Can you believe our little sweet pea is already 9 weeks old? I took some pics of her in the little 2 month onesie. I can't believe how different she looks already. When I look back at pictures from when she was born it's hard to believe that this is the same baby. I thought she favored me before ... but now it's just getting creepy. She is really starting to look a lot like I did as a child.
During our little photo shoot in the chair, Stella poked her head out from behind the curtain to see what was going on. This shot cracks me up! 
And I know I look like my mom and Darby favors me, but in this shot I can see my dad. 
We had our two month check up a week ago on the 3rd. Darby now weighs 10lbs 13 oz and is 24 inches long. That's a little over 2lbs and 2.5 inches since she was born! She's sooooo long! We've pretty much outgrown all of our newborn clothes and are rockin' the 0-3months and even some 3month outfits. She's a pretty lean baby right now. If her torso wasn't so long we could probably still fit in those newborn duds.
I keep forgetting that she's just a tiny baby. Mom and I keep having to remind each other - she's only two months old! I feel like everything is happening really fast. She's been pretty good with holding her head up but now she's getting even stronger. You can tell she's starting to recognize us by sight and she follows us with her eyes when we set her down anywhere. She's started drooling quite a bit lately and I'm just praying that she's not teething already. I had really hoped to get her on a good sleep routine before the teeth started coming in.
Speaking of sleep... I'll admit it. I'm a co-sleeper. I never thought I would do it but here we are. (Before I start, I have to say we put Darby down in her crib for naps during the day and early evening.) The initial plan was to put her in the pack-n-play - which came with a little bassinet attachment on top - at night time and have that set up in our bedroom. That way when she woke during the night we could be there super fast, do our business and get her back to sleep before she really had a chance to wake up. That didn't quite work out how I had hoped. With that plan we were waking up at least two and as many as five times a night. Most days and nights, Darby fights sleep with a passion! That was fine back when I was off on maternity leave because I could just catch up on sleep when mom came over to help. When I went back to work full time I knew something else had to be done. I couldn't function a full day on just a combined four hours of sleep.
So the night before I went back to work full time, I got Darby ready for bed and I took her in to bed with me. I turned off all the lights except for the night light in our master bath. I turned on some Pandora (I highly recommend the Satie channel for easy listening classical piano music.) and gave her a small bottle (2oz). Then after her snack I gave her a paci, put her in what I call "the sleeper hold" and we rocked. When she was out I just laid back with her on my chest and we slept. We slept the ENTIRE night. She didn't wake up until 6:30 the next morning when I had to get out of bed to get ready for work. It was amazing!
Since then, with maybe a couple of exceptions, she has slept in the bed with me and Tony every night. He wasn't crazy about it at first because he thought it was dangerous. I don't intend on letting her stay in the bed with us for the rest of her life, just for another month or two until we can start to get her on a real schedule and sleep trained. I don't know what it is about sleeping with me that helps her sleep straight thru the night. I'd tried swaddling her (she always escapes) and making sure she was warm in thick sleepers or sleep sacks. But this is the only thing that would work every time.
I've been doing lots of research on babies and reading about what is recommended by who ... and what I've learned is that every baby (just like every pregnancy and every birth) is different. You have to do what's best for you and your family. I heard somewhere that as a mother you know your child better than any doctor or author. So when it comes to Darby, I'm the expert and I say that at this point in her development co-sleeping is best.
Okay.... enough of that. I've got to get back to work so I can finish up in time to get home and play with that adorable lil gal of mine!
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