Dear Chase – Months 1 and 2

Hi friends!

I’ve seen some of my blog friends like Janeetha & Ashley write letters like this to their little ones and I love the idea. It seems like a great way to document how baby Chase is changing from month to month as well as giving you guys a glimpse into life with my little one.

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Chase turned 2 months old yesterday. I actually wrote his 1 month letter on time, but never got around to publishing it…so I’m just going to share both of them now:

Month 1

Dear Chase,

It’s hard to believe you’re one month old already! The past few weeks have flown by, yet it’s hard to remember what life was like without you! Every day you light up our lives with your sweet baby snuggles and your unique personality.

It’s pretty amazing how quickly you’re changing and I find myself wanting to record all the cute little things you do because I’m not sure when you’ll stop doing them. They’re the things that make you YOU and I love them all!

I love:

• When you’re waking up and you stretch out your neck and scrunch up your forehead so you look a little like ET.
• That you squeak when you’re eating and sound a guinea pig.
• The way you voraciously attach yourself to whatever is feeding you, whether it’s me or a bottle, as if you haven’t eaten in days.
• That you love sucking so much that sometimes you just make the sucking motion with your mouth even when you aren’t eating and don’t have your binky.
• How you usually make some sort of noise while you’re sleeping so I know that you’re still breathing and I don’t have to lean over and check on you.
• The way sometimes you just stop nursing and start smiling to yourself and sighing.

You’re such a good baby and even though you can be a bit fussy, most of the time when you cry you either want to eat or are trying to poop.  Just in the last few days you’ve started making a lot of eye contact with those big blue eyes of yours. You’re very expressive with your eyebrows and we’ve even seen a few smiles! You’re starting to swing your hands a little bit at the animals dangling above your activity mat and you tolerate tummy time fairly well. You will nap in your rock and play but you also love napping while people hold you.

You like bath time for the most part, especially when we pour the water over your head to wash your hair! You do your fair share of sleeping during the day but when it comes to night time sleeping you’re not quite as good. Generally you’ll sleep a three hour stretch at first and then it goes down to an hour and a half or two hours at a time until it’s time to get up. You did give me two nights with a 5 hour stretch of sleep which was wonderful.

You were a little jaundiced when you were born and we had to supplement with formula. We’re lucky that you easily switch between breast and bottle.  You LOVE to eat so we continued to supplement while I tried to recover from mastitis and plugged ducts.You’ve gained about 2 pounds since you were born and just the other day you outgrew your first outfit. For the most part you’re wearing 3 month clothes but some 0-3 months still fit. You also had clogged tear ducts which we treated with some ointment and they’re better for the most part, although your eyes still get a little goopy sometimes when you cry. Other than that you’re perfectly healthy!

You don’t seem to be too aware of the animals yet. Abner loves you and is constantly by your side checking on you. Tucker is more wary of you and often spends time on whatever level of the house you’re not on. Marcus lays by you occasionally, especially early in the morning when I’m feeding you and Poco keeps his distance. Sometimes the dogs startle you awake, but they rarely make you cry. It will be interesting to see how you interact with them as you get older.

I’m so excited to watch how you grow and change over the next month and each day I think about how lucky I am to be your mama.

Love,
Mom

Month 2

Dear Chase –

You’re two months old! How did that happen? I spent a lot of the past month very sick, even in the hospital, and I’m so glad to be feeling better so I can spend more time with you. You’re such a sweet, happy little boy. We discovered your love for music and we’ve been playing the Pandora Kids Christmas channel for you. On the weekends daddy sits with you on his lap and listens to all sorts of music. You perk up for your favorites and do your own little dance, moving your feet and arms around like crazy! You still love to sleep and we’ve found your favorite position. You’re a burrower. You love to lay across my stomach and burrow your head into my elbow. It’s your absolute favorite way to sleep and I could hold you like that for hours. When you’re awake you’re fairly chatty. You coo, grunt and tell me all sorts of stories.

You’re an eating machine. We took you to the doctor at six weeks and you’re in the 95 percentile for weight and 98 percentile for height. You’re gonna be tall like your mommy and daddy. We switched you to all formula and you eat anywhere from 28-32 ounces each day. When you’re full, you’re happy but when you’re hungry, you let us know! You’re still growing like a weed! Right now you’re  wearing pretty much all 6 month (some 3-6 month) clothes.

You do pretty well in your carseat and when we take you on errands you either sleep or look around quietly with your wide eyes. You like being worn as well. When you’re super fussy at home I’ll put you in the Ergo and walk in circles around the house while singing to you. It almost always puts you to sleep. I’ve also started wearing you in some stores because it’s easier than dealing with your carseat. Last week you were fussing while you were in the Ergo at TJ Maxx and when we decided to change your diaper in the backseat of the car, we discovered you’d had your first epic blowout! Poop all over your body, your overalls and your onsie. Luckily I had a change of clothes in the diaper bag!

You love your binkie, but only when YOU want it – otherwise you’ll spit it out. When you’re screaming, it usually helps calm you down. When you don’t want your binkie, you’re usually chewing on your hand. You so badly want to suck your thumb but you just can’t quite figure out how to get it when you want it. You’re getting so close though – you can get it in the right position, just can’t figure out how to straighten it out and suck on it. As much as I don’t especially want you to suck your thumb, it’s pretty fascinating to watch you try to figure it out. 

 

Your sleeping schedule is still pretty unpredictable. You take several naps but the timing varies day to day. Earlier in the month we’d typically feed you around midnight and many nights you’d sleep until 5, eat and then go back to sleep until 7:30 or 8. The last week or so, you’ve started falling asleep around 10pm and some nights you’ll sleep until 4 or 5am. Not always though 🙂

You recently started grabbing more. You’ll grab for my necklace or a scarf when I’m holding you, you like to clasp your hands together and you also love grabbing, and sometimes scratching, your face. You’re also getting better at grabbing the animals above your activity mat. We’re trying to get you interested in some newborn toys like rattles, but you’re just not quite there yet. I’m excited for the next few weeks because I think you’re going to really start taking an interest in some toys!

Sometimes you’ll lay quietly in the rock and play but you like to be able to see someone, not be by yourself. Just the other day, we got you a new chair that reclines enough for you to sleep, but also lets you sit up and see more of the things around you. You seem to like it so far. When you’re in a good mood, you’re content to just sit in your chair, talk to me and dance around for a while, kicking your feet and moving your arms around like crazy. It’s times like these when I try to get some work done. Otherwise, I spend a lot of time working on my computer with you laying across my stomach sound asleep.

You’ve got a big head, but your neck is so strong. For the most part you can hold your head up by yourself, but you’re still a bit wobbly so we’re carefully to keep our hands close by to support you if needed. The past few days you’ve really starting turning your head back and forth while you sit, taking in as much of the room as possible.

You had a great Christmas. Both sets of grandparents spoiled you with lots of clothes and toys and mommy and daddy bought you a new rocking chair and lots of books. You had a couple of epic meltdowns at the family get-togethers, but we survived. You were having some tummy trouble and there was a lot of stimulation!

It seems like you grow and change a little bit every day and I can’t wait to see what next month brings!

Love you forever,
Your mama

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Enjoy!
–Lindsay–