Comparisons

Alyssa's two month appointment was a few weeks ago and she handled her shots like a pro. Unfortunately the doctor's appointment itself was complete chaos. After watching her flail on the scale for literally three minutes, and seeing the numbers jump erratically from 10 lb 9 oz to 11 lb 2 oz the nurse finally shrugged and wrote down 10 lb 11.5 oz. Yet another reason not to stress about what my baby weighs, first because she's getting chubby legs and loves to eat, and second because we don't even really know what she weighs... Overall she's about 50% in weight, 60% in height and 75% in noggin. And the hair on the right side of her head is about 2.5 inches long and still sticking straight out. At two months, Scotty was 11 pounds so they are fairly comparable in size but he had essentially no hair left.

I'm relearned every day that you can't compare your kids. My pregnancies had some things in common but a lot of differences. My two kids already have different personalities! Scotty is my social bug, always talking and bouncing and running. He is happier out and about and gets cabin fever after about three hours indoors. Alyssa, on the other hand, is either very mellow or completely hysterical. She has absolutely no in between. At night I hear her squeak once over the monitor and by the time I have made the 10 step journey to her room she has tears running down her cheeks and her eyes wide open with a look of sheer terror. I pick her up and calmly carry her back to my room to feed her. And by calmly I mean that I remain calm. Alyssa continues to scream louder and louder. I can tell she's trying to communicate: "Mom! I'm hungry! You're not feeding me! It's been 3 seconds and there's still no milk! FOUR seconds! The milk must be gone! I will never get fed ever again! Abandoned! Forsaken! WASTING AWAY! How can I possibly continue to alert you to this obvious problem when there is something in my mouth getting in my...oh, ok. Hmm. Thanks for the milk, mom." Both my mom and Eric have commented on how sad it is when she gets crazy, because her eyes turn red and her lids swell almost shut and she looks completely panicked and desperate. Her cry sounds hoarse and it breaks my heart! But once she calms down she will be completely placid and the redness and swelling disappear almost immediately.

With Scotty we struggled to get him sleeping, especially in the middle of the night. We tried EVERYTHING and it was always a battle. Alyssa has a hard time with naps because she sleeps MUCH better at home and with Scotty getting crazy we are often out and about when she decides it's nap time. Cue the aforementioned hysterics, and it's harder to wind down and fall asleep by the time we get home, though a few minutes in her swing and she's fine. At night, however, she's a dream. She may be crazy before being fed but she smiles sweetly at me on the way back to her crib and will casually gaze around her room before falling back asleep on her own. I rarely need to put her in the swing, or even give her a pacifier or go back to check on her.

Scotty starting smiling earlier and was always babbling, cooing, and giggling. Alyssa prefers to watch the world around her and was much faster at discovering her hands. She also has better control of them and can hold them in to her chest or bring them to her mouth like she's doing it on purpose, whereas with Scotty it was always a miraculous discovery.

Tummy time is also very different. Scotty really used his arms to push his chest up and look around, while Alyssa is a leg girl. She gets those feet kicking and is already a mover and a shaker! I'll put her down while I get Scotty out from his high chair and when I turn around she's already rotated 90 degrees. I've noticed this even while swaddled in her crib. I'll come in to find her all the way at the bottom when I KNOW I put her down in the middle....she must do the full body worm to wriggle herself around but I've never seen it in action. Maybe I could rig something up with a motion sensor video camera....