Juliet is 2 months old! (5 week-10 week update)

Sooooo... I've been kind of quiet on the updates since Juliet was about 5 weeks old. It was kind of one of those 'if you don't have anything nice to blog, don't blog anything at all' sort of deals. After coming out of the gate as a great sleeper, Juliet sort of fell apart. And I sort of fell apart along with her. 

Y'all. I am a CRAZY person without sleep. I know this about myself. I spiral into anxiety and depression in no time at all. I had braced myself for total sleep deprivation for the first 8 weeks, but then joy of joys she was sleeping 6+ hour chunks at night from day 1. I thought we had lucked out with one of those unicorn babies who was just going to be calm and sweet and sleepy and make us want 3 more babies right away. She was even falling asleep on her own if I put her down drowsy. I felt like a Babywise master. 

But then at 5 weeks we hit a gauntlet of head colds, thrush, growth spurts, developmental leaps, and vaccinations that left her overtired and me bananas. Forest was a colicky/refluxy baby but at 8 weeks he was solidly sleeping through the night. So when 8 weeks came without this particular milestone I was feeling quite deflated. She's 10 weeks old now and has slept through the night! Woohoo! And not a wimpy little 8-9 hours like brother was doing at this age but straight up 7:30-7:30 without a peep. Now, 12 hours is her personal record and most nights she's giving more of an 8 hour stretch from 8 pm-4 am, but I. Will. Take. It. 

She was on a week long streak of 8-12 hours at night before having a totally wonky night again so I still have no idea how her nights will go but at least my confidence is restored that she can and might give me a decent night's sleep on any given day. Forest was hard but predictable. He fell into patterns early and even though some of them weren't great, I do well when I know what to expect. Juliet is a constant wild card. It's been hard figuring her out. 

And while the second time around, knowing everything is a phase makes things easier, at the same time it can trip me up. I had 8 weeks in my head as 'sleeping through the night' so when it coincided with 2 weeks of travel for Jonathan I thought I could manage. WRONG. It was brutal and I felt like Juliet was failing some impossible expectation I had set for her. 

I have 12 weeks in my head as 'takes one predictable nap in the morning' so I'm bracing myself that that may not be the case with this one. I was terrified that having a second baby would reveal to me how easy Forest was, and that I was just a total weenie. Juliet's temperament is fairly easy, but take away the colic and she and big brother were actually quite similar babies. 

She loves to quietly observe her surroundings, has FOMO and fights sleep to the death, and is super smiley and snuggly. Except for pictures. She will not smile for pictures yet! 

She's also less physically active than Forest. She was rolling over from tummy to back her first month but now that she's discovered she can stick her fist in her mouth she just lazily lays on her stomach sucking on her hand the whole time she's on her tummy. 

She's definitely not napping as much on the go, and a stroller  or car ride are not the ace in the hole that they used to be. 

Took her for a 45 minute walk and this was her face the entire time. 

I took her to the dr for her 2 month well check and she was awake and fussy the entire time (and this was before her shots!). She'll still nap in the car as long a she car is moving (which in Bangkok traffic is touch and go), but once the car stops she won't stay sleeping while we move her car seat to the snap n go stroller. We had such a short window where she'd accompany us to restaurants and appointments and she'd sleep the whole time! At least we had a window. Forest was born wide awake. 

Here are a few stats and milestones from her 2nd month:
Weight: 10 lbs 11oz (22nd percentile)
Height: 21.5 inches (10th percentile- I'm convinced this measurement was wrong since she's been proportionally tall since birth and is super long)
Head Circumference: 15th percentile
She started life around 3rd percentile in weight and head circumference so this is a big jump for her!. 

CHEEKS!!

Size: She's out of newborn and filling out her 0-3 month clothes perfectly. She's in size 1 Luvs diapers. 

Milestones: Not many this month! She met all the big milestones for this age in month 1. 
*Rolling onto her side.
*Recognizing familiar faces and smiling at them.
*Reaching and batting at toys (but not grasping them quite yet)
*Occasionally falling asleep independently in bed.
*First 12 hour night. 
*Small giggles.

Routine: I have already touched on how this is still crazy pants. We are generally trying to start the day around 7. On a great day she eats every 2.5-3 hours starting at 7, so eats at 7,10,1,4,7 and goes to bed at 7:30. Sometimes she sleeps until 6 am and we start the day a little early and try to get back on track later in the day. Sometimes she wakes to eat at 4/5 and I'll try to put her right back down and get up for the day at 7. 

She naps in between each feed. Sometimes naps are 20 minutes, sometimes they are 2.5 hours. I try not to let her go past 2.5 hours but sometimes I roll with it since she typically only does one big nap a day. When this will be is a grab bag but more often than not it's between the 10-1 feed. 

Likes: Momma, Nanu and Forest. It's sweet to see her face light up when she catches sight of us (unless its 3 AM...you never want to see a smiling, cooing baby at 3 AM). I can't wait for Jon to be back from his travels so she can start bonding with him a bit too. She likes her Skip hop activity mat, Jellycat Dino and Wee Art Cards. We've noticed she loves anything with a face on it. 

Dislikes: We've figured out how to give her a bath without any tears (she prefers to be showered with continual water, water vs being submerged), but she still screams when being taken out of the bath. Still hates tummy time. Doesn't like being swaddled but it's a necessary evil for now. Still doesn't love being in the carrier. 

Biggest Challenges: Nursing through thrush. When Juliet got thrush I kept wondering 'Do I have it? How will I know?' Trust me, if you have it, you know. It was very painful to nurse but even more painful for the hour following nursing. If we keep passing it back and forth to each other I'm not sure I'll continue nursing. 

Also, sleep deprivation of course. Like I said, by this time I could bank on Forest sleeping from 10-6 at night. Juliet has the capacity but it's not consistent yet. The past month has held some sleepless nights, and some stellar ones. I never know what the night will hold but feel like things are trending up! (Knock on every scrap of wood in Thailand). The hardest are the nights when she will not go back to sleep after a middle of the night feeding. She's had episodes of waking up at 4 am and just staying up. Unless she's in my arms. 

That's another challenge- baby girl has developed the habit of wanting to sleep in my arms and it's getting harder and harder to transfer her. Nights are a little easier but naps are sometimes impossible since she's sleeping more lightly in general. 

I took the Taking Cara Babies newborn class this past week and it gave me a bit more confidence to try putting her down drowsy but awake. So far baby girl has actually been doing really well with it. Praying that this continues! Today I actually was in and out of putting her down for a nap in less than 10 minutes! Such a change from 45+ minutes and dreading it 4 times a day. 

Biggest rewards: As Juliet 'wakes up' she becomes more engaging and playful. After eating, she'll usually give me an hour of just contentedly laying on a blanket and playing. Occasionally she gets fussy and needs a change of scenery but plopping her down in a different room seems to do the trick. In the very early days it felt very pressured to feed her and put her back down for a nap before she got overtired. Now she eats super fast (15 vs 40 minutes) and can stay up longer so we just have longer stretches of interaction and it feels more relaxed. It's no secret that I don't love babies, but I adore kids so having her engage more helps me to bond with her and look forward to the coming years of getting to know her more. 

Other observations: Juliet remains fairly calm and easy to soothe. Her hair appears to be turning red(?!?!) which is exciting and unexpected. It could still change, of course, but her eyebrows are especially ginger and her skin tone is creamy white like a red head too. Her eyes are turning bright blue just like her brother's. They are obviously siblings with very similar facial features.