Eleanor - One month, Two months

One month...and eight days (February 4, 2017)

Two months...and two weeks (March 15, 2017)

Seeing as Eleanor's first month was pretty much dominated by hospital and doctor events (and seeing as life is a little too chaotic with two kids to take timely pictures and write timely blog posts), we're just going to shamelessly combine her one month and two month update into one post.

Eleanor, you are settling into your own little personality! Your brother was a pretty easy baby. I remember thinking, at the time, that Sam must be the easiest baby in the world, an that we were so lucky. Well, you, my dear, are proving to be perhaps even easier than he was, at least in some ways. Sam hated being put down. You are quite content being set into a seat or swing. Sam needed to be rocked and nursed to sleep, and he often woke up in the transition from arms to bassinet/crib. You, on the other hand, are a champion sleeper. After the first week and a half of your life, when you hated being on your back (presumably because your poor belly was uncomfortable!), and after a couple weeks post-hospital where you wanted to sleep at an incline in your vibrating seat, you now gladly sleep in your bassinet, and are able to doze off on your own if we put you down when you are sleepy. Especially if we can get a nook into your sleepy mouth, you'll nod right off. You are sleeping longer and longer stretches. For at least a month now, you have been reliably sleeping close to four hours when we put you down, and then another few hours after our overnight feeding. We tend to take you up to bed with us about midnight, though in the last week, you have started sleeping a good three hours or so beginning around 8:00 p.m., so we might try transitioning you to a real bedtime soon.

You still mostly only cry when you are hungry, need a diaper change, or are tired, though in the last couple weeks, you've also started to get fussy when you get bored or lonely. You desperately want someone to be looking at you and talking to you. And you give a handsome reward for doing so: tons of smiles and babbling! You are definitely a good-natured baby, but you also know how to show us emotions on a grand scale. When you are happy, you are SO HAPPY. And when you are upset, you are FURIOUS.

At this point, we have only graduated a little bit from your newborn days of eating every two hours. When we're in a groove, you'll eat every two or three hours. When we're not in a groove, or when mama has lots of meetings during the day, we'll go four or more hours without eating...and then make up for it by eating every hour and a half or so in the evenings.

Speaking of meetings, you are a great office baby. Unlike Sam, who never quite figured out how to nap in the office, you are pretty willing to sleep and let mama get some work done, especially in the afternoons. You like hanging out on your owl blanket on the floor, especially when I turn around from my desk to chat with you. You also love sitting on my lap and "helping" me at my computer.

You are definitely an overachiever - you rolled over from back to front for the first time before you were even eight weeks old, and you've done it a bunch of times since. These days you also work very hard to lift up your head and shoulders when you are lying on your back, as if you are already trying to sit up.

It's been a busy first two months of your life. Besides your various hospital and doctor visits, you have been to Minneapolis and to the Wisconsin Dells. You have gone swimming and have gone to an orchestra concert. You've been to Camp EWALU for a confirmation retreat, you've attended a church council afternoon retreat and a worship committee morning retreat. You've been to a committee meeting night and a congregational annual meeting. You've visited all of the coffee shops in Decorah and logged a bunch of Friday morning breakfasts with Sam and me. You attended all of Sam's Biddy Basketball games. You've even gone to your first protest march with mama, standing in solidarity with immigrants and refugees. You've been busy.

You are a long baby, but you still seem like a little peanut to me. You have shed some of your round, chubby newborn face and instead have developed some adorable definition in your cheeks and chin. You furrow your brow a lot when you are concentrating, so you often look worried. Your eyes are still blue and very bright, and you love to open your eyes wide in curiosity. You haven't yet developed a baby bald spot on the back of your head, and the insane amount of hair that you were born with has just kept growing and growing. We think that it is lightening up a little bit. It is still dark, not blonde, but with a lot of red to it. The hair on top of your head is seriously curly, and you have one section of hair right at your forehead that swoops up as if we took a curling iron to it.

We are adjusting to having two kiddos pretty well! It helps that your big brother ADORES you. He hugs you and snuggles you; talks freely about how cute you are; mimics our grown-up speech and calls you, "sweet girl," or "baby girl." He claims you as his own, saying, "This is my baby sister. She belongs to me." He is still processing the fact that mama and Ellie had to be in the hospital a few days after birth, and then a few days up at Mayo. He'll tell us that he's glad that we are sleeping at home and that we are here with him.

It has been an exciting ride so far, little lady. I keep telling you that you have used up all of the drama allotted to you in your lifetime, but you seem not to believe me. It is hard to believe that two months have passed already. You are no longer a teensy, floppy, sleepy-all-the-time newborn. Matt especially misses the newborn days when you were a guaranteed baby-nap partner at any point in time. But it turns out that your awake self is better than any baby nap. You are sweet and happy, inquisitive and strong, laid-back and yet opinionated. We can't wait to see even more of your personality shine through!