Two months old and still growing!

By the time Charlotte was two months old, she was pretty much completely in 000 clothes - the speed at which she was out-growing her clothes (and still does) completely amazed me. Babies grow fast!! I wish I really did listen to friends and paid more attention to what I read in books when I was told not to buy too much stuff early on because you'll just never use/wear it. How true that is! I have some really gorgeous outfits in Charlotte's closet that she has never, ever worn because she grew so quickly and simply could not wear that many clothes.

It's hard to know what to do with the old clothes. If I were younger or more 'committed' (?) to being a parent, I would probably say to myself "I'll put them aside for the next baby". But in this case, there isn't going to be another baby. But I can't bring myself to get rid of them because I feel they haven't been appreciated enough or looked at enough :-( I could sell them on ebay, but I probably wouldn't get enough for them to really justify the effort (or to reflect what I feel their true value is, in a more emotional way). So for now, the outgrown clothes have been vacuum packed into bags and stored in the wardrobe. Who knows, maybe Charlotte will play dress-up with her dolls one day?

At two months, Charlotte's smiles were becoming more frequent, but still rather random in nature. They weren't always related to something we'd said or done, but it was nice to get the recognition all the same ;-)

One thing I really noticed was how easily soothed Charlotte was by B's voice. Whether it was his tone or the fact that she didn't hear it as often as mine and therefore was more of a novelty, she would almost instantly behave better when she heard him speak. Of course, this meant that the 'devil child' I complained about to B as soon as he got home from work had all but disappeared for him when he started the 6pm feed. Who'd have thought my life would turn into that stereotype - being the harried, stuck-at-home Mum with a crying baby who complains about said baby to hubbie, only to have the bub start to behave perfectly as soon as hubbie walks through the door. That's a picture I really don't find amusing!

We were still having some feeding troubles at this point and at one point I wondered if she was mildly lactose intolerant. But I realised that if she were lactose intolerant, then she'd probably not be quite as settled as she was after her feed and would be quite distressed after each feed. She did show some occasional signs of distress, but certainly not after each feed. So once again, I had to just keep believing it would all get better in time and I should stop worrying and just enjoy my baby!

I had a visit with my friend J around this time who helped me do a feed. It was interesting to hear her say how 'tense' Charlotte felt after the feed, like she wasn't as settled and relaxed as I thought she was. After J pointed this out to me, I realised I had noticed this as well and wondered what I could do about it. Partly I think it was Charlotte 'feeding' off me and my stress with her regurgitation, but I think she might also not be taking her formula as well as I once thought she was. You really could feel her whole body was quite tense after her feed, as she tried to burp and process her food. So I made the decision to move from the cheaper Heinz formula to the more expensive Nan formula and see if this made a difference. In fact, I think it did. After that point, Charlotte regurgitated her food a little less and she seemed to lose some of the rigidity and tension I felt in her body after a feed. Whether it was just me becoming more relaxed or her actually taking the formula better, for what ever reason, I felt we were starting to get somewhere with her feeding problems.

Charlotte being comforted by J after her feed