Madison Monthly: Two

The Basics
On March 24, Madison turned two months old. Her doctor visit on March 27 had her weighing in at 12 lbs. 1 oz., measuring 24 1/4 inches in length, and in general being a tall, solidly built but not chunky baby.

Eating and Sleeping
She had a rough month with eating, struggling and straining through about 50% of her feedings. While eating, her back would arch, she would shake her head side-to-side, her face would get all red, and she would cry. I was convinced she had an acid reflux problem, so on March 11, I called the doc. Turns out she has GERD - fancy acid reflux. And man oh lordy does that make a girl scream. As for how mommy is handling the screaming...well, about 50% of the time I feel bad for her and the other half of the time I feel bad for me. She's on medication now, Zantac, and that will hopefully solve the problem.

Sleeping was going well for a while; she was out for 5-6, and twice 7, hours of sleep at night with nary a whisper. Unfortunately, having GERD has messed that up a bit due to the discomfort of laying on her back. Now we are back to feeding her every three hours, even at night. And to make it even more fun, we now have to hold her in an upright position for 20-30 minutes after a feeding if we want her to go back to sleep easily.

Behavior and Development
She smiles much more often these days; although I'm not convinced she's always smiling at me or anything I may be doing at the time. More often than not, I think she's smiling for her own reasons like she's nicely full (which my mom and grandma call "fat and full") or pushing out some serious farts. She is having reactionary smiles these days though, and they are the most precious thing ever. I did manage to capture one of those reaction smiles on camera!

She's definitely my gassy baby, continuing to belch loudly and proudly before, during, and after her feedings, and of course, she still manages to fart throughout the day. I think the gassiness is related to the stomach problems which are also causing her eating difficulties and acid reflux.

She follows objects with her eyes, but only when she wants to, and that's not often. She's got her own stuff going on, and she doesn't see any reason to watch that silly rabbit travel back and forth.

She's moving her head more now, gaining control over its bobbleheadedness. She still occasionally winds up face down on the blanket during tummy time, but she can now get herself out of it by turning her head in one direction or the other. We did have some concerns that she was always laying with her head turned to the right. She sleeps that way all night long, and more often than not during the day she's laying on the right side of her head. She's developed a nice flat spot on her head, and now we are actively encouraging her to turn her head the other way. The funny thing is she doesn't seem to mind. So why in the phat was she not doing it on her own to begin with? Crazy nutter.

Social Stuff
Sleepovers at grandma's are becoming rather commonplace much to everyone's delight. Every Wednesday, the Baby Nut stays at my mom's so that I don't have to worry about her before going in to teach. I have to admit that while I absolutely love not having the responsibility of a baby, I do miss her for a few seconds now and again throughout the night. I even am having a bit of difficulty sleeping with her gone which is both odd and ironic. Odd because I am not worried about her at all. Ironic because it's my only chance to get any real sleep and I can't.

Mommy Notes
I'm still something of an emotional crybaby, getting all teary eyed at movies, books, tv shows, and even the occasional commercial. I am also a megahotbox, sweating even when it's only 65 degrees in the house. I wouldn't say I've adjusted to having a baby in the house, but I'm at least on my way.

Her Nicknames (in order of use, 1 being most often):

1. Madinut
2. Nutter
3. Baby Duck 
4. Baby Nut
5. Nutjob
6. Goofer
7. Goofnut
8. Fussbucket

I've pretty much stopped calling her Little Miss Nasty, My Crazy Baby, and The Squirm Button probably because they are too many syllables. :) Brian continues to call her The Squirm Button as it's the one he came up with, and he feels it's "nicer" than most of my nicknames. I also rarely call her Sweets anymore for an unknown reason (okay, it's the screaming. it's the constant screaming).

The Pictures

Madison and her dolly Pablo getting their sleep on

She can be flirty....

She can be sleepy...

 She can be upset...or wait is this contemplative? Distraught over the state of the world today?

She can be hardcore

But she's always cute