Josh & Kate + 1: November 2012

When I pictured myself having children I envisioned a carefree, go anywhere, do anything, 'cool' mom. I am pretty far from that. I was very anxious in Cora's first couple months, and preferred to stay home and keep Cora away from the world. She was just so little, and was having a difficult enough time adjusting to this world...the last thing she or I needed was for her to catch an illness. Once she had her two-month checkup and got her immunizations the nightmares I was having about illness slowed, and we got the courage to get out and start exploring. It was right around the time of the Rathgeber family reunion so it worked out perfect. A few things about Cora at 2 months... Height: 21in. Weight: 9lbs. 7oz. Her favorite places to hang out are in the baby K'tan carrier (facing out so she can explore), or bouncing on the exercise ball in front of the TV. Her favorite toy is a star that lights up with different colors that hangs above her on her play mat, she stares at this toy and smiles. She is smiling more consistently. She is pretty into the Baby Einstein DVD's, she will stay pretty locked in for about 10 minutes. At night she has started sleeping 7-9 hours at a time (a lot of that is luck, but she does have a swaddling blanket called the 'miracle blanket' that I really think helps). We like to let her fall alseep in our arms, sometimes Josh and I fight over who gets to do this...there really is nothing better than your baby sleeping in your arms, especially once she started to gain a little wait and got a little squishier :). Now some of the challenges we experienced... she was pretty gassy the first couple months, and it was hard for us to know if we should just let her work it out, and try to help her by giving her something. It was obvious that she was struggling. We ended up trying gripe water for a week or so, but she eventually worked her way out of it and learned how to push the gas out without as much fussing. She also got some relief when I would pump her legs and give her tummy a soft massage. Nursing was really hard for mom and Cora, about 50% of the feedings would consits of Cora screaming and gagging and me trying to bounce her while nursing to calm her down. This went on for 9 weeks...we never did discover what the problem was. I was constantly reading things online and consulting with friends and family to try to figure out what we were doing wrong. I don't think we were doing anything wrong...she just has a hard time eating sometimes, and a bottle made getting through those difficult feedings 10x easier with the consistent flow of milk. 9 weeks of nursing was really stressful, I started to get a little anxiety before every feeding wondering if she would be able to eat or not...Once I accepted that fact that she would be a bottle baby, it was a turning point for us. She ate better (only struggling with about 20% of the feedings), and I didn't feel so rejected multiple times a day. Without that stress and anxiety I felt like I was able to enjoy Cora more, and understand her needs better. Although I didn't want to accept that fact that we couldn't have that 'bonding time', it never was quality 'bonding time' for us...who knows, maybe with the next baby I will have that experience...