Andrew is THREE months old already!

Eli is such an awesome brother. He's always trying to make him smile.

My chunky monkey

   I feel so incredibly vulnerable having an itty bitty baby around during what they are calling a flu epidemic in Illinois. Ugh. The fact that he's older comforts me (so he isn't so fragile and can at least have the option of getting meds that are approved for older babies instead of absolutely nothing--not that I'm a big "med" giver in my house) but the fact that he IS getting older makes me also want to ugly cry in a corner somewhere. Why can't they just stay super sleepy cuddly a little while longer? WHHYYYYYYYY??
  
   With that said, this kid is good for me. If I'm having a crabby day, all I have to do is look at his face and I can feel all my tension literally release from my body and I'm happy again. I just came to the realization that I'm kind of in a mourning state of Eli not being my little baby anymore. He's graduated to full on little boy status, and the nerve, without my permission! Psha! I also noticed that I'm totally eating up my nephew Liam at the moment because he's just about a year and a half and it was such a great age for Eli with their personalities EXPLODING during this time! They get their words, they become more coordinated, and well lets face it, they're finally FUN! Ha ha. So thank you Liam for bridging me until Andrew gets to that age. In the meantime I'm eating up the squishy baby stage and enjoying adult conversations with my oldest. Seriously, he says to me "mom? Can I have a conversation with you?" Ha ha. That kid kills me. Anyways, I'll get to Andrew's stats now...

Size: I tend to gauge his size by how much smaller the pack-n-play is getting in comparison, ha ha. We don't have a well visit at 3 months so I'm not sure about his weight. He feels around 15lbs-ish but that's a guess. I've retired the 0-3m and 3m clothes and brought out his 3-6m and 6-9m bunch. Since going up to the next sized diapers last month, he's been pretty good in that department.

Yowza! ("3"on his bum as in 13 weeks/3 months)

Likes: He's really digging his swing these days with the animal mobile just like last month but now he stares at those guys and coos like crazy like he's legit having a conversation with them! Ha ha. I call them his friends. He loves his brother, being held, the boob, falling asleep in people's arms and smiling.

Dislikes: The bottle, (throw in a hysterical cry for good measure) and car rides, (although it is getting better since I've adjusted the straps and took out the newborn insert. He seems more comfortable in it now but it's still hit or miss.) He's still very easy-going otherwise.

Feeding:See above about the bottles. Ugh. I returned to work yesterday and lets just say that daddy and baby had a rough time. (I'll try to blog about that experience soon.) If he can get the milk on tap, thats what he'll hold out for. He took the bottle yesterday while I was at work but he was pissed about it. Needless to say, breast feeding is going well and that's what he prefers. I now have a nice freezer stash of breast milk and I hope it doesn't go to waste on account of his stubborn nature.

Sleeping: It's still about the same as last month. He's down at 7pm-ish and still getting up once during the night for a feeding. Unfortunately, all my boys are early risers. Ugh. Why can't I just be a morning person and make life so much easier for myself?? He's been getting up as early as 5:30am and not wanting to go back to sleep. Oooooh daddddddy! Somebody neeeeeds yoooou...But on a good day, he'll sleep until 7am. He's been taking a big 3-4hr nap in the morning and then takes 1 or 2 little catnaps in the afternoon.

Milestones: Not much to report here. He smiles a ton when you talk to him, he's been drooling a lot and trying to fit both hands in his mouth at once just like Eli used to so I know the teething process has been started but I don't expect any teeth to pop through yet for a few months. The other day I had him doing belly time and I propped his arms out in front under him and he tilted his head and rolled over. I'm not sure if I should count that as his first roll because he hasn't done it since but I was pretty excited in the moment. Ha ha.

"Wait, what's this business about being 3 months??"

Yep, I'd pretty much say we have the breastfeeding thing down.

"It's hard to see my yummy toes with my 5 chins in the way..."

Back fat has never looked cuter!

And that's all she wrote!

-Linds

Andrew is TWO months old!

  Can I just say how much I love being a mommy of two? Because I do. I'm sure I'd be singing a different tune if Eli was a terror to his brother and Andrew was a colicky baby who didn't sleep, but nothing could be further from the truth. Eli still adores his little brother and Andrew has fit very nicely into our little family. He's starting to smile at you when you talk to him, and even babble in his own little baby language (he just cooed on the baby monitor in his sleep as I typed that! I kid you not!) The best part to me is he's predictable--a very desirable trait in a little person with no big boy words yet, ha ha.

  Well here are his stats after his 2 month well visit with the doctor today:

Size: He's growing by leaps and bounds as babies are apt to do. He's quickly gained the nickname "beefcake" (among 20 other nicknames that Eli comes up with daily.) He outgrew his size 1 diapers about 3 weeks ago but me not wanting to waste diapers did my best to shove all his thigh rolls into said too-small-diapers and we've cleaned up many a poopsplosion as a result of it. Was it worth it? No, because I still have a boatload of size 1's in the house. Ha ha, doh! As far as his weight goes, he's 13lbs 6oz and 22 1/2 inches long. (Eli was 11lbs 8oz and 23 inches long at this age.) Beefcake is right! He's fitting pretty snuggly into his 3 month clothes and I've started to bring out the 3-6 month bunch in anticipation of needing them very soon.

Likes: Sleeping, being held, nursing, his swing with the mobile that he loves to watch, staring at lights, his bouncer seat that vibrates his bottom, watching his brother, and being talked to.

Dislikes: trapped burps, his carseat, (we joke that he'll only tolerate it once we hit 55mph or better because then he'll suddenly stop crying like flipping a switch, ha ha) and baths. Other than that, when he fusses its pretty predictable in that it's his nap time, feeding time, or he needs to burp. He's pretty easy to please.

Feeding: I'm still exclusively breastfeeding and feeding on demand. I worried that after the newborn phase if I didn't enforce an every 2-3hr feeding schedule and stop "feeding on demand" that I would end up being more of a pacifier and creating bad habits. I didn't want to be the only one able to soothe him (by nursing), but so far that hasn't been the case so I'll continue to follow this pattern. He has naturally fallen into an every 2-3hr feeding pattern on his own with an occasional need to feed sooner than that. Now that I don't have nipple "pain" anymore, just sensitivity, I'm ok with "indulging" him. I'm definitely not the mom who sticks a boob in her kid's mouth each time he fusses though. Like I said before, he's predictable and I find his cries easier to decipher than Eli's ever were. The only difference is it's hit or miss if this kid will take a bottle. Ruh roh. Eli never had a problem with bottles. Hopefully Andrew will get over this by the time I go back to work. Fingers crossed!

Sleeping: I'm happy--no strike that, ECSTATIC to report that he's a great sleeper. He's been sleeping in our room in a pack-n-play, just like Eli did. I put him to bed at 7pm (same time as Eli) and he's been doing 7-8hr stretches consistently since about 7 weeks. He wakes up anywhere between 2am and 4am for a feeding and then goes back down until about 7-7:30am. Sometimes he wants to start the day at 5:30 or 6:30 am but I'll feed him and do my darnedest to convince him to go back to sleep and then I'll wake him at 7:30 if he's still sleeping. (Wait what?!?! Wake a sleeping baby? Blasphemy! No really it's all a part of my master napping plan!) If he gets up at 7-7:30am, then right at 9am he's ready for a nap. This will be his big nap of 3hrs. Then I have 2hrs to myself when Eli is in preschool, or an hour overlap on non school days that I get to myself as Eli naps too. Can I get a woot woot?! Happy dance! As for the afternoon nap, I'm still working on nailing down a time, but ideally I like him to go down at 3pm or 4pm so he'll be up by 5pm and happy to go to bed at 7pm, ha ha. But in all reality, with the afternoon nap I'm more flexible, depending on what our day looks like. As long as he's taken a good nap in the morning, I'll let him cat nap on me (or a willing visitor) or in my wrap in the afternoon.

Milestones: Not a whole lot to report here other than him making eye contact and focusing better. I can tell he's starting to see farther than just a few inches in front of his face and he's starting to babble, as I mentioned earlier. I freakin' LOVE it!

And that's my bubbercakes! If you are curious like I was to compare him to Eli at this age, here's his 2 month update. So far they have a lot of similarities aside from Andrew's dislike of bottles and carseats. So cute.

Toodles,
-Linds