Natalie is 2 months old!

Natalie is 2 months old today! She's gotten so big and is so interactive now. She's such a blast! This week she's started sticking her tongue out a lot and started holding onto things that her hands happen to encounter (she still can't reach for things yet) -- such as pulling her dress up. Her belly is always showing now. We keep telling her little girls aren't supposed to do that but she finds lifting her dress more fun. She's also been drooling/forming little bubbles a lot.


She's also started trying to pull herself forward by her head -- but she doesn't have total head control yet so she ends up with her head falling forward. But at least she's still trying! :)

Looking back at the first week of photos I posted, you can really tell how much bigger she's gotten from comparing the photo of her in her bouncer.

Today, 2 months old:
Her first week home:
Here are a few more photos of our "monthly photo session". There is a light fixture on the ceiling that she loves looking at which is why in the photo below she's smiling up at the ceiling. I'm not sure what her fascination with the light fixture is (the light's not even on).

We had a major success this week with getting her to take the bottle. I had called the pediatrician's office last Friday to get their suggestion on getting her to take a bottle. After hearing everything we had tried -- 4 bottle types, 2 nipple flows, different milk temp, Emile feeding her, me feeding her, feeding her in different locations and at different times of the day -- the nurse said she thought our only choice left was to withhold breast feeding, making the bottle her only choice. She stated that she would eventually take it (sometime within the day) given she wouldn't let herself starve (comforting!). I was not at all happy with this option. I thought it would be super traumatic for her. So I was going to keep trying different bottle types for awhile longer before giving into such a drastic measure.

Well, on Sunday, although we weren't planning on holding out breast feeding for the day as the nurse suggested, we inadvertently did a test run that worked. I also tried another new bottle (Nuk Ortho) -- the 5th type. Natalie took a little from the bottle when Emile fed her, then started crying, so we decided instead of going straight to breast feeding (usually we gave up after 10-15 min of trying because of the cries -- they break your heart :(, we decided to walk away with her from the bottle for a little while. After about 10 min, we went back and tried again -- she took a little more, then cried. So I tried giving it to her -- she took a little, then cried. In comes the miracle vacuum cleaner -- when she got riled up, we turned it on, she calmed down and took the bottle (we discovered during her 6 week growth spurt that she likes the white noise of the vacuum cleaner). She drank about 1.5-2oz. Then went to sleep! It only took about an hour to get her to take the bottle (I was thinking this process would take all day which would break my heart -- although I still had to stifle my cries while going through this process!). We tried again at her next feeding, and twice a day since -- every time it was offered, she took the bottle, with a little coaxing periodically from the vacuum cleaner. She's now taking about 3.5 oz. at a time and today I didn't have to calm her with the vacuum cleaner noise in order to get her to take it!

I wasn't sure if it was the bottle type or offering it more frequently that convinced her to finally take it so I tried giving her the Playtex Drop-in bottle again on Monday morning to see. Although she would suck on the Playtex bottle, she wasn't getting anything to come out. With the Nuk bottle, she immediately got milk out! So I think it was a combination of getting the right bottle and then continuing to offer it to her until she got it. I'm so relieved! This will make running errands and going back to work so much easier.

We also chose a new nanny, Charlotte. The one we previously met with is not going to work out -- there was a misunderstanding as to the pay. Charlotte seems great and has gotten great reviews from her previous references. She's a college student from England. I think her and Natalie will get a long well. I'm still not really excited about having a nanny in general -- I don't think anyone can take care of her as well as Emile and I but it's necessary. I'm sure the first few weeks will be the hardest.