Zoe's Second Month

I've been slacking on the blog. It's tough to keep up with two little ones and the holidays. This blog post is about a month old. I'll try to get her three month update on the blog much sooner.

Here is a recap of Zoe at two months:

Zoe's 2 month photo shoot

Zoe continues to grow like a weed. At her two month wellness visit, she was 11lb, 9oz (69th percentile), 22.8 inches (65th percentile), and had a 15.6" head circumference (70th percentile). She still nurses like a champ, taking large gulps and finishing up quickly. I don't mind taking a break from what I'm doing to feed her because she's usually done quickly. Burping her, on the other hand, takes forever. She continues to spit up a fair amount, has hiccups a lot, and takes a long time to burp. We have also started trying to give Zoe a bottle. We've probably tried 5-6 times with only 1-2 successes. I asked for advice on some mom Facebook pages and we tried having Colin feed her, tried various nipples, different bottles, and holding her in different positions. Nothing has really worked and she continues to act like she's choking when she tries to suck. When she's not screaming/crying, she just chews on the nipple. I hope she starts taking a bottle soon because I am stocking up on the milk storage. The Milkies Milk Savers got me about 100oz of breakstmilk in about 6 weeks. Now that I've started pumping and we are establishing a routine, I find that I am leaking less, so I am using the milk savers less often.

Our biggest obstacle continues to be her cradle cap and skin in general. When we remove the cradle cap, her head gets so flaky and dry and it somehow seems to make her face worse. The rash on her face has gotten better between one and two months, but is not yet completely clear. We voiced our concerns with Zoe's pediatrician, and were told the face rash looked a lot like the cradle cap and both looked inflamed. The pediatrician recommended 1% hydro cortisone all over her face and head, but I've been very hesitant to use a topical ointment often at such a young age. I try to clean up the cradle cap every few days and keep her face clean and dry.

Giving mommy a smirk

Zoe's eyes remain blue, though not quite so clear blue as they were. Her blonde eyelashes and eyebrows have darkened a bit over the past month, and her hair continues to be brown. She is very fair skinned and I still think she looks more like a Miller than a Clemente, but her filling in has made it difficult to figure out who she looks like.

At two months, Zoe is much more alert and looks towards sounds. She knows her mommy and has started giving us our first smiles and coos. Not only is she a big girl, she's also fairly solid. From the beginning, she's always been fairly easy to hold/handle and is already starting to hold her head up fairly well. We did notice a little bit of fussiness that peaked at 6 weeks, but for the most part, Zoe is a pleasant baby. She just doesn't sleep long stretches during the day and she continues to be a vocal child. At her two-month visit, the doctor gave her a clean bill of health and was pleased with her development.

Focused and alert as she looks at her mommy with her filling-in face

We continue our adventure with cloth diapering and were fairly successful during the second month. There were very few blowouts, and occasional leaks. I had purchased some second-hand all in one diapers, a few of which proved to have stretched elastics (they kept leaking). I found the cotton prefolds with Thirsties brand polyurethane (PUL) covers to work really well at keeping everything in the diaper. The only problem is that they are bulky. Between Rose and Zoe's diapers, I'm back to washing diapers every 2 days or so.

Several of the mom and pregnancy blogs continue to give me updates of the developments I should expect with my baby after she's born. Around 6-7 weeks, the blogs tell me I should start to see sleep patterns emerging and longer stretches of sleep at night. Ha! That's a good one. I do remember Rose taking really good morning naps (like 3 hours), and Zoe has also been sleeping fairly well in the morning - usually if she is in the carseat or if I am wearing her in a wrap.  I've been trying not to swaddle her during the day, to differentiate days from nights, so her constant jerky movements often wake her up. At night, she's been sleeping 3-4 hour stretches and very rarely do I get a 4-5 hour stretch. Since she nurses quickly, it isn't so bad. I do feel bad about putting her back down if she doesn't burp quickly. With Rose, I would nurse her on one side, change her diaper, and then nurse on the other side before putting her back. With Zoe, I nurse her on one side, try to burp her, and then put her back to sleep unless she poops during the feed. Zoe doesn't seem to mind and I feel much better having a shorter nursing session in the middle of the night.

Snoozing with mommy on the deck

The first six weeks flew by (in hindsight). A second baby is so different than the first. With Rose, I remember staying in pajamas all morning, having breakfast brought to me in the bedroom as I nursed Rose, and not really getting out much. With Zoe, I'm up every morning at 7am, dressed and having breakfast with Rose. Zoe often gets woken up by Rose, who wants to wish her a good morning, or "a morning" in Rose-speak. My mom helped with Zoe and Rose's care through Zoe's 5th week and then I had a week on my own before Rose went back to school and I started working from home part time.  We managed to get to story time 2-3 times that week and enjoyed walks to the park on nice days. 

The first two weeks I started working (weeks 7-8 of maternity leave), I had Rose in school 5 half-days weekly. Since Rose takes 2-3 hour naps in the afternoon, I figured I could get 2-3 hours of work done in the morning and 2-3 hours in the afternoons. I learned in those two weeks that I could really only count on 2 hours of work in the morning between Zoe's needs and drop off/pick up taking some time, and that 2-3 hours of work at a time was difficult to get anything accomplished in between handling a toddler. We decided to switch to 3 full days for the rest of my leave so I could focus more on work. 

I continue to be so grateful for having a job that allows me to have a work and life balance. While I love spending time with my girls, I really enjoy my work as well. At times it can be challenging to balance work with the girls, especially when Zoe gets hungry in the middle of a conference call, but for the most part, I can work uninterrupted for several long stretches and take breaks to feed or play with Zoe.

I haven't been able to exercise as much as I'd like. The weather this fall hasn't cooperated all that much, and when I have gone for a walk, Rose usually wants to walk too. Our walks then end up being short and slow. As a result, I haven't lost much more weight, but have managed to get into my more forgiving non-maternity jeans. I haven't tried going for a run yet, and expect that to be a challenge when I finally do. Breastfeeding so much makes me feel like I am constantly hunched over, and I really do need to work on my core and back. There just never seems to be enough time in the day for everything I want/need to do.

Stay tuned for Zoe's 3-month recap, Rose's 21-22 month recap, and our fall/winter photo shoot pictures!