Babywise baby newborn summary for weeks 8-9, or two months old. Read all about life for this newborn babywise baby and see a 2 month old routine.

This is a summary for McKenna for week 8-9, or the ninth week. McKenna also turned two months old during this week. This was a week of disruptions! McKenna finished her growth spurt the first day of this week, but she was unable to get back on track for naps due to several days of major disruptions. Here we go:

GAS

Gas remains the same so far as I can tell. I have not tried weaning her from her gas drops and gripe water, nor do I intend to for quite some time. Many of you have commented about cutting food out of my diet–thank you! I appreciate everyone’s tips. I have, however, tried cutting foods out of my diet with no luck. Gas is rarely a disruption to her, and I think it is just a fact of life for being a newborn. From what I have read, many newborns have gas. It goes away as the digestive system matures and also as the baby is able to be more active.

I have also done a lot of reading on Kellymom.com and according to the site, the food mom eats rarely is a culprit for gas in a baby. There are cases, but for most babies it is just a fact of life. For more on baby gas, see this post.

NURSING

Nursing remains the same. She eats well. I have no infections at all, so that is nice 🙂

2 month old Newborn Routine pinnable image

WAKETIME

Waketime is very elusive for me right now. I have been working on trying to figure out what is optimal for her. She has started taking about 20-30 minutes to fall asleep. She isn’t crying about it, just taking that long. If I didn‘t have a video monitor, I would assume she is asleep because she doesn’t make a peep most of the time. I am not even sure if this is a real problem. The Baby Whisperer (Hogg) says that it takes the average baby 20 minutes to fall asleep, with some being faster and some taking longer. So according to that, McKenna is right on track.

The reason I am testing things to see is because McKenna used to fall right asleep and I am not always seeing sleep cues from her. It is possible that McKenna is just more awake now and is taking longer to settle down. But it is also possible that she needs a different waketime length, so I am testing things just to be sure. Her waketime this week ranged from 45-60 minutes, with 50 minutes being the average. Results varied. My husband pointed out that I might be trying to hit a moving target; in other words, for some times of day perhaps 60 is optimal while others it needs to be more like 45. Very true. It is all about trial and error, and the funny thing is that “optimal” changes all the time. I am guessing time and age will fix things 🙂

The funny thing is that if I didn’t have a video monitor, I wouldn’t even suspect a problem. I would think everything was fine, and so maybe it is? I have never had a video monitor before, so it is a whole new world.

You can purchase the logs I designed and use here.

Overcoming the Mental Load of Motherhood

Chronicles of a Babywise Mom Book of Logs

NAPS

Naps varied. They were often shorter as we were trying to get back down to a solid, consistent routine. As a note, that is kind of a bad time to try to figure out optimal waketime and expect sound results. But it must be done.

WITCHING HOUR

McKenna had some evenings with a witching hour, and some when she didn’t. And for her, she is only upset if she is not being held. If she is held, she is happy. If she is in her bed or her swing, she is unhappy. I can really sense if she is having a witching hour or not. Some nights I think, “Ahh. It is my McKenna, the girl I know.” Other nights I know she is not herself. When I can tell she isn’t herself, I will put her in her swing where she will often fuss (though not always) and then fall asleep. I then wake her up to cluster feed. It is only a problem after the 6 PM feeding. Here is more information on this witching hour.

NIGHTTIME SLEEP

Her nighttime sleep continued to improve. When she ate her one time in the night, she often would only eat from one side and then make it to her morning waketime, so I could tell she was moving closer to being able to sleep through the night.

SWADDLING

One day I started to wonder at what age I left one arm out of Kaitlyn’s swaddle. I turned to my blog and was shocked to find out that she was 6 weeks old! That seems so young to me now. I also tried weaning Kaitlyn from the swaddle all together at 9 weeks, which she was not ready for. I wouldn’t even consider it right now. Either I am more aware of the signs of being ready, or I am suffering even more from “youngest child syndrome” where you think your youngest child is incapable of things you thought older children were capable of. My guess is a bit of both. I plan to try one arm out soon…but I am not sure exactly when. I guess right now it doesn’t seem to be an issue, so I will continue the full swaddle for a while more. It is a first step in weaning, and I did wean Kaitlyn between 3-4 months, so I will try it soon. I definitely didn’t want to start it this week while we were dealing with and recovering from so many disruptions.

OUTINGS/EVENTS

We started the week off with a birthday party for Brayden. It was a busy day with grandparents and great grandparents, so she was disrupted that late afternoon/early evening. That alone would not have been a big deal. The big deal came the next day.

It was her blessing day (slightly similar to a christening or baptism). It was a full day of disruption starting with church and ending with lots of family and friends at our home. She had a rough time–she was so tired! She was good; she got lots of comments on what a good, sweet baby she is. But you know as a mom when your baby is being overstimulated and such. She was a bit frantic by evening. But she slept well that night to help make up for it.

We then had a day to try to get stabilized. But the next day was her two month appointment and her shots. Another day thrown off. The next day we had a birthday party to go to in the evening. The next day was the last day of her week. There were just a lot of disruptions for her to work through. It can take several days up to a couple of weeks for a baby this young to bounce back after disruptions. She hasn’t had three days of consistency yet, so hopefully in the future she can get it just so things can normalize for her again.