Truth...I've had this blog typed for about 2 weeks already, but just now finally got around to uploading pictures and sifting through them. I imagine I'm not the only one this happens to...you know who you are... Our little man is already two months old! We were looking through some photos of the past two months the other night, and couldn't hardly believe how much he has changed and grown in that short amount of time. We've had to adjust the straps on his infant carseat to the second to last size up, so it's a good thing that he received the larger carseat from Grandma J at the 'Welcome Aboard' party he had a couple of weeks ago!
At two months, our general daily schedule looks a little something like this:
6:00-7:00 a.m. | Wake up call! To borrow a line from Frozen, 'The sun is up, so I am up'. This should probably be the motto for baby C since it doesn't really matter how early or late we put him down to bed, he is almost always up when the sun comes up. On a side note, this means that I have seen more sunrises in the last month than I probably have in my entire life...a.k.a. I'm not a morning person. Our home does have a great sunrise view over the water though in case you wondered. It's usually back to bed after that early morning feeding. If C sleeps a little later, then we get up for the day, but usually he is still pretty tired, and after getting a dry diaper and an early morning breakfast, he'll go back to sleep for another 2.5-3 hours until around 9:30-10 a.m.
9:15-10:00 a.m. | Baby is up for a mid morning snack, and a little play time. Usually, around this time, C is awake and alert for a couple of hours. We have story time, playtime on the activity mat, or sit outside on the deck. This is vice versa if he sleeps later in the morning with play time first then nap time.
12:45-1:30 p.m. | Lunch time! Have you noticed a pattern? C eats about every three hours, give or take a half hour in either direction. After lunch, we snuggle for awhile while I read aloud to him from whatever book I happen to be reading (this week it was 'Mrs. Kennedy and Me' - pretty great read in case you were looking for a new nonfiction), or we head back outside to sit on the deck and check on Dad's container garden, or talk about the trees, lake, and birds near our home. If it's not too hot, we might go for a walk in our neighborhood, or around Lake Minnewashta for a change in scenery. If he's feeling sleepy, he'll take a nap in the Rock'N'Play, and I can get some things done around the house, like taking a shower, having lunch, doing laundry, blogging, etc. Occasionally, we venture out to run important errands like getting the mail, stopping for a brief grocery shopping trip (a super difficult task when you have a carseat in the cart in addition to any groceries you need), or picking up our CSA veggie box at the farm.
4:00-4:30 p.m. | Afternoon snack time. If it is a bath night, we usually fit this in around now, and almost always try to do tummy time for a while before dinner.
7:00-7:45 p.m. | Dinner time for baby. C is usually hungry just around the time that Dad comes home from work, so T & I typically don't get a chance to eat until later at night around 8-9. While I usually make time in my day to have at least one meal, T doesn't make this a priority (which drives me crazy), and so has had a hard time adjusting to waiting to eat dinner until after C is all taken care of. Luckily, it's summer, and we can grill which doesn't take much time, and we have lots of fresh veggies to eat that can be steamed up in under 10 minutes. This winter we'll likely be turning to a lot of slow cooker meals, or at the very least, less gourmet than we typically like to enjoy. After C is done eating, he usually hangs out with Dad and tests out his staring abilities...he is fascinated by T, and just stares at him trying to figure out how he knows him, or maybe memorizing his features. Meanwhile, I get dinner ready. Usually, C will sit in his Rock'N'Play by the table and join us for dinner. He rarely sleeps though this important event, and loves to look back and forth between T & I and try to figure out the dining room chandelier. We've let him lick a couple of different food items (apple, peach, lemon drop...), so he is pretty intent on staying awake so that he doesn't miss out on something important like a new flavor, or conversation between mom and dad.
9:30-10:30 p.m. | Last meal of the day for baby. After a little snuggle time on the couch, usually with mom since this is when Dad likes to catch up on the news and play his iPad games, it is bed time for C. He's been sleeping through the night if we put him down around 10:30-11 p.m. until we get to 6:15-7 a.m. and start the whole routine over again.
But Mom...I don't wanna go to bed!
This schedule can vary time-wise on a day-to-day basis, but this is generally what we are looking at most days. As C gets older, he has been going longer between feedings, so I assume this will adjust as our schedule changes, but for now, this is what works for us.
GOALS & STRUGGLES:
With being more alert, comes being more fussy when C forgets that he's still pretty little to be staying up ALL day. I finally broke out the pacifier the day he was 8 weeks old to help calm him down. When I put it in his mouth, he looked at me with a very scared look in his eyes as if trying to say 'MOM...what is this thing you are putting in my mouth? Does this mean that you aren't going to feed me?' Needless to say, while he eventually sucked on it, he still doesn't totally grasp the concept, and unless I hold it in his mouth, he just spits it right back out at me after about 15 seconds. Usually, he is a happy little camper, and the reason he is fussy is from being hungry or gassy, having a wet diaper, or just wanting to be snuggled. If those things don't help with the fussiness, it's usually because he's tired, and on those few occasions, I have busted out the pacifier. We'll see moving forward if he'll learn to take it, or maybe he'll follow his dad's footsteps and refuse.
A goal we are working towards is to get C to look more to his left side. He definitely favors the right side, and because of this has developed a slightly flattened area on the back of his head. This should eventually correct itself once he has stronger head control, but until then, we are trying anything we can to get him to lay more on the left side of his head. If it were to get really bad (which we don't think it will), we would be looking at a helmet to make sure his skull forms in the correct shape. Our Doctor had some tips for us to try, most of which were helpful, but one that was to put a blanket behind him at night so he can't sleep on his right side (this we took with a grain of salt). If you have had a baby recently, or kept up to date with the most recent recommendations to help avoid SIDS, you will know that sleeping with ANYTHING in the crib with baby is an absolute no-no. The video we had to watch before leaving the hospital with our little peanut about local Iowa families affected by SIDS, was absolutely the most heartbreaking thing I've ever seen. Needless to say, our little guy will be sleeping without any added blankets, pillows, or stuffed animals until he is well past the age that this is a concern, about one year old. I'll take the helmet any day of the week over the alternative if it were to come to that.
To read more about SIDS prevention CLICK HERE and for current recommendations and information about SIDS from the CDC, CLICK HERE.
2 MONTH FAVORITES:
Boat Rides
Being Outside
Wearing Sunglasses
Talking with Great Grandpa
Wearing Sunglasses
Talking with Great Grandpa
Playing on the Activity Mat
Being swaddled or snuggled
Staring at Dad
Story Time - Favorite book is currently Fishy Tales by JellyCat. Sooo adorable!
Bathtime
Texture - Fascinated by rope, woven seagrass, wicker, etc.
Story time!
Staring at Dad.
Playtime!
Listening to all kinds of stories from Great Grandpa and Grandma.
Changing Clothes - C absolutely hates clothes to go over his head.
Tummy Time
C has recently discovered that if he doesn't fight it, he can just take a little nap on his tummy. That's not really going to help much with head control, but at least we aren't listening to the soul-crushing cries he usually gives us during Tummy Time!
Love this pouty little face!
MEMORIES & MILESTONES:
Shades on and ready for the 4th!
Survived July 4th Weekend. Annnnd...slept through the night for the first time on the evening of the 4th! Must have been exhausted from all of the commotion! Since the 4th, there have been only two nights that he's woken up. By sleeping through the night, I mean going to bed about 10:30-11:30pm, and waking up about 6:00-6:30. I'll take it! That's about the same schedule as T usually entertains, so that works out for us just perfect.
Four generations photo op.
The nights filled with grunts are gone sadly...but not so sadly. C still gives out a few good grunts right after eating, but usually calms down after about 10 minutes or so. We've had to get a bigger sleep sack for him as the newborn size was too short. Since T & I are both pretty tall, we have no doubt that Baby C will be a tall little fella :)
Carter had a 'Welcome Aboard' party to celebrate his arrival and to meet some new faces the weekend of July 4th. He was wide awake until guests started arriving, and then slept through the remainder of the party. Silly little guy. Must have been too much attention for him to handle! Stay tuned for pictures from the party...
The first blowout happened while Dad was holding Carter after coming home from work one weeknight. He's had a couple since then, but after no BM in 5 days, we finally broke down and tried prune juice just last week. Of course, the only way to buy prune juice is in a HUGE bottle that costs 4x as much as every other kind of juice. So ridiculous since one ounce was all it took to do the trick! I don't think T & I will be enjoying prune juice anytime soon. If only it could have been something better...like OJ...then we could have made mimosas with the leftovers...sigh... Since then, C hasn't had any problems. If you need prune juice, let me know! I've got a ton left!
The cousins have yet to decide what they think of each other. It has been fun getting together a few times this summer to see how they interact. Here, cousin J was having a taste of C's hand. C wasn't quite sure what to think of it!
My brother T & I with our babes lakeside.
Zonked out. Too much fun perhaps?
Hanging out lakeside with Mom.
C is officially out of his newborn sized outfits...tear...If he keeps eating and growing as fast as he has been, those 3 month outfits aren't going to last us too much longer either! If only there was a good place to shop close by for baby clothing...Thinking I should have stocked up a little more before Baby C's arrival to keep him in cute outfits that don't all come from Wally World. Online shopping isn't nearly as fun as the real thing. That being said, I did manage to find time to order him some new looks for this fall when the weather starts to cool down. Looking forward to recieving them in the mail sometime this week!
Visiting Dad at the clinic. You can tell that C was impressed!
Carter had his two month checkup and immunizations last week (one week past the actual two month mark). The official updates are: 13lbs which puts C in the 76% for weight, and 24.25 inches long which is the 88% for height. At his two week check, he was 6lbs 14.5 oz., and 21.5 inches long, so weight wise he has nearly doubled in size! No wonder my back has been hurting! As for the dreaded shots, C took them like a champ. He didn't have any trouble at all with the oral vaccine, and had about one good scream per shot - there were three of them altogether. Luckily, it was Dad's day off, so he was able to come for the appointment, and snuggle with C on the couch the rest of the afternoon while he recuperated from the ordeal.
Our next checkup isn't until Carter hits the four month mark, so we are looking forward to seeing what changes the next two months will bring. Hoping for some smiles to start appearing more regularly. So far, he's been holding out on us for the most part beyond a couple here and there. I'll leave you with this one I captured while he was dreaming outside on a walk.
