The Nobles: June 2014

Little girl is a growing girl and is already 2 months old! I'm not sure I would totally say "time flies when you are having fun," but I would definitely say "time flies when you have 2 kids!" Just kidding...mostly. It is hard to believe that she is already 9 weeks old, and that I sadly have to go back to work on Monday :( Here are some fun things about Miss Madelyn:

- 2 month check up she weighs 12lb 10oz (78%) and is 23 inches long (71%). At her 1 month check up she was 10lb 10oz and 22in (I think). I look at her and cannot believe that she has gained 5lbs and almost 5 inches already?! Just hard to see the changes since I am with her just about every second of the day.
- She is nursing 7 times a day, which has been consistent pretty much since she was a couple weeks old. She has taken a handful of bottles in practice for me returning to work (4-5oz), and does just fine with them.
- Naps are still a bit of a struggle, but I can say that this has seemed to greatly improved over the past couple of weeks. I think it was just hard for me to get a handle on her natural schedule the first 6 weeks with all the craziness...and hard to get a grasp on the idea of a newborn not sleeping ALL the time! For the most part she will take a decent (45-60min) nap in the am, a good 2ish hr nap after lunch, and then a couple super short catnaps late afternoon before bed. I've been starting to get her into a routine of going down for the night after her 7/7:30 feeding which puts her to sleep around 8 as long as she doesn't fight me too hard. I then wake her to eat before I head to bed between 10-11 and then she will usually sleep anywhere from 4-5:30am to eat, and then will go back down until 8ish which is amazing. She has certainly earned MAJOR points in the overnight sleeping department, and I am soooo thankful for that! Sounds like a ton of sleep when I look at it, but there are definitely days when she will only do catnaps all throughout the day, and days when she really fights to go to sleep. She seems to not want to miss anything! She'll often start to drift off, and then her little eyes will pop open like she's afraid to close them in case something exciting happens.
- Speaking of her not wanting to miss anything, she is sooooo alert! Pretty much every new person she meets comments on that within the first few minutes. Within her first week of life, she was making good eye contact and tracking us. She is aware of all the hanging friends on the play mat, above the swing and in her bouncy and really focuses in on them. And, I've noticed she really seems to know when she is in a new place. This past weekend at Jonah's bday party, I took her upstairs to eat and she was in awe looking around at everything in his room before she would concentrate on eating.
- Since about 1 month old, she has been smiling and cooing a bit at people, and just this week she's starting talking to toys as well. She smiles at friendly new faces a lot too. Her best smiles come in the mornings on the changing table, and when Andrew sings Twinkle Twinkle to her. She seems to be close to giggling, which I can't wait for :)
- She has really good head control and enjoys tummy time. Most of the time, she'll just relax on the mat and contently chew on her fist.
- Big brother has been doing very well with her too! He's held her a few times, and a couple of those times he was the one to bring it up. He's still not too big into kisses for her, but he will give her lots of pats. And, he likes to hold her hand when she cries to make her feel better. One day I was upstairs for a minute when she started to cry in the swing, and as I was coming down the stairs, Jack made his way over to her and held her hand :) That was my favorite because he didn't see me and did it completely on his own. Sweet boy.

Month 1 pictures: