Cara is 2 months old!

Stats: At her 8-week appointment yesterday, she weighed 11 lbs even and was 22.5 inches. Her head measured 15.5 in diameter. She's in the 50th percentile for height and weight--right in the middle. She's filled out so much in the last month, according to the side-by-side comparison.

Milestones: She's sitting up on her own a lot better, though still not able to sit on her own completely. I guess it's more like she leans better. :) She grins, smiles and coos, she reacts to our voices, her movements are a little more controlled. Her neck is getting so strong--it won't be long until she's holding her head up all by herself. I will be so relieved when that happens because she won't feel as fragile, I think.

Behavior: Really, really sweet. Her reflux medicine is really working, and she's just become such a sweet girl lately. We started doing Babywise around 6-7 weeks, and I was surprised to see that she'd already been putting herself on that kind of schedule. After she eats, she's really calm and serene during her waketime. She still screams bloody murder, but I'm glad to have more moments of fun with her.

Sleep: On her 6-week day, she slept through the night! From 9 p.m.-6 a.m. Of course, I woke up at 2, 3 and 5 and stared at the monitor to make sure she was OK. :) She didn't do it again until she was about 7-7.5 weeks, and now she's pretty much consistently going at least 7 hours at a stretch, sometimes even 9! That makes mama SO HAPPY! She takes 2-3 naps during the day still that vary from 30 minutes to 3 hours. I'm betting daycare will regulate her naps a little better. She sleeps in her Nap Nanny still because we've been too afraid to put her horizontal in her crib because of the reflux. But if she's happy and safe there, I'm all for it. We put it on the floor in front of her crib, so the monitor still picks her up.

Clothes: 0-3 clothes, and she's filling them out nicely. Size 1 diapers. It was a sad day when we used the last newborn diaper and I packed away her newborn clothes. There weren't many, but I sat and remembered each outing or visitor or activity we had in those outfits and marveled that she'd ever been that small. She's getting so long and getting more and more chunky. My seasonal favorites are fleecy pjs. She's just so cuddly and soft in them; I wish it was more economical to buy tons of them!

Favorite moments: Certainly her smiles and coos. When I go to get her up in the mornings, I pick her up and talk really excitedly to her as I lay her on the changing pad, and she just calms down and grins at me. Makes my morning. I still love when she naps on my chest. Last week, I was about to put her down, but she was fussing so I cuddled her up and she fell sound asleep against my chest almost instantly. It was the most random thing, but we ended up sitting in the recliner and she napped for almost 3 hours. I had errands to run, but there was no way I was giving up that sweet time! Now that she's more interactive, I also like taking her places and introducing her to people. We went today to a local news station, KWTX, for me to film a segment for a show called Moms Everyday. I'm friends with one of the anchors, and she read my blog post about my new-mom lessons and wanted me to talk about some of those things. It was fun to go to a TV studio, and the segment will air next week!

Most challenging: When she screams her head off and I don't know how to help her. She's moving past her basic needs of diaper/feeding/sleep, so I have to do more detective work when she's fussy. Is she cold? Bored? Lonely if she's in her swing? Uncomfortable? It's hard to figure out what she needs.

Looking forward to: Enjoying every minute of our last week at home together. I go back to work on Monday. This week is her first Halloween, Baylor Homecoming, my birthday and a visit from Mimi, so we're going to finish out strong. I will be so sad to leave her at Columbus next week... I'm looking forward to the structure and schedule of school, but not saying goodbye to this sweet time we've had together. It has been hard, boring, stressful and tense sometimes, but it has also been fun, silly, relaxing and special. I'll never get such uninterrupted time again, where I don't have to think about school or students or work responsibilities. Even the summer is full of that kind of stuff. I'm going to make the most of this last week and focus on the positive things.