end of the newborn stage

today marks the last day of elise's second month.  bry and i were remarking how crazy it is that she is only 2 months today because it feels like she's been around forever.  she's grown and developed leaps and bounds in the last few weeks that it's hard to keep track of sometimes. 

last night, bry and i got a really bad case of food poisoning (or maybe it was a virus).  we didn't have any stomach issues but we had really bad chills, body aches, and could barely get ourselves out of bed.  when we woke up in the morning, elise was really sad because she wanted us to play with her as we do most mornings, but we could barely lift up our own hands.  thankfully, my parents came by today to hold her and bring us food and medicine.  it's been about 24 hour since the outbreak and i'm feeling much better, although bry is still pretty much out of commission. being sick with a baby is really difficult!

anyway, here are recent highlights:

• she almost always wakes up smiling, which is often at 5 in the morning.  i will look over her crib in the dark and see her just smiling to herself.  too cute.
• she has a pretty consistent sleep schedule now.  go to bed at 6, wake up between 1-2, again around 4, and up for the day between 5 and 7.  we like it when she's up for the day at 7.  ;) 
• she is napping better but still needs to be held in order to sleep longer durations.  there have been way too many days where i literally held her for 3 hours straight!  
• nursing has improved A LOT.  she is fighting and struggling less and we are finally nursing in bed during the night.  i'm really thankful for this because i have a hard time going back to sleep once i am up with the lights on.  elise is getting about 2 bottles a day- a huge improvement over getting bottles at every feeding!!!  i never thought i would get to this point!  thank for you praying for us!
• during her "activity" time, i rotate her between the following things: mobile, playmat, swing, tummy time, and just talking to her.  the goal is to get her to nap after 90 minutes of wakefulness.
• she is cooing more and trying to communicate.  she squeals the most when she is doing an activity and wants to stop to be held.  i never knew babies could communicate at such a young age!
• she has become much more aware of other people and babies.  she will smile at other babies now.  i would love to know what she's thinking!
• she had her 12-week growth spurt this week and she's noticeably heavier now.  i look forward to weighing her next week!  it's getting harder to hold her for long periods of time.