Eli-

Today you are two months old! If the first month went by quickly, this second month has gone by at the speed of sound. I feel like I just wrote your one month letter yesterday.

You are a completely different baby than you were a month ago. You’re much more awake, everyone at your pediatrician appointment the other day commented on how alert you were and how happy you seemed. I mean, right up until the shots, which totally wrecked you for a minute or two and then turned you into a terribly sad baby several hours later.

This month you started noticing things that you hadn’t seen before. The first was the bird we hang from your carseat to get you to look to your left. One day, you just saw it and now it’s one of your great friends.

Another is the mobile above your swing. Again, it was like one day someone flipped a switch and it was a part of your world. You just love to talk to it when you’re swinging. And I have to say now, I’m sorry for how much time you spend in your swing. When your dad’s not home, you go there whenever I pump and it kills me. I wish I could be snuggling you, but I’m trading one comfort for another and for now, getting you breast milk feels like the more important issue. But the mom guilt is pretty overwhelming sometimes.

You’ve decided that you really, really like to tilt your head to the right when you sleep and somewhat when we hold you upright. Given my chosen career, this stresses me out to no end because I spent the last 5 months of school treating babies who did that and so I neurotically fix your head and check your head shape every day. I would just love it if you would maybe tilt the other way from time to time. But at least for now, the stretches I inflict on you don’t seem to bother you very much. Hopefully we can take care of this before it turns into a bigger issue.

You have also become a social butterfly this month. You smile at everyone, even your dad, heck, especially your daddy. You love to have long chats with him and it’s so cute my heart pretty much explodes watching you guys together. You coo and squeak and have the cutest little voice.

This month you took your first and second trips out of town and you slept all the way through both car rides with short food breaks, for which we were extremely grateful. You also took your first immersion bath this month and it was there that you discovered you had feet and you spent a solid 5 minutes just staring at them. It was completely adorable.

You’ve also decided this month that you’d like to suck your thumb, only you are just terrible at doing it, so you spend hours each day, punching yourself in the face and crying. If your father and I were nicer people we would laugh at you less than we do. But, well, we’re not.

Your likes this month include: Mom, Dad, MILK, your Soothie pacifiers, your fist, your thumbs, baths, the Mei Tai carrier (when I’m not completely sure I’m smothering you in it), napping on mom, riding in the car, going for walks and clean diapers.

Your dislikes this month include: Getting even one drop less than the amount of milk you decide you need at any given feeding, reflux (let’s not discuss the projectile vomit situation we went through last night), dirty diapers, gas, being overtired, (though you also HATE going to sleep half the time, because obviously), you vitamins (which, gag, I don’t blame you) and vaccines (except the rotovirus one. You thought that was delicious).

You continue to just be the most amazing, perfect little person. There are nights when I’m carrying you back to bed and I look at your sweet sleeping face and I am completely overcome with how much I love you. A friend of mine once said that having a child was like having a piece of your heart walking around outside of your body. But I think she was wrong. I think it’s more than a piece, I think it’s my whole heart. That’s how fiercely I love you.

You have rocked my world to it’s very core and I could not be happier for it. I am thankful every day for you and cannot wait to see what next month will bring, but if you could slow down a little, that would be just great.

Love,
Mom

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