies faster and eases the discomfort or pain. In fact, I recall doing this with Q’s shots his first year.
“I’m not opposed to it, but she’s done.”
The nurse looked a little confused. “I nursed her just before her physical, and well, she’d done now.” Q nursed at any suggestion of the opportunity till he was 4 months or so. N nurses 20, maybe 30 minutes, and then she’s done. Trying to get her to nurse when she’s not hungry is inviting her to yell at me.
The nurse looks at me like I’m a little loopy, but we set the baby on the table (which makes it easier to give the shot than if I bobbling the baby around in my arms). Three shots take forever to give when you’re watching a baby scream her toothless little heart out. But it does eventually get done.
I pick her up and she stops crying. After the shots were given, she simply calms down and stops crying. In the hospital I witnessed this after they took practically a pint of blood. Once they stopped messing with her, she simply went back to sleep.
Unreasonably good natured of her.
They had me do a postpartum depression questionnaire. One of the final questions, “I feel I neglect my baby: (select one) All the time, Sometimes, Not often, Never”. No hesitation on my part. I picked ‘Sometimes’. I don’t think it is possible to juggle two small children and never feel like sometimes you have to neglect one kid to take care of another. You know it will have to happen before the second one arrives, but you don’t necessarily realize how heart-wrenching it can be to tear yourself from one child who needs you to take care of the another.
She also asked if N reacts to sudden noises. Speaking of neglect… I hadn’t noticed. I think I would notice if she didn’t…?
So yesterday I took the kids to the Deep River Ancient Muster in the next town over from us. I accidently got there early, which turned out well since Q got to play at the playground, we bought some fries, and sat right at the ending point for the parade of drum and fife corps. This is a seriously noisy event with a variety of drum sizes, passing sometimes close to a foot from where we were seated. Not to mention the guns being fired off.
N was in her stroller, blissfully sleeping through it all. I finally thought to look at her just before a gun went off. Yep, she flinched in her sleep. Guess her hearing is ok.
I’m really enjoying my time with N. We still tend to forget her when she’s sleeping or happily installed in her bouncy seat and we’re trying to get something done (dinner, potty training, showering, packing the car). But she stays awake longer, giving us a chance to see big goofy grins and silent laughter. The past two days I took her with me on my run, packing her into the jogger with blankets so she wouldn’t slide around. Each time she gazed with peaceful amazement at the world till it was too much to comprehend, then slid into companionable sleep.
