Our Journey: The Second Month

Malcolm on Christmas

The second month was when we really started to fall into a better stride as parents. Adjusting to two babies is really tough, but it gets easier and more natural every single day.

One of the things that made the second month more manageable than the first month was that the boys began to sleep through the night at 5.5 weeks. I talk more about the process and the tools we used to help us in another post which you can read here. Once the boys started sleeping through the night, they consistently slept 6-8 hours a night with only a couple of bad nights, and we feel tremendously blessed to have such good little sleepers.

Once the boys started sleeping at night, they became more wakeful during the day. With this wakefulness, came both good and bad. There were, of course, the fussy nights of screaming and almost constant eating, but with more wakefulness also came more of the good stuff. Around 5-6 weeks they began cooing and making vowel noises, and they also began smiling in reaction to things. By the end of the month, they've begun laughing in their sleep, and we can't wait to see that became part of their waking repertoire.

Brendan on Christmas

At 6 weeks we started using the baby carrier more often, and found it was a great tool for curing the nighttime fussiness and for enabling us to get some stuff done around the house. Greg even put both the boys in the twin carrier and did laps around the coffee table while watching basketball. Parenthood is certainly a test of one's multitasking skills.

A highlight of their second months was their first Christmas which they spent with both sides of the family. It was the longest we'd been away from home with them, but throughout the month we got better and better at doing changes on-the-go, and getting packed up to go out.

In the second month we were even able to get a little time for ourselves. At 6 weeks, we dropped the boys off with my husband's parents and went out to dinner just the two of us. At 8 weeks we were able to do it again. It's not easy leaving them, but were very lucky to have so many loving people available to take care of the boys.

Overall, I think we found a stride in the second month and things are beginning to feel more under control. And the best part is that now the boys make little noises and smile all the time, so it's good to know they're so happy! Further evidence that they're growing? The pictures below were about a thousand times easier to capture than their one month picture.