Kate turned two months old yesterday. I get all teary-eyed every Saturday when Kate turns another week older, so you can imagine how I’m doing with her turning another month older. Earlier this week I dressed her in my favorite outfit–this adorable pink and white striped knit one-piece with a hood (you can see it in the video below)–and realized that it’s now too short for her and we needed to retire it.
Cue the waterworks.
But instead of focusing on the sad fact that our baby girl is growing up way too fast, let’s celebrate some of the more enjoyable aspects of one more month of growing and learning, starting with a look back at everything Kate learned and did at one month old.
To commemorate Kate’s monthly milestones I’ll be taking pictures of her in an adorable personalized embroidered shirt from The Cotton Cupcake Shoppe each month. They are just perfect, and something I plan to hang on to as a keepsake for our little girl. Here she is in her very first one!
Kate now loves laying on her changing table to get her diaper changed. This is a HUGE turnaround from when we first brought her home. If you had told me during those first few weeks that before long the changing table would be one of her most favorite places I would have laughed in your face. At that time all she did was scream whenever she was up there. But now? She loves it so much that sometimes when she’s fussy I lay her there just to cheer her up even when she doesn’t need her diaper changed! I don’t know what it is, but she just gets such a kick out of being up there. Here’s a video of her enjoying her Pack N Play changing table at 6 weeks old if you’re interested in the proof!
Kate continues to love her hands and will now happily suck on her fists or fingers whenever she has the good fortune of discovering them by her mouth. She’s been an alert little girl from day one, but she is so much more animated now and has the greatest facial expressions–she’s so entertaining to watch! I also love watching her little sleepy baby stretches when she wakes up from a nap. It’s the cutest thing! (Here’s a video of her “stretching it out” at 6 weeks old.) And the milestone that has been the most fun for us over this past month is hearing all sorts of little coos and laughs out of her, as well as LOTS more smiles–she is such a happy little girl!
Kate is still on a 3 hour eat/activity/sleep cycle during the day, but she’s starting to stretch things out at night which is nice. We haven’t really had any consistent patterns to her nighttime yet, but one night when she was 5 weeks old she slept for 7½ HOURS straight. I couldn’t believe it! This would have been the perfect opportunity for me to catch up on some sleep too, except that I spent the last 4½ hours of it sitting next to her bassinet, staring at her and waiting for her to wake up! Prior to that the longest she had slept was 3½ hours, and this was by far the longest she’d ever gone between feedings. I just kept thinking, “She has GOT to be starving!” Finally I just woke her up. I couldn’t take it anymore and there was no way I was going to be able to sleep until I knew she had some food in that little belly of hers! I think my punishment for waking a sleeping baby is that we’re not going to see another 7½ hour sleep out of her until she’s in her twenties.
Her “activity time” activities continue to include playing on her activity mat, and now she also loves looking at simple black and white patterns like stripes and polka dots. I bought her this Sassy Look Book photo album and she loves sitting on our laps and starting at the different black and white designs on each page. I like that eventually–when she starts enjoying looking at pictures of people–we can replace the black and white graphics with 4″x6″ photos and she’ll have her own little photo album! Over this past week the weather has finally gotten warm enough that we can take Kate on walks (all bundled up, of course) so I try to do that for her afternoon activity. She really seems to enjoy both being outside and riding in her stroller. We also introduced a little baby rattle for activity time when she was 7 weeks old, but it might’ve been a little soon. She doesn’t quite know what to do with it when we put it in her grip, and she’ll often drop it just a few seconds later, so that might be more of a 2-month-old activity.
My recovery from my c-section has been slow going. I’ve been in pretty significant pain over these past two months, which is probably my payback for having the world’s easiest pregnancy. I was a full 6 weeks post-partum before I wasn’t constantly aware of pain in my abdomen or at my incision site, and I was 7 weeks post-partum before I could comfortably wear anything other than cotton stretch pants, or have a seatbelt across my lap without wincing. I’m happy to say, however, that once I hit the 7 week mark I’ve been feeling a lot more like myself and every day has been getting much much better. I started working out again which I think is helping, starting with light workouts on the elliptical. At exactly 8 weeks post-partum I went for my first run since early October when I was 27 weeks pregnant! It was so great to be back out there. I had only planned on doing 2 miles, but I felt so good that I ended up doing three. My pace was incredibly slow (just under 11 minutes/mile) but right now I’m just going to focus on getting my body used to running again and getting back into the routine of it. I’ll focus on my pace later. While physically things have been rough, emotionally I continue to feel so incredibly blessed and happy every single day. I feel like I’m on “baby drugs,” and I hope they never wear off!
So that’s our Month 2 wrap-up! Please join me in hoping that Month 3 goes much much slower!
Additional Kate 1 Month Posts:
Watch It Monkey
Things I’m Working Really Hard At
Things Loved In February
She is so adorable and I love that striped outfit and the kicking feet! I’m glad to hear your feel more back to normal.
What a wonderful tribute to your daughter, and she’s just beautiful in that little onesie!
Enjoy the ride, because I would love to say it slows down, but it just doesn’t. THe good news is that everyday you discover something more to love about them (if you can believe that’s even possible!).
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO………….she is just way too adorable. You are incredibly lucky to have such a beautiful, wonderful daughter.
Precious, just precious. I wish I did more of this when mine was a baby.
She is too cute!!! I’m sorry to say, life now is going to go faster than ever before. I’m celebrating my daughter’s 1st birthday in two weeks and I can’t believe time has flown so fast. Enjoy your mommyhood.
Sabrina
Darling! I love those monthly onesies!
First of all, I’m so impressed you’re back out there running. Good for you! It has to feel good to get out there and do it and spring is definitely the best running season.
It’s always amazing to me how quickly babies change. Just looking back at their first days pictures to a few months ahead and you can really note the changes in their features. Wow!
Love the onesie by the way – too adorable!
They grow so fast! My daughter is already 18 months old and it’s amazing how quickly it’s gone by.
What a beautiful baby! I absolutely love the stretching video – I actually laughed outloud in my office. I’ve never seen a baby relish stretching so much and for so long!
Thanks for sharing this journey with us. It’s been lovely to follow.
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Happy 2 month birthday sweet Kate!!! D, I’m so glad to read that you are starting to feel more like yourself. And that feeling will only continue. Blessings to you!!!
-Amber
They really do grow so quickly – I love the video, her smile is heart melting and that outfit is really cute!
I’m glad you’re feeling better too – congrats for starting to run again. Three miles is an amazing “start” – I hope you keep improving and she keeps blessing you with how wonderful she is!
Enjoy every minute!! I’m so happy for you.
Can’t believe you could just run 3 miles that easily. Wow! I ran a marathon once and I dont’ think I could run a mile right now. (smirk)
C-sections are a bitch. I had 2 of them. I think the second one is easier to recover from in case you were worried about that!
What a precious girl! Glad your recovery is going well. I too, had a C-section, and I felt like I would never be able to have a seat belt on ever again!
Everytime I see one of these “Kate X Months Old” posts, I shake my head head and think, “Not already!” She’s adorable D! Thanks for sharing the videos with us. What kind of camera are you using?
She’s adorable! Your Kate updates are starting to make me want to have another!
I love the cute, personalized Onsies. I know you want to keep them for her, but I was thinking, 12 onsies would be enough material to ake a nice blanket for her. 12 squares with her month, 12 more with the solid color from the back of the onsie. stitch them together and that qoul be a very cute snuggle blanket for her.
She’s such a cutie! I can’t believe it’s been two months. It seems like you just had her!
She is sooo cute and that onesie is the best. The 3 hour sleep/eat/wake worked really well for us too!
Everytime i see pictures and videos of Kate, i feel like having a baby girl! Kate’s growing up so fast!
I LOVE watching babies stretch- it looks so satisfying!
LB
She is so adorable. Her little kicking legs and her big stretches…just precious.
She is so adorable. She’s gonna be a heartbreaker I can feel it!!! Enjoy your time with!!
http://senseofstyleiseternal.blogspot.com
What a lovely recap. Congrats on 2 months, running, feeling better, and on being such a good mommy.
jbhat
She is SOOOOOOO beautiful!! I can’t imagine the range of emotions that you are going through seeing your baby grow up and healing all at the same time but I know that you are the absolute best mommy for Kate. Love you.
Thanks everyone!
@sabrina’s spot–Happy birthday to your daugther! I hope it’s a fun one!
@Kimberly–You hit the nail on the head with the word “relish”! This little girl just cannot get enough of stretching, lol!
@Chicago Mom–Thanks for letting me know that the second C-section will be easier. I know it seems early, but you’re right–that’s something I’ve already been worried about. I appreciate the insight!
@Amber–I’m just using the video feature on my Sony Cybershot point & shoot digital camera. G has a video camera, but I haven’t figured out how to use it yet and I always have my photo camera handy so that works well for me.
@Diana–Someone else mentioned that last month. I really like that idea and may have to do it!
@Melissa–Oh, you are just the sweetest! Thank you!