The Hoosier Homestead Family: April 2014

Dear Meghan,

Well, if last month you revealed selfishness in my heart, this month - you revealed pride. When I thought of myself as a Mama, I assumed that I would be able to lovingly rock my sweet little baby to sleep and never have to let her cry. Instead, you showed me that you would prefer to fall asleep on your own, even if you have to do a few minutes of fussing to get there. It's not that you don't like cuddling with me, but you are independent. As much as I was sure I was going to be a great attachment-Mama (holding you, cuddling you, etc. most of the day) that is not the way you were created; that is not your personality and trying to make you that way was not meeting your needs. I had to give up my imaginings of how I would be in response to who you are. I was trying to change who God made you to be to fit my "perfect picture" of how I would be a Mama. I always thought that moms who worried about schedules and were insistent on naps being very structured and routine were overdoing it a bit - but, you have shown me that, at least for some babies (like you, my precious girl), those routine days and naps need to be protected. Ouch....more sin exposed for Mama. You are certainly doing your best to improve my character!

So...you showed us this month that you prefer to fall asleep on your own. We were bouncing you, tiptoeing to a more comfortable position with you, doing anything we could think of to help you sleep and stay asleep. But it wasn't working. So we decided to see what would happen if we put you in your swing (the only place you EVER really took naps independently at all) and let you cry for a little bit. In a few minutes, you were asleep - and you stayed that way until your middle of the night feeding. Within a few days you were a champ at going to sleep on your own - you may fuss a few minutes, but you settle off into sleep and wake up smiling. Your whole mood has changed - you were a super fussy baby just a few weeks ago and now we have a smiley, giggly little girl who is thoroughly engaged in learning about her world and enjoying it so much! Turns out, you needed a lot more sleep than you were getting and sleeping on your own was the way you needed to be sleeping.

You currently are sleeping in your swing. We swaddle your top half and buckle you in. You have loud white noise on that is supposed to sound like waves, but really just sounds like a non-tuned radio. You consistently fall asleep around 7:00 pm. At around 6:00 we go to your room, change your diaper, swaddle, read a book, take a bottle, and then I put you in your swing. I try to feed you a "dream feed" around 10:00 - right before I go to bed. You then get up once more (sometimes twice) around 1:00-2:30 for a quick 2 ounce feeding (you are super snuggly during this feed, which warms this Mama's heart!). One night, you slept from 7:00 straight through until 5:00 am. Since your normal wake-up time is 5:30 - I would say that was AMAZING - feel free to repeat that!!

When going down for a nap, we go to your room, swaddle you, turn out the light, shut the door, turn on the white noise, sing the "I Love You" song from Sounds Like Fun and How Deep the Father's Love for Us, and then I lay you in your swing with a kiss. You take 3-5 naps a day. They range from as short as 45 minutes to as long as 3 hours! You average 6-8 hours of naps per day.

You LOVE when your Daddy is home. You cannot take a bottle with him anymore or even take a bottle while he is in the same room - you just watch him and don't eat :) I love the way you love your Daddy. He loves you so much, too! When he gets home from work it's getting close to time for you to go to bed, so you guys don't get to see much of each other then - so we hang out as a family from the time you wake up around 5:30 to when you go down for your first nap around 6:30. That's a fun time - you are so alert and happy and ready to enjoy being with us.

You are starting to enjoy your baths now!! Those were something you hated at first - you now will kick and move your hands around in the bath, smiling at me all the while! . You don't like when we lift you out of the tub, but as soon as we wrap the warm, fuzzy towel around your little body, you are happy again. Your hair is still super soft and adorable right out of the bath - I love it. Speaking of hair, I started putting it in hairbows this month - SO CUTE! Your skin is super-sensitive (just like your Mama's) so we use an all natural, organic, fragrance free soap/shampoo on you and it seems to be working well.

Speaking of sensitive skin - you have eczema. You tried to find relief from the itching by rubbing your face on the fleece head support part of your swing - that ended up inflaming it even worse - the whole side of your face, your ear, and some of the area in your hair were red and pretty raw. We started using Aveeno's baby eczema lotion on you and it cleared you up very quickly. I also give you periodic coconut oil and oatmeal "masks" which help pack the moisture into your skin - that seems to help a lot. We have also covered the fleecy part of your swing with a muslin blanket.

You started wearing your cloth diapers this month - they are sooo cute on you! I love all of the fun prints and putting that soft fabric up against your sensitive little skin. You wear them on the shortest rise and usually with the crossover snap. When you wear disposable diapers you are still wearing size 1-2 from Costco.

You moved into size 6 month clothes this month. You are still wearing tees and most pants from 3 months still, but the onesies and sleepers were just pulling too much on your shoulders, little-miss-long-torso. You have some super darling little outfits (including shorts - they look long when on you, but they are so tiny when I fold them out of the wash!).

You are a pretty good eater. You take an average of 4-5 ounces per feeding and eat 20-30 ounces per day. You have started spitting up some this month, but more often you just let the last bit of milk you had run out the corner of your mouth - I would appreciate it if you would just do one more swallow after I take the bottle out of your mouth :) You do the cutest thing during your first feedings of the day, when I lift you up to put you on my shoulder to burp, you arch your back, stick your booty out, pull your hands to your head, and make a tired grunting noise. I love it! While you are burping you like to practice your head control - you are gaining a lot of control over that little head. You also make lots of different noises - it seems like you are trying to trick me into thinking that you have burped when you haven't :)

You thoroughly enjoy your playtime! You giggle, smile, talk, and laugh a lot! You still enjoy your "boyfan." You also enjoy other light fixtures, air vents, smoke detectors, and places where the colored walls meet the white ceiling. You could stare at and talk to them forever! You LOVE tummy time - while you don't really do anything while on your tummy, you love laying that way - I think it's your favorite position to lay down in. You have really taken to "reading" your black and white books. We have three of them - one is always set up in your pack-n-play for you to look at during waketime. You study those pictures with great intensity. Two of the books have a "story" and when we read those to you, you actually are looking at the pictures in the book we are reading! You have a small mirror that you also enjoy looking at - you have no idea that you are looking at yourself, but you like it all the same.

You have started exploring your hands with your mouth - it's mostly by accident that they end up there, but you will suck on your fist or any individual fingers that you can get into your mouth. Those hands also like to bat your bottle out of your mouth and somehow manage to find your ears (you often have little scratches right above your ears from accidentally snagging them).

When you are awake in the evening (you have a hard time napping after 3:30-4:00) you enjoy being in the Baby K-Tan carrier on a walk and chilling in your side-to-side swing. You will watch the part of the swing at the top moving back and forth for a long time - it cracks your Daddy and I up - you look like such a little engineer!

Baby girl, we love you! You are a wonderful gift and we are so happy to have you in our lives. Happy two months!

Love, Mama