2 Months ... A little late

Size: At his 2 month appointment, he weighed 11 pounds 3 ounces and was 24 1/2 inches long. That's only the 40th percentile for weight, and the 98th percentile for length. Guess he doesn't know that he has short parents! We're not sure that he really weighs that much, because (how can I say this delicately?) his belly was FULL when he was weighed. The next day at 'baby breakfast' he only weighed 10 pounds 8 ounces, and his belly was very very EMPTY. So I'd guess he weighs somewhere in the high 10's in general.

Clothes: He's completely out of newborn clothes now. He's so long and thin that lots of the onesies we have in the 0-3 size are barely snapping, but are still super super wide. He's in size 1 diapers, but they still leak around the legs sometimes because his legs are so thin!

Eating: When breastfeeding, he eats about 12 times a day. Some long meals, some shorter. In the late afternoon/evening he eats almost every hour. During formula week, he ate 4oz when he woke up the first time, 4 more a few hours later and again for lunch. 4 after his long nap and at bedtime, but in the afternoon it was 1 ounce every hour or so, like he was mimicking nursing. Luckily he doesn't seem to care what he's eating, the temperature, or delivery method. We started using a pacifier when he was on the bottle because babies this little have a strong need to suck for comfort. We don't want him hooked on it, but it worked really well when he finished a bottle because we could tell if he was hungry and really needed more, or if he just needed to suck. (He'd refuse the pacifier and scream if he was still hungry, mellow out and suck on the pacifier for a few minutes and then gently give it up if he just needed the sucking motion.)

Sleeping: When breastfeeding, his long stretch is still about 5 hours on a generic night. Many nights on formula he did 7 to 8 hours, woke up for a bottle, and then slept another 3. We are trying to move bedtime back. We got it to 10:30 or 11 which means a middle of the night feed when nursing but it will help in the long run. During the week of bottles, we worked hard on getting him to sleep, since he was used to nursing to sleep. It was hard and took a lot longer, but it got better as the week went on. I'm more aware of it now that we're back to breastfeeding just in case our experiment fails and we have to return to the formula. He is not yet doing his big nap in the crib. That's a future-but-soon goal of mine. He sleeps really well in the swing or buzzy chair even if he's in the same room as me, but I'd like to get him good at sleeping in both the pack n play and crib in the afternoon.

Physical: He still does tummy time and his neck is getting stronger. I can hold him with one arm sometimes now because he can hold his head or prop it on my shoulder! He recently learned to bat/punch dangling toys on the mat. He also loves sucking on his hands. That used to be purely a feeding cue, now it seems like he does it just because he can.

Facial: Lots of smiles! At us, at toys, at the baby in the mirror. Unless the camera is out!!! Sometimes he'll mimic our facial expressions, and he's been iffy with that since between 3 and 4 weeks, but usually he seems to think we're just making funny faces and then he smiles at us.

Crying: Often means hungry, especially when waking up. Was also meaning bellyache for awhile. He rarely cries at bath or diaper change anymore, unless he is hungry and we're quickly trying to squeeze it in.

Vocal: He is SO vocal. Cooing, happy noises, mad noises, hungry noises, whiny noises, and a hilarious squawk that seems to mean, "hey people you left me here just FYI!" because he uses it when he's in the pack 'n play while I throw out a diaper and wash my hands, or when he's done batting the owl and turtle on his mat. It isn't really an angry noise, but he seems to use it for attention.

Activities: After several days of picking up his hands and making him bat the animals on the rainforest gym, he started accidentally doing it himself. Then a few days later we realized it wasn't an accident anymore because when we moved him, he moved his hands to make it keep happening! He spends 2 or 3 sessions a day on his mat playing with "his friends" the owl and turtle.

Me: In several ways, I am healed. I can lift the car seat with him in it now pain free. I lifted a box of litter to fill the box pain free, too. But I can't sit for too long still or wear tight clothes. I've lost all the pregnancy weight (and I think more, but I don't own a scale and haven't been weighed in 3+ weeks at my dr's appointment) but mostly because of being on the soy and dairy free diet. No easy snacks means much less eating during the day or just less eating in general!