Month Two

April 10, 2010
Dear Eirin & Liam,
You are two months old today! Can I tell you that I fall in love with you a little more each day? As the days go by, I grow more confident in my parenting skills. Although he hasn't expressed it, I suspect that your father feels the same. In the overall scheme of things two months is a really short amount of time, yet in that short time frame we've grown as parents. We've moved beyond the nervous new parent stage and are now more relaxed, no longer needing to check in on you obsessively.At two months you have outgrown your newborn size clothing, you are smiling more and are having longer periods of wakefulness. You enjoy your swing and staring at the musical mobile and mirror on it; it is a useful contraption in that it usually lulls you to sleep. You are both sprouting brand new hair, it is the softest fuzz I've ever felt. I didn't think it would grow back as quickly as it did, you were not shiny bald babies for very long. You've discovered your hands and can be found with 2 or 3 fingers in your mouths or sucking your thumbs. You continue to feed every 2-3 hours. You are good eaters but sometimes it is a struggle to keep you awake when nursing. You hardly spit up, but there have been a couple of times when you have spit up so much that I've been drenched in milk. Thank you for being considerate of your mother by timing these instances so you are not spitting up at the same time.

We try to give you plenty of tummy time. Liam we lay you on your stomach in short spurts of time as you don't seem to love it and complain the minute you are put down. Eirin, you don't mind this activity, but I think you prefer being on your back and looking up at the dangling toys on the play mat than laying on your stomach. Ironically, we've discovered that when you are placed on your stomachs for naps, you'll sleep for longer than ten minutes at a time. What a great discovery! The longer breaks have given me some time to get the laundry and vacuuming done.

Your Aunt Mary finally met you this month. She came from Chicago to help me for a week and we really enjoyed her visit. I was surprised at how well she did helping to care for you. She didn't shy away from changing your diapers; I did not hear her complain once about the midnight feedings and lack of sleep. Mostly, I think she enjoyed trying to engage you and singing to you. I did not know it, but your Aunt has a knack for making up silly little songs. Mary has had no experience at all with babies, she never babysat, so when your grandmother one day jokingly, in a baby voice said, "Tia, Tia, please pour us some lemonade," she obliged and started to pour a couple of ounces of lemonade into one of your bottles. We laughed so hard and Mary's response made it even funnier, "what, they don't drink lemonade?"
On March 29th, your grandmother and I took you to Norwood Hospital for some ultrasounds. Because you were breech babies, your pediatrician wanted to be sure you did not have hip dysplasia. Eirin, you had to have an additional ultrasound and x-ray because of a little dimple on your lower back, I guess these dimples are a possible indication that the spine is not growing straight and they wanted to be sure you did not have any spinal malformations. It was a relief to find out that "everything looked great" and developing normally; there were no anomalies present on ultrasound. I continue to thank god for giving us such a precious gift, two healthy babies.

We've ventured out of the house more often this month. On your first Easter, we went out for brunch. We went with both of your grandmothers, your Grandpa Bill and your Uncle William. I discovered that we'll definitely need a bigger car! We were hoping to get away with my VW Jetta but the double stroller does not fit easily into the trunk. It will be much easier to get out if I can get the stroller in and out of the car without breaking a sweat trying to maneuver it to the perfect angle to slip into the trunk. I don't know how I'm going to manage taking you two out by myself. The idea frightens me and thank goodness I haven't had to go anywhere alone yet. I know I'll have to do this in the near future and I'll get through it, I'll manage, but I can't help but worry that I won't be able to do it.

The general consensus is that we have a mini David and mini Ely on our hands. Liam, when I see your face, I see your father. You have the same facial expressions! I've only seen a few of your father's baby pictures and you don't quite look like him when he was a baby though, which is weird. Eirin, I flipped through my baby album the other day and on some of the pictures I can see why your grandmother says that you remind her of me.

As the days go by I know that my maternity leave gets shorter and shorter. I don't know how I'm going to go back to work full time, it is going to be really hard. For now, I look forward to the month ahead, to more time with you, and to more gummy smiles, coos and giggles. I also look forward to seeing your interactions, right now all you do is stare at each other, which means you are aware of that other little person that you shared a womb with and will share the rest of your life with.

Love,
Mama