The 2GB only takes another couple hours to reach after the January bootstrap. No real need to update. I had some 10+ peers by that point.

Just let the wallet go. There may have been pauses, but mine finished fine without restarting. If looking at the file size on Windows, make sure to click on the block file and hit F5 on your keyboard. This will typically show the current size. Windows explorer may not continuously update the file size after a certain point, but it still grows.

My IP changes all the time, so I can't be a good static peer to add.