Two Months Old!

Last week Zoey Kate had her two month birthday. . . and mommy had a stomach virus. Not the way I wanted to celebrate our babe's birthday or kickstart my post-baby weight loss (though I did manage to lose about 7 lbs!).  I was reminded of the Emily Blunt line from The Devil Wears Prada about being just one stomach flu away from her ideal weight. Well, I was more like three stomach flus away, so I'd rather just put in some extra time on the rowing machine. 

I know I always say this but, I really can't believe that just two months ago, we brought home our baby girl. Crazy! She had her two month check up last Wednesday, and I am certain I heard the word "perfect" come out of the pediatrician's mouth. 

Perfect in polka dots! 

Here are Baby Tuna's Month Two stats:

Weight: She was born at 8 lbs even, and is now up to 11 lbs even. 

Length: She was born at 20.5 inches and has grown a whole inch. That's 21.5 inches for those who are arithmetically challenged. According to the growth chart, Zoey is in the 15th percentile for height. That's not a typo. 15th. I'm still amazed that our kid, the offspring of two giants, is such a squirt. Although my mom often reminds me that I was pretty much the same size as Zoey when I was born. (Comparison photos coming soon to a future post!) 

Head: The babe's head has grown by two inches since birth. Up to 15 inches around. 

Loves: Music, though that's not a big surprise given who her momma is. We listen to all kinds of music all day long, but the Lullaby Radio station on Pandora is always a big hit for nap time, or calming down Baby Tuna when she has hit the peak of a screaming fit. 

A little post-bath fun

She has finally started enjoying her nightly bath, now that the Hubs and I have perfected the process. It's definitely a two man job. I think her favorite part is after, once her diaper is on, when she gets her lotion and massage, then is wrapped up in her flannel blanket to get warm. 

Hates: Still not a big fan of being in her car seat, which makes going anywhere ten tons of fun for me (and is partially why I rarely ever leave the house with her), or getting the hiccups, which she gets about five times a day. Those hiccups can derail a good time at the drop of a hat. She would also like to skip her next round of shots. I think I speak for Z when I say that they were zero fun, although the Hubs did a really great job of keeping her as calm as possible. I on the other hand, having a pathological fear of needles, became super interested in what was happening in the diaper bag when the sweet nurse gave Zoey the injections. Sounds like someone is in the running for Mommy of the Year!

Nicknames: Peanut, Boo Boo, Baby Tuna, Zo, Monkey, Fussy Butt.

Babbling along to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Milestones: So many smiles!! And a little bit of giggling and lots of babbling, too. Turns out, when she isn't screaming her face off, Baby Zoey is a pretty happy and chatty little monkey.

I think she's saying, "Isn't my Woobie cute?"

She's also clutching soft things like our shirts, blankets, and her Woobie (one of those snuggle buddies - a tiny blanket with an elephant head in the middle. Wow! That sounds more horrifying than snuggly, but it's cute, I swear!). 

Big sis Scout showing the bambino how it's done!

Always getting stronger holding herself up during tummy time and, like a little overachiever, she has rolled from her front to her back. The only problem there, now that she knows she can do it, she gets so pissed cranky when she can't. We aren't to the point where it happens all the time, but it has happened! 

Hobbies: Baby Tuna's hobbies include holding her head up like a boss, kicking her legs like an Olympic swimmer (watch out Missy Franklin!), and eluding sleep, no matter what time of day. 

There is so much sweetness in this one little pic!

Sleep: We've been trying, sort of, to get the babe on some sort of a nighttime routine and schedule, but we haven't been totally successful. She foils us at every turn. Her favorite scheme: refusing to go down for her late afternoon nap, acting grouchy for two hours, screaming out her over-tiredness for two more hours, then finally falling asleep after 8:00, sometimes 9:00. Exhausting for all of us! We finally started adding a half ounce to her bottles (I'm now pumping exclusively, but that's another blog post), and changed the times of day that we add gripe water to the bottles, and that seems to have made a little bit of difference. The jury is still out, but I'd say we are cautiously optimistic. 

Using a pacifier has also made a huge difference in taming the fussies during digestive troubles and helping the babe get to sleep. Initially, she wasn't interested and I had wanted to avoid using a binky because I didn't want her to be dependent on it. But you know what they say about desperate times, and it seems to soothe her, so why not? (If you have a list of reasons why not, please keep them to yourself. I'm already conflicted enough!) On the subject of pacifiers my thoughts are twofold: First, if I don't give her the binky, she's gonna suck on her thumb/finger/knuckle/wrist. When it stops being cute, it will be a million times easier to take away a binky than it will be to take away her hand, and will most likely NOT earn me a spot on the evening news. Second, this kid's gonna need braces anyway. Although we both have Colgate smiles now, Baby Tuna didn't exactly hit the orthodontic lottery with the Hubs and I. 

Mommy's Favorite Moment: I love love love that moment when she first wakes up. She is such a snugglepus, and she coos and babbles so sweetly. It lasts just a few minutes, but it kills me every time! 

Mommy's Least Favorite Moment: The hours of 5-8 pm around here are what we have dubbed "the Witching Hours." Some evenings run like clockwork: bottle, bath, book, and bed. Most evenings include all of those things... plus a buttload of screaming and crying. The kind that has no end. The kind that makes you want to beat your head against the wall. The kind that makes you wish the bottle part of the evening routine were a bottle of Jack Daniels. There has been less and less of that lately, but I still hate it when it happens. 

How Mommy's Doing: Well, now that I'm over the stomach bug, physically I'm doing pretty well. I lost all of the baby weight sometime around 6 weeks, plus a few pounds more, and hope to keep losing if I can get a workout routine started. What I need the most is toning up, especially in the middle. Yikes! I'm trying to get out and walk in the mornings and hoping to work my way back to running eventually, though I'm not sure how I will be able to wrangle the stroller and the dog while running. It's tricky enough while walking, and leaving Scout at home is not an option. The Hubs is also going to create some "sissy Crossfit" WODs for me to do with the rower and kettle bells, since I have zero interest in doing actual Crossfit.

In the last month, we've started seeing a little personality emerge. Here's a little photo dump that shows what a character we've got on our hands:

Baby Tuna had a huge toothless grin on her face just before I took this shot. Then she got distracted by the shiny apple on the back of my phone and all I could get was this face. Why so serious? And, of course, she's always in motion.   I must have taken a zillion shots with the chalkboard this month, and all but two looked like they were out of The Ring! 

Life These Days

Life around the Tuna house has changed a lot in the last seven weeks. . . obviously. And, as any new parent can tell you, life changes from one day to the next.  With a babe this young, schedules fly out the window, and don't even think of being on time to any appointment or attending any great social events (sorry we missed your beautiful wedding John and Catherine!), at least not for a couple more months. Any new parent who tells you differently is totally lying their faces off.

So what is life like when you have an almost two month old? Well, I can't speak for every family, but for us it's something like this: eat, sleep, play, scream, cry, rinse, and repeat. In between all of that, here's some of the other stuff that goes down each day:

The kid and I have our morning chit-chat while Daddy gets ready for work.

We go for a walk to help Mommy get her squishy butt back in shape. 

There is A LOT of reading going on each day. Zoey's favorites so far are Goodnight Moon, Olivia, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. There is so much reading up in this place, I'm getting sick of some of these books. . . time to hit Barnes and Noble! 

Tummy Time!! This pic was snapped just moments before Zoey rolled onto her back!!

We officially smile. . . on purpose!!  Could you just die from the cuteness?!?

Playtime, supervised by big sister Scout. There is NO funny business while she's in charge! 

And occasionally, there is a little nap time to give Mommy a break.

The Nursery

Here it is - FINALLY - a peek into Zoey Kate's nursery.

Of course, I had to do a chalkboard! :O) 

Yarn covered Z - DIY by me

(wrapped and lovingly rewrapped after Scout decided to gnaw on it . . . the hooker!)

Crib - Target

Blanket and Sheet - Pottery Barn Kids

Stuffed Elephant - Jellycat (Zoey's first stuffed animal, ordered when we found out we were having a girl)

Stuffed Thumper - gift from the folks that work with the Hubs

Curtains - DIY by my mom and me (fabric found here) 

We followed great curtain tutorials here and here.

Zoey letters - wooden letters from Michaels, painted by me

Basket (similar here) - Target

Animals in basket - from my childhood

Crib skirt - DIY (inspired by this PBK skirt)

Crib skirt - DIY (followed this tutorial)

Wall color - Behr Subtle Touch 

Elephant Prints - Trafalgar Square (Etsy)

Frames - Ikea

Dresser - Ikea          Dresser Knobs - Anthropologie        

Changing pad cover - Little Owls Nest (Etsy)

Elephant bank - PBK (a sweet gift from my MIL)         

Lamp - Land of Nod          Basket (similar here) - Target         

 Bookshelves - Ikea         Chair - PBK         Owl - Pier 1

Elephant - PBK (a sweet gift from my cousin and his fiancé)

Print - Made by me :0)

Frame - Ikea

Print - Raw Art Letterpress (Etsy)

Frame - Ikea

Bookshelf - Ikea

So that's it. Baby Tuna's nursery. There are still a couple of things that we need, like a small table for next to the chair and a cute ottoman or pouf. I am so close to finishing a super cute elephant mobile, but since she isn't sleeping in here just yet, I've put that project on hold. I'll be sure to share it with you guys once it's all finished. :0)

And what would a posting be without a pic of the little princess?

A leftover pic from Easter. Notice how she's almost smiling? It's gonna happen one of these days! 

Baby Tuna's First Easter

On Sunday, we celebrated Zoey's first Easter. It was pretty uneventful, given that she is just 6 weeks old. We decked her out in bunny jammies. . . 

. . .and the Easter Bunny even left her a little treat. 

Zoey is so impressed. 

We had a delicious lunch with the grandparents (minus the mimosas I've been craving for months thanks to my breastfeeding. Boo to that!!), and watched a little March Madness. Sadly, my Gators were outplayed by Michigan and we all watched in horror (I will never get this image out of my head) as the Louisville player's leg looked like it fell off. By the end of the day, the Hubs and the bambino were pretty worn out. 

We had a rough week in the Tuna house and I was super happy to see it come to a close. I suppose it began with the babe hitting the "fussy" stage at 5 weeks. Or as I like to call it, " Mommy's Hell." She's been having moments of colic level freak outs and we've been at our wits end. Enter gripe water and things got a little less sucky for her and for us (for now anyways). Just in time for the hot water heater to explode (ok that might be a slight exaggeration) and flood the kitchen and garage. The carpeted garage. Thank god we rent! 

If it hadn't been for my mom, who was visiting on her spring break, getting up to make dinner a little early, who knows how far all that water would have creeped. I had been in the kitchen maybe 20 minutes earlier and it was dry as a bone. The poor Hubs got a panicked phone call from me, and the madness continued. Long story short, the babe, the pooch and I had to "evacuate" to Melbourne Beach to crash at my mom's while the poor Hubs had to stay behind and deal with the clean up. 

After a day of complete and utter "Mommy's Hell", my mom and I managed to throw the Baby Tuna in the carseat and take her on her first shopping trip to Old Navy. This momma needed some new spring post-baby clothes in a big bad way. Seems I'm in that super awesome place where my maternity clothes have been packed away but I'm not quite ready for many of my old tops, thanks to a lingering baby pooch and giant milk boobs. Actually, if it were up to me, and money were no object, I'd love to get a whole new wardrobe. It's funny how crappy all your old favorites can seem after 9 months packed away in the garage.

I follow a few other mommy blogs. Gals with little ones a few months older than ours. And you are always given the impression that this baby-raising business is easy peasy. They never seem to mention the colic, the inconsolable crying jags (from the babe and mommy, too), the horrific gas bubbles that you can feel rumbling inside your sweet babe. Sure I could fill my blog with endless tales of tummy times and loving coos and gurgles. But the truth is that as I write this, our Zoey is crying and fussing, and can only be consoled by me, which is great for the mommy ego for about ten minutes. Then you realize what that really means. It means you are always handed a screaming babe. It means that you can never use the bathroom again. It means that your legs will never get shaved and your hair will go days between washings. It means that your amazing Hubs will most likely feel useless, even though he has done all of the cooking, cleaning, and laundry for the last 6 weeks, on top of working a full day. And if one more person tells you "Hang in there. It gets better", you will cut someone. Duh, it will get better. But right now you are in it and it sucks every ounce out of you. You are exhausted, and not just from the late night feelings. It's actually the days that wear you out the most. You find yourself with endless patience for your munchkin, but short tempered with everyone else. Our situation is far from unique, I just felt, for any new mommies or mommies-to-be who may be reading, it needed to be said. This shit is hard! 

Now, before you go thinking that I'm ready to return my kiddo to Babyland General and have Xavier Roberts send her out with the rest of the Cabbage Patch Kids, let me tell you that it isn't all colic and green poo. Zoey is changing and growing everyday, which is amazing to watch. She is holding her head up for longer and longer periods of time, making tummy time a lot more interesting, even if it only lasts about two minutes.

 And we are this close to getting her to smile on purpose.

Why can't she grin like this when she's awake?!?!

But lately, those moments are overshadowed by the endless crying and fussing, the gas and digestive problems, the sleeping for twenty minutes at a time, and our issues with breastfeeding (the details of which I will spare you all). No one thought this would be easy, but I did think I'd be able to get at least one hour of downtime while she slept peacefully in her crib/bouncer/pack n play/swing. Silly me.

Like I said, it was a rough week. But there were some great moments. So here is the proof!