Month 2-3

Firsts

He was able to meet some more friends and extended family as we celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thanksgiving was super busy. We had 5 different Thanksgiving meals and 4 of those were in the span of three days. He was grumpy, gassy, and exhausted most of the time because his schedule was thrown off. 

We started putting him in his bed for the whole night on November 29, 2014. He slept down there for the first part of the night on November 25th. It was pretty sad. Both of us missed him being in our room but we knew it would only get harder. I love to look at him sleep. It's also reassuring to see the rise and fall of his chest right beside the bed instead of listening to the monitor or logging into our video monitor. After saying our prayers we kiss our sweet boy and put him down and trust the Lord that He will take care of him as he sleeps.

Now he's a smiley boy but I heard him laugh a few times on Thursday, December 18th, the day before I went back to work. My mom kept him on Friday and said he did it again. 

He is also getting pretty good at moving his head around and getting his pacifier back in his mouth is he loses it. This month he even started to grab onto toys and hold them more than he had been doing. 

He even got to experience what Christmas time is like. We stayed busy but we enjoyed family traditions as a family of three with Tuesday Claus, looking at Christmas lights, and reading the Christmas story. On Christmas day he decided he would sleep most of the day. Although he did poop out of his diaper right when we were taking a family picture! 

Sleep

He sleeps through the night now but he is a mover! Jeremy gets emails every time he moves and sometimes he will get 40 emails. We wonder how much good sleep he's getting because of the movement. We also wonder if the movement is why he is little as he burns those calories during the night. He does leg lifts in his SwaddleMe. He has even rotated 180 degrees to face away from the camera. I guess I didn't really emphasize the fact that he sleeps through the night. Seriously, we put him down by 9:30 or 10 and he won't wake up until 7 most days! There are days he sleeps later or rises early but it's so nice to get some uninterrupted sleep. We know we will have to transition into a different schedule come January because I will have to go to work but this time has been restful. I am extremely thankful and blessed. 

Mornings

He loves mornings. When he gets up, between 7 and 8, he is ready to eat, play, and smile. He talks to the painting above our bed, he smiles at me as I talk to him, and he has the best time on his play mat. We've been listening to a lot of Christmas music lately, which he loves! I told him he would hear lots of it and learn to love this time of year because I do. Some mornings he sits in his swing and stares at the Christmas tree. I've really loved our morning fun and will miss getting to have these moments with him when I go back to work in a few short days. He is definitely the happiest in the morning.

Naps

Through the day he takes a few naps. I can tell when he's tired because he just whines about nothing and his eyes get bags under them. We noticed that he loves to nuzzle under armpits too as well as rub his face back and forth on shirts when he is tired. I guess this is the next best thing to rubbing his eyes since he doesn't know how to rub his eyes with his hands. Although he still fights sleep when we hold him, he knows sleep is necessary. He doesn't ever give us a hard time about going down for a nap though. 

Awake time

Through this month I've seen him become more independent and able to self soothe. Now he is one who wants to be around the people and action and we question whether or not we have an extroverted son! He cried at our Christmas party when he was separated from the fun. (It might have been the Mexican food from the night before that made him upset though) Sometimes all it takes is carrying him into the room with you and all is well. He just needs to be with or looking at people. After a morning feeding we sometimes put him back down so I can get a little more sleep. Since I fall right back asleep I don't really know if he naps at all but when I do wake up and log onto our video monitor I see him just looking at the camera. I feel like this is pretty abnormal! He will sit there for a long time without crying too. This month we started reading to him more. As we read he sits in our laps, listens intently and looks at the pictures. He gets most excited about Brown Bear Brown Bear and smiles and talks to the illustrations. This month he started imitating us more too. He's really good about sticking his tongue out when we stick ours out. If we smile, he will smile back too. He continues to love the picture above our bed and seems to be listening to everything we say. 

Other news:

He's getting more hair to fill in the bald places. His face has been free of acne this month too which was great for pictures. We've had adventures cutting his nails, which seem to grow a few millimeters every other day. We continue to have adventures with diapers too. His car seat is catching up to me in the number of times it has been pooped upon! It seems to mostly happen when he's in the sitting position and comfortable.