Sooooooooooo Big! Redux (Part 8)

And a Madness update.

Momma’s first week back to school is now officially over and everyone survived! The only problem was Wednesday when Maddy got a severe case of the fuss. I got off work at 10:00 a.m. because of the rain, so I picked up my baby and we met Momma and the girls for lunch at Subway. Back at home at noon, Maddy took a very short nap, got in a little tummy time (let’s just say she isn’t too fond of tummy time) and listened, danced and bounced to some music before hitting the bottle. She finished the full 4.5 oz. bottle without coming up for air, burped big, and then started crying. She very rarely finishes a bottle so I was sure she wasn’t still hungry but this was definitely her ‘feed me’ cry. I made her a 2.5 oz. ‘snacker’ bottle and plugged it in. GONE!

About this time Momma got home from work and got some Maddy time while I prepped dinner. Happy Maddy lasted until about 5:00, she was very very tired seeing as Daddy didn’t get her to take a good nap, and she just plain didn’t want to be tired. So she started to get a little crabby. And the crabbiness increased to a crying jag. And the crying jag turned into a full fledged screaming fit. The screaming caused her to swallow a BUNCH of air and the resulting gassiness caused an all out fuss that lasted until 9:30 with a 30 minute break while she was in the tub. She was all smiles in the tub, all screams out of the tub.

But other than that we’ve had a very good week.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

So how big is a baby in week 8?

The average baby weighs about 10 ¾ pounds and is 21 ¾ inches long this week. Maddy went in for her 2 month check up Monday and weighed in at 11 pounds (still) so she’s right on schedule now. She was measured at 23 ½ inches long. Remember last week when we said she was on the short side? Please disregard that statement! She’s in the 90th percentile for length.

By now a baby’s short-term memory is beginning to develop. Previously there was some ‘recognition’ memory, differentiating between familiar and new objects, but now there is an association between certain events and their consequences. Such as getting excited about feeding when seeing a bottle, or getting excited about a bath when she is undressed and taken into the bathroom. In Maddy’s case, when she’s hungry the whole neighborhood knows it and she doesn’t usually stop singing for her supper until the milk hits her lips! The bath is one of her favorite activities of the day and she really does seem to know its coming. Really, other than that the only regular cause-effect activity for her to have learned is that immediately after a wee hours feeding, whether she drinks 1 oz. or all 4.5 oz., we go right back to sleep. No second chances, no snacking. She’s got this down pat. She has slept through every single night save for one and that was only because of gas pains.

A two month old baby should be returning most smiles with smiles of their own and will even begin smiling without instigation. They might try to imitate some of the exaggerated facial expressions of the people they are interacting with and may really enjoy a look in a mirror. They will also begin adding new sounds to their ‘vocabulary.’ Now the cooing may be accompanied by some grunting, gurgling, and humming to express moods and feelings. Check, check, check, and check in Maddy’s case. She is all about interacting now and IT IS AWESOME!

Physical abilities will be greatly increasing now. Neck muscles should be strong enough to hold their heads up when they are in a sitting position. Their eyes can focus on objects up to 10 feet away now and they may follow a person walking toward, past, or away from them. Increased control means increased activity, legs bicycling, arms windmilling, rocking themselves, etc. That, in turn means a lot more waking time. Maddy can definitely hold her head up. Here’s a picture of her sitting in her Bumbo chair.


And we know that she can track our movements. During Wednesday’s fuss we put her in the swing so we could eat and when I went to get my soda from the kitchen she thought I was coming to pick her up so she calmed down for the three seconds it took her to realize that I wasn’t going to get her. She is always in motion, kicking, punching, and headbutting, and thus she is awake A LOT more, which is what usually starts a fuss.

And now, a little about how we can help babies learn and play.

Appeal to their developing senses, bright colors, bold patterns, many different textures, and fun sounds.

Act like baby’s mirror. Any time you are interacting (bath, diaper change, playtime, etc.) imitate their facial expressions exaggeratedly. Match them smile for smile, grimace for grimace, pout for pout. Then see if you can get baby to match your grimaces and pouts.

Tummy time is getting more and more important as they will do ‘pushups’ and in the process, learn to coordinate head and eye movements.

Play the ‘rattle game.’ Shake a rattle on one side of baby’s head then move it slowly to the other side, shaking it all the while. Bring it into their line of sight and let them reach for it. This will help develop hand-eye coordination and strengthen their ability to locate a moving object.

Storytelling, storytelling, storytelling. Be it from a book or something nonsensical that you make up as you go, you CAN NOT go wrong telling a baby stories.

That's all we have for today. We put a couple dozen more pictures in the web album for your enjoyment.