Lukas: The First Two Months

We have been terribly lax in updating our blog here...something about the weariness of late pregnancy, and then the craziness of adjusting to life with a newborn. :) Joe has been posting a few times over on his personal blog, though, so if you haven't seen our baby news you'll want to check out these posts:

He's Here, He's Here!
Where Does the Time Go? (one-month update)

Now that I'm sort of getting this whole motherhood thing figured out (ha - I suspect I'll be eating those words!), I'm hoping to write up monthly update on how our little guy is doing, as well as posting a few favorite pictures for the benefit of friends and relatives who aren't on Facebook. Lukas turned 2 months old on January 27 and I wrote this not too long afterwards - I'm just late in getting it posted, but hopefully I can keep up with this better for future months. (Begging and pleading in the comments would be good motivation...just sayin'. ;) ) 

Our little Buddy, January 27, age two months (see the two fingers?).

 At two months of age, Lukas is becoming more and more fun all the time. He's been smiling responsively for a week or two now, occasionally throwing in what almost sounds like a little giggle now and then, and liking to hold "conversations" of coos and grunts and squeals. So adorable! As selfish as it sounds, I've found it very gratifying to feel like he enjoys me as a person (maybe even thinks I'm "fun"?), and I'm not just an on-demand milk machine. ;) He is a very laid-back, calm little fellow, liking to be held but not demanding it constantly. Such a sweetie! Joe and I are typical first-time parents and spend plenty of time just staring at him or trying to catch smiles on camera. :)

At his two-month midwife checkup, Lukas weighed 11 lbs 7 oz, up about 4 pounds from his birthweight. Not bad at all, considering that he was only a little over 8 pounds at one month! He's been wearing 0-3 month clothes for a few weeks, and it's been a lot of fun to have more clothing options after getting by with half a dozen newborn-sized items for the first 5-6 weeks (we hadn't gotten many of the newborn size, thinking he'd only need them for a week or so). He holds his head up really well when we support him in a sitting position, but doesn't have a lot of motivation yet to hold his head up during tummy time. He seems to be so comfy on his tummy that he generally falls asleep instead of wanting to look around. ;) But I'm sure he'll start doing it pretty soon. It's amazing to look back on his newborn pictures and see just how much he has already grown up and changed. I get really sentimental about it all if I let myself think about it long. :sniff:

This month marked a lot of new experiences for Lukas. We took him to church for the first time in mid-January and had fun introducing him to everyone there. He did great through the service, and I didn't even have to take him down to the nursery. Lukas also made his first visit out to Grandpa and Grandma Paul's farm (an hour's drive) in mid-January. It was cold and snowy so he didn't get any real farm exposure, hehe, but we know that someday he will be excited to go there!

Another big "first" was our road trip up to WI, to visit Grandma Kristi, Grandpa Westbrook and Grandma Roni, and to meet Uncle Kyle, Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma W., and a bunch of friends in the area. It was a very full (and cold!) weekend, but Lukas did great and didn't seem much fazed by all the doting attention. He likes his car seat, and the hardest part of the 4.5 hour drive was getting him to eat enough because he kept falling asleep. ;)

Lukas has been sleeping in his little Co-Sleeper bed ever since he was 6 weeks old. We're all sleeping better than we were when trying to all squeeze into our full-size bed! He's usually still awake after his late-night feeding (around 2:00 a.m., since we're on an evening shift for Joe's work), but I'm able to lay him in bed and he'll happily talk/sing/grunt himself to sleep. Most often he'll sleep for 4-5 hours before waking me up for a meal; that takes about an hour, and then he goes right back to sleep for another 3 hours or so. This leaves me with about 6 hours of sleep most nights, so I'm thankful for the days when I'm able to squeeze in an evening nap. But overall the interrupted sleep has been a lot easier for me to handle than I anticipated, thank God! I feel a lot more rested than I did when we were on night shift, even though I was generally sleep more hours then.

We have been on our own (without any of my sisters here) for most of this month, and have worked out a decent routine to get the basics done. I have been able to fix lunch most days, but when Lukas is extra hungry and really MUST be fed during the time when lunch needs to be made Joe willingly steps in and does a great job getting food on the table. Other necessities, like laundry, dishes, and bathroom cleaning, get squeezed in at odd moments and the rest...doesn't really happen, heh. I want to truly enjoy these quickly-passing baby days, and try not to get too stressed out by the jobs that aren't getting done. They can wait, and my baby will only be this age once. :)