The Hatz Family: Brea Jean ~ 2 Months!

Our sweet little lady is two months old today! She sure is sweet and we love her a whole lot. Carter and Isla are pretty much smitten with her. Carter likes to talk to her and hold her. He even gave her his old lion car seat lovey for her car seat. Isla loves to kiss and hug her! She also will talk to her but is usually right in her face when doing so. I am thrilled with how everyone has adjusted to having a baby around the house again. Brea is a wonderful way to complete our little family :).

Nicknames: Baby Cakes, Baby B, BB, Beautiful

Likes: Ceiling fans, lights, her siblings, Mommy and Daddy (not necessarily in that order)

Dislikes: Dirty diapers, tummy time, and her bedtime routine

Tolerates: Bath time and the mama roo.

Biggest Achievement of the Month: Social smiles!! Around 5 or 6 weeks I thought I saw a smile from Miss Brea in the morning after a good night sleep but thought it was a little soon. However, she has been consistently smiling everyday from the day on. Her smiles are big and beautiful!

Biggest Challenge of the Month: Her bedtime routine...ugh! She generally goes down well during the day for naps but whatever it is it always takes her at least an hour to settle down for the night. Totally annoying! I started nursing her in our bedroom with the lights off, sound machine and fan on in hopes that she would understand that it was 'bedtime' and she needed to start winding down. Yeah so far that hasn't worked. She is usually up for about an hour after she eats during the day so then I thought I would nurse her up in our room but let her 'play' for an hour before putting her down for bed. No dice. I hate to pick her up and get her out of the room because I want her to associate it with bedtime so there is a lot of running up the stairs reinserting the paci and rocking the cradle. By the time she is sleeping, I am very ready for bed myself and feel like I have gotten nothing done in the evening. I am a little nervous about how this will work when I start school.

Firsts: First attempt at sleeping in the crib (8/9), first polo match (8/8), and first bottle (8/3). Daddy fed her while I was out at my cooking group and he reported back that after the initial shock of what was going in her mouth she did great and ate 4 ounces.

Eating: Brea is nursing great and eats every 2.5 to 3 hours. I am considerably less strict about meal times with her. Isla was on a 3 hour on the dot schedule but Brea pretty much eats on demand, which is every 2.5 to 3 hours. She has only taken 2 bottles and seemed to be doing fine with those...she will have to get used to it because I go back to school in a week.

Sleeping: Brea usually takes one long nap a day and several short naps. She generally goes down easily although sometimes you have to keep the paci in her mouth until she is asleep enough to not care when it falls out. Sound familiar?! ::cough:: Carter ::cough:: Night time has been a different story. Bedtime routine hasn't been fun as stated above and night feedings are hit or miss. I can tell how the night will go by how she nurses. If she doesn't fuss while nursing she will fall asleep and stay asleep. However, if she is fussy during mealtime than she will be awake after eating. Usually she isn't fussy just awake although the first several night she did this she was cranky because I kept forcing her to go back to sleep. One night was particularly bad and Matt had to walk her around the neighborhood at 2 in the morning. It marked the FIRST time Matt dealt with one of our baby's at night. This is certainly NOT a slam against Matt. He is always willing to help with the babies but since they nursed at night and went back to sleep he never really had to. There have been several nights where Brea has been up to two hours in the middle of the night (early morning) after her nursing session. Yuck! She generally has one long stretch at night and has gone as long as 8 hours between feedings. But that is certainly not the norm and she is definitely not consistent. Always keeping us on our toes and I never know what the night is going to bring.

Personality: I would say that Brea is a pretty content baby. Evening hours are her 'fussy time' but she doesn't have to cry for 2 hours straight. She is just a little more temperamental during these hours. Luckily it has been warm enough for us to go outside, which has been beneficial for everyone's sanity. She put herself on a EASY routine (eat, active, sleep, you) and being a 'veteran' mom I quickly picked up on her cues. She eats and then is up for 45 minutes to an hour before she gets crabby. When she starts whimpering it is time to get her swaddled and give her the paci. Her longest naps have been 2 to 2.5 hours with shorter cat naps lasting anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour. Rinse and repeat. She HAS to be swaddled for bed. When she was smaller a normal swaddled worked but now she is 'double' swaddled for naps and bed.

She is smiling now and coos. Love! One morning she was up for the day at 6 am (boo!) but I laid her next to me and she 'talked' to the fan and even squealed for the first time. It was adorable, which made the early morning much more pleasant. Also, led to Carter calling her piglet.

The Superficial: She is a beautiful girl! She is wearing size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes. She has some adorable rolls on her legs! Brea has dark blue eyes and light blonde hair but not a lot of it. She is currently rocking some cradle cap that we are working to get rid of. Also, she had a pretty nasty rash for about a week. It started out looking like baby acne but then looked more like a rash and spread all over her face and scalp. I even called the doctor because it got so bad but the nurse informed me that as long as it didn't bother her and she didn't have a fever to just wait it out. And it did eventually go away.

Sibling Comparison: Brea reminds me a lot of Carter! She looks more like Carter did as a baby and her 'cry' face is almost identical to Carter's.

Another comparison not being able to keep the paci in her mouth! There are many nights and naps where I have to sit and hold the paci in Brea's mouth until she is asleep. I had to do the exact same thing with baby Carter. He couldn't hold a paci in his mouth until he was like 9 months old so here's hoping that Brea figures it out before then!! She will take a paci like her siblings, which is nice.