I Can't Believe She's 2 Months Old!

We just got back from Penelope’s 2 month check-up and the doctors say she’s right on target! She weighs 13 lbs 7 oz and is 21 inches. I was really worried about her weight because everyone that sees her is always telling us how big she is for her age but the doctor said she was perfectly normal (this is my first child so I have no clue what's normal and what's not.)

She sleeps through the night almost always! Like seriously. I thought most babies at this age did but when we told the pediatrician he told us that we were really lucky. Score! She’s woken up in the middle of the night twice in the last month and that’s it. Her sleep times keep changing on us though. Originally she slept 11pm to 6:30am. She’d stay up till 8 and then go back to sleep until 10:30am. Then it moved to 1am to 8am, I’d feed her right away and she’d easily go back to sleep till 11am. And now she sleeps 11pm-12am to 10am-10:30am with no break what so ever. I don’t mind because I have a bad habit of staying up late and sleeping in so this works well for now. Eventually we’d like to get her to sleep from 8-9pm to 6-7am. I tried once to get her to sleep from that time but she just ended up waking up at 4am and wanted to play.

However, she doesn’t take too many naps in the day. She takes a half hour nap here and there maybe. That’s made it a lot harder to get things done around the house but with Jesse’s work schedule (7am to 3pm) I’m able to get things done once he comes home.

Her personality is really starting to show! Almost every morning she wakes up she gives these big stretches and then opens her eyes and smiles. I love it! One time recently we fell asleep in bed together and I woke up to find her staring at me. Within seconds she had the biggest grin on her face. It makes my heart melt!

She is starting to be a bit more patient. Lately I know when she’s awake because I’ll hear her yawn and see her move. After a few minutes I’ll look into the bassinet and she’s just calmly waiting. In the past she used to scream the moment she woke up looking for some food. Now I’ll pick her up, bring her in the living room and either sit her on my boppy while I make her formula or set her on the couch while I’m getting all the things I need to nurse her, and just patiently stares around until I’m ready.

It seems like Penelope is either really happy or really angry. When she’s happy she is so much fun to be around. She just smiles nonstop or talks to you for hours. But when she’s upset…it’s the loudest, saddest cries ever. She has a really impressive pout. On my side of the family we have this frown we call the “Allison pout” and she’s got it down pat! It is SO cute! I try to catch it on camera but it happens so fast it’s nearly impossible!

This is the best I've gotten. Sorry it's blurry!

Hickory Dickory Dock is her new favorite song. She still loves the Itsy Bitsy Spider too. And I am a Child of God almost always calms her down (though I’m pretty sure it’s only because it’s probably the song I sing most to her when I’m putting her to bed). She loves music! She is always flailing her arms, kicking, and cooing when I put on some tunes.

She likes to play peek-a-boo. She always starts off unsure but after a few minutes she loves to smile once she knows what you’re doing.

She hates it when we burp her over our shoulders. We think she associates that with sleep time and so she refuses to let me burp her like that now.

She still doesn’t like the binky. Remember when I told you guys that she was starting to take to it? Yeah, that was short lived. She just likes to play with it. One night Jesse was teasing her by getting the binky close to her mouth and then pulling it away. After a few minutes she thought it was the funniest thing. Once Jesse decided to give her the binky she held it in her mouth for like 2 seconds and kept trying to push it away. Jesse started playing the game with her and she was happy again.

Her hand-eye coordination is so good! She likes to find my fingers when I’m feeding her and wrap her hand around them. She also likes to put her hands on her bottle like she’s feeding herself. When we play with toys She reaches for them and can actually hit them.

She is her father’s daughter because she loves to watch football. I can have the TV on and it won’t faze her. But if football is on she is always staring at the TV. It is hilarious!

We are starting to teach her some basic sign language. Not that she’s picking it up or anything yet but now when she’s hungry I ask her and do the sign for hungry. I try to incorporate please and thank you when I speak to her so she can recognize those signs. And when we sing songs with counting I use the sign language way of counting. I also sing the ABC’s to her and sign at the same time. For the record, I do not know sign language (though that would be really awesome.) Sign language has been proven to help with brain development. Babies who learn some sign language often are able to have better communication skills in the future, it boosts their vocabulary, and improves the parent-child relationship. But for me, the biggest reason I’m choosing to sign is because it will help her communicate her needs to us better. For example: If she wants milk, she will sign milk. If she wants more of something she will sign “more” to me. Anyway, my sister-in law Chante’ is fluent in ASL and does it for a living so I know if I need to know what a sign is she can show me. My other sister-in law, Kristy, signed with her child and I’ve personally seen the benefits of doing it. I spend a lot of my free time now watching Signing Time (I totally recommend it! You can buy it here at: http://www.amazon.com/Signing-Time-Vol-First-Signs/dp/B00007JQL8) so I can start to memorize the basic signs.

I can’t even believe my little girl is 2 months old! It really hit me the other day while I was looking at her.  How in the world can she really be this old already? How in the world do I even have a child? I feel so old! Haha!

Love her smiles!!!

Anyway, sometime soon I’ll post pictures of our little love from her baby blessing and her time with my brother Dustin (who she adored!) while he stayed with us before he went to the MTC.