Quincy, Month 2

Chunker, Little Happy One, Quincaroo, My Baby,

Your acne has mostly cleared up. Your plugged tear duct must be unplugging because the eye booger situation is much improved. Sadly, your cradle cap is really starting to come in. I think you're adorable. You are a giant baby who is fast growing out of your three month sleepers because you're much too long. The rolls on your arms and legs are deep and plentiful.

You're so happy that you started smiling at 5 weeks and haven't stopped since. You wake up each morning with a grin. You love fart sounds and being on the changing table.

You are easy. Your dad even commented that maybe... just maybe.... Casper was the hard one? After months of worry during my pregnancy that certainly we were due for a challenging baby I'm shocked and relieved to have such a contented little munchkin. At the very least I thought that as a newborn you’d have needs that demand to be filled in short order. Yes, you want to eat when you want to eat, and you need to be changed when poop calls. But you’ll take a pacifier over the boob in a pinch and that poop is only coming on an every other day basis. I hesitate to say this out of fear of sounding like an awful mother but sometimes I forget about you. You’re unformed and quiet and your brother is so loud. You're content to lie in your bed punching at the shadows or to bounce in the monkey seat or lounge on the boppy. You're good. You are my super easy baby.

I feel a little bad that you are not held enough. For you and for me. I fear I should be cherishing what will likely be my last months with a newborn. I nibble your cheeks and smell your sour milk scent in between building giant towers of magnatiles and begging your brother to put his underwear on. I cover your face in kisses and tell you that you're my baby at least once a day. It will not be enough.

I've been going to a mom's group for babies your age (having learned my lesson during Casper's babyhood not to end up alone and isolated all winter). Most of the moms are first timers and my 2 babies make me a parenting guru. I want to tell these ladies that everything they are worried about is going to be ok. They are all so concerned, so frazzled, so strung out. I'm tired (we're finally getting 5 hours stretches of sleep) but I'm not stressed. We're all gonna be fine.

Second babies might be the real joy. I don’t feel the sense of panic over leaving you that made it impossible for me to enjoy even a trip to the grocery store alone when Casper was a baby. I didn't cry during your two month shots. I'm not dreading the return to work in late January. I'll miss lounging on the couch with you but I'll be happy to have Kenesha take over full time diaper duty and spit up catching 3 days a week. This new form of motherhood -- all the snuggling with none of the guilt -- is so refreshing.

Thanks for being my little happy one. You keep up the chill baby vibes and I'll try not to get so laissez faire that I leave you in a bar. Deal?

Quincy, 1 month

Quincy, Quinca-roo, Quincer, Stretchy, Milkyface, Junior -- Happy one month birthday and welcome to the blog!

I fear that I will not be able to do as much writing about you as I did about your older brother -- you can blame him for replacing my writing time with LEGO time, puzzle time and arguing about eating lunch time.

But back to you. You arrived one month ago via the traditional exit a mere 12 minutes before your scheduled eviction. Everyone was shocked having resigned ourselves to a second c-section. 7lbs 12oz, 21 inches long, perfect.

You came out of the womb looking like your daddy -- so says almost everyone. I imagine it must be true even though I can’t really see it. I was similarly unable to see people’s claims that your brother looks like me. But you have blond hair and eyebrows and a round head so it is likely that a fair bit of daddy genes are shining through.

I’m happy to report that even though you were a real wild man in the womb now that you’re out you are a relatively chill baby. You don’t mind being left by yourself in your crib or bouncer and when you cry it’s almost always because you need something obvious. Mostly you need milk. But it also seems much of your crying is directly related to a need to burp, fart or poop. The cries are often preceded by long annoyed grunts which can go on for hours especially at night. I feel almost as bad for you as I do for my sleepy self.

You are already the king of spitting up. I know this usually peaks around 4 months which is horrifying considering the volume of spit up that you already produce.

Your brother loves to ‘nuggle us both -- sliding in under my arm on one side of me and reaching his own arm over your back as you sleep on my chest. He likes to trace your ears and tell me how small they are. On the day you were born he announced that your name would be Dinosaur Robot and he continues to bring this up a month later, thinking it a much better name than Quincy. He tell me how much he loves you on a daily basis. He also did your immune system the favor of bringing home your first cold before you were even a month old so you have a sad hacking cough that bothers mom much more than it seems to bother you or the doctor. So far so good on that big brother thing.

I am afraid of doing too much comparing of you and your brother but it’s difficult because he is my only other baby data point. So. You are calmer (we have almost never had to take you into the bathroom to chill out to the soothing sounds of the vent). You are fairer. You are less worried over. You are less photographed.  You at bigger (94th percentile for height!).

I am calmer. I almost never get up to check your breathing. I'm less sure that there is a method to baby madness and less inclined to google every whimper grunt or cry. I've learned that most of the time the answer to "Why is my baby _________?!?!?!?" is "Babies: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

I am also less overwhelmed and surprised by my love for you. Before you were born I had the usual second time mom concerns that I could not possibly love you as much as I loved Casper or that I would somehow love Casper less. But none of those fears have come to pass. You are both loved equally and more than I could have ever imagined.