Camille's second month: A review

So, I guess I should mention that if there is one thing I have learned in this wild mothering journey, it would be: If you're waiting for the perfect moment to create the perfect blog post, it isn't going to happen.  See?  I don't even have the brain power to be witty about that last statement.  *sigh*

The specs
As of September 16 (1-month check-up)

• Weight: 7 lb 13 oz (10-25th percentile)
• Height: 21 in (50-75th percentile)
• Head: 13.75 in (5-10th percentile)

Milestones & important events
September 17 - Camille's first time at Jollibee.

September 20 - Chin's first day back at work. This was a sad day. Chin missed us so much that he had to come home for lunch. He didn't eat much. Just swooped up the little one and snuggled with her. GT came up to help me adjust to taking care of Camille without Chin. I'm SO thankful for her!

September 23 - My first day of being a full-time mom...flying solo. It went okay :)

September 26 - Camille decided to stay up ALL night. From midnight until 10am. With church starting at 11, we just packed her up and went to church...completely sleep-deprived, but we were glad that we went because of the great sermon on fellowshipping and the real sense of community that we felt when other parents surrounded us with support. We love our church!

September 29 - First time giving Camille a bath without Chin. Wow, that was harder than I thought. But, thankfully, I did not drop her.

October 1 - Camille attended her first wedding!  She wore her first dress, thanks to her little friend Makayla!

Our little lady with the happiest couple of the evening, the Schultheisses!

October 7 - Kind of on a whim, we started cloth-diapering Camille.  I wasn't completely ready to do it, but it worked out well!!  A lot easier than I thought. 

Our big booty girl

October 9 - Again, on a whim, I started Elimination Communication.  Since her first day of life, I've been making this "psst psst psst" sound whenever she poops so she could associate the sound with pooping.  When I put her over the toilet and made the sound, she just let it all out!  I thought it was a fluke at first, but subsequent attempts have been very successful.  So, we're on our way to being diaper free!  Okay...maybe not quite :) 

Poo in the loo

October 11 - I think I saw Camille smiling. I'm pretty sure it was one of her first social smiles. Also, today I found a smear of poop on the back of my hand and didn't know where it came from...and, more importantly, didn't care!

Favorite part...
Hard to say.  But I think I am enjoying motherhood a little more since I'm getting more used to taking care of Camille.  I am loving watching her develop her own personality, especially as she is learning to smile a bit more.

Least favorite... 
Hands down: Chin going back to work.  Followed by how stinkin' hard it is to put Camille to sleep at night.

Shout outs
...To all my friends who have been incredibly supportive in this not-always-natural breastfeeding journey.

...Again, to GT who came up to spend a few days with us as I adjusted to taking care of Camille without Chin.  It was only a few days but it helped me a lot!  Thank you, Sis!

...To these amazing Wee Gallery art cards given to Camille by Auntie Krista.  Camille is really curious about them and is starting to spend a lot of time studying them.

Camille loves these black & white art cards!

...To cousin Donovan who continues to shower Camille with tons of hand-me-downs!

Note that her outfit says "Thank heaven for little boys"

...To the Kalepos for letting Camille borrow their Boppy swing!  It helped us on several occasions when Camille just refused to sleep in her bed.  The Kalepos also passed on about a dozen different pacifiers for us to try out.  Camille has her favorites...and is kind of developing a dependency on them at night.  Ruh roh...

Discoveries & reflections
...I have started sitting in the front seat with Chin, leaving Camille to fend for herself in the backseat.  Which is usually no problem since she often ends up falling asleep in a moving vehicle anyway!

...I really miss Chin after he went back to work. :(

...I felt that Camille would be nice and cute to everyone else...and would save her worst side for me.  I expressed this in an email I sent to Chin the night before his first day back at work (composed in the middle of the night, in tears):

Hi Honey,

I already miss you so much!

Camille finally JUST fell asleep after being cranky for the past two and a half hours.  You know how in "Happy Gilmore," Ben Stiller was mean to all the old people but was super nice to everyone else? I feel that Camille is Ben Stiller and I'm the old grandma.  She shows her worst side to me and no one else sees it.

I am going to miss having you around all the time. You really are the best partner and best dad!

I love you and appreciate you very much, Chin. Can't wait to see you this afternoon!

Love you,
Bao

We lovingly named her "Jerk Baby"

...I am mean to Camille.  I mean, really mean.  But she started it!  As mentioned above, there was one night where Camille kept us up the whole time.  That was the worst incident.  But there were other nights where she would be up either fussing or just simply wanted to play.  On nights where Chin had to work the next day, Chin would often have to go to the other room to sleep.  There I was, with a baby who's a complete jerk...and no husband!  I felt so lonely and upset.  On more than one occasion, I turned this frustration toward Camille.  There was one time where I yanked the pacifier out of her mouth and taunted her.  Man, I feel bad typing that out.  But I did it.  I am mean.

...If a baby has been awake all day, don't assume she will sleep at night.  And if she slept the entire day, don't assume she'll stay up all night.

...I have fast, forceful milk letdown.  I hate it!!  Camille chokes on the milk and would become very frustrated.  She would then unlatch and milk sprays everywhere (up to 15 inches)!!  After researching a ton online, I decided to send out a desperate call for help in the form of an email to some of the best breastfeeding experts: my friends.  I am so thankful for their responses.  Many useful tips.  But mostly just comfort and support for the weary.  I am so grateful for these gals!

It's pretty easy to love her when she is this adorable

...One time, I was watching a "Dirty Jobs" episode filmed at a dairy farm/factory and I wished they made milking machines for humans.

...Camille would often get hungry just as soon as I start eating.

...I love watching how much Chin adores this little girl.

My favorite sets of furrowed brows in the whole world

...We get a lot of comments that Camille looks like a boy.  I don't think wearing cousin Donovan's clothes helps her out a lot. :)

...I love the fact that Camille's crib is side-carred to our bed!!

...It is so frustrating to put Camille to bed.  She would feed and fall asleep.  As soon as I put her down, she'd wake up (for all you parents reading this, I can see you all nodding :P).  She just wants to suck on something as she falls asleep...although she doesn't always take the pacifier right away.  Oh no no.  It takes us about 5-10 attempts each time to give her the pacifier.  Once she latches on to the pacifier, it'd just be a matter of minutes before she falls asleep and it falls out of her mouth.  And then we start all over again with the many attempts to get her to latch onto it.  We both go back and forth with whether to let her "cry it out."  Before we were pregnant, we were sure that we would go with the cry-it-out method and train her to sleep from a young age.  During pregnancy, I started researching more into attachment parenting and found how emotionally scarring this method could be.  Also, my parents embraced a lot of the attachment parenting philosophies (breastfeeding, elimination communication, co-sleeping, etc.) and, in many ways, I feel that they did parenting right.  So, we decided not to do cry-it-out.  But on nights where she was just a real jerk, it's really tempting.

...It is really okay to ignore bad advice.

...I tend to do a lot of research on the internet.  I have learned that what I ought to do is ask my mom and a few of my trusty friends.  I am still learning this.

She's 2 months old!