My little princess

Mia is already two months (a week ago!) and it's time for me to record all the wonderful things we love about her, and maybe some things that hopefully she'll grow out of haha. I'm actually really grateful that I do these posts, because it's been neat for me to go back to Isaac's and read what he was like at her age, and also to remind myself of when he started doing certain things (like sleeping through the night!). With two it seems like it's harder to remember everything, so it's really important for me to commit these memories to paper, electronic or otherwise.

Mia is starting to get her hair back, dark and fuzzy. I can't wait until it evens out and isn't just random patches of short and long hair.

She weighs 9lbs13oz, as of Wednesday, and is 21.5 inches long (25th percentile for both).

She is getting the thigh rolls and has the cutest chubby cheeks.

She wears mostly newborn and 0-3 month tops, but still doesn't fit any pants bigger than newborn. I think they make the waist on 0-3 month pants excessively big because Isaac was the same way.

She loves having a bath and is super calm during it.

She loves having her diaper changed. At least one of the babies does.

She is very social and smiles and coos as soon as anyone talks to her.

She has a good set of lungs and can make my ears rings if she "squawks" loud enough.

She cat naps (20-40 mins) once or twice in the morning, takes a long (3-3.5 hours) afternoon nap around the same time as Isaac, and cat naps once or twice in the evening.

We're working on letting her self soothe so that she'll be able to fall asleep completely on her own in the next few months. She's fairly good at going back to sleep in the middle of the night or if she's napping in her swing (it's not rocking).

She usually sleeps 5-6 hours, eats, then goes back to sleep for 3-4. Sometimes she'll even go to sleep a third time for a couple hours. The thing that drives me crazy, is sometimes she eats tiny amounts at night and then is hungry two hours later. I can't wake her up to eat more because then she wants to be up for 1.5-2 hours if I do that. You woke me up at 3am to eat 1 oz? Not cool little girl.

She's still a snacker so it's always a little hard to predict how much and when she's going to want to eat. This is part of the night time problem. If I make her 2 oz, she wants more, if I make her 4 oz, she wants 2. I can never win. 

She takes a fair amount of abuse from her big brother, but is pretty good natured about it. She's often subject to Isaac playing "optometrist" with her. Why are kids so obsessed with eyes?!

All in all, Mia is a little ray of sunshine in our family. How can she not be when her whole face lights up with joy if you just smile and say "hi" to her?

Smiles all around:)

                  

After a walk

On her blessing day

 I love my little girl and am so blessed to be her mother.

16 months already

I'm only a week behind for this post, which is pretty impressive if I do say so myself! We're getting our act together around here, which means that I actually manage to have some me time once in a while. Even if it's just 15 or 30 minutes blogging. Mostly my "me" time is spent working out, and somehow I've managed to fit in 3 workouts a week for the past two weeks. In the next couple weeks I'd like to be up to five days a week but that all depends on how baby girl is sleeping at night. I don't mind getting up early to exercise but not if she was up 2 or 3 times to eat! My sleep is too precious.

Anyway...this post is about Isaac, not me.

This was the big adjustment period for him, learning that mama needs to take care of two babies, only one of which can feed himself, so sometimes she's not as hands free to lift him up to or pick up things he's dropped. The first two weeks after she was born we were with other family so Isaac always had someone to pay attention to him. When we were finally on our own again, it was rough. I couldn't leave him alone with her lest she be turned into a scratching post or kick ball. If he was mad at me, he would take it out on her. Then when he did want to start cuddling with her, she went from scratching post to squeeze toy. He likes to wrestle his stuffed animals so you can imagine how that went down...

Isaac started trying to help me with her by giving her a bottle (aka shove the bottle into her face and then smack her with it when she cries), giving her her soother when she fusses (aka pull it in and out of her mouth and finally take it for himself), and rocking her in the swing when she'd wake up (aka make her feel like she was on a crazy amusement park ride). He's also obsessed with lifting up her head, poking her eyes, and pulling on her hands and feet. If he hears her cry, he runs to our bedroom, points frantically at the door and looks at me like "mum hurry up!". He likes to steal her blankets, but also tuck her in. He likes to wipe her mouth after she's eaten. He likes to sit or lay with her when she's under the play mat. Today he even managed to rock her back to sleep in her swing without me standing over him. I love watching him in these moments, and imagine that one day he'll be that big brother that will do anything to protect his little sister.

Isaac has learned a ton of new words this month: Isaac, bubbles, no, down, please "puh puh", blue "boo", yellow "nenow", apple, amen, Mia, purple... to name a few. His favourite word is definitely "Mia". He'll walk around the house saying "Miamiamiamia". He also plays this game with me where he says "mama" and I say "Isaac" back, then he'll say "mamaaaaa" and I'll say "Isaaaaac", back and forth until he gets bored haha. He attempts most words that we try and get him to say. I've started teaching him letters and their sounds and he'll do sounds for "B", "D" and "P". It's so rewarding to watch him learn!

He loves the shower!

Isaac loves songs, especially "Old MacDonald". He does animal noises for cow "boo", horse "nah", sheep "baa", duck "ka ka", lion "raaah", and monkey "ah ah". I took the liberty to add a few animals to the farm as you can see. He also sings "ee i ee i oh" but it sounds more like "eya eya". He can do actions to Once There was a Snowman and Head Shoulders Knees and Toes. When he melts like the snowman, I'm pretty sure my heart melts too.

 

He loves being wrapped up in blankets!

He's also using a fork pretty proficiently, will fold his arms for prayer, and also does "ET phone home" where we both hold out our index fingers and touch. Grampy has taught him high fives, low fives, and skin and he's still Isaac's favourite person in the universe. The only way we could get him to sit still for family pictures was if he was sitting with grampy or if he could see him.

Thoroughly enjoying some chocolate mousse (he usually is really clean with his spoon!)

Isaac also got his first hair cut! Gordon has been pestering me to cut it for months, but I definitely waited until it reached mullet status before I caved. He was SO well behaved. I had images of him flailing and screaming and someone getting stabbed with scissors. Our friend Danielle Lang did a great job with him and made him look so grown up!

No more mullet!

 Slow down little man! You're growing too fast for mama.

Mia's first month!

Little miss Mia turned a month on Feb 22 and it seems like time flies exponentially faster the more babies you add to the equation. She's so different from Isaac so it's been a big adjustment for us, learning her habits, things she likes and doesn't. It's also been a big adjustment for Isaac but he's wanting more and more to help with her and cuddle with her, which doesn't always end up so nice for Mia.

I feel like my days are in fast forward, because I never ever stop going. Any time one baby is napping, I'm spending time with the other baby, when both are napping I'm getting my house and myself in order...maybe even eating! And when both are awake... well you can imagine. I'm slowly getting Mia into a routine now so we're all slowly returning to some semblance of normalcy around here.

The jump from one to two babies feels like when I went from one patient to two. You wonder how the heck you're going to get everything done and your brain feels like it's going a million miles an hour. I feel like I need a cheat sheet like I have at work where it says what I have to do for the day (diaper changes q4h, baths q 2-3 days + prn, stop Isaac from getting into trouble q5mins). PS "q" means "every" and "prn" means "as needed".

Mia was super laid back for the first two weeks, and now... well she knows mama's recovered so she's a little less laid back haha. We finally got her nights and days sorted out so it's been a lot easier for me energy wise. At least one night feeding she would want to stay awake for 1.5-2.5 hours after and it was exhausting. After one night where she was awake from 11pm-2am and I was ready to pull my hair out, I said enough is enough and I made sure she stayed awake after naps and feeds the next day . It was a surprisingly quick fix.

Ironically, the problem is now getting her to nap during the day. Part of the problem is her big brother always chooses the perfect moment to pull out pots and pans, scream or dump his tool box all over the floor, waking her up. I've started putting her to sleep with him around just so she gets used to the noise. I also try and put her down when she's still slightly awake so she learns to go to sleep on her own, which doesn't always work. Isaac likes to come in the room right when I put her down and scale the play pen, steal her blankets etc... He usually ends up having quiet time in his room for 5-10 minutes while I'm putting her down. So nap times can be a tedious. She's pretty good with self soothing at night, thankfully, because Gordon's snoring isn't exactly a lullaby.

Mia at one month

-weighs 7lbs14oz, 20.5 inches (25% percentile). Isaac shrank at his first appointment too...

-has been smiling since 3 weeks

-wakes up every 3-4 hours at night to eat

-is a snacker and likes to eat smaller amounts more frequently, which is sometimes exhausting. Isaac didn't mess around with food. He would just eat until he was full. I tried for several days to have her eat more at feedings, but it was even more exhausting. Eventually I just had to accept her way of eating and figure out a new system. We're much happier this way.
-skilled burper
-HATES hiccups
-loves the play mat just like Isaac
-usually has a pretty concerned look on her face. Grampy calls her "Captain Serious"

-I call her "bird" because her cries are more like "squawks". They have also been compared to a pterodactyl.

Mia also had her baby shower at the end of February and she was one spoiled girl. Thanks to Jassie and Marita for throwing it for her! We had so much fun :)



Mia has certainly changed our lives in the best way possible. We can't wait to watch her grow and see her personality emerge even more.