Two months old and kicking goals!

Alice is two months old and after a rocky start to life is finally beginning to really thrive. She's stacking on weight and is getting much longer, too. In fact I'm starting to worry that our plans for keeping her in her bassinet for at least six months might not come to fruition as there already doesn't seem to be much space left in it! At her health check this week she weighed 4.5 kg. Given we have had a lot of feeding issues with her this is very reassuring that we are doing something right, even though we are currently mixed feeding due to...well...so many issues really that I've been meaning to write an entire post based only on that, called something like 'Breasts for Beginners', because I certainly have not found breastfeeding to be a naturally occurring or intuitive skill in the least.

The best news from Alice's check up is that she officially no longer needs to have adjustments made for her corrected age. She has caught up on all the developmental milestones expected of an 8 week old baby even though they have been treating her as only a month old due to her prematurity. We were just thrilled. She is so supportive and just really reasonable about things and I've heard that this is not often the case. The centre we go to has a 'drop in' morning on Wednesdays where you can take your baby to have a weigh-in or to discuss any concerns you might be having between your appointments. The nurse must know me well enough to predict I might be one of the anxious ones dropping in every week as she specifically told me that I wasn't allowed to come every week!

Now, Alice was born with an incredibly full head of hair, but would you believe that instead of falling out as most people told me it would, it just keeps growing, and it's growing in a distinctly upwards direction. This means that she has had to put up with me calling her Spike a lot, and I also often refer to her as my little grease-ball, as she has unfortunately inherited her father's very oily hair that needs washing every single day or else it looks like it's been plastered down with vaseline. Alice is not very happy about this as she doesn't really like having her hair washed, although I really like washing it for her as it goes all soft and fluffy and blonde afterwards and makes me fall in love with her all over again.

Babies really can be oily, scaly, dirty little creatures. She has also developed the hideously-named skin condition 'cradle cap', which is apparently the result of overactive sebaceous glands on the head and face. She only has it mildly but it still looks pretty gross and I keep annoying her by rubbing olive oil all over it in an attempt to remove the crusty bits. The maternal and child health nurses seem to be big fans of household edible oils. They've recommended I use olive oil for a variety of random skin upsets that Alice has experienced. At least her baby acne has cleared up. Yes, the poor darling had that too, and both Les and I had trouble resisting the urge to squeeze all of her whiteheads! Gross, gross, gross, I know.

I'm also very pleased to report that I have decided Alice is 'officially' smiling. She has actually been giving a few smiles here and there for about a fortnight, but they were few and far between and very fleeting when they came so I didn't really feel like I could call it, which is a shame as I really wanted to record the date she first smiled in her baby book but now I'm not sure which date was the real date she began, especially as the early smiles were somewhat more like grimaces so I wasn't exactly sure what was going on. Just the last few days, though, she's been giving out genuine smiles, big grins, especially in the mornings when she first sees you. Today I had my regular psych appointment and she even smiled at Melanie, which is the first time she's smiled at someone that is not mummy or daddy. It absolutely makes my heart melt to see her little face light up and it makes me tempted to overfeed her all the time as she is at her smiliest when her tummy is filled to near-bursting point! I'm yet to get a smiling photo of her, but stay tuned as I am going to try very hard over the weekend!

She's been a very lucky little baby this week. I bought her a tonne of books in a book sale that was on near my house (turns out there's a major children's publishing warehouse right near our place, who knew?!). Here is Les reading her one about a bad-tempered ladybird. We haven't yet found out what happens to the ladybird as Alice cracked it before we could get to the end. What a cliffhanger!

She also received the most amazing handmade quilt from one of my oldest, closest friends. It is just the most beautiful thing, and once again I am in awe of people's incredible craftsmanship. It's going to be great for putting on the floor for her to play on, and later on it will look just gorgeous on her bed. Our cats also think it is a pretty neat place for an afternoon nap. I'm sure they would say they are just warming it up for her...

Alice also received her membership kit for her daddy's football team. They are right onto the baby marketing business and sell a variety of infant team merchandise. I'm happy for her to have a footy team. I know it is a distinctly Melbourne thing for her to have, and that pleases me. I also like that it is something her and Les can do together in the future. I just wish his team wore better colours. Brown and yellow have to be the most disgusting combination out of all the AFL teams, don't you think?

After two months of sleep deprivation Alice also has a very confused and muddled mother on her hands. A number of times lately I have completely messed up the times and days of appointments and outings, leaving me swearing at myself for my silliness and wishing I'd stayed in bed. This week I brunched alone after driving to the outer suburbs to meet a friend of mine. I knew something was wrong as she is never late and the minutes were ticking by. Turns out I'd turned up an entire week early and completely forgotten an entire conversation we'd had about it. I felt very stupid and will now be texting to confirm all of my plans from now on!

Alice also has a new cry to add to her repertoire. It has to be said that she does not cry that much for a newborn baby. Mostly she only cries when something is actually wrong, like she is hungry or tired and she is good at stopping the wails as soon as you deal with whatever the problem is. She now has a kind of shouty-out cry, though, which means she's just getting annoyed, I think. I'll have to try and capture it on video as I can't really describe it in words. As much as I don't want her to be frustrated and angry with me, it is good that she is starting to tell us what she wants and needs after so long of being a tired and unresponsive little baby. Yes, Alice, you can cry if you want to, but I'm sure I'll regret saying that!

Here is the girl of the hour...or more specifically the month...for your viewing pleasure! I think you'll agree that she has grown so much since she was last wearing one of these little stickers!

Two Months Old!