2 month stats

We took Emily to her 2 month appointment today, and everything went great. She got her shots at this appointment, and thankfully Greg held her and asked me to leave the room. It was still so hard to hear her cry, but it was easier for me to hear it on the other side of the door than to be looking into her eyes. Greg said he had to fight back his own tears when he saw her turn red and cry with the first shot. She was hungry and due for a nap, so I nursed her right afterward in the room and that calmed her down and put her to sleep. We are not giving her pain relievers unless she gets a fever because the doctor's office said that studies have shown that Tylenol actually reduces the immunability of the vaccines. We stopped by Rite Aid to get some Children's Tylenol just in case we need it, but apparently Children's Tylenol has been recalled for some reason. We found another brand of acetaminophin for children, but it was really surprising that Tylenol could get recalled. I will have to look into that!

Emily is growing so well! Her 2 month stats are:

Weight: 10 lb 6 oz (45%)
Height: 22 1/2 (50%)
Head: 14 1/2 (10%)

Her height is the same % from her 1 month appt, but her weight has jumped from 15% to 45%! I guess she is a very average sized baby now. I think part of the jump in weight gain has been that she still nurses very often around the clock. We are not putting her on a 3 or 4 hour schedule, only doing demand feeding. And she demands it (:-) ) about every 2-3 hours during the day. We should *hopefully* see some longer stretches of sleep in other week or two when 1) she passes 6 weeks adjusted age and 2) gets closer to 11 lb. I read in "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" that when a child reaches 11 lb. they are metabolically capable of going 5-6 hour stretches without needing to eat. That doesn't mean she'll sleep that long without waking up and wanting to out of habit or comfort, but it does mean that if we can soothe her back to sleep without nursing for some of those then she actually can go that long and be fine.

Last night was proof of that starting to happen, I think! She was SUPER fussy from 5:30-8 last night. It was awful. We kept handing her back and forth, taking her on car rides, etc. But by 8:30 she gave it up and slept til 12:45. Then til 4:45. Then til 9:15!! The 9:15 part was the biggest surprise. We decided to have her sleep downstairs and alternate us sleeping on the couch next to her. It really helped to be next to her again to match the sounds we were hearing with her sleeping habits. We've had her in her own room for awhile now. Whenever she fussed she was still keeping her eyes closed for the most part and would go back to sleep on her own. She almost woke up at 6:30, but I rocked the rocker just a bit and shushed and she went back to sleep until 9:15. So we dropped an entire feeding! Maybe that can become a habit!!! It would give me time to sleep a little after putting her back to bed at 5 and then have time to shower and eat breakfast before she was up again. That would be so nice. I am SUPER thankful that Greg calmed her to sleep last night and let me go to sleep upstairs by myself without hearing Emily on a monitor or hearing Greg snore or having Buddy snuggle up next to me. I am an extremely light sleeper (even more so now that I'm a mom) so it takes a lot for me to fall asleep. I know I got a pretty good chunk of sleep last night. Praise the Lord! Just in time. Now I'm off to try and take a nap, or as my grandaddy would always say "just rest my eyes."