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!

Two Months Old!

It's hard to believe my baby boy is two months old already!  We won't know his updated weight/length stats until next Friday when we have his next doctors appointment.  It's interesting comparing Nathan to Nicholas when he was that age.  They are extremely similar in almost all aspects of their lives.  Here is happy Nathan with his crazy eyes. 

Size:  Nathan is still wearing size 1 diapers, although I think he will easily transition into size 2 when we run out of the few size 1 packs we have left.  He completely fills out 3 month size clothes and even fits well in 6 month clothes.  Recently he has been going through multiple outfits each day.  I don't think it is a problem with the diapers.  We are currently using Huggies Snuggies.  Apparently Nathan has man sized bowels in a baby body that causes blow-outs at least once a day.   

Sleep: Nathan is starting to go 3 hours between feedings during the day and usually 3 or 4 hours between feedings at night.  He has started to chew on his hands even though I have just fed him.  Nicholas did the exact same thing around this time.  My guess is that he will be just like his brother and suck on his fingers rather than taking a pacifier. 

Bath time: Nathan is getting nightly baths and enjoys them.  Every time we put him in the tub he will exhale and squint his eyes.  Not sure why he's doing this, but its rather cute.  Here was our attempt to document the face...

He is able to follow us with his eyes and is quick to give us smiles.  He really enjoys watching Nicholas (that is when he sits still long enough for him to do so).  Nathan for the most part is a happy guy, but tends to get fussy in the evenings.  His neck muscles and legs are getting stronger and stronger.  Still a little bobble head action, but not bad.  I'm really enjoying my maternity leave and will be sad to go back in a few weeks.  

A few firsts

Yesterday was a big day around here.  I put Nathan down in his crib wide awake, but sleepy and he took about an hour nap.  This is huge because we want these good sleep habits to start early.  Then last night I fed him at 9:45pm and he didn't wake up until 3:30am.  Woohoo!  This was awesome as Gabe had mentioned earlier that evening that Nicholas had started stretching out his sleep around this age.  We really hope this trend will continue. 

Unfortunately we have all been under the weather recently.  It started out with Nicholas at the end of last week and slowly Gabe and I got the sinus crud as well.  Then as I was feeding Nathan last night, I could tell he was a little congested.  Hopefully we can recover quickly and not keep passing it back and forth to one another. 

A big first for Nicholas has been his ability to whistle.  Another kid in his preschool class can whistle and I guess he thought that was cool because he has been trying to do it for awhile now.  At first it was mainly just him blowing air with an occasional hint of a whistle.  But now, he can whistle as well as I can and does so CONSTANTLY.  He is very proud of himself to say the least. 

Snowmaggedon Part 2

As most of the country experienced this past week, the Birmingham area received more snow.  Luckily, however, this time everyone was much more cautious and the roads did not become icy and congested as they did two weeks ago.  We were able to enjoy this one even though it only lasted not even 24 hours as the sun melted everything quickly.  Nicholas was out of school from Tuesday thru Thursday, but was able to go back for Friday and hand out/receive Valentine's from the other kids in his class.  Here are a few pics of this one...

Last Sunday was our first visit back to church for all four of us together.  Between the cold weather, not wanting to expose my newborn to any illnesses that might be passed around and not being able to get ready in time for the early service we attend, it just hasn't worked out.  The ladies in the nursery were excited to have a new baby, but Nicholas wasn't so sure.  Several times during church he asked about Nathan and was concerned.  I told him that Nathan was fine and that he was once watched by those same ladies.  It's so sweet to see him watch out for his little brother. 

For some reason this week, Nathan woke up at 5am every morning no matter when he last ate.  For the most part he would sleep otherwise, but we weren't happy about this new trend.  Then Friday night (also Valentine's Day), he had the worst night that I can recall.  He was up for most of the night and I probably only achieved 3 hours of sleep that night.  So when it was time for him to sleep last night, I prayed that it would be better (and luckily it was).  I fed him around 8:30 and put him to bed afterwards.  He woke up around 1:15am.  I have been pumping more this weekend so we set up a bottle for Gabe to give him during that first night feeding.  Then he slept again until 4:30am.  All in all a MUCH better night.  I'm hoping those 5am wake up calls are a thing of the past. 

Today, we decided to take the boys to the zoo since the weather was supposed to be very nice for a change.  After church, we went home, packed up a picnic and then headed out.  Nicholas absolutely loves going to the zoo.  Nathan doesn't have an opinion since he slept the entire time we were there.  It was nice to get out of the house for a change and I would qualify this as Nathan's first real outing.

Nathan enjoys bath time, so when he starts to get fussy at night, we just pull out the bath tub.  I can tell he is getting bigger because you can start to see little rolls in his legs.  Right now he still fits into size 1 diapers and 3 month clothes.  We have given him a few more bottles this week and it seems that he will drink about 3 ounces on average.    

Nicholas no longer takes naps, but every now and then we will find him crashed in the living room (and on occasion in his bedroom while he is in time-out).  I still can't believe how big he is and that he is going to be 5 soon.  He keeps telling us that he will change Nathan's dirty diapers after he turns 5, but we will see if that actually happens or not...  

"Dusting" of Snow

So this past week was rather crazy to say the least.  Tuesday we were expected to get a slight dusting of snow.  Nothing was closed because it wasn't expected to be bad.  Well, the meteorologists were a bit off in their predictions.  Unfortunately they realized this too late and sent everyone home from schools and work all at the same time, causing mass chaos on the roads.  Gabe left work at 11am Tuesday and was stuck in his car for almost 25 hours, not able to get home until almost noon on Wednesday.  Everyone was extremely worried because his phone died only a few hours into the trip and his blower isn't currently working in his car, so he wasn't able to turn on any heat.  Not good when the temperature is in the teens outside.  Needless to say we were all EXTREMELY happy when he made it home safe and sound.  Here are a few pictures of the "dusting" we received.  Thankfully Meagan and Abby came over to play with Nicholas in the snow since my plan of daddy being home to play with him, didn't work out. 

He made several snow angels in our driveway.  

Only after Gabe made it home was I really able to appreciate how pretty the snow is.  Although I'm sure he would be happy to not see snow anytime soon!

Also, this past weekend marked the anniversary of when we moved into our house last year.  We still love everything about it and have thoroughly enjoyed living on the "compound."  Plans for this spring include finally getting a fence for the backyard.  That will make life for Gabe and Bama much easier since he won't have to deal with the dog run anymore.  Also, Gabe was able to give Nathan another bottle this weekend.  He did fine drinking out of it.  Even after he finished the 2 ounces, Nathan was hungry for more, so I nursed him afterwards.  He's a growing boy!!