3 months

3 months!

I am doing much better this month at getting this out relatively close to on time. Everett turned 3 months on the 28th.

At 3 months, Everett...

-Babbles much more frequently and gurgles some. He also has started going 'ayayayayay' when he is semi-crying which I think is so funny.

-Celebrated his first Christmas!

-Smiles big gummy smiles all the time. He's getting so close to giggling too. I. Love. This.

-Eats 5-6 ounces 5 times a day. Typically 6 ounces in the morning around 7, then 5 ounces at 11:00 or 11:30, 2:30, 5:30 and 8:30. Still a combo of breast milk and formula.

-Is such a great sleeper. He typically sleeps from after his 8:30 pm bottle to 7 am or so. He's in a really predictable routine right now. He takes a long nap in the morning but usually he wakes up, is awake for around an hour and a half, and then starts to get sleepy and naps for about an hour and a half.

-Still loves being held but tolerates more and more alone time. He will play alone for short periods of time during the first hour he's awake. The last half hour before nap time, not so much. He likes to play in his swing, laying under his mobile, and in his jumperoo even though he's way too small for it. Still no luck on getting him to transition from his little rocker bed to a crib.

-No idea about length and weight. I do know he has thunder thighs. :)

-Three months was not the magic ticket to no reflux for us but it's definitely much improved.

-Has mastered getting his thumb in his mouth and it definitely soothes him. The only problem now is that he sometimes gags himself with it.

-Tolerates a couple minutes of tummy time before crying ensues. He rolled over this week!!

-Still sticks his tongue out most of the day.

-His favorite activity is standing up in your lap and bouncing up and down. Preferably right on your bladder.

Enjoy some pics! We are absolutely loving this age!

2 months!

Well, we're closing in on 3 months around here, but as I warned you last time, these will never come on time.

Now, the tricky part is for me to remember the things he was doing at 2 months since he does a lot more stuff now.  I did take the picture right at 2 months this time though, which is great success if you ask me.  (I actually wrote a post for this on his 2 month birthday and then when I added the picture, Blogger deleted the writing.  And I didn't have it in me to post again.  And apparently it took 3 weeks for me to work up the energy to re-post.  Which makes blogging very similar to running.  It takes me at least 3 weeks to find interest in running after I've done it once.)

At 2 months, Everett...

-Babbles more and more

-Took his first official trip to Aggieland while his daddy was home over Thanksgiving.  Whoop.

-Has totally mastered the baby smile, but it's still pretty hard to come by.  You really have to entertain him well to get a full-face baby smile, but when you do, it's the very best part of your day.  Promise.

-Eats a lot.  This kid loooooves his milk.  He cries every time it's taken away (unless he's mostly asleep), no matter how much he eats.  He eats about 4 ounces per feeding, 6 times a day, a combination of formula and breast milk.  (Sorry, for those of you uninterested or creeped out by that- some of this is just for me to remember.)

-Is such a great sleeper.  He typically goes from about 10:30 pm to 6 am or so.  Sometimes a little bit longer than that, sometimes a little bit less.  I am so very much happier to be getting really good sleep these days.  He's also in a pretty good routine now, so most of our days (schedule-wise) look pretty much the same.  This makes my heart happy.  Mommy hates change.

-Is generally perfectly content as long as he's being held, but he's starting to enjoy some self-play more often.  He loves anything with a mobile - his play mat, swing, or even the mobile in his crib.  (Although he despises sleeping in his crib.  We'll get to that in the 3 month update.  Try to go on normally with your lives until then, despite your excitement.)

-Is now gaining weight like a champ.  At his 2 month appointment, he was in the 15th percentile for weight (10 lb 10 oz), 52nd percentile for height (24 in) and 80th percentile for head circumference.  Yep, 80th.  He's got a big ole head.

-Is still having reflux, but it's definitely getting better.  The medicine he's on keeps it from burning so it doesn't make him cry, and it seems to happen less often.  Come on, three months, when it's supposed to just about go away.

-Is mitten-free and boy does he love his thumbs.  Good grief.  He doesn't usually scratch himself anymore now, so he's allowed to have free rein over sticking those thumbs in his mouth.  And he does so every time they happen to find their way in.  He still han't mastered getting them in there on his own, so it still only happens by chance.  Which apparently is extremely upsetting when you're 2 months old and have such a fondness for your thumbs.

-The paci has lost some of its power.  He really prefers his thumbs.  It still works sometimes though so I  never leave the house without one.

-Remember my comment about loving to be on his belly?  Things change.  He'll nap there if he's already out, but for the most part he naps in his own bed almost every time now so it's not really an option.  He's not a fan of tummy time when he's awake, although at 2 months, we had only done it once or twice.

-Still loves to stick that tongue out.

-Is finally slowing down on the doctor's visits.  All is well with the weight gain (finally - after 6 weeks) so we went to a normal doctor schedule.  And no more specialists.  Except a small circumcision issue that we'll have to address.  Poor little guy.

-The milk belly expansion has slowly spread elsewhere.  His thighs are filling out as well as his cheeks.  Oh those cheeks!  I just love them.  I kiss them approximately 4.2 million times per day.

I love love love love this kid.  (See below the massive change from one to two months.  Oh my word.  So much cheeks.)

Poop and circumstance

I keep having people say things like 'you seem to be handling the parenting transition so well' and 'you look like you have it all together.'

Apparently I am really good at the 'fake it til you make it' approach because neither of those statements are true.

Exhibit A: yesterday morning, I had a pretty serious to-do list. Everett is 7 weeks old (yesterday) and for the first 6 weeks, I didn't try to accomplish anything other than eating regularly and showering most days and keeping us both alive. But life is happening again now, and yesterday I needed to at least start cleaning my house for various things we have coming up and go to the grocery store, along with a few other things. The grocery store was first up on the list after I fed E in the morning. I have discovered that, because my life revolves around when he needs to eat again, I only get so much time between feedings and in order to maximize my time I must be completely prepared to leave the house before I wake him up from a nap. The key is for me to be dressed, have everything needed for both of us in the car, and then wake him up, feed, change diaper and stick in car so I get the full amount of time before we start the process over.

So after I woke him up and fed him this particular time, I was hurrying to change his diaper (which is really where the laughing should begin) and get him in the car. I knew this was going to be a unpleasant diaper by the smell and by the fact that he had stopped eating several times to concentrate. And I was right. So I started getting him all cleaned up and while I was trying to hold him down with one hand and clean him up with the other, I heard him start making a smacking noise with his lips. I looked up and he was peeing straight into his mouth. And then, in my attempt to quickly get him to stop licking pee off his face, I smeared a wipe that had poop on it right on his face.

Needless to say, I do not have it all together. And I put all that in writing because I feel like moms are constantly looking at other moms thinking that said other mom has it more 'together'. So I just want to set the record straight that when it comes to me, that's not the case. On the other hand, the amount of understanding from other moms is glorious. Yesterday, the woman behind me in line at HEB took the groceries out of my cart for me. She said she had 5 kids and knew what it was like to have your hands full.

I will leave you with an adorable picture of my sweet boy who hates tummy time, but I captured a moment of cuteness before the crying ensued. And another cute picture just because.

Here's to not having it all together!

Halloween 2012

Everett was a big scary lion for Halloween.  :-)  Love that kid.  We had a ton of trick-or-treaters this year, and we sat out on the patio with him and handed out candy.  It was fun.  Then we went around the corner to our neighbor's house (our friends Justin and Kacy recently moved into our neighborhood) and hung out with them for a bit.  And then we went to a house of some friends of theirs who also live in our neighborhood.  They had a bunch of other neighbors over, so we hung out with all of them and met new people for a bit.  It was fun.

Happy 1st Halloween, little man!  You're the cutest little lion of all time.

1 month old!!

Well part of me feels like 'where did the time go??' and part of me feels like this has been the longest month of my life.  :-)  But despite the lack of sleep and all the other challenges we've had, this has been by far the best month of our lives.

Everett is ONE MONTH old!!!  (Ok, he's 5 weeks old and I took this picture when he was 5 weeks, but that's pretty much how things go for me, so we might as well start out with honesty!)

A lot of this is going to just be for me to remember in the future, so if you're bored out of your mind reading this and stop here at this cute picture, I'm not offended!

In the first month of life, Everett:

Had (and still has) some serious trouble gaining weight.  We are still trying to figure out exactly what's going on with that.  As of his 5 week appointment, he weighed 7 lb 7 ounces, which was one ounce above his birth weight.   So we will be going back to the doctor on Thursday (again... for the 5th time... they know us by name now!) to check the weight again.  He only gained one ounce last week (they are supposed to gain one ounce a day) which I can not figure out because he ate a lot more last week than usual but oh well.  We'll figure it out.  I really like his pediatrician so that helps with all this.

Has 'silent' reflux.  Meaning that he has reflux but it doesn't come all the way up.  So it burns on the way up and then on the way back down.  Poor guy.  You can tell when this is bothering him.  We are trying Prevacid right now and just increased the dosage so I'm really hoping that starts helping.

Has some trouble breathing when he eats and sometimes when he sleeps.  It scares me to death when I can hear him struggling to breathe while he's sleeping but the doctors don't seemed too worried.  Apparently it can be a flap in his esophagus that just needs to develop further, and there's nothing to be done about that, or it can be related to the reflux.  We're still working on figuring that out too.  The great news is that they sent us to a pediatric cardiologist to make sure it was nothing major and his heart is perfect.  :-)  So in 5 weeks of life, Everett has been to the pediatrician 5 times, and to see a cardiologist and ENT, as well as had his tongue clipped in the hospital by a pediatric surgeon.  Poor little guy!

Can just about full-on smile!!  This is my absolute favorite thing.  (Ok this didn't happen in the first month, it happened in the last week, but still.)  I have to make a complete fool out of myself to get him to do it, and he still only smiles with the right side of his mouth, but he's so close!  And he looks right at my eyes now and follows me with his eyes when I'm walking around.  So fun!

Loves to lay on his belly.  Sometimes (if he's next to me on the couch or something - don't worry) I lay him on his tummy to nap.

Loves the swing!  I can only leave him in there for about 15 minutes before he falls asleep, but he'll sit in there happily and watch the mobile, so it gives me a little bit of 'awake' time where he's occupied.  He does not like to be left alone and not held, so I'm limited in what to do with him during the day when he's not sleeping (unless I want to listen to him cry).

Is really good at holding his head up.  He loves to be held upright and look around.

Loves the paci.  I was a little worried he had stopped loving it, but we switched to a different kind and we're in love again.  Phew.  I really like having that to soothe him, especially when we're out.

Loves to be outside, especially if one of us is wearing him.

Is a really, really good sleeper.  He'll usually give me 6-7 hours between two of his feedings at night.  (We only go 2.5-3 hours during the day.)  We're working on getting into a better routine during the day/night so I can better predict when he'll be up.  The problem is that when he wakes up early in the morning, I feed him and stick him back in bed so I can get more sleep.  :-)  If I actually had a 'wake up' time that I stuck to, I think we'd be in better shape but so far I haven't been able to talk myself into staying up in the morning yet.  He slept 5 hours for the first time before he was 2 weeks old.

Had a couple really rough days where his days and nights were mixed up.  We wound up letting him finally cry after that so he could figure out that he had to sleep some at night, and crying it out with him was an absolute disaster.  He wound up crying for about 24 solid hours and we wound up feeling like the worst parents ever.  Thankfully we're past that and sleeping good (usually) at night and still napping pretty good (usually) during the day.

Is so. stinking. cute.  He's got a milk belly now, but he's still super skinny everywhere else.  He has really long fingers and toes, and lots of extra skin to grow into!  He loves to cuddle, which we take advantage of quite a bit.  He loves to be swaddled, and we're still making him wear mittens because he sticks his thumbs in his mouth and the rest of his fingers either in his eyes or dug into his face.  (He is NOT  a fan of this mittens!  He tried hard to suck on his hands through them.)  We just love discovering all the sweet little parts of his personality and watching him learn to interact a little bit.  He's started to sort of coo at us, and he's developed this pitiful, 'someone pay attention to me' cry that is clearly different from his 'I'm furious' cry.  There is a serious learning curve to being first-time parents but we are loving it.

Can't wait to see what's in the months to come!!

Family of Three

Well we are officially a family of three.  :-)  Little Everett made his arrival on September 28th and made us parents!

Isn't he perfect?  It's been a challenging few weeks but we think he's pretty great.  I think we heard about nine bajillion times before he was born that having kids will change your life dramatically.  I think it's just like everything else in life - no one can really explain it to you until you do it.  It certainly changes your life in an instant.  But I don't think you can really understand in what ways until you do it.  And of course Patrick and I, being the low maintenance, low expectations kind of people that we are, always adapt to change perfectly right from the beginning.  :-)

But really, he is a fabulous dad.  And although I've already put this picture on every other form of social media I could find, I will put it here as well.

Isn't that adorable??

More blogging to come!

In Christ Alone

We sang that song at our wedding, and that is one reason it will always hold a special place in my heart. The other (and significantly more important) reason is this:

And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

I listened to an old podcast by Ben Stuart this morning and he was saying that a lot of times our response to the fact that 'He is risen!' is 'Yeah ok.' So may we spend this Easter with a true response of excitement for the fact that we serve the one and only God who is risen, and an appreciation for the sacrifices it took to get there.

Happy Easter friends! He is risen!

And speaking of weddings... Congratulations to Elijah and Krista! We are so excited for you!