2 Months

Dear Charlotte,

After sticking close to home and staying pretty relaxed for your first month of life, we really hit the ground running in October. I suppose that is par for the course now and fortunately, you really handled things like a champ.

We went downtown to the art festival, and on our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. We joined Emma on her first field trip with all of her school friends. We spent nearly 6 hours at the Quilt Festival. We went trick-or-treating with Emma at JSC. Every single time you were a happy little trooper, content to hang out in the Ergo or in the stroller with hardly a peep. I’ve heard the second babies are often better at “going with the flow” and you are proving that 100% true so far.

Lest you think you are completely an angel of a baby, I’ll admit that you did get a bit fussier this month. Your worst crying fits have been when you are tired and needing a nap, and you just can’t quite get it together enough to fall asleep on your own. So I hold you and sway, or lie you against my leg and pat your tummy, and you cry-doze-cry-doze for 10 or 15 minutes until you’re finally out. I don’t like seeing you so upset, but then again, your periods of fussiness are short-lived enough that I know in the end you are ok.

We had another visit from Gima this month because Daddy had to go to Russia for a week and I wanted some help! She immediately noticed how much you’d grown in the 4 weeks since she’d last seen you. Indeed, you are starting to seem more and more like a baby and less and less like a squishy newborn. Your 2-month checkup isn’t until later this week, but our rough estimate using the bathroom scale puts you at ~11.5 pounds! Your face is chubbier. Your legs are less chicken-like.

But even more noticeable than your physical growth is how aware you seem of the world around you now. You are starting to smile a bit, which is pretty much the best thing ever. When I sit you up on my lap after a bottle to burp, you crane your neck around to watch my face rather than just staring into space like you used to do. If I leave you sitting in your bouncer too long, you start to make noise until I come back to talk to you. In the picture above, you were intently watching your sister who was just out of the frame. So yes, you are a go with the flow baby — as long as you are indeed IN the flow.

I have 4 more weeks of being at home with you and I feel like the clock is ticking. I am ready to go back to work, but I also want to enjoy these last days of maternity leave. You are my second and almost certainly my last child. I know that this time, as exhausting and frustrating as it sometimes can be, is also fleeting.

I don’t want time to slow down — I don’t want you to be tiny forever, and I can’t wait to see you grow and change. But I do want to remember what our life is like right now. With Emma. With Daddy. And with you, my little baby that I’m just beginning to know.

Love,
Mama