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!