… Claire can’t be two months old already! I will admit – sheepishly – that yes, when we were first home with her and I was getting used to being woken up several times in the night that part of me looked toward that supposed magical age of 3 months when many babies start sleeping for longer stretches and they’re not crying so much. And that magical age felt like a very long way off. I felt a little bad about it because I shouldn’t be rushing my child’s life, right? Everyone tells you to cherish these moments – and I was, really, but I also felt like I would cherish moments more if I wasn’t so zombie-like. The guilt was minimized, however, by the realization that many other mommies do the same thing.
And yet, here we are and Claire is already two months – actually, she’s almost two months and one week! Seriously – where has the time gone?
She’s not sleeping through the night yet, of course, but most nights she will be content for a 5-hour stretch when we all first go to bed. After that, it might be 2 or three hours, but honestly, those first five hours (which generally translate into about 4 of actual sleep time for me by the time I get her settled and happy in her crib and I get under the covers and drift off) are a godsend. She’s also usually pretty easy to get back to sleep after, so that’s a huge plus. It means that I don’t find I need to have a nap in the middle of the day quite as much, which is good because Claire doesn’t always want to nap a whole lot or for any extended period of time during the day.
What is also really nice is that, once I got past 6 weeks postpartum, I was finally allowed to lift heavier items like the stroller, which meant that I could finally go out with Claire in the middle of the afternoon. We could both get some fresh air, she could nap a little bit, and I could get some exercise. Which I realized I need more of, after going to Zellers to pick up some postpartum summer clothes that would actually fit without giving me a “muffin top” – that was a very depressing shopping trip. But at least I have some stuff that fits!
The weather has also started to improve, making those aforementioned walks possible. That was one hell of a lot of rain we were having; I know I live in the Maritimes, but still: that was a tad ridiculous!
Yesterday was one of those really gorgeous days where it was hot and sunny, a day that just begged to be enjoyed. I packed Claire up in her stroller and we headed out to walk by Cranberry Lake, which is wonderfully close to my house.
Claire absolutely despises having anything on her head, so it's a miracle that she kept this bonnet on for most of the walk
I’m also hoping to do more activities with Claire outside the house that will get us to meet other moms and babies in the area. On Monday, we went with Amy and Ava to an activity called “Get Messy with Baby” that was held – for free! – at the community centre in the north end of Dartmouth. It was open to moms with babies from birth to 18 months. They had different types of mashed up food with different food colourings and the idea was to let your baby play with the different textures. Claire wasn’t overly impressed by that – I think she might have been a little too young and she just wondered why I was sticking her feet into mashed potatoes and the like. I cleaned her up and then we tried some of the painting. I was much more successful in getting a couple of footprints; when I put the paint on her hand, she just clenched it into a fist.
The left foot and right foot are pretty obvious. That blob over on the far left was my attempt to get a handprint.
***
Because Claire is now two months old, she had her check-up today. Which means she also had her needles. She was checked over and the doctor said that she looks great (well, of course she does!). She does have a bit of baby acne, but hopefully that’ll clear up on its own soon, and a little bit of eczema on her ear which I’m treating with some petroleum jelly on the earlobe. She weighs 11 lbs, 3 ounces and is measuring at 23.5 inches in length, which means that she’s pretty long!
The needles were not fun, of course, but Claire did really well. She cried, obviously, but we were able to settle her down pretty easily. I had given her the lowest dose of baby Tylenol before we left the house to help her out a bit and counter a fever, and so far, it seems to have done the trick, as her temperature is still normal, as of about 20 minutes ago. She’s sleeping A LOT, but the doctor said that that’s often the case. I may try to entice her with a little bit of formula soon to see if she’s hungry but too sleepy to realize it. We also opted to take part of a cost-effectiveness study and she was given the first dose of the rotavirus vaccine (the study is an attempt to show the government that they should cover the cost of this vaccine; because we’re part of the study, we don’t have to pay for it which I guess is a good thing since the doctor said it’s otherwise quite pricey), but that’s oral so it was not a big deal. She goes again in 4 weeks to get the second one and then she’ll be done with that.
All in all, she’s doing really well, Neal and I are doing really well.
