Well, today Stella Marie is two months old! I cannot believe how fast time is going with this little one. She is getting so big, so fast. Before we know it, we'll be giving her baby food, she'll be sitting up by herself, and we'll be sending her off to college. We really enjoy our little one. She has the sweetest disposition and is just a precious girl. God knew exactly what we needed in a baby, and He gave us such a gift in Stella. Here is what she's up to these days:
Nursing
At eight weeks, Stella is still an amazing nurser. She eats about every 2.5-3 hours during the day, and at this point she most days eats only 7 times. Occasionally during the evening hours she will be in the mood to snack, so I may feed her an additional time before her last feeding before bedtime. I would say that she eats on both sides about 50% of the time; some feedings during the day she only eats on one side but I don't really keep track of it exactly. My main goal is to get her a full feeding each time, which is typically easy to do.
Nighttime Sleep
Again, not to brag on my girl, but she is an AMAZING sleeper at night. I usually nurse her sometime between 9:30-10:30 and put her to bed for the night. She will then sleep and not wake up for another 7-9 hours. I'll usually nurse her sometime in the early morning (5-7 am), then I lay her back down. I usually don't get her up for the day until 9:30 am (more on that in a minute). Again, God is so kind and gives us just what we need. Sleep is something I need, and I am aware (and so are my husband and kids), that if Momma is running on empty in the sleep department, I am not the nicest person. Sad, but true. With a good dose of nighttime sleep the past few weeks, I have been so refreshed when I wake up and usually have a good amount of energy to make it through the day. Naps for me haven't been much of a reality for a while since the kids' naps usually don't match up where all three are asleep. But maybe one day we can get there! (Selfishly, I hope naps are in my future. I love naptime!)
Sample Schedule
Here is an example (roughly) of a schedule for Stella at eight weeks:
9:30 am- I wake her. She usually sleeps after her early morning feeding, and I have to go in to wake her up. I don't want her day to start any later than this, so I usually "wake her up for the day" at this point unless she has woken up on her own before this. This is later than I really want to have her sleep, BUT this time allows me to have a good hour with Nora and Liam in the mornings where I am not caring for Stella. We fix breakfast together, get dressed, and usually get the kitchen semi-clean before I wake her. So, for now, it works for us but I will probably eventually start her day earlier (around 8:30 am).
Stella is woken up, she eats, plays for a bit, gets dressed and diaper changed, then goes down for a nap.
12:00 pm- Eat. Playtime. Naptime.
2:30 pm- Eat. Playtime. Naptime.
5:00 pm- Eat. Playtime. Naptime.
7:30 pm- Eat. Playtime. Bath and then bedtime.
10:00-10:30 pm- Dream sleep and bedtime for the night.
**Again, this is a rough schedule. Our summer has been so busy that it's been hard to do anything with much consistency. I'll have a few days that look like the schedule above, then we'll hit the weekend and everything goes out the window. But, she's such a good and easy-going baby, that it doesn't really affect her....I guess it has to do with her age, too. Ahhh, baby #3!
Clothes/Diapers
Stella wears mostly 0-3 months clothes now. She can still fit in a few of her newborn things, depending on the brand and outfit, but she's fitting well in the 3 month stuff. She's also wearing size 1 diapers.
Tricks
Stella loves to smile, especially at Nora.
I talk to her a lot, trying to get her to talk back, but she hasn't quite begun making lots of cooing noises yet. I just love that phase, so I hope she finds her voice soon. Nora has just recently discovered her hands and loves to keep them right up next to her face. I think it looks like she's ready to box someone if they get in her way. So cute!
Paci
Well, within the past week we have finally found a paci that Stella likes. I kept trying the green Soothie paci that Liam took, and she would take it but always seemed to have the hardest time keeping it in her mouth. I don't know if it was too heavy or what, but I had picked up a few Avent pacis right after she was born and would occasionally give it to her, but it seemed that she didn't care for it so much. But, last week I tried it again and she has been hooked ever since. She doesn't have to have a paci to go to sleep, but sometimes she sleeps better if she has it. I have not had to give her one after her last feeding at night yet because she is usually zonked and just goes down. I really don't look forward to those nights where you have to keep getting up to plug her paci back in her mouth, so I hope that she can still self-soothe instead of always relying on it, but we'll just have to see. Regardless, it seems that Stella is now a "paci girl."
Here are some pics of Stella with some of her favorite people:
Stella goes in the middle of the month for her check-up, so I'll post her stats then! Ciao!
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