Now that Meredith’s cheeks have filled out a few pounds, she’s looking more like her sisters!
Two-month comparison to Amelia and Samantha:
Meredith and Samantha (middle photo) could be twins! Meredith is looking more and more like her oldest sister at this age by the hour. You’d think this would automatically mean that she also looks like two-month-old Amelia since the twins are identical, but it hasn’t seemed that way so far. The twins looked more dissimilar when they were babies than they do now and Meredith is trending toward the Samantha side.
Exhibit A:
Two-month-old Samantha (left) and Meredith (right) flirting with the ceiling fan in our room (a favorite pastime of both babies). Such twinners!
Firsts for this month included her first social smile (we think this occurred sometime during week four or five, but I didn’t snap a picture).
More of her adoring public came for baby cuddles.
For the first time, Meredith met her baby friend/fashion guru, Maple!
Meredith was up for longer periods of time this month and practiced tummy time more frequently. She tolerates doing her excercises a lot better than the twins ever did… I have so many memories of them screaming through tummy time!
Meredith even loves to snooze on her tummy when I can supervise her. Side note: I love ruffle butts!
Meredith celebrated Grammy’s 60th birthday this month and enjoyed the nearly 24/7 cuddles while we were getting ready for the twins’ 3rd birthday party.
Meredith had fun interacting with her crazy older sisters more and finds them fascinating! It’s a mutual admiration party as the twins can’t get enough of her. The first thing out of their mouths in the morning is usually, “Where’s Meredith? Can I hold Meredith? Can I read a book to Meredith?” Meredith doesn’t seem to mind being their own personal dolly.
Meredith’s signature look this month was eyes wide open. She is constantly busy at taking in the world around her and detests being in the same boring position or not being able to see around her.
I’m sick of staring at that light on the ceiling. MOVE ME.
Meredith’s “witching hour” is usually in the early evening. This conveniently coincides with the twins’ witching hour and me trying to get dinner on the table. By the time Jake gets home from work, it’s all of our witching hours! I usually hand off the girls and go for a mental health break on the trail with music and Bandit at that point, and tell him that if the coyotes get me, not to look for me.
When the girls were this age, I have so many memories of Jake coming home to find me sitting on the bed with both twins in their boppies and all three of us crying. Some things don’t change; although, I’d say my endurance is a lot stronger now!
Her favorite room is not her subdued and tranquil nursery, but the twins’ colorful room. I kept a changing pad on their dresser and that’s where we do the majority of her diaper changes since she likes swatting at the dresses hanging on the shelf above and looking around at the owls painted on the walls. She gets so excited whenever she sees those owls!
Around Week Six, Meredith had a horrible case of baby acne that lasted over a week. Her face was incredibly bumpy and red. This also happened to coincide with going through an uncharacteristically fussy stage. I read somewhere that all of these are pretty common for Week Six, and that parent sleep-deprivation also reaches its peak at the same time. I can vouch for this being true.
This month, Meredith accompanied the twins on outings to the park or to their gymnastics class almost every day. She was pretty happy in her stroller, but definitely preferred to be walked around in her Solly wrap. If she started getting fussy, I would put her in the wrap and go for a walk outside and, like clockwork, she’d calm down and eventually conk out. She absolutely craves the fresh air and change of scenery.
Meredith and her sisters played this month under her baby gym and with whatever toys the girls thought she’d be entertained.
Meredith was amused watching her sisters pretend to be babies.
Meredith rolled over from her tummy to her back this month and definitely seemed to have surprised herself!
As previously mentioned, she loved the fan! She also laughed for the first time this month.
Meredith celebrated her first Easter and wished she could have collected eggs with the twins instead of posing for pictures.
Working on her triple chin! At Meredith’s two-month appointment, she weighed in at 13 pounds 7 ounces and was 24.5 inches long– both above the 90th percentile. What a chunk!
She’s obviously been eating well! During the whole slab leak debacle, we started giving her more bottles, which was convenient at the time, but also resulted in her growing frustrated of breastfeeding. By her two-month birthday, we completely switched over to pumping milk and bottle feeding with milk or the formula I kept on hand if I missed a pumping session or when needed.
Even though this wasn’t my original plan, I personally found this a lot easier to get out and about with her and to manage the twins. I thought breastfeeding with her would be a breeze since I breastfed the twins at the same time for the first three months before switching over to pumping, but I didn’t take into account the constraints on my time and sanity having to manage the twins while feeding her. Meredith loves Daddy being able to feed her, not to mention I don’t mind the break!
Sleep-wise, Meredith began to fall into a more predictable pattern. Her wake-time for the day was around 6/7 a.m., and she’d take five or six naps during the day, before her “bedtime” at 7/8 p.m. By the end of Month 2, we’d dreamfeed her around 10 or 11 and then she wouldn’t eat again until 4:30/5 a.m., effectively eliminating the middle of the night feed. By the end of the month, she was pretty consistent with going 5-6 hours between her feed at night (angels SING!) It took until nearly Month 4 for the twins to sleep that long at night without eating, so this seems like a miracle in comparison!
That being said, “naps” were a lot harder this month due to Meredith being so much more alert and busy. She became overtired so easily just because she couldn’t stand not seeing what was going on around her. If I didn’t catch her first signs of tiredness quick enough, it was a grand mal meltdown later.
Naps in her crib were hit or miss. If we were outside, she’d happily fall asleep in her wrap or stroller. When we were inside, it was usually so loud that she slept much better being carried or in her wrap. I’m hoping she’ll get so used to the chaos that she’ll be one of those babies who will sleep through anything!
Meredith continued to adore bath time, which usually calmed her down enough to forget she was supposed to be in her witching hour.
Such a content and sweet girl!
Amelia and Samantha at two months:
Our roly poly Meredith.
Happy two months to our very busy baby!
Lots of love,
