This girl was full of smiles and squeals this morning after she woke up from a nice 2.5 hour nap! Lately when she gets excited, she squeals and starts to move and kick a lot, sometimes causing her whole little body to fall forward! Of course, I didn’t catch the best moments on video because she usually starts fading or becomes distracted by the time I decide to get the camera out, but take it from me, she’s pretty darn cute!
PS: TGTAOTMDUWGHFC! Figure that one out, Dad!
Weight/Length: We won’t know until we go back to the doctor at 3 months. However, Luke tried weighing her last week and figured about 10.5 lbs. Judging from the way her clothes are fitting, she’s definitely grown length wise as well. It also seems like she’s thinned out a bit this month, which I read often happens with breastfed babies around this age.
Medical Issues: She has the occasional tummy problems, but she’s a big, strong healthy girl! Praying we make it through this yucky cold and flu season without any illnesses.
She was supposed to receive the first round of vaccinations at her 2-month appointment; however, the Doctor didn’t want to give her the vaccines right before we leave to go to the states just in case she has any sort reaction to them. So we’re delaying a bit, and she’ll receive them at her 3 month visit instead.
Sleep: Nora is sleeping really well and seems to have learned the difference between night and day pretty easily! Recently, she’s been starting the night with a nice 6-7 hour stretch, going down between 10 – 11 and waking to eat between 4 and 5. (Updated: The last two nights she’s gone down between 9-10 and woken between 2-3.) After she eats, she typically goes right back to sleep, although there was one night last week where we had to go in a time or two to help her get back to sleep. Her napping is still all over the place, and she’s still taking more than 3 naps a day since she really can’t be awake (and happy) for much more than 45 minutes to an hour at a time. Some days getting her to sleep and stay a sleep for more than just a few minutes is a battle; those are long, tiring days. A lot of days, though, she’ll take at least one long nap, lasting about 3 hours, with a bunch of other little short naps lasting about 30 minutes – 1 hour. I’m looking forward to when her napping (hopefully) becomes a little more predictable. Since we’re just about to travel across the world and really mess with her timing, I’m thankful that we don’t already have some nice schedule to royally mess up. Hopefully, she’s still young and adaptable enough that the 7 hour time change when we go home (and then when we return again to Spain) won’t be too, too painful on any of us.
Clothes: I think it’s time to retire all the newborn clothing. 
Diet: She’s still 100% breastfed, and everything’s going really well. She’s down to between 6 and 8 feedings per day and eats for 20 or so minutes at a time. When she was first born, I was feeding her at least 12 times a day (sometimes more), and each feeding probably lasted at least 40 minutes. What a change! This along with no more pain/latch issues has definitely made breastfeeding much easier than when we were just getting started, and I’m definitely glad we stuck with it through the difficult beginning.
On a more frustrating note, this past weekend she has started refusing to take a bottle when she just took one the weekend before without any issues. We’ve tried everything we can think of, and she just cries and spits it out. We’re not giving up, though. (Get ready, Luke! We have to try again tonight! ) (Updated: No such luck. Looks like Mama won’t be going to the Christmas dinner on Wednesday night.)
Baby Gear Love: She fell in love with the swing this month. She’s taken a few long naps in it when I haven’t been able to get her to sleep anywhere else. (You have to get her in it before she’s too tired, though. Otherwise, she won’t stand for it.) It’s also really helpful in the evenings because she’ll happily sit there for a bit while I get dinner started.
Although I thought she hated the stroller, just this past weekend we went out with it at least three times, and she seemed to enjoy it! She even fell asleep on her own all three times! I think we still returned to the apartment with one of us carrying her and the other pushing the stroller, but we were out for several hours at a time, so that’s understandable. This definitely makes me feel more confident about getting out for walks when it’s just the two of us.
Milestones: Real smiles and coos and even a few loud squeals. She’s best at smiling with a full tummy and after she’s had a nice nap! During tummy time, she can hold her head at 90 degrees for long periods of time and turn from side to side. She’s started to discover her hands and is working on getting them in her mouth. Not quite a thumb sucker, but we’ll see.
Likes: Mirrors, bouncing on the exercise ball, being lifted high in the air by Dad, swaying, dancing or movement of any kind, getting her arms out of her swaddle, being serenaded by Dad and his guitar, sucking on her hand, warm baths, her play mat and swing, looking all around our apartment and just taking it all in (especially whatever’s up in the left hand corner of the any room.)
Dislikes: Getting too tired, being left alone when she’s tired, bottles, pacifiers, having her nose cleaned out with the NoseFrida, getting out of the bath, being over stimulated.
Nicknames: The Niña, Neeny, Teeny, Teeny-Neeny, Nori, Chicky, Norita, Mama’s Baby and Mama’s Girl. We rarely call her Nora.
Mama’s Thoughts: What a difference a month makes! I can’t believe how big she is and how much she’s changed in just one short month! I think the difference between months 1 and 2 are more obvious and greater than between her very first days and month 1. All of a sudden, she’s huge, and of course, she just keeps getting more and more beautiful! No bias here.
We still have our challenges and some days are more difficult than others, but we’re starting to (hopefully) find our groove! Although it’s a little bit sad to think about how quickly the time passes and how much she’s grown and changed in just 2 months, I’m mostly just excited to see how she continues to develop! She’s turned our entire world upside down in the best way possible, and we love her so much – more and more each day. I have a feeling that, though everything else may change, that won’t, and we’re going to continue enjoying her even more as she grows (until she hits her “tweens” at least 
And for comparison purposes:
We ventured out last Friday evening to walk around the center of Madrid and see all the Christmas lights and markets that have overtaken the city. With the chilly weather, stands selling roasted chestnuts and tons of Christmas lights brightening the night, it definitely was a nice way to kick off the holiday season! But oh my goodness, the amount of people in Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor was ridiculous! I vaguely remember the crowds from when we did the same type of little outing last year, but we weren’t trying to navigate it all with a stroller. (We probably made several stops for wine last year as well. 
It’s nice to see the city all decorated for the Christmas season (and we even knocked a few Christmas gifts off our list!), but we can’t wait to get home and experience all the festivities with our family! Less than one week!
Yesterday I was all worried that Nora wasn’t making enough eye contact with us or easily smiling in response to our smiles yet as some silly book suggested she should be doing already. The girl proved me wrong this morning! She was all smiles!
”Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up.” – Proverbs 12:25
That little smile sure cheered me up and made my whole day! Can’t wait for her to do it again for her daddy!
PS: I love to see how her eyes change when I make those silly noises! She’s probably going to get sick of me real quick. 
