2 Months

Darcy is two months old today. Crazy right!? She is getting big really fast. It's so much fun to watch her change and have her interact with us a little more all the time.

Things we want to remember about Darcy's second month:

-14 lbs. 12 oz.! 23 1/2 inches. Almost twice her birth weight.

-People always guess she is around 4-6 months old instead of 2!

-Loves diaper changing time! That's when she smiles the most.

-Really happy in the morning.

-She is getting really good at holding her head up during tummy time. The doctor said she will be rolling over by four months. She's already starting to try.

-Her three hours of crying at night has now gotten down to 15 minutes!

-Making lots of cute baby noises.

-Loves taking a bath and is starting to kick in the water. Hates getting out.

I made these blocks for her wall but they were still not up so I decided to take a picture of her with them just for fun.
Darcy at 2 months in her cute ladybug outfit my mom got her. We have kind of nicknamed her "bug" because she has so many clothes with ladybugs on them.
A close up. I don't know what was with the lighting. Maybe some day I'll figure out how to work my camera. :)

I took her to the doctor yesterday for her two month well baby checkup and forgot they had told me she was going to have shots (I know, how brain-dead could I be). I was not prepared. I need to have some time to prepare myself mentally for these things. It was so horrible. It completely broke my heart. I was trying to be tough, but I ended up bawling anyway. It just killed me because she was laying there on the table and I was talking to her and she was smiling and making cute baby noises and then BAM! Then she started screaming. She was starting to calm down again when they hit her with the next one. They did it three times!! They have just got to figure out how to do all that in one shot. I hate that she doesn't know what's going on. I can just hear her saying "Mom, why are you letting them do this to me? I thought you loved me!!" It still breaks my heart to think about it. I just wanted to cuddle with her the rest of the day. The whole rest of the day she took really long naps that I had to wake her up from to eat, and I could hear her whimpering in her sleep...soo sad. I have always hated shots, but it was ten times worse to have my baby get poked.
I'm pretty sure it was worse for me than for her and I know that was a really dramatic paragraph and that it really was for her own good, but it really was sad for me.

Miscellaneous

Nothing very serious has been going on around here, so here are just a few random things that have happened recently.
Darcy has gone from crying for three hours every night to crying for one hour, which still isn't very fun, but it feels much better. A lady in our ward studies babies for a living (we hit the jackpot there) and I talked to her about these crying episodes. She says that Darcy sounds like the classic case of just needing to release energy before she sleeps. She has no control over her body at this point so the only way to do that is to cry. It is nice to feel like we at least know why she is crying. We just hold her and let her cry. Fun huh!? :) The other night she had just started her nightly crying episode when Drew walked in the door. Not long after her took her from me she fell asleep on his shoulder. It must have just seemed like too much work to do all that crying that night. It was so cute! I guess she was just waiting for her Dad so she could fall asleep.
I just love these pictures over our shoulders with her eyes wide open, so here's another one. The main comment we are getting from people these days is, "Look at those cheeks!" I'm sure you're all thinking the same thing. We love kissing these cheeks!!
This summer my friend Jamie had this awesome water bottle from REI that I coveted. I wanted one so bad but I couldn't justify spending the money for it. I'm just too cheap! I had told Drew about it, so he knew I was in the market for a water bottle and he went on the hunt (the free hunt of course). First, he won a survival kit at one of his APX meetings and was so excited to bring me the water bottle from it. I was excited too. When we got to Pittsburgh he found a water bottle he'd gotten from BYU-I for graduation and decided that one was better so he gave that one to me. Last week he went to a job fair and got an even better water bottle from a company there and rushed it home to me. Then at the beginning of this week he hit the jackpot! At a meeting for internships he spotted a table across the room with camelback water bottles on it. He rushed over and snatched one up. He was so proud when he walked in with that in his hand, and let me tell you...I love it!! It actually is almost exactly like the water bottle Jamie had, and it was free. AWESOME!

I thought it was so cute and thoughtful how excited Drew was to find these for me. Water bottles are better than flowers I decided!

Is It My Birthday?!

I've been wondering if I miscalculated and today is my birthday, because Darcy has been giving me the best present ever all day long. Smiles! She started smiling last week, but it wasn't until today that I knew for sure she was smiling at me. I got her out of bed this morning and she immediately shot me a big grin, and she hasn't stopped ever since. It's the best! Not only that, but she slept really well last night so I could get some much needed rest, and she has taken two good long naps so I have been able to get a lot done around the house. I'm just sure it must be my birthday!! :)

I was so excited to get video proof. I highly recommend and appreciate if you would turn off your sound so you don't hear me sounding like an idiot. Believe me I tried to get her to do it without me talking but it just didn't work. P.S. I got her onesie at target for 98 cents! What a steal.
She even let me get a picture. What a poser. :)
I decided to add a couple extra pictures just for fun. I have been trying to get a picture like this for a while now. After she eats and I'm burping her over my shoulder she is soo wide-eyed and curious. I wish you could see the color of her eyes better. I know they will probably change, but at the moment they are the most amazing kind of dark sea blue, which makes these wide-eyed moments ever better.
This picture cracks me up. I just thought everyone should get to see her toned physique!

Pictures

Occasionally I am harassed for not posting pictures of Darcy often enough, so here are a few for the harassers!

I love this picture! This was taken just a minute ago. She was laying on the couch and I thought it was the perfect chance to get a good picture of her onesie from her G&G Christensen and just as I snapped it she smiled (and flailed her arms apparently)! YAY! Maybe some day I will get one with her eyes opened.

The was the shot I was going for. It was still a little big last time we tried to take these pictures. Now it is nice and tight and you can see all the words.

I ordered these crocheted headbands and a little crocheted beanie for her about a month before she was born, and when they still hadn't come by the time we left Philadelphia I was soo sad. I had called a few times, but just got someone's cell phone answering machine I think. Luckily I had changed my address, because I was just about to give up and order some new ones when they showed up in the mail at the beginning of last week! I was really excited, although I am still confused why it took that long to come. She looks so cute with these big flowers on her head, but honestly I don't think she loves them as much as I do...sad. This flower my cousin Dione made for her. I love it! Thanks Dione.

Dressed up for an outing in her car seat. Purple day!!

Baby Whisperer

So it turns out this mom thing is harder than I thought it would be! I actually thought it would be hard, but it has exceeded my expectations. I have spent the past couple weeks feeling pretty inadequate as a mom. Darcy has spent almost every night for the past couple weeks, from 9-midnight, crying. Drew and I would bounce her, rock her, snuggle her, sing to her, change her diaper, burp her, feed her, cry with her (not Drew-just to clarify), and whatever else we could possibly think of to fix it, but nothing was working and we were definitely feeling overwhelmed (and kind of like big fat losers in the parenting realm).

I realize that first paragraph sounds really negative and depressing, but that really is not the point. First, I wanted to make that confession just in case there was anyone else out there feeling the same way and thinking they were the only one (like I felt for a while). Second, and most important, I want to share what has finally helped and given me hope! Secrets of the Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg. I think this book has saved my life. I really wish I would have read it before I had my baby, and I would definitely recommend it to everyone, whether you have a baby already or not, just so you're prepared. I know maybe everyone won't be as into it as I am, but if you end up having a little bit of a harder baby some day, you might come back to it. Read it!

Just so you know, we love our little Darcy so much! It is so exciting to watch her change and grow. Yesterday I'm pretty sure she was smiling at us! I'm not totally sure about that, but it really seemed like it. Even though we have had a little rough patch we sure wouldn't send her back! :)