Two Months

Here is Asher with two of his favourite things. There's my home made baby book, which he still loves to stare at; and the hungry caterpillar rattle which we play with when he has his nappy changed. He turns to look at the rattle when I shake it, and often watches it move from side to side. His latest trick is to knock it over, if I prop it up beside his changing mat; I'm almost sure he does this on purpose!

At two months Asher has become quite chatty. He makes delightful cooing noises when he is happy, but is also trying out aaa-type sounds at a more normal talking pitch. I chat to him most of the time when he's awake.

Chatting

I wouldn't have said Asher looks loads bigger than he did four weeks ago, but the other day he was wearing the same dungarees as in his One Month photos and they no longer need turning up. He's really filling the 0-3 month sizes. And his hair is now growing back, after mostly falling out, so his head is fuzzy and soft again.

Asher is a strong baby. The doctor mentioned it at his six week check, when she was trying to move his legs to make sure his hips were ok and he was pushing against her with all his might. Sometimes he kicks me in the tummy and it kind of hurts... He can take his weight on his legs when he wants to (obviously with us holding him up!) and his head control is fairly good now - we no longer need to constantly support his neck. Getting him dressed can be a challenge!

Smiling at... we'd like to know what!

One of the most exciting developments is that Asher has started to smile. He seems to do it fairly randomly, rather than in response to us - the other day he spent nearly ten minutes smiling at the towel rail whilst I had a shower - but it's the most adorable thing ever. I'm keen for Asher to start reaching out for things but I don't think he's quite ready yet - though he has discovered he can suck his own fist, and has about a 70% success rate in getting it to his mouth.

Fist-sucking success!

Our baby now sleeps for a few hours most nights. He tends to fall asleep around 11pm and will wake again any time from 12:30 (bad night) to 4:30 (good night) and, on one occasion, 5:30 (extremely good night). What I'm working on (read: hoping for) next is that after I feed him he'll be able to go back into another long sleep. It hasn't happened yet, but I have got an additional hour's slumber on a couple of recent mornings.

Asher is generally very happy, although he does sometimes cry and I cannot work out why. Feeding him usually helps! He still often wants feeding at hourly intervals, especially first thing in the morning and in the evenings, but can go up to four hours in the afternoon if he's asleep. He doesn't nap naturally but if he's being rocked or held Asher will often sleep for an hour or two in the day, sometimes longer. The pram is a favourite location for sleep, but he almost always wakes up as soon as we get back home. Cluster feeding no longer happens every evening, but he's growing so quickly that he keeps needing to prompt more milk so hourly feeding is still pretty frequent.

Ash's favourite sleeping arrangement

Already our little boy seems to want to be independent. He isn't snuggly, but  pushes away from my chest unless he's very sleepy. Ash likes to look out at the world and enjoys sitting in his bouncy chair or lying on a blanket, wriggling like crazy and Looking at Stuff (still his favourite game). On his tummy Asher pushes up with both arms, lifting his head. He also pushes with one fist whilst curling his legs backwards; it really looks like he's trying to roll over and I think he does get frustrated that he can't move by himself. All in good time, Asher - I'm sure it won't be long!