3 months old!

It's hard to believe Nathan is already three months old!  He is growing and changing by the day. 

Over the past few weeks, Nathan has really started "talking" a lot.  It's so sweet to hear and it's always a question we have of "what in the world is he thinking right now?"  Nathan has had strong neck muscles ever since birth, but has gained really good head control and is no longer our little bobble head.  He also has really strong legs and enjoys standing up on my lap.  Nathan kicks constantly.  Whether it is just lying on the floor or in the bathtub, he is very active.  It will be interesting to see how he compares to Nicholas as far as crawling and walking.  Of course, he has motivation of keeping up with a big brother... 

Working those leg muscles.

Smiling at Nicholas.  He loves his big brother!!

Just like his big brother, Nathan loves chewing on his hands.  I'm not sure if this is related to teething or just something to do since he doesn't take a pacifier.  I've tried giving him the famous giraffe teething toy, but he doesn't seem all that interested yet. 

This week was my first one back at work and also Nicholas' spring break.  To help with the transition, Gigi and PawPaw offered to take Nicholas to Mobile for the week.  He LOVED it of course and it was REALLY quiet around here with him gone.  Thanks Gigi and PawPaw!  Nathan didn't have any problems hanging out with Mimi and Pop all day - 3 days a week.  We are extremely thankful that they are able to care for him (as they did with Nicholas) so we don't expose him to daycare/germs.  He takes his bottles well and will drink around 4-5 ounces at a time.  It is extremely rare for Nathan to spit up at all, which is great and I hope that trend continues.   

Nathan has done really well sleeping.  I have noticed that he will sometimes sleep on his side, but typically stays on his back.  It looked like a few times he has wanted to roll over, but can't quite make it all the way.  I am excited that Nathan can be put in his crib awake and fall asleep on his own.  Granted this doesn't happen every time, but at least we know he is capable of doing so.

Nathan is finishing up the last size 1 diaper package we have.  He has outgrown most 3 month clothes, so he generally wears 3-6 month sizes or even 9 months (his blue and white outfit shown in the pictures below is 9 months and I don't think it will last him too much longer).  I'm going to have to reevaluate the clothes that I have for him.  Granted with summer coming up, I plan on just throwing him in a onesie, which we have plenty of for every size under the moon.   

Since we had pictures taken when Nicholas was 3 months, we decided to do the same with Nathan and compare.  After seeing these pictures, they don't look as much alike as I originally thought.  There is no doubt they are still brothers, but just not twins.  Nicholas had a bit more meat on his bones at three months.  Nathan wasn't as liberal with his smiles while we had the pictures taken, but we were definitely able to get some cute shots (and yes we had them wear the same red and white onesie).

 

What's been going on

Nathan's two month appointment on March 7th went well.  At the appointment, he weighed 12 lbs 4 ounces and was 24 3/4 inches or 50th and 90th percentile respectively.  I think he actually weighs a little more than that because the entire time he was on the scale, he was kicking his legs like crazy and it wouldn't settle on one set amount.  He also received 4 shots, which he wasn't a fan of but recovered quickly.  Dr. Whitaker also said he was really impressed with how well Nathan could hold his head up.  He said "he's perfect!"  No argument here...  His next appointment will be at 4 months.

Nathan is sleeping pretty well.  Most recently it seems that I only get up with him once during the night.  The routine we are trying to start is to bathe, feed him and get him down around 8:30.  However, most nights he's not quite ready until 10pm or so.  Either way I'm happy he sleeps so well at night.     

Every Sunday at church, a member leads children's church where the 3-5 year olds go up and sit on the altar for a message.  Well two Sundays ago, Nicholas was up and answering all kinds of questions that the adult was asking.  The funniest part was after he answered a question, he would find us in our seats and give us a big thumbs up!  It had the whole church cracking up (or at least the ones that could see him).  He was so proud of himself for answering questions.  The church member even pulled him aside and talked to him after it was over.  I have no clue what she said to him, but I could hear him say, "Yeah because I'm really smart."  I just love that kid!  

This past week was the Spring consignment sale at our church.  I shopped Wednesday and worked Saturday.  I was able to buy a few staples for Nicholas that should get him through his birthday at which time I'm sure he will receive more clothes.  It gets harder and harder to purchase decent clothes for Nicholas because as boys age, their clothes get much more wear and tear on them.  I did buy Nathan a few items as well, although he is completely covered based on hand-me-downs from Nicholas. 

After I got home from working Saturday, we took Nicholas and Abby to the carnival that was in town.  Based on the location, we pass it every day I take Nicholas to school.  Needless to say, he has been asking about going for awhile.  We bought ride tickets and checked things out.  Nicholas started on a jumpy obstacle course that we knew he would love.  Then rode a kid version roller coaster.  He was just tall enough to ride most all the adult rides and was excited to try them out.  We thought some would terrify him and were shocked that he LOVED them all.  Some that mom and dad rode with him made us more queasy than he was.  I can personally attest to one ride where Nicholas was laughing at me because I was squealing so much.  We were so proud of how brave he was the whole time.  Nathan went with us, but chose to sleep in the stroller the whole time.   

The other night, Gabe was rocking Nathan and realized that we had an exact picture of Nicholas around the same age doing the exact same thing (rocking with daddy and sucking on his hands).  So I snapped a picture to compare the two.  I'll let the pictures do the talking as far as whether or not these two boys are related.  I got out a photo album of Nicholas around the same age and Nicholas says, look how cute Nathan is.  I had to tell him all those pictures were of him!  It's like deja vu! 

10 to 5

We had a momentous night last night.  Nathan didn't sleep hardly at all during the day and was a bit fussy at night.  I fed him around 9pm but he still wasn't content until 10pm, which is when I put him down.  Gabe woke up at 4:45am and checked the video monitor to make sure he was still breathing and of course he was.  Nathan ended up waking up around 5am.  We are super excited to see the sleep progress.  Because we slept great that night, we ended up just getting an early start to the day, even though Nathan went back to sleep.  It's amazing what can get done before 7am when you wake up at 5!

He even had a good night the following night where he slept for 6 hours straight.  Woohoo for sleep!