Months Two and Three

Month two and three flew by and we didn't even notice! We were too busy dealing with a fussy infant who only wants to sleep. Even when she is hungry. So she keeps whining in her sleep but if we wake her up to feed her, she raises hell!! And I told you before - she can scream like no one's business :D A LOT happened in these two months and I didn't get a chance to write this long-overdue post for various reasons. So, I am combining the two updates in one post. Hope this doesn't become a trend in my blogging habits.

We were paid a visit by the Cradle Cap fairy too. Had the two month visit to the doctor's office and she got her first shots then. Boy, was she pissed!! THREE DAYS - thats how long it took the Royal Highness Baby M to calm down and be her regular self again :P

We also took Baby M to the temple for the first time. Sorry, no pics. We forgot to take the camera along. But I do have other pictures to share. Baby M also visisted a friend's home for the first time. This was her first long-distance trip. We managed fairly well, the baby and I with all the nursing-feeding-pumping routine even though it was a little tough.

Things were fairly quiet in the second month but when we crossed the two-month mark and stepped into the third month- that's when things began heating up. Mainly because momma had the eventuality of going back to work hanging over her head. The time just flew by and momma got lazier by the day!

Maternal grandparents arrived on August 14th. things got more hectic but also more fun because now there were more people to share Baby M's antics with. Sometime this month we were blessed with that first smile. And Baby M discovered something just a few days ago - that she can use her leg - YES, LEG!!! - to kick the rattles hanging off the arm of her rocker. She smiled a little smile, kicked the rattles very tentatively at first, then a little more deliberately and then forgot about it! She hasn't repeated that ever since. I am glad I caught that the first time. She also discovered her hands - briefly. Just brought her fists close to her eyes, examined them for a few moments and then moved on to kicking her legs like that never happened. I had told S big stories about how, when M discovers her hands she will keep squinting at them for minutes at end again and again. Nothing of that sort happened. This girl just discovers things, takes a brief interest in them and when she has determined it is something "normal", she moves on.

She has started sucking on her fist, yes the entire fist, in this past month. No matter how many times we try to pry it out of her mouth, it is back in there as soon as our back is turned! The hungrier she is, or the more upset she gets, the harder she sucks. Then there are days when she doesn't put even a finger in her mouth. Maybe she is going to cut her first tooth soon? S cut her first tooth when she was 10 months old and I was hoping same would be the case with M becasue by then S' eating habits were pretty well-developed and we didn't go through the hunger-strike phase during the teething process. We'll see how it goes this time.

This month M caught the first infection. My! What a crappy milestone to reach!! Thankfully it wasn't that bad. She had a bad cough and was spitting up thick mucus. That too, on my first day back at work (September 4th)! There is this Universal Rule it seems - no mom can go back to work without something going wrong during the first 2 days. Even if the past three months have been pretty uneventful. We started M on homeopathy medicine immediately and within hours her temperature was down to 98.7 (from 100), coughing had reduced a lot and she wasn't spitting up mucus anymore. By the time I took her to the pediatrician's the next morning, she was a lot better. She is a lot better now, getting her appetite and her strength back. And she can scream again! For the past couple of days, when she cried, it was just a tired wail and I had started to miss her screaming! Now we are back in business :D

At the pediatrician's office, when the nurse came in to check her weight and to take the details about her condition, M kept flashing the nurse a BIG smile every few seconds. I have never seen her smile so much at us! In fact she NEVER (well, almost never) smiles at me or J. I think she figures we are stuck taking care of her anyways and she needs to smile only at those people who might come in useful someday :P Like the nurse - when it is time for the next shots. Maybe if M smiles at her enough, the nurse will jab the needle in mommy instead of M?? Hmmm....

She has begun liking her rides in the baby carrier now. J goes around with M in the baby carrier and she sits there, royally watching over the rest of us. When she was sick, she even took a nap in it when she had been very restless throughout the day and hadn't slept at all. We bought a sling for her first but she didn't like it from the beginning. I have carried her in it a total of one time when I put her in it, rocked her to sleep and went for a walk. As soon as she woke up, she screamed her head off to be let out of that prison! The sling lies in a corner now. Maybe I'll give it another try a little while later. Then we bought this and she seems to be happy with it.

Almost at the end of month three, I had a case of Mastitis. Talk about irony! Here I am, pumping like crazy to squeeze whatever amount of milk I can and I get clogged ducts! The lactation expert said it seems like my body was making more milk than I realized. Hmmmm, really?? 'Coz I didn't see it. Not even when I pumped and then hand-expressed that 1.25 ounces of milk from BOTH breasts. And expressing by hand gave me tendonitis in the right hand (that is what the pain my wrist was - just figured it out :D) It was so bad that I couldn't even bring my fingers and thumb together to eat food. Believe me, I have a new-found respect for the opposable thumb. And I am sure glad our ancestors developed them! Because I just found out how tough things are when you done't have one :P

S is enjoying her big-sister role more and more. Specially now because M has started responding to S' baby talk with smiles and coos. Yes, that is another little development. She coos. And when she sees a prospective "baby-carrier" she starts flailing her arms and legs in a frenzy as if asking to be picked up!

So, now I am back to work, and S is back to school. J's life is less crazy than before - just a "leetal" :D With the crazy woman that he has for a wife, it couldn't be completely normal, could it?

NOTE: I might add to this post if I remember something that I have left out of the updates. I am sure I forgot something.