Dear Siena – 2 Months

Dear Siena,

I never want to forget how easy it is to make you smile. Sometimes I just tell you what I’m eating or what I’m doing and you are the happiest baby in the world. One day it won’t be so simple, so I remind myself to soak it all in. Speaking of smiles, this month you learned how! You started smiling around three weeks old (we marveled at how advanced you were of course) and a week or two later we really believed they were real smiles because you only would do it when you were engaging with us. Now you smile all the time and it makes me smile every single time. You bring us so much joy!

You really grew a lot this month! Not only physically, but mentally and even emotionally. Physically, you’re now out of pretty much all but one or two of your bigger newborn clothes and wearing all 0-3 month clothes (although Baby Gap brand is still a little big). Your head seemed to expand significantly this month and you are still SO long! You really don’t like tummy time. At first, you were ok with it but I think you wised up and realized as soon as I put you on your tummy that you’re going to be uncomfortable. But, we keep doing it because we know it’s good for you. We joke that you’re going to walk before you roll over because you love to push really hard against us with your strong legs and often push into a standing position on our laps.

Mentally there has been a big change. You no longer gaze around somewhat aimlessly, instead you really focus on things and take them all in. You really love to look at your mommy and daddy’s faces and you follow us around the room and even up the stairs! You love when we sing you songs and I started to read you books this month as well. Your favorite song is “Old McDonald Had a Farm” and your daddy likes to change it to “Baby Siena Had a Farm” and add in lots of non-farm animals like elephants. You pretty much love it either way. I put you on your play mat at least once a day. At first you would just gaze up and around but now you look intently at the hanging toys and even try to grab or swat at them! One time you actually did grab one of the rings and held on to it for long enough for me to take a video of you. Your life is certainly going to be well documented!

On the emotional side, we see quite a spectrum of emotion from you on a daily basis! But mostly, you’re happy. You really love your mommy and daddy and are now showing signs of separation anxiety when we leave your sight. It makes me happy that you love me as much as I love you! When you smile really big, you throw you head back to one side like you simply can’t contain your happiness. You make lots of little noises and grunts and we’re slowly figuring out what you mean by them, although I doubt we’ll ever really know! When you’re overstimulated or tired, you cry, but we can usually rock you until you calm down and then you’ll fall asleep soon after (your favorite is when we swing you in your car seat). 

You sleep pretty well. Around five weeks old, you started consistently sleeping for a five hour stretch for the first half of the night. Mommy put you on a loose feeding schedule starting at around five weeks and as time has gone on, she’s enforced it more, especially your first and last feedings (of course she always feeds you if you are acting very hungry before a scheduled feeding). Your first feeding is 7 a.m. and last is 8 p.m. and we put you to bed sometime around 9 p.m. every night. Mommy and Daddy also get in bed at this time because they really like sleep! Now you sleep 5-6.5 hours for the first stretch and sometimes even 4 more hours on the second stretch! Recently you’re starting to only need one feeding between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m.! You usually fall right asleep at 9 p.m. on your own but usually need help getting back to sleep in the middle of the night via some rocking and shushing by mom or dad. You still sleep in your bassinet and we can’t really imagine you in your own room yet. However, your getting pretty long and are almost too big for it!

I still take you to the lactation support group every Wednesday so you can hang out with your baby friends and get your weekly weigh in. You consistently gain 6-10 ounces a week, which is right on track. You had more visitors this month including a weekend stay with your Grandpa and Grandma Woyski. When your Grandma and Grandpa were here, your Dad and I had our first outing away from you – our friends Allison and Tim’s housewarming party. We were gone for about 2 1/2 hours and you just slept the entire time. We also left you with your Grandma Christy a few times during her four day visit so that your mommy could go for a run or go to a yoga class.

You do a pretty good job at outings and with visitors. Now that it’s just me and you at home all day, we try to get out for a walk every day and most days we meet up with a friend or run an errand – one outing a day is pretty much our max outside of the walk.Your dad and I take you out to lunch with us and this month we even took you to dinner with us a few times! Your mom and dad even hosted a Thanksgiving themed potluck party with over 20 guests for dinner and took you out all day on Thanksgiving day to see both your dad and mom’s families. You also slept through your first 5K race (er, walk) – the Encinitas Turkey Trot. And your dad refinished a table we bought on Craigs List. Who says you can’t have a life with a baby!?

One big development this month is that I’ve decided to take three more months off of work to spend more time with you! This time just seems so precious and it was hard to imagine putting you in day care so soon. I can’t wait to spend every day with you and watch you grow and learn!

Love,

Your Mommy