Happy Thanksgiving! This is the first holiday we’re hosting in our new house and I can’t believe we are celebrating with a two-month-old in tow. We definitely have an extra lot to be grateful for this year and I am so thankful to each of you for following along as I enter this new phase of our lives. This month marks ten years of Design Darling (!!!) and it’s crazy to think some of you have been reading since my junior year of college. In the time that I’ve been blogging, I studied abroad in France, interned at Jonathan Adler, graduated from Bucknell, lived briefly in San Francisco, moved back home to Darien, worked in PR for a hot minute, got a dog, launched an online store, moved to New York, navigated a break-up, met my now husband, moved to Dallas, got engaged, planned our wedding, moved to Greenwich, closed the online store, got married, launched a print shop with my brother, got pregnant, bought a house in Darien, and had a baby! I’m so excited to see what the next ten years have in store and so grateful to have you along for the ride. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!
It feels like so much has changed since my one month update and I know I’ll be happy to have these monthly posts to look back on as he grows up. We just had his eight week check-up at the end of last week and he now weighs 11 pounds 2 ounces, up from 7 pounds 13 ounces at birth — it’s crazy how much he has changed in so little time! He started smiling around five weeks and has become so much more chatty and playful the past few weeks. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to get a smile out of him! He continues to love tummy time on his play mat and we make a game out of seeing how many times he can roll from his tummy to his back (thankfully not rolling the other direction yet!). He also loves lying on his back, chatting, and occasionally hitting the jingle bell above his mat. His sweet little coos are my favorite thing in the world and I’ve started taking videos so I can remember them all!
We continue to use the Moms on Call schedule as a general guideline and most days look something like this:
- Breastfeed sometime between 5 and 6:30 a.m. (whenever he wakes up)
- Breastfeed at 9 a.m.
- Breastfeed at 12 p.m.
- Breastfeed at 3 p.m.
- Breastfeed at 6 p.m.
- Breastfeed at 9 p.m.
- Pump while Teddy gets a bottle of breast milk sometime between 1:30 and 3 a.m. (whenever he wakes up)
- Breastfeed between 5 and 6 a.m.
Breastfeeding takes about 20 minutes each time (so much more efficient than those first few weeks! 🙌🏼) and we try to play for 30-45 minutes after each daytime feed. He lives for his nightly bath and lights up the second his feet touch the water. We’ve been using this baby shampoo and I can’t stop smelling him afterwards. His baby acne miraculously disappeared right at six weeks after we started using the Tubby Todd ointment so many of you recommended. It could be pure coincidence, but I’m definitely keeping a jar on hand for any future breakouts!
We had him sleeping in the Halo bassinet next to my side of the bed for his first week home from the hospital and I was basically waking up every time he took a deep breath, so we moved it into our bathroom and left the door open so we could hear when he started to fuss. My mom was the one who pointed out that his nursery is literally as close to our bed as our bathroom is and so we might as well have him sleep in his crib. I know some people swear by their bassinets and have strong opinions about the baby sleeping in their room for a certain period of time so I’m hesitant to even mention it, but he’s been sleeping in his crib for the past three weeks and it’s worked out well for all three of us. Everyone says all babies are different and this baby definitely prefers his crib to his bathroom bassinet! 😂 We’re still working on getting him to sleep for longer stretches (see above) but he does the cutest little happy dance when we pick him up out of the crib and it makes the interrupted sleep almost worth it. We started putting him in this bunting bag for walks around the neighborhood in his stroller and he usually falls asleep before we’re out of the driveway (same thing with his car seat). He really is such a happy little guy and we feel incredibly lucky that he’s so easygoing — I’m sure we won’t be so lucky with our second!
infant bathtub / gingham washcloths
I don’t want to jinx anything but I guess in general I feel a lot more confident than I did when we first brought Teddy home from the hospital. I’m sure the fact that I’m no longer in pain myself has a lot to do with it (and I know new challenges will continue to present themselves every month), but I feel so much more at ease with everything from breastfeeding to diaper changes and I wish I could go back and assure myself that that would be the case! I truly couldn’t imagine getting to this place eight weeks ago at the start of my postpartum recovery and it makes me all the more grateful to feel the way I feel now. A fitting sentiment for our first Thanksgiving with Teddy!
P.S. I’ve been sharing lots of baby stuff in my Friday Q&A posts but I’m happy to answer any other questions you might have in the comments!
More baby posts you might like:
- My first trimester recap
- What’s on our baby registry
- My maternity jeans review: 13 pairs and what worked and didn’t work about each
- My second trimester recap
- My third trimester to do list
- What’s in my hospital bag
- My third trimester recap
- Introducing Teddy!
- Teddy’s birth story
- My postpartum recovery essentials + the most useful items in my hospital bag
- Our favorite baby products so far
- One month with Teddy
- My breastfeeding experience + essentials
- Teddy’s nursery reveal
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Loved this post! I am using Moms on Call as well for my 5 week old. Do you guys do the soothing rounds in the night or just feed him no matter what between 1:30-3am?
We usually give him a couple minutes to see if he falls back asleep on his own but we definitely don’t go three rounds, five minutes every time, etc. 😬
We moved our little guy into his crib just shy of two months! We all slept SO much better, and I think it helped us avoid the struggle of transitioning him that some of my friends have had with older babies. Teddy looks so happy, healthy, and handsome! Great job, mama! 💙
Love this post! I have an 11 week old and feel much more in control now than I did at the beginning. So much changes to fast and it both amazing and sad at the same time to see them grow so much. And don’t feel guilty about having him in his room! We put our little girl in her room at three weeks because she’s such a loud sleeper and it was the best thing for all three of us. She doesn’t have mommy waking her up thinking she needed soothing when really she was just in light sleep. Keep up the good work mama!
Congrats on your little one and thank you for the solidarity!!
Thanks so much for sharing! I’m due in April and I find it so helpful to hear about the experiences of a first time mom. Out of curiosity, what size clothes is Teddy wearing? Did you buy too much of one size? I know every baby is different but I’m so curious what your experience has been.
Congratulations and thanks for reading! He started to grow out of most of his newborn size outfits around 5-6 weeks so now he’s wearing 0-3 months. I imagine we’ll get longer wear out of 0-3 vs. newborn so that’s what I would order or register for most!