Lily's Pad: 2 Months

Dear Eleanor and Violet,

2 months already?! This first year is already flying by! This past month has been a big one for you both!

The most exciting thing from this month is you both learned to smile! Violet first smiled on January 20th at 5 weeks. Eleanor followed a week later on January 27th, at 6 weeks old. They both are just beautiful! We've noticed different things make each of you smile. Violet, you are very free with your smiles. All we have to do is smile at you, and you shine them our way! Ella, you make us work harder. You grace us with a smile sometimes when we walk our fingers up your legs say "do do do do". The one thing that always makes you smile when you're in a good mood is when you know you are about to eat. You shine us an eager grin right before eating! I guess you really love your milk! I look forward to all the smiles we'll see in the next month, and hopefully hear some laughs!

The other huge thing that happened this month was Violet rolling over 2 days ago on Valentine's day morning! We were so shocked! Daddy was right there watching you both having tummy time, and he says Violet suddenly rolled from tummy to back! Apparently you shocked yourself Violet! I still haven't seen it yet...but I keeping a very watchful eye at all of you tummy times from now on!

You both are doing terrific at holding your heads up too. Eleanor, your neck strength is really great! You can hold you head very steady now when upright, with very little bobbling. You're also using your arms now to push up while doing tummy time! It's amazing how strong you've gotten in such a short time! Violet, I noticed you using your arms to push up during tummy time today! I was surprised to see that! You both are doing a great job practicing your baby push-ups...even though you both hate being on you tummy to play, and scream the whole time!

We had your 2 month well baby doctors visit last week on the 9th. Eleanor was 8lbs 15oz and 22 1/4 inches long. Violet was 7lbs 9oz, and 21 1/2 inches long. Your doctor isn't happy with how slow you are gaining again, so we've been instructed to increase your bottle supplements. It makes me really sad that I can't feed you both fully with the best stuff on Earth, but I know you'll be fine with some formula. At least I'm able to give you some breast milk. You are now getting four 3 oz bottles of formula (or pumped milk if I can pump enough to justify replacing a formula bottle with breast milk!). We strive to keep you on the schedule of bottle at 8am, 12pm, 4pm and 8pm...so every 4 hours. We gave up giving you bottles over night because you both keep sleeping through the night to the point where it's better to nurse you than give a bottle when you do wake up, usually around 2:30am. Also at your appointment you got your 2 month shots. That's always the saddest part of doctors appointments for Mommy. You both cried of course, which made Mommy want to cry. Then you both were pretty knocked out for the next 2 days. You both had fevers, and slept most of those 2 days. I felt so horrible for you two, knowing you were feeling miserable. We were all happy to see you smiling and happy again after a few days!

For sleep, Daddy is still taking you out for drives at night to get you to sleep in your car seats, so I can get your sister Lily to sleep. You both will usually sleep until around 2:30 if we re lucky, then one will wake up, followed by the other with in the hour. Last night you both actually slept till 4:30am...giving us a nice 6.5 hours of sleep! I wish it was like that every night!

We're all so proud of you girls for all you've grown and learned this month! Things are starting to get fun now that you are spending more time awake to play! I know this next month will just be even more fun! I can't wait to see all that you accomplish! Maybe we'll see a first laugh? First babbles? Ella rolling over? I can't wait! We love you both so much!

Love,

Mommy

Eleanor, 2 months old: