Two Months

Lucy has changed so much this month! She is weighing in at 12 pounds 8 ounces and is 23 1/4 inches long...needless to say our little one isn't so little anymore! Her first real doctor visit went well, even the shots. On the initial poke I saw this wave of terror cross her face, and she looked at me like, "What the HELL, MOM!?!?" and then burst into tears. But once it was all over and I picked her up, she was fine. She slept a lot today but otherwise handled things like a real trooper.

You wouldn't know it from her picture, but she is all smiles these days. She's got a huge grin that lights up her whole face, but gets shy around a camera. She responds to noises we make and is very interested in the shape of our mouths and how we make all of those fascinating sounds. She turns her head to look at things and stare at toys and mobiles, and it looks like she's thinking about how she can get her hands on them. Won't be long now!

Besides her smiles she's got all kinds of other faces, but a lot of the time she looks very serious and studious about things. Her brow crinkles up like she's concentrating really hard. I took her into work to visit a couple of weeks ago, and everyone was trying to figure out who she looks like. I said most often she seems to resemble Husband, although some of her faces are totally me. Right on cue, she made the "studious" face, and a longtime co-worker of mine said, "yep, that's Jessica!"

We have also gotten out quite a bit more this month, including a road trip to Iowa to visit my parents over the 4th of July. It was just she and I, and I have to say she was a champ. She loves the car and is generally asleep within minutes of taking off. I've also taken her along to run errands, and we go for walks around the neighborhood or to meet friends for a walk in the park or around one of the lakes.

Another big milestone this month was that Lucy started sleeping through the night. Since July 10th she has been generally sleeping from about 10:30PM until 6AM. This is HUGE! She started doing this all on her own, with no "training" from us. The first couple of nights I kept waking up and checking on her to make sure she was breathing (first time parent paranoia I guess). The bedtime has varied a bit sometimes, but is getting more consistent. We are now working on laying her down when she is drowsy instead of totally asleep, and have a bedtime routine in place. She likes the bath, so we have her little tub out every night as part of the whole process. I am just counting my blessings and enjoying the sleep while I can, since I know there will be backslides every now and then.

Overall Lucy is more of a joy each and every day. Things have gotten a bit easier now that she's more resilient and interactive, not to mention that I'm getting some sleep! She is growing and changing so fast...I already have those feelings of "she's never going to be this small again..." I have about a month left before I have to go back to work, and I plan to enjoy it to the fullest.