EAT:
He had his bottle strike at about 2.5 months but after 3-4 days of working through it he's back on the bottle. To be honest, at times he still refuses the bottle and it takes him a good 2-3 minutes to figure it out, so right now we make sure he gets a minimum of 1 bottle/day. He takes about 4 ounces every ~3 hours during the day. We're still on level 1 nipples but I'm going to buy some level 2 this week (again, this is my personal journal and since 50% of my workday is consumed by infant feeding and different types of nipples you betcha I will document when we switch flow rates--it's a big deal in this household!). I limit his nursing time to ~7-9 minutes--I've figured out he can still go 3 hour intervals and spits up way less. If Carter had his way he would nurse >30 minutes at a time, and well...we just aren't gonna go there!
PLAY:
Oh my goodness, he is becoming quite the little character. He definitely coos and interacts so much more now and I'm lovin' it. Just this morning I had him on his changing pad and we just had a little conversation for about 4 minutes of back and forth talking. LOVE it. He still is not a fan of "traditional" tummy time but one of the benefits of being a speech therapist is sharing an office and having lots of friends who are physical therapists. One of the first questions I got from my PT friends when returning to work was "how's he doing with tummy time?". Ouch--he screams and hates it but I make him do it? Well, Mommy friends, I learned through an article and talking with the PTs that "tummy time" is not just putting your baby on a blanket/mat on their tummy on the floor. Basically, anything that is not putting him on his back is considered tummy time. So, we now sit him up more, use the Bumbo more (can do it for about 30 minutes!), and hold him in "airplane" position on his tummy which he tolerates for 20-30 minutes. I think he just likes to "see the world" as Caleb calls it and when he's stuck on his tummy on the floor he just gets bored....atleast that's what I'm telling myself :). His little hands have opened up (before were always clenched up) and he's starting to grab at his blanket and burp cloth when it's on his lap. He has also discovered his hands and loves to put them in his mouth. He loves to look at himself in the mirror and will talk and smile at himself, completely unaware of me trying to get him to look at the camera (yes, I still take a minimum of 3 pictures and 1 video a day for Daddy). Unfortunately the big swing, our saving grace, broke a couple of weeks ago :(. After a major melt down the other night Caleb and I both decided it was worth the $50 to buy a new motor...I was on the phone with Fisher Price when they opened and our new motor is in the mail! He goes between the travel swing, the playmat, the bouncy, and blankets on the floor.....but most of all, the boy loves to be held and I can't complain about that. We spend hours each day with him on his back on my knees and he just looks around. He's still a little bobbly at times but I would say pretty much has developed head control. He's starting to bear a little weight on his legs....but it's inconsistent at this point. He rolled over once from his tummy to his back (on his 2 month birthday!) but hasn't done it since. However, he now prefers to sleep on his side and will roll to his side no problems. He continues to love movement and both Caleb and I have enjoyed taking him jogging in the Bob stroller--he just looks around and enjoys movement and the scenery!
SLEEP:
Well, if I would have written this on exactly his 3 month birthday I would have said he gives us a good 8 hour stretch each night, then goes about 4-5 hours until he wakes up. His routine got out of whack over our trip to Austin this past weekend, so he's still a little off. He now only sleeps in his crib (hallelujah!) for naps and bedtime. I think all 3 of us have developed a love/hate relationship with the swaddle. He still has to be swaddled to go to sleep so of course, we ALL love it when he's sleeping. However, he FIGHTS the swaddle and is getting so strong that no matter how tight we get it, the little houdini can break out of it if he fights hard enough....and can't go back to sleep. He will wail his arms and cry because he can't get comfortable....because he has to be swaddled. Grrr. He wakes himself up, which wakes up, and well....that's the love/hate swaddle relationship. He is awake for ~1.5 hours at a time during the day, then needs to go down for a nap and does the "eat, play, sleep" routine over again! He naps anywhere from 45 minutes-2 hours, about 5x/day--the boy needs his sleep, and he is SO much happier when he gets it! We've got our bath+bottle/nurse+bed routine going for bedtime and it's working GREAT!
Some of my favorites at 3 months....
-putting his arms in "superman" position when we undo his swaddle
-putting his little fist over his eyes when he's nursing
-the biggest grins--kissing his feet, talking baby talk, and rapping--yes, the kid definitely prefers rapping to lullabies--not sure what this means for his future but you better believe during tummy time when he's screaming I break out some Kanye "that that that don't kill me, can only make me stronger" :)
-that last feeding of the night--having the "heartbeat" sound on the monitor, the mist of the humidifer going, and just rocking him and staring at him, praying and praising the Lord for blessing us with our little man
-his coos--he really thinks he's talking and telling me something and will just smile and coo back and forth
-watching Caleb baby talk--Carter and I both love it and smile so big :)
-getting home from work and just snuggling with my little guy. Working gives me a new appreciation for some good quality time and keeping priorities in line (maybe that's why my house hasn't been vacuumed in over a week?!)
-Carter going to bed at a decent hour (~7:30-8) so Caleb and I have quality time together at night
-being able to get up and go--I feel like the first 2 months it seemed like such an ordeal to get his diaper bag packed and everything ready to go run a short errand...not sure if it's I'm just more used to it now, but it's much easier
Woa, that's a lot. If you've made it this far, here are some 3 month pics. He wasn't too smiley, he's definitely more of a morning person and I took these after I got home from work Thursday afternoon:
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| love the wobbli-ness :) |
2 comments:
I love that second to last picture. "is that my foot? what is that?" - Chelsea
Hey Julie,
Carter is just a doll! I just read your blog and I thought I would pass on some great information that we learned early from Chip's pediatrician. Without even asking, she recommended beginning to wean him slowly from being swaddled at about one month. So she suggested going with one arm out of the swaddle for 1-2 weeks, then leaving both arms out of the swaddle (just swaddle the lower body) for 1-2 weeks, to then just putting the blanket over the lower half of his body. This was almost 2.5 years ago so I hope I am not leaving any steps out, but for us it worked like a charm. I just thought it may be worth a shot given the love/hate relationship you talked about, and it maybe will slowly help him adjust to not relying on the swaddle. Since he is 3 months already though, it may take a little more time for him to get comfortable with each step. Anyway, I just thought I would pass it on, bc it really did work wonders at our house. Good luck girl and I miss you! I hope all is well since you started back up at work.
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