Gabriella : Two Months

Moving right along. Fast and furious.



Any resemblance yet?



Stats:
Weight - 9lbs, 6oz [20th percentile]
Height - 22 1/2 inches [50th percentile]
Head - 37 cm [20th percentile]


I'm not gonna lie. These past few weeks had their drastic ups and downs. The month started out with crying...lots and lots of crying. And fussiness. And a baby that wouldn't sleep, relax or lazily cuddle in your arms. It was frustrating and disheartening to hold Gabriella and feel like you were trying to contour a marble statue to your body. It seemed as if she wanted nothing to do with us and sadly there was little joy in holding her. The only solution seemed to be putting her down in the swing or on the play mat, but that only escalated the crying. And the biggest worry I had during my pregnancy came true this month as well. I remember wondering how on earth I'd manage Eli's bedtime routine AND meet the needs of a cluster feeding baby those nights Jim worked. And I was right. We've had our fair share of nights where I'd be getting Eli ready for bed and Gabriella would be in the other room screaming her head off. There were many moments I just wanted to lock myself in a closet and cry. I wished so much that I could be in two places at once. But of course, I'm one person and when Jim's not home, it's inevitable that there will be moments where one child will have to wait for me. The majority of the time it's Eli, but sometimes, sadly, it's Gabriella.



After a few weeks of total frustration on our end, I finally called our pediatrician on a Saturday morning and got a last minute appointment. My mother's intuition told me this wasn't just normal baby behavior and something was wrong with my Gabby. Whenever she cried she was as stiff as a board [you could literally just hold the tips of her fingers while she stood upright on your lap screaming away] and she was always clawing at her face or whatever else she could get her hand on. I figured it was either major tummy troubles or acid reflux. That morning I left the doctor's office with a prescription for Zantac and some hope that things were about to change. Within a day or so the medication seemed to be working. We also removed the bassinet from our room and had Gabriella sleeping upright in her bouncy seat. Things were definitely improving but if you've been reading my blog for the past few months, you know I now have some hesitancy towards traditional Western medicine's quick fixes. So, instead of just treating the symptoms and not fixing the problem, I took baby girl to see the chiropractor, something I have been meaning to do since she was born but never got around to it. A simple test showed she had some subluxations in her lower spine which, my chiropractor said, could have some bearing on her digestion tract. He performed some simple adjustments and I can honestly say it has worked wonders. I no longer give Gabriella the medication and we've gone from a discontent, uncomfortable baby to one who is mostly calm and sleeps A TON. Now, whenever she's a bit fussy, it's usually due to gas, a wet diaper or hunger. All things that easily can be fixed. Jim and I are much happier and a lot less tense. For a while there, I thought I was going to lose my mind and I so wished for a baby girl who wasn't in so much pain.



But enough of the sad stuff. This month also brought along Gabriella's first smile and just like Eli, when I first got glimpse of that gummy grin, my heart almost burst with excitement. Now she's able to give me that smile whenever I talk to her. It just melts my heart and I could stare at her all day long!



Some other good news? Let me prepare to run and hide after I tell all you other mamas this. I don't know how or why but Gabriella consistently sleeps 7 hours most nights. There are nights when she's up between 3 and 4 am but for the most part she sleeps anywhere from 9 at night until 5 the next morning. It's wonderful and awesome and yes, I know I'm spoiled rotten. But the thing is, I'm not naive and know this probably won't last. For one thing, Gabby is still in her bouncy seat next to our bed so right now she's all warm and cuddly swaddled up, wrapped in another fuzzy blanket and curled up in an upright position. I'm sure once she's back in the bassinet - something I keep putting off - or put in her crib for the first time, we'll be up all hours of the night. And we all know that infamous 4 month wakefulness we've yet to hit. So, while Gabriella might be sleeping through the night now, I know it won't last forever and I'm just enjoying it while I can!



At only two months old, I can already tell Gabriella has a lovey. My mom gave us this super soft pink blanket and it's pretty much the only blanket Gabriella can totally relax and fall asleep in. In fact, one random night this month, I was using another blanket since the pink one was in the wash and the little miss wouldn't stay asleep for me! After hours of getting up and nursing over and over again I finally came to the conclusion that it wasn't hunger, it was the stinkin' blanket. As soon as Jim came home that following morning I looked at him with exhaustion and said "let's never, ever go another night without that blanket!"



For the most part, nursing is still going well. I think I'll always be one of those moms who constantly questions her supply no matter what. At Gabriella's two month well baby check up, I confided in our pediatrician again about my fears of being an inadequate nursing mom and she gave me a long talk. Dr. H busted out the growth charts and showed me how well Gabriella is growing and said she was more than thrilled that Gabby gained almost two pounds in a month. She said I just need to relax a bit and have confidence that my body is doing just fine. To ease my fears though I have started up on Fenugreek again which seems to be doing the trick. Eating enough calories or drinking a ton of water seem to have no bearing on my milk output since Gabriella appears to guzzle the most milk on days I forget to keep up. For now I'm happy I can say we're still nursing and it's just a matter of taking it a day at a time.



The funny thing is, in the same breath that I'm questioning my supply, I'm also totally blown away at how much Gabriella has grown and changed! Seriously. She seems to have sprouted up over night and it's getting to the point where I'm missing the opportunity to get her in all those amazing [millions and millions] clothes. Just the other day I brought out an outfit I ordered from Old Navy which seemed "sooo big" to me not that long ago. And wouldn't you know...the legs were a tad too short of her. Hmpf! Lesson learned and now I'm trying to get every outfit on Gabriella at least once before she continues to grow like crazy.

On that same note, Gabby is also finally fitting into her Fuzzibunz cloth dipeys. I was getting tired of going through all those disposables these past two months, not to mention the fact that I felt like I was throwing away a ton of money when there were perfectly fine cloth diapers sitting in her room. But they leaked almost immediately no matter how tight I secured the legs and waist. A week ago I decided to give it a go again and the pee was finally contained. Thank goodness because I CANNOT imagine the amount of money it would take to have two children in disposable diapers. Since we still put Eli in a 'sposie at bedtime, I had to buy both him and Gabriella a stash from Target a few weeks ago and just couldn't fathom paying that amount of money over and over again.

I really can't believe my baby girl is already two months. These weeks have just flown by and while there are some difficult moments, I fall more and more in love with my little lady every single day!