I have to admit that this past month has been better than the first month. Really at about week four I was able to take a deep breath, look around, and say "Hey, we might be figuring this out. Yeah, we got this." Routine started to get a little easier. I was able to balance Lydia and Austin a little bit better - and in all honesty, I think that my hormones hadn't quite balanced out before that and I was finding it harder to cope than I had expected. But by month two, my body was feeling more like itself and we were all feeling more adjusted. We absolutely adore Austin and have since the moment we first met - but this month has just furthered our bonding and we've fallen even more in love with our handsome little man.
Although I love Austin more than he can possibly know, I'm definitely not as on top of things as I should be. My pediatrician didn't schedule a two month appointment at his two week appointment and I totally forgot to schedule it until he turned, well, two months. I still haven't actually called to schedule, but I'm hoping to go in the week after Thanksgiving. Also, we haven't blessed him yet and probably won't until the end of December.
I'll add in doctors stats later, but as far as other things go - he's solidly in 3 month clothes and size one diapers.
**Update: STATS. At exactly 2 months and nine days Austin weighed 11.3 pounds (13th percentile), was 23.25" long (44th percentile) and had a 39.1cm head circumference (35th percentile). He did not love getting his shots and was pretty miserable for the rest of the day. Every time he moved his legs he would start crying, and if you touched them to try to massage them for him it was even worse. It was so sad. But I'm happy to report that by the next day he was good as new. Thank goodness.
Some things we want to remember:
-He has to be swaddled up tight to sleep. He's quite the escape artist and can get his arms loose out of pretty much any swaddling blanket- no matter how tightly he is wrapped. However, I've recently discovered that if I wrap him in a receiving blanket (super tight) and then wrap him again in a stretchy blanket - right up to his chin - he has a harder time escaping and he sleeps better. He also sleeps better when he's laid up against a soft rolled up blanket in his bassinet. I don't think he likes all the open space.
-He's started smiling! It is melt your heart adorable and I love it so much. He is happiest in the morning, and that's usually when I get the most smiles. I've had a hard time capturing it on camera because when he's smiling I just can't pull myself away to go grab the camera - I just want to stay and enjoy the happiness. Sometimes he starts smiling while he's nursing, which is melt-my-heart sweet. It usually causes him to unlatch, but sometimes he will just keep eating while the little corners of his mouth are turned up in a smile.
-He's also started cooing. He's always been kind of loud and grunty, but the cooing is oh so sweet.
-I thought that he didn't like his swing, until David suggested trying to turn the base so he was swinging the other way and he loves it so much more! It's been a lifesaver. Also, that grey bear in the picture below- Lydia puts it in with him everytime he's in the swing if she can. She just wants to make sure that he has his bear so he can be happy in the swing. It's sweet.
-We both hate tummy time. The end.
-We are finally starting to figure out a semblance of a sleeping schedule. He usually goes down for the night just after we put Lydia to bed - around 7:30. Then he'll usually sleep until 12:30-1:30 (with a few times going up to put his pacifier back in). He'll eat again then, and I usually fall asleep in the chair nursing him. Around three-or-so, I stiffly wake up and put him back in his bed where he'll usually sleep for a half-hour (just enough time for me to fall asleep in my bed.) Those are his best stretches because once we hit 4:30, we are usually up every hour until 7:30 when Lydia wakes up. However, he has slept from 7:30-4 on a couple of different occasions - so I can see hope for our sleeping future! Those nights I didn't actually get any more sleep than usual because I kept waking myself up and having to go in and check on him to make sure he was okay. One night I even made him wake up to eat because I was worried about him. It's hard to know exactly what he needs- and I'm worried about loosing my milk supply, especially if he stops eating much during the night. On a related note: I love love love the nursery chair that we bought. I usually sit sideways in it with my legs crossed/folded up so I can lean sideways against the back. I just switch which side I am sitting on depending on which side he needs to nurse on at the moment.
-We lost a half-package of newborn diapers, then found them and tried to squeeze him back into them so they didn't go to waste. It was super tight and a little funny. We finally just put them in our baby-gift drawer to give to friends/family when they have a baby. (I'm sorry Austin! But I'm sure your several days in tiny newborn diapers saved us... a dollar or so. Thanks for understanding.)
-I said at the beginning of this post that we are starting to get things figured out, and it's true. I feel so much more in control of things than I did the first month. I think that it's important to admit - I did almost NO blogging the entire first month. For someone going through our blog book and reading everything - it might look like I obviously had it together enough to blog often. But the only posts I actually wrote were "Introducing...", "Austin's Birth Story", and "David's 30th Birthday". Every single other post was blogged later and then back-posted into the correct time-frame. I did that because I like to be able to look through my books and find something that I'm looking for and it's hard when it's not posted in the right month - but I do feel it's a little deceiving sometimes. In fact, as I write this post, it's actually November 30th - however, I will back-post it to November 23rd because that's where I would look for it if I ever wanted to reference something from Austin's second month.
-Lydia loves Austin. If I ask her about it, she'll say "I love Austin and you love Daddy." This statement then evolved into "I love Austin the most and you love Daddy the most. And Daddy loves you the most and Austin loves ME the most!" I'm so glad that she loves him so much, because I just know that it's made the transition easier - but I just hope that Austin can continue to survive all of her love. She kisses him and practically lays on him to give him a hug. She puts his pacifier back in, which consists of her shoving it in his mouth and pushing it against his face until he takes it. She wants to sit right by him, and occasionally ends up sitting on top of him. She's never tried to hit him or poke his eye or anything like that, she just loves him SO much (too much sometimes). She always involves him in what we are doing and always wants us to take him on a trip. "Can we take Baby-Aus-sin on a trip to the moo-sum today?" He is certainly loved by all of our family, but none more than Lydia.
-He's a good eater with a great latch, but he doesn't eat for very long. I'm always surprised when he acts like he doesn't want any more. I have a fairly baby-led feeding attitude and feed him whenever he wants to eat, letting him pick his schedule. But sometimes I'll try to feed him and he just won't be interested. Nursing is hard because you never actually know how much they are getting, like is he just a really efficient nurser- and it doesn't take him that long? Or is he not getting enough. He seems to be filling out and gaining weight so I try not to worry too much - but I do worry about keeping my milk supply up for him. I really love nursing. I love it for so many reasons and I'm so grateful that I've been able to nurse so well with Austin again. (I know that it can be so much more difficult.) I was actually kind of worried about nursing a boy because I thought it would be - different? But it's not. I just am really glad to be able to nurse, even if I'm constantly worried about supply.
-His first month he would get the hiccups at least once a day. He doesn't get them as often now, but he still gets the hiccups a couple of times a week. They don't seem to bother him much, and usually go away if he can start nursing or sucking on his pacifier.
-With Lydia I always felt like she was getting so big. But with Austin, I still feel like he's so little. Then sometimes I look at pictures and I am surprised at how much bigger he looks than I thought! It's wonderful to see him growing, while still being able to soak up his little-ness
-He's starting to be able to focus a little bit better, and although his arm movements are still pretty jerky - we like watching him bat at the hanging toys on his play mat. (Funny story, we borrowed an identical playmat from a friend for Lydia - then before I even got pregnant I saw this one pop up on a yard-sale page and immediately went and got it. I'm so glad that I did, because I love it so much!)
-Austin has a love-hate relationship with his carseat. He doesn't love initially getting strapped in, but he is usually pretty content in the car as long as it's moving. AND, miracle that it is, he has even slept all the way through church in his carseat
twice. Through all three hours and all the crazy primary noise! It's amazing. (Here he was sad - but I had to take a picture because Lydia was kneeling at the bottom of the carseat saying "It's okay. I'm here. It's okay.")
-We are seriously pushing the pacifier thing. He's taking it so well, and it's been wonderful for our sleep routine. I'm afraid that one day he'll wake up and decide that he doesn't want it anymore - so we are trying to stay diligent about using it and hoping that he'll stick with it. We feel that it's worth the difficulty of taking it away in a couple of years for the usefulness it has now.
We sure love this little guy. He is such a blessing in our lives.
