Life as a New Mom – 2 Month Update

It’s been two months now since my baby girl was born (24th) and my life changed forever. Becoming a new mom actually feels more like getting a new life rather than it changing. The first month was very hard. The second has been way better.

Ever since I was able to catch more sleep at around 5 weeks and have a tiny bit more time to do other things, I began feeling better. Depression went away and I began enjoying motherhood and loving more and more this tiny human that grew in my belly and left war wounds… I mean stretch marks and stitches.

During the first month, I kept reading things like “enjoy every moment, they grow so fast”, but I was suffering during that time and I wanted that stage to be over. Now at two months, I do feel like she’s growing too fast and she’s too cute and all of a sudden she’ll be walking, and talking, and having boyfriends and all that. I officially feel like I need to enjoy every moment with her, even though I do still have some hard and frustrating moments.

Being a mom forces you to give and give and give, which is a beautiful thing. To not think about yourself. But as they say, every once in a while it’s good to take a break if possible and have time to yourself. I find that the better I feel, the more I can give to my daughter and husband.

Today, I’m very much in love with this little girl and I don’t think she could be any more perfect. She’s cute as can be, sweet, smart, and very funny. She makes me laugh every day. She’s absolutely charming, turning heads everywhere we go. And she’s perfectly healthy.

Two days ago we had her 2-month checkup. She’s 21.5 inches and 10 lbs 5 oz (54.6 cm and 4.6kg). She’s growing but the doctor did mention she’s on the petite side of the scale. Like her mom. So far, that’s the only thing she’s like me haha, and her dark hair. She’s a tiny peanut, or as they would say in Spanish, a frijolito (little bean).

My Naja

She LOVES to smile. Every single time she smiles, I can’t help but smile and my whole heart lights up. It’s pretty amazing. She smiles after a nap, while eating, after eating, while sleeping, and even when she’s grumpy. She can’t help it. It’s my favourite thing ever. Twice now, she’s done this thing where she goes back and forth between a serious face and a smile, and it makes me crack up and then she smiles even more.

She gets hiccups a lot which she must have gotten from me :p. I noticed I get hiccups almost daily, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard Josh get hiccups. What is that? Why do some people get them more? A quick change in temperature will cause me and Naja hiccups. She also gets them after a feeding and burping.

The other thing I can’t get over is how pretty her eyes are. They’re a stunning colour combination of blue and grey and sometimes green. I’m very curious about what colour they’ll turn out. They say it takes about a year. And it’s not just the colour, it’s the depth of her soul we see through them. I’m serious!

Call me biased.

When she was 8 weeks old, we were brave enough to go out as a family to have lunch for the first time. She was great.

Since a few weeks ago she’s been holding her head pretty good, and she’s definitely responding to our voices. She loves when you talk to her up close. And just a couple of days ago we began seeing hand-eye coordination. She’s staring at objects and wanting to reach out and grab them. She loved the chopsticks paper wrap from the sushi we ordered last Sunday.

She also really enjoys music. We have “dance parties” during waketime: – we play some music on the Echo and I carry her or sit her on my lap and she enjoys herself. We listen to The Beatles, Mumford & Sons, Bing Crosby, and classical music.

She gets restless and bored easily, which I feel is going to be part of her permanent personality. She doesn’t like sitting in one place or one position for too long. And she needs human interaction. I can’t lie her down on the play gym or the rocker seat by herself for long before she starts fussing. She prefers if someone plays with her, or holds her.

I can just see it coming: “mommyyy I’m booored”. And telling her: “go watch a movie or draw something” won’t suffice. She’ll want me to come play with her. She’ll keep me busy for sure. But hopefully, she’ll enjoy watching a movie and relaxing as much as I do. 🙂

A Day In The Life

What does my day look like nowadays?

It begins with waking up in the middle of the night, sometime between 2 am and 5:30 am to feed her and change her diaper. And attempt to put her back to sleep as fast as possible. Then, about 3 hours later after sunrise, same thing, but this time she might stay up for a little while and go back for a nap. I try to get some more snooze time during this time too.

We do this 7-8 times during 24 hours (feed/diaper change/waketime/nap). During the day, she takes shorter naps. 20min – to an hour and a half. If I’m very lucky she’ll nap in her bassinet or rock n’ play. Otherwise, she sleeps in my arms or in the baby carrier.

In between sleeping and feeding, we:

1. Play – We sit down and I talk to her, and she smiles and makes noises, and we listen to music. She helps me do laundry, and make my breakfast.
2. I do chores – During the rare times that I have two free hands, I have to choose between eating, cleaning, showering, cooking, or blogging/working. The latter has become the last priority, but I do wish I had more time for it. I play my own music library during this time.

I go days without being able to shower. And I mostly snack during the day because it’s hard to get enough time for me to whip up some oatmeal or eggs and toast. I’ve been preparing overnight oats so that I can just microwave them in the morning and eat. But I make time to make dinner.

Rarely – I do a workout from the 8fit app, go for a walk, or take a nap (these were essential during the day the first month).

Evening

Josh comes home around 5:30 pm and I serve dinner. Many times we take turns having dinner because she’ll be up and won’t stay in her rocker chair for long.

Around 7:30 pm I start her bedtime routine. I give her a bath, dress her in comfy pajamas, feed her, and put her to sleep. This takes at least an hour. My bedtime has come between 9 – 9:30 pm because I want to take advantage of her long stretch of sleep. Josh goes to bed at the same time because he gets up at 5:30 am.

A few times a week we manage to watch an episode of Doctor Who or This Is Us.

Weekends

I take advantage of Josh being home and go out by myself. I’ve gone grocery shopping, to the chiropractor, to get takeout, and/or to stop for a treat (coffee or tea). At home, I do meal prepping to have it easier during the week and prepare Josh’s work lunches. Twice now, we’ve gone out to eat with the baby. And we do some house cleaning.

And that’s it. That’s my current life. Constantly learning how to do this new mom thing.