The Wilkinsons

Charlotte is two months old and we are surviving newborn phase! These first months can be hard for me, and while they still pass slowly, I have to admit things have gone pretty smooth this month. "The days are long and the years are short" as the saying goes. You may remember that last month Charlotte was sleeping alot except in the evening when she'd have some marathon awake times. I decided we needed a little more structure to try to nip that in the bud and sure enough we worked it out early this month. I revisited the "Moms on Call" scheduler and we started a bath, feed, bed routine at night that helped her realized it was time for nighttime sleep! Also, I realized I was helping Charlotte to sleep more than I needed to (still have baby Cooper-isms) and as soon as I gave her some space we noticed that she actually puts herself to sleep very well with a paci. All those things made for a great month with a sleeping baby. There were days I actually wondered if she was sleeping too much! Can you believe that. She does great when our routine changes like Cooper's preschool mornings. I can transfer her from the car seat to the rock n play and she goes right back to sleep. Bless her. I know our days are numbered with this kind of sleep so I've tried to embrace and enjoy it. When she's sleeping I'm usually playing one on one with Cooper and giving him lots of mom time. That seems to be making him happy! He's improving each week. He still prefers to stay at home, but that's ok for now. Nannie and Gwennie have been helping with entertaining him at home to give me a break every now and then.

Our night sleep is going great, too. Charlotte not only puts herself to sleep but she is sleeping 4-6 hour stretches at night, gets up to eat and then back to sleep til 7-8am. She can nap anwhere from 1 hour -4 hours! She takes about 4-5 naps a day. We started her on Prilosec for reflux this month and she is much happier now after eating. We started tummy time and and she likes listening to classical music!

At her two month doctor appointment Charlotte weighed: 10lbs 5 oz (45%), length was 21.75 inches (25%) and head circ. was 38cm (25%).

She is still in newborn size clothes and diapers. It makes me sad to see her in stuff from the hospital because now they actually fit! She's growing! How fast they grow. It's crazy to see. I already miss the super small newborn.

Cooper and Charlotte both are proud of each other. She watches him play (when she is rarely awake ahah) and he shows her off. I caught him saying to his cousin Will, " Look, Will, that's Charlotte!" pointing to her in her car seat and grinning ear to ear! Melt. Mama's. Heart.
he was a big helper while daddy went on a week long work trip. we all survived somehow!

Other events this month include Daddy giving her first bottle and using the miracle blanket for sleep... love that thing. I wonder if the zippadee zip is also in her future :) She loves the paci still, too, which is different from Cooper. It really makes her soothing herself to sleep so much easier. She also loves when I stroke the side of her face with my hand. It's sweet to see her immediately close her eyes to the touch.

the first bottle!

coop got gave his baby a bottle too ;) this was them burping their babies

relaxing outside

it was a long morning take big brother to swim lessons

on her six week old birthday she slept 8 hours that night! it was such a gift to us :)

daddy time

her first St Patrick's day!

pretty lady! this outfit will forever remind me of the hospital, it was one of her first outfits she ever wore

more photos we love this month:

starting to flash a smile every now and then!

first nap in her room (not in the crib though)

sweet sleepy baby

even fell asleep on the boppy pillow

One month has passed and what a beautiful addition Charlotte is to our family! It really feels like she has been with us all along. She just fits right in. Our first nights at home the reality that we had a newborn again sunk in. I worried she wasn't breathing and that we would break her because she was so tiny. We also thought maybe Cooper would crush her with a toy. But sure enough, things smoothed out after the first days of adjustment and my anxiety subsided so much. It's amazing how much you learn after your first baby making number two a great deal easier. The lifestyle adjustment isn't near as huge either. So I really feel like we were floating on cloud nine the whole month and just loving every minute. I tell everyone Charlotte has been an angel from the start. She is an easy going, sweet baby.
We went to see "Dr. Nick" Hinkebein for Charlotte's newborn visit on 1/30/17 just a few days old. At that visit she weighed 6 lbs, 10oz. (10th percentile) was 19in long (maybe an inaccurate measure since was born 18.5in but anyhow that's 25percentile) and head circumference was 33.5cm (10th percentile) She's a petite little thing! We had been concerned because she hadn't had a bowel movement in 24 hours. She was having lots of gas that was keeping her awake. I quickly had to adjust my diet for the gas. But Dr. Nick was also worried that she may have a high bilirubin count with the lack of bowel movements. We had to run some bloodwork and breastfeed extra to get her overhydrated to flush that stuff out. We even had her sunbathing in the bathroom!

Her bili came back higher than from the hospital but not in a critical range, so we were ok. And the next day I went back for a weight check and she was up to 6 lbs and 13 ounces, had pooped a couple times and her color was improving. My milk had come in that morning so I think that finally got things moving in the right direction. So our next visit was this one month check.
waiting for Dr. Nick

At one month Charlotte weighs 8lbs 15 ounces (25th percentile) is 21 inches (30th percentile) and head circumference of 36in (25th percentile).

She started to grow a hemangioma on the top back of her head that we will just monitor and should go away in the future. It's the shape of a heart and just adds character! Everything checked out well at the doctor and we are so lucky to have a healthy growing baby.

The month has brought some transition for our family. I knew it would be an adjustment for Cooper to no longer be the only one needing our attention. But I have to say I underestimated just HOW big of a change it would be. He needed lots of my attention and had many moments where he "wanted to be little again." Don't get me wrong, he is obsessed with Charlotte. He wants her around wherever he is and likes to do anything to help us like get us a diaper (or change his baby's at the same time) or his favorite thing is to give her a paci which he looks at proudly after she sucks on it like he has really accomplished something. He just had to get used to sharing mom and dad. He didn't like to leave the house anymore, and he started having lots of pee pee accidents so we are back in diapers. There were times that he wanted to be swaddled like Charlotte, or rocked to sleep, and needed lots of "hugs."
this was me swaddling and cuddling him like a baby per his request haha

All that being said, he has been a trooper. I had to adjust balancing my time. If I was busy getting Charlotte to sleep there were days when I'd find Cooper misbehaving during that time.

Each day gets easier and easier and we have found our groove by the end of the month! Charlotte is easy to love!
her first sponge bath at home

This month she has slept ALOT. It's confusing us to have a baby that actually sleeps. And not in our arms! haha She averages 16 hours a day and eats every 3 hours both day and night. Feburary 23 we had our longest stretch this month with 5 hours at night! Let's hope she starts repeating that! She is a night owl and we have our only difficult time with her in the late evening. She usually has a big 2 hour awake time but she is happily awake! There are nights when we think she is down for good and then she wakes up for these large periods of time. She about outlasts us on these evenings! Im hoping this works itself out soon. We thought maybe she had her days/nights a bit confused this month. The mamaroo has been helpful when she wakes up early in the morning and can't settle back to sleep. After she wakes to eat it can take almost an hour to get her back to sleep. But, she gives great cuddles and is very easy going!

She doesn't even mind water on her head during her baths. She loves bath time even her first one that happened this month (she lost her umbilical cord on day 7).

She has the cutest little wrinkles above her eyebrows that are starting to fade but for now I like them :) We went on our first family walk this month and she loved being in the Moby wrap on me for that.

She is still in newborn clothes and diapers. When we put a bow on her you can bet Cooper was the one who picked it out. She is starting to loose her hair up top and some cradle cap is present, but she is still the cutest thing ever! Luckily our favorite Auntie Emmy captured her cuteness on camera. We are so so so lucky to have an awesome photographer in the family. AND she even came back a couple times to snap extra photos.