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