The Second Month

We're having so much fun watching Lucille learn and grow! She's already two months old and has changed so much in the past month. She is ten pounds now and her newborn clothes fit perfect, most of her 0-3 month clothes are a bit too big on her still. She is cooing/babbling and starting to explore the world around her. She's amazing!

First of all, I have to say, we feel amazingly blessed to have such a good baby! She sleeps through the night now... aka after a month we stopped setting timers in the middle of the night so she wouldn't go too long without a feeding. It feels so good to get a good night's rest. She'll usually sleep eight hours at night and then wakes up happy as a clam! Honestly, morning is my favorite time of day with her... she is all smiles the second I say, "Good morning, sunshine!". She also takes a morning nap which is usually about three hours long. So, on occasion I go back to bed too! Might as well enjoy it while it lasts, right? She probably won't do this forever!

Now that we're not worried about pesky jaundice or her being too sleepy to know when she should eat, I really just feed her on demand. That being said, she usually nurses every 2-4 hours during the day. She is a speedy nurser, as well, and will usually only nurse for 3-7 minutes (total!), which initially made me super paranoid that she wasn't eating enough, but she's a happy, healthy growing girl. She's in the 57th percentile for weight and 52nd percentile for height! So, I learned to just be grateful that she's an efficient nurser.

What does two month old Lucille enjoy?

Having "conversations" with Mommy and Daddy (and her pediatrician, evidently!)

Going on car rides

Hanging out on the changing table (preferably naked)

Being carried around in her sling

Playing with her activity gym (She'll bat and grab at the toys hanging from it for about 30 minutes now. She loves it!)

Being swaddled during night time

Last Day!

Today was Michael's last day in the Marine Corps.

He has officially completed his 5 years of service.

I'm proud of him. :)

I'm glad that we won't have to worry about deployments anymore. He'll always be here to watch our sweet baby grow up.

We're excited to be moving and for our new beginning. Today was a good day.

Happy Birthdays

I love celebrating birthdays. We celebrated two happy happy birthdays this week. One for Michael and one for America. :)

Happy Birthday Michael!

I surprised him with balloons and a card! He picked out his birthday present this year... a BioLite camp stove, pretty much the coolest camp stove ever. We had lunch at a little deli in the beach town that is just down the road from us. Best sandwiches ever. 

A little of his birthday celebrating spilled over to our 4th of July celebration. We were sneaky and stuck a candle in a cupcake and then sang the happy birthday song to him. :)

Happy Birthday America!

We had a little Forth of July gathering at our house this year. It was a lot of fun. (And a lot of work... my first time playing hostess and mommy at the same time! I survived with some help from friends!)

We had some good food. Farmer's market veggies. Fruit salad. Pasta salad. Corn on the cob. Cupcakes. Michael grilled up some burgers and hot dogs. Then we headed to base to watch the fireworks.

Baby girl slept through the fireworks. :)

This was my third and probably last year going to the fireworks show at Camp Lejeune. I was able to spend the fourth with my sweet friend and her little boy two years in row now. Check out how much little Mason has grown up! 

Love them! I'm sure going to miss them when we move away!

Lucille's First Bottle Ever!

We recently introduced Lucille to a bottle. I'm exculsively breastfeeding, so we don't really have a need for bottles right now, but according to our lacation consultant, if you EVER want to use bottles it is a good idea to introduce them to one around this time. So, just in case I can't be by Lucille's side sometime while I'm still nursing, I thought it would be a good idea. I was a bit worried that she wouldn't like it because she still dislikes pacifiers (she likes to suck on our pinky fingers).

This was also Michael's first time feeding Lucille. She was hungry and pretty confused about why I just handed her off to dad in this picture. Can you tell? Ha. At some point during our hospital stay, supplementing with formula was brought up to help with her Jaundice... but breastfeeding was going well and we didn't want to mess that up. So, she still hasn't had any formula and hopefully won't ever need any.

Once she realized that the bottle contained dinner, which took about half a second. She decided she liked it.

I'm using a Medela Harmony pump with the bottles that go with it. No complaints so far -- I'd definitely recommend the system to someone else. I really don't see the need for an expensive electric pump for someone who is just going to use it occasionally, like me. :)