2 Months of Paloma

Our first month and a half we had one heck of a time trying to figure this girl out. At first we thought she was fussy from my breastmilk, then as we transitioned to formula, we realized that it’s not a “one size fits all” kind of thing. Funny thing is, I tried to equip myself as much as possible after going through the whirlwind newborn stage with Rhona, so we bought a Snoo, a swing and a bunch of other gear I wish I had when I was a new mama. We took Paloma in after we noticed that something just wasn’t right with P and one of the things her doctor told us was that she thinks she has early onset motion sickness. Ha! Sayonara expensive gear. My baby prefers to sleep on her back in the comfort of her bassinet. After a handful of formula samples, sleepless days and long nights, we finally got the real P. This was around week 4/5, so we’re kind of just starting to learn her.

So far, we know that she is generally smiley, easy to tend to and full of peace. We’ve always known, even before she was born, that she’d be our peaceful baby, which is how we chose her name because it means dove in spanish — a representation of peace. She loves loves loves her daddy and shows it by giving an ear to ear grin as soon as she hears his voice. She doesn’t love her car seat (just like her older sister), but we all enjoy how sweetly Rhona soothes her baby sister with sweet songs and the reassuring, “it’s okay, polly. no cry.” Makes my mama heart burst!

A few weeks ago, we started to lightly sleep train. We make sure she gets plumped up with milk during the day so she can give us longer stretches at night. We put her down awake and we’re slowly giving her opportunities to learn how to self sooth. She’s still a newborn and like many things during this stage, it’s very inconsistent, especially since we don’t always plan to be home for every nap. She is giving us around 9-10 hour stretches — HECK YEAH! The hardest weeks were probably weeks 3-5 and then now week 9. I’m writing this as Ian is downstairs trying to soothe a baby who hasn’t slept for 6+ hours. So there’s that.

All in all, this experience has been a complete redemption story from when we first became parents and for that, I am grateful. Ian just went back to work after 6ish weeks on paternity leave and we’re starting to get into our groove as a new family of four. Us girls really really miss him when he’s gone so we do our best to keep busy!