The Best is Yet to Come: Two Months Old

Caitlin,

You are two months old today! No matter how hard I try, I can hardly wrap my head around the fact that you have already been with us for two whole months. The past month was full of new and exciting things for you. I feel like every day, you do something new! You are still a little peanut though. Your two month appointment is on August 9th, so I don't know how much you weigh, but my guess would be about 9.5 lbs. I think you are also getting pretty tall! You are wearing size 1 diapers and have finally graduated from your newborn clothes to 0-3 months and some 3-6 months sizes. The 3-6 months clothes that fit are the ones that run really small. You are still pretty skinny, but really long, and I actually think that if you weren't so long, you'd be able to still wear your newborn clothes! You still love to eat - you are eating anywhere between every 2-4 hours during the day. We have mostly resolved the earlier breastfeeding issues that I talked about in your one month post, but of course, nothing is ever easy and now we are battling thrush. I am determined to not give up!

You are really strong. You are doing really well holding your head up on your own (it's only a little wobbly, but we don't have to support your neck as much as we used to) and your little legs are strong too! When we hold you in a standing position facing us, you will usually put your legs down and stand up with us supporting you. When you are feeling really energetic, you also love to use those legs to climb up our stomachs. You are quite the wiggleworm, but I'm hoping you hold off on the mobility for a little bit. We are just not ready for that at all! You rolled over this month front to back and back to front while you were laying on the ottoman one night, but your daddy and I really think it was a total fluke as it hasn't happened again. There were a few times on your activity mat when you got those legs moving and I thought you might roll over, but everytime you got to your side, you'd roll back onto your back. On some of the cooler nights (and there haven't been many because of this crazy heatwave), we have taken you outside to sit on the patio while Daddy is grilling. You seem to like being outside looking around and listening to all the sounds. We have also put your feet in the grass a few times so you can start getting used to it. We think it tickles your feet because you'll put one foot down and then when you put the other one down to touch the grass, you quickly pick it up and stand like a flamingo! You certainly don't know what to think about the grass, but so far, you seem ok with it. I can't wait to see what you think about the sand when we go to the beach in a few weeks!

You are definitely starting to be more aware of your surroundings. You get annoyed with Daddy and me when we just want to sit on the couch with you, and you love for us to walk you around the house. It's almost like you are saying to us "Hey fatso, get up and get moving... stop being a couch potato!" You have also started following things with your eyes more. Aunt Alexis visited and taught us about spirit fingers! Sometimes, when Daddy is playing with you, he'll lay you down on the ottoman and do spirit fingers above your head and move them from side to side to get your attention. You are really good at following his spirit fingers! You have also started following me when you hear my voice. It is so cute how you watch me when I walk by (and it makes me feel so good that you're looking for me!). You are loving your activity mat more and more each day. I don't know if it's because you have a great view of Mr. Ceiling Fan while you're down there or if you just really like the activity mat, but you smile and "talk" a lot while you're laying there. You have also started to kind of squeal a little bit. I absolutely love that sound! Speaking of Mr. Ceiling Fan... He is absolutely without a doubt your best friend. I have so many pictures of you just smiling away and "flirting" with him. He makes you so happy, and we don't even have to turn the fan on for you to smile at him! You are doing better with the swing and bouncy seat these days. This morning, you even took a little nap in your bouncy seat! We have also just recently made some progress with bathtime. We have started giving you a bath in your bathtub in the big tub upstairs. Your daddy and I finally realized that the bathtub that we have has a little support area for infants (it's almost like a little recliner), and we tried it last night. You seemed to actually kind of like the bath! We even got a few smiles out of you while we were bathing you. The only time you cried was when I was getting you dressed. I think you were a little cold, but I'm also starting to think that you just don't like having clothes on. It's ok that you feel that way now, but let's not make that a habit when you're a teenager, ok?

This month, we noticed your first true smile! You little eyes just light up and you get so excited and are just so stinking cute. We hope you continue to be a happy baby. You really only cry when you're hungry, tired or need a diaper change. You are pretty laid back and generally fine with meeting new people! And, you have certainly met a lot of new people this month! We have been on the go so much more, and you have done really well. You still do ok in the car. We've had a few major crying episodes where you were either hungry or really tired and you ended up crying yourself to sleep (it was so sad for Mommy to hear that cry), but mostly, you either just look around or fall asleep. You also still like your stroller. We went to the mall the other day, and you slept the whole time.

Let's talk about sleep. For the most part, you are still a good sleeper. We know you are getting sleepy when you start yawning a lot (duh!) and you're hands turn into fists. Daddy calls them your "Fists of Fury". At night, depending on what time you go to sleep, you will either get up once around 2 or 3am and then you're up for the day around 7, or you'll sleep through the night and be up for the day around 5:30 or 6! Thank you for that - we do appreciate you working on sleeping through the night! Now, getting you to sleep, that's another story. Most of the time, unless you've fallen asleep while you were nursing, it takes some work to get you to sleep. We are still swaddling you, but have tried to swaddle you with your arms out for a few naps here and there. You still seem to sleep better when you are completely swaddled even though you fight us when we are wrapping you. There have been a few nights/naps where you have broken free of the swaddle blanket, but I really think that it's because it's either too small for you or because the velcro is starting to get old. Our usual routine to get you to sleep is to wrap you loosely in a blanket and bounce you on the exercise ball while we pat your butt. Depending on how tired you are, this can take 5-20 minutes. We then wrap you in the swaddle blanket once you are almost to sleep and bounce you a little more to get you the rest of the way to sleeping. The hard part is that once we get you to sleep and try to put you down in the pack n play or in your crib, sometimes you sleep for 5 minutes and then wake up and think that naptime is over! I think we are realizing that your days of napping in the pack n play in the living room are pretty much over. I think there is just too much going on for you, and you have decided that you don't want to miss a thing. The same routine happens when we put you to bed at night, but you are still sleeping in the bassinet in our room. We are contemplating moving you to your crib soon, but I'll be honest, I am having a hard time with it. You sleep fine in your crib for naps, but I think I'm worried that you'll wake up in the middle of the night and be scared because your daddy and I aren't there. I'm probably just being overly protective, but I can't help it. Daddy thinks you'll be fine, but he knows how emotional I've been lately, so he told me that we can move you whenever I am ready for it.

Exactly 4 weeks from today, I will be returning to work. I have had a really tough time coming to terms with this. This past week, I had a bit of a breakdown about it. We really don't have much a choice because I need to work, but if I had the opportunity, I think I would stay home with you. It's actually quite funny because before you were born, I thought I'd be so ready to go back after my 12 weeks of maternity leave were over. Boy, how things change! I am not necessarily opposed to working. I really am more upset about it because I just don't want to leave you and miss all the fun things that you're going to learn and do - it bothers me that someone else is going to get to experience your firsts while I am sitting behind a desk all day. I also am a little apprehensive about leaving you at daycare and how the pumping and working thing will go. Deep down, I know everything will be fine, and as you get older, it will be good for you to have some social interaction and learn new things from the other babies and the daycare providers, but it's just scary for me to think about leaving you. I guess I will just have to make the most of our next 4 weeks and spend as much time with you as possible before I head back to work!

Another amazing month with you has passed (way too quickly, can you stop growing up, please?!). We are still blown away by how much love we have for you, and we can't remember what life was like before you! We can't wait to see what the next month brings!

Love you like no other,

Mommy

Here are your two month pictures with your bear!