Gabriella's 2 month update.

2 MONTHS

1 MONTH

here are her stats.
2 months + 1 week -  11lbs 6oz
1 month - 8lbs 7oz
day 8 - 6lbs 8oz
birth - 6lbs 10oz


sleep
we have seriously established a bedtime routine with gabriella.  i talk about it here in this post.  i'm happy to say that gabriella is a good sleeper at night.  her longest stretch of sleep is always after her bath (4 hrs, once even 5).  after that she usually wakes up every 3 hours.  throughout the day, she sleeps for about 2.5 to 3 hours at a time.  she sleeps in her pack n play by our bed and she naps just about anywhere...on our chest, her rock n play, her pack n play, or on our bed.  she has also decided she does not like to be swaddled anymore.  her arms are now free when she sleeps.

i'm ready for bed now!

food aka nursing
gabriella  eats a lot!  at around 7 weeks we introduced the bottle to her once a day, at night.  at that time, she took 3-3.5 oz easily.  she now downs 4 oz in a blink of an eye, sometimes twice in a 2 hour period.  because of her ferocious appetite, i freeze 4 oz bags now when i pump.  i consistently pump more or less 12 oz of milk a day on top of breast feeding her so i am more liberal on bottle feeding...which means more alone time for mommy!!!  unfortunately i tend to pump the most milk in the middle of the night.  so i pump when john feeds her at around 10 pm, then i pump after i breast feed her which ends up to be 3 am-ish.  after that i pump once or twice more in the morning after feeding her.  then, i don't pump again until 10 pm unless we give her a bottle in the afternoon.

temperament
gabriella continues to be a very good baby.  her most alert time of the day is in the morning.  we take advantage of this and do tummy time, play with her on her gym mat with her "animal friends", and play music for her.  the only time she gets fussy is in the evening when it's close to her bedtime routine.  other than that, she's a pretty mellow baby.  just thinking of how fussy gabriella gets close to bedtime makes me realize that john and i will have to be home early from now on to start her bedtime routine or at least be in a place where we can start it, like my in-laws house.  yikes...home by 8pm...the sacrifices we make as parents ;-)  if this isn't proof to illustrate who the new boss is at our house, then i don't know what is.  

milestones
the blank stares and non focused gazes are no more!  we have cooing and occasional smiles, although she has always smiled and giggled when she sleeps.  she tracks and turns her head when we move and talk to her.  she has pretty good head control, but we're still working on strengthening her legs.  she found her hands earlier this month and likes to suck on them...if we let her.  we can tell she wants to communicate with us.  i can't wait to see what she does next month.

mama update
overall i feel pretty good.  i'm still tired which makes me lazy, which means my workouts are nonexistent except for maybe 2 times this month.  i could be better with my diet, but when you're home all day in pajamas who really wants to eat healthy.  pass me the cookies and chips, lol.  despite the occasional indulgences, i've broke the 10lb hurdle!  i have 7lbs left to go to get back to my pre-baby weight.  i do need to tone and i would like to lose an extra 5lbs.

we are headed to san diego and los angeles tomorrow.  once i get back, i told myself that i need to start working out...or at least start doing planks and push ups.  when did you start working out post baby?

Oh, the faces of a 2 month old...

...at 1 in the morning!

gabriella has a bedtime routine.  it includes a breast feeding session with mommy, a bath, a bottle via daddy, and a song or 2 by daddy.  this alway puts her to sleep for a good 3-4 hours...once even 5!  by 8 or 9 pm, if we don't start this routine, ms. ella becomes ms. cranky pants.  no matter what we do, she just cries.  well, last night, after i breast fed her at 9 pm, she fell asleep until midnight.  we have a rule in our house: never wake a sleeping baby.  so, when she woke up at midnight, i dragged myself out of bed, prepared her bath while john undressed her.  we finished her bath and got her dressed for bed.  before john was about to give her her bottle, she was so alert and invigorated from her bath that i just had to take her picture.

this one is my favorite.

then, it's lights out and sweet dreams for our baby girl.

A late Happy Easter greeting from Ms. Sleepyhead.

HAPPY EASTER!!

And now for a quick cloth diaper tutorial.

since i've been using cloth diapers for 2 weeks, i wanted to share with you how i diaper ella.  i've discovered a few tricks along the way.

before i begin, i want to show you all my my stash of diapers.

i just love all the colors.  do you see the baby wash cloths on the side?  those are designated strictly as wipes.  after i am done cleaning gabriella, i wrap the wash cloths in the cloth diaper and toss it in my kissa pail liner.  when i have 1 or 2 diapers left, the whole bag including the bag itself gets thrown in the wash.  very easy.

let the tutorial begin.

before i place the diaper on gabriella, i pull the extra layers of the inside of the cloth diaper to the front.  that way gabriella isn't lying down on a big lump.

next, i place the diaper on her.  here, you can clearly see the extra length of the inserts are pulled to the front of the diaper.

then, i tuck the inserts inside to make a barrier before i snap the diaper in place.

once the diaper is snapped on, you have a perfectly cloth diapered baby.  a happy one at that!

oh, one more thing.  regular diaper creams are a big no-no when using cloth diapers.  so i switched to grovia, an all natural diaper stick.