Two Month Check-Up

Well, Miss Mia had her two month check-up today. Our little Piglet is getting big! Mia now weighs 11 lbs 4 oz and is 23 inches long. She is in the 75th percentile for height and weight! The doctor seemed to question the amount we're feeding her, but I bumped it up only due to Mia's demand. I usually feed her 5 times a day and 4-5 ounces per feeding (unless we do a "dream feed", in which she'll only take about 2 ounces). I don't force her to eat, and I stop when she's full. It amazes me that I'm being questioned about it because in the beginning I was being questioned about feeding her too little! 

Mia got her two-month shots today also. She screamed when she got them and it broke my heart to hear her like that. I cried a little too. But as soon as they gave her the liquid vaccine (can't remember which one that was) she calmed down immediately. She must have liked the taste. She has slept a little more than usual today and we took a nap together in Mommy's bed this afternoon. But otherwise she's done fine. I put a small amount of pain reliever in her bottle to help any soreness or fever, so maybe that's made it easier on her.

Mia has been sleeping great! She almost always has a stretch of anywhere from 5-8 hours each night. She sleeps in her car seat in her bedroom. After she slept so well at Granny's in her car seat, and after I went in to check on her in her bed two times and found her laying in spit-up, I thought I'd try it out. The first night I tried it she slept 5 hours. Ever since then, she's done very well in there, always sleeping at least that long. I figure if she's sleeping 5-8 hours, she must be okay! I still lay her down in her crib for naps, and once she stops the random jerking motions with her hands when she sleeps, I'll put her in her crib at night also. At this point we have a system that's working and I don't see any need to mess with it!

Mike and I are now alternating nights with Mia since she only wakes up once between her "dream feed" and her "morning feed". She usually sleeps from 11 to 4 or 5, then wakes up for "the day" at about 7 or 7:30, so we're trying to get her to forgo the bottle at that first wakening. We give her the paci and usually she falls back to sleep. Sometimes she really is hungry and will wake back up, but other times she'll sleep until 7. And there have been two occasions when she hasn't woken up at all, but has slept the full 8 hours. I read that her stomach is now large enough to hold the food required to sleep that long, that's what prompted our experiment. So we'll see how it goes. It will be very nice to have her sleeping through the night once I go back to work.

Today Mia started trying to get her entire fist in her mouth. Up until now she's licked her thumbs and fingers a lot, but hasn't gone so far as to try to shove it all in. She was doing pretty well for her first attempts! She also started reaching for her feet today. She was very busy!

Some other news:

• Today was Daddy's first day of "Moda-ployment". Last Friday was his last day at First Res. We still haven't finalized the loan or the lease for the store so it's a little uneasy, but we expect them both to be done within the next week.  We'll keep you posted!
• Mom, Missy, Cara and I went to a scrapbooking workshop in Richmond over the weekend. It was a very relaxing time. I love to scrapbook and I finished an entire album of Mia's birth and hospital stay. It was nice to get away with Mom and Missy after saying good-bye to Grandma last week. We needed the time together. 
• While I was scrapbooking, Daddy and Mia spent the weekend together. On Saturday Mia stayed the night with Mamaw and Papaw while Daddy helped Matt move into his new apartment. Mia told me she had a wonderful time!
• Yesterday Mike and I took Mia to visit Matt's new apartment across from Cherokee Park. We ended up taking a 3.5 mile walk, and I carried Mia in the Bjorn for over 3 of those miles! Matt pushed the stroller in case I couldn't hang, but I only passed the carrier over to Mike at the very end. Great exercise!
• I don't think I can stress this enough, I am madly in love with my daughter. I just sit and watch her and think about all the fun we're going to have through the years. I love holding her, rocking her, laughing with her, playing with her...I'm in heaven just being her mom. I would do anything for that girl and every choice Mike and I make for her is out of love and research and thoughtful consideration. I have found myself getting defensive lately when someone questions the choices we make for her. Lately I've been questioned about the amount of food we feed her (some say too much, others act like we're starving her), where she's sleeping (some can't believe she's not in her crib, others think she should be in our room), what clothes she's wearing (she's either overdressed or going to catch a cold), what type of child care we're going to use (home care, nanny, daycare)...it goes on and on. I believe that most people have good intentions, but it's starting to wear on me. I just try to keep in mind that we're her parents and ultimately we know what's best for her.
• Amy R noted in her blog that she's never in any photos with RJ because she's always the photographer and I'm no different. I'll work on that. Also, thank you to Amy for the idea of the photo show!