Two Months!

Nigel turned two months old last Friday, March 20. He now weighs 5.9 kilos. This morning when I was burping him I felt like I was hugging a small child and not a baby. Good thing that he’s not one of those difficult babies who won’t go to sleep or pipe down without being carried and rocked. Nigel knows how to sleep by himself. Although sometimes he wants to be rocked to help him sleep (I just sit on a rocking chair. It guarantees a long deep sleep). Nonetheless, he is seldom fuzzy.

I bet his immune system will be much stronger than mine or Butch’s when he grows up. I am trying my best to keep him on breast milk. I want him to be exclusively on breast milk for at least six months. He had the HIB 1 immunization yesterday. Of course he cried. I expected a slight fever and readied the paracetamol. But he was as smiley and lively as ever when we got home. He even finished 12 ounces of milk within an hour that evening! He showed no signs of fever.

The rashes on his face is really bothering me. They say all infants go through a phase of all sorts of rashes, it will pass and I know Nigel’s will to. But the rashes keep coming back. It comes and it goes. The pedia told me to just apply a thin layer of hydrocortisone when it gets really red.
Anyway, here are some developmental milestones for a 2 month old baby and how Nigel has displayed them.
Head control 45 degrees.
I think he could raise his head up more than 45 degrees. He likes doing it when I am burping him. He would raise his head steadily for a few seconds. I would see this look of sense of accomplishment on his face as he looks at objects around him.
Social smile.
Nigel has been smiling even during his first few weeks. But I found out that that was just because of gas. A new born also smiles when he or she is satisfied. A genuine social smile happens when the baby does it after being talked to. During his waking hours, my family would speak to him and Nigel would give them this cute grin exposing toothless gums! Sometimes he would even throw in a peel of laughter and make adorable sounds his immature but developing vocal chords could muster.

Projectile pee and explosive poo

Although breastfeeding has tons of benefits for the baby, it also has numerous drawbacks. One of which is that the baby poops more often. And it’s not the normal poop, it would come out with a lot of air making this loud sound and forceful exit. My sister Amy described it as “explosive”. Butch has been a victim of Nigel’s explosive poo on numerous occasions. He was burping him one time when the poo spilled out of the diaper and onto his shirt. Even funnier, In the middle of a diaper change Nigel suddenly did his thing. Because of the force, the poo landed everywhere but the diaper. There was some on the crib, the nearby study table and chair and of course all over daddy! I was laughing my head off when Butch told me the story. Fortunately, I’ve not encountered the explosive poo but I have been a victim of Nigel’s projectile pee too many times. All moms with baby boys have probably experienced this- urine shooting up all of a sudden during a diaper change. What’s worse is that he sometimes does it in the middle of a bath or when I am all done and just about to lift him off the tub. The pee would mix on the water he’s been soaking on. I would start all over again keeping my fingers crossed that he won’t pee again. That happened during the first weeks. Now I am a bit wiser. To prevent this, I never give Nigel baths or change his diaper immediately after a feeding. I wait about thirty minutes or so. It has worked so far. No more projectile pee for me!

Nigel Sucks

When Nigel was a few weeks old, he couldn’t suckle properly. Instead on latching on when I would bring him to my breast, he would suck his lower lip and make this cute squeaky sound! It looked absolutely adorable at first but later on it got in the way of suckling correctly causing much frustration on my part. I tried for a couple of days for both of us to master the “art of breastfeeding" but Nigel would get all fuzzy so I would end up giving him a bottle of expressed breast milk. Eventually, I got used to the routine of pumping milk regularly and forgot all about breast feeding. It was tedious but that was the only way I knew to keep him on breast milk.

Until last week, one afternoon, I was too lazy to get and heat his bottle. So I tried feeding him directly from me. To my surprise, he finally got it! He no longer fuzzed. He opened his mouth wide, latched on and started suckling. His chin and cheeks were moving as if he was really getting milk and I saw the same satisfaction he has on his face during a hearty bottle feeding session. He had two loud burps after assuring me he fed well. I felt triumphant and proud! I don’t know, maybe his mouth was too small before or something. There will be fewer bottles for me to clean. I still need to express milk to allow Butch and other family members to feed him. I’m just happy he finally gets it.