Jonah: 3 Month Update

Weight: 13 lb 2 oz

Height: 24 inches

Milestones:

Little J is quite vocal these days, giving us plenty of squeals, coo’s, goo’s and lots of sweet giggles.

He can bring his hands together and grasps items when brought near to him.

He can follow an object (his favorite is a light up glow worm) across his field of vision.

He can hold his head pretty steady when upright and he can bear most of his weight on his legs when we help him balance.

 Favorite Activities:

-Nothing all that new here: bouncing on the exercise ball, playing on his piano play mat and sitting in laps watching the world around him.  Although one surprising item that is capturing Jonah's attention more lately is his whale mobile.  Honestly, we thought mobiles were just cute decorating accessories.  We were fairly surprised to learn that Jonah loves to lie in his crib while watching and listening to those whales!  Oh and he still LOVES to kick!

Jonah’s Sleep:

• Jonah’s nighttime sleep has been two steps forward, one step back. We had a couple days of a miraculous 8.5-9 hours straight through the night, and then a couple more of waking every few hours crying. After a week of ups and downs, we settled back into a solid 6-hour stretch.   Although the past few nights he’s been stretching his night sleep by an additional hour or two, which we’re thrilled about. And we’re slowly trying to move his bedtime earlier. We’re at about 8/8:15pm these days.
• Naps are still pretty short; most are between 40-50 minutes (although he takes 4-5 each day).  Every now and then we’ll get a 1.5 hour nap. I’ve done a lot of reading about sleep training (Babywise, Health Sleep Habits, Happy Child, Moms on Call and a handful of blogs) and so far nothing is really helping him extend those naps.  So for now we’re being patient and hoping he consolidates and organizes his daytime sleep within the next few months. 

Mom’s Sleep:

I’ve been meaning to mention a couple interesting phenomena that have accompanied the strange sleep rhythms of having a newborn. 

1. Phantom Cries: This has been happening since day 1 and has slowly become less common.  Sometimes when I’m sleeping and not on Jonah duty I’ll hear what I think are his cries only to learn that I was mis-perceiving the white-noise of our house (fans, air-conditioners, dishwashers, etc.).  I think it’s a side effect of a heightened awareness coupled with some post-partum anxiety. 
2. Vivid Dream Life: I’ve also noticed that I’m remembering far more dreams and in far more detail these days. It’s been kindof fun!  I think this is a result of short sleep intervals. 

Health:

Hallelujah! The gas is finally under control!  We deployed every weapon in the gas-battling arsenal we could find: infant probiotics, lactase enzyme drops, Gripe Water, and even the infamous Baby Butt Straws, in addition to the strategies we tried last month: dairy free diet and lip/tongue tie corrections.  Something is working…but we’re not sure what, so we’re just gonna keep doing it all!  And in the end we’ll probably discover that it was mainly his maturing gut and all the silly remedies had nothing to do with his recent intestinal relief.

"Baby WHAT straws!???"

Things I want to Remember:

• Aunt Sarah (my best friend from Houston) visited and it just so happens that she’s a fabulous photographer who LOVES photographing babies.  Lucky us!  We got a super special photo shoot with the most beautiful photos to prove it.  
• Visits from Uncle Ian and my aunt Helen and uncle Mike! Both visits included trips to Forest Park, a first for Jonah.  Forest Park is a very significant place for Jake and me: it’s where we first met, went on our first date and got engaged.  We love this park and we hope Jonah grows to love it too.
• I returned to work, which means Jonah is getting to know his awesome nanny, Ashley.  We’re thrilled with her so far, and we love that she can come to our house and take care of Jonah on his turf.  I definitely miss him during the day, but I feel very lucky to have such a wonderful, fulfilling job; otherwise I think leaving him in the mornings would be impossible!  Having great childcare helps with that, too.
• Sweet playtime in the mornings: Jonah’s most playful and sweet time of day is definitely early morning.  I love lying in bed next to him and watching him talk, smile and wiggle.
• One evening before bedtime Jake and I were playing with Jonah and Jake asked him “How ya doin’, bud?” With perfect timing Jonah looked up and exclaimed “GOOOOO!” We took creative license, imagined the “d” at the end and interpreted this as the best affirmation of our parenting we could ask for :)

Jonah: 2 Month Update

Weight: 12 lb 5 oz (43%)

Length: 23 inches (39%)

Milestones:

-SOCIAL SMILES! We do almost anything we can to get these…they’re like parenting gold.

-Interacting with his play mats/toys.  He loves the Kick ‘n Play piano mat and he always seems fascinated by mirrors J

-This kid is very strong. He doesn’t love tummy time, but he has a strong neck.  He’ll sit up in our laps during play time, often able to hold his head up. 

-First airplane flight! J and mom flew to Abilene when he was 2 months old.  He did great.

 Favorite Activities:

-J still loves bouncing on the exercise ball.  When he’s upset, it calms him down and when he needs to sleep it gets him drowsy.  Miracle ball!

-Play mats!  He loves kicking and playing on the play mats, interacting with the dangling toys and watching himself in the mirror.

-New LilleBaby carrier: this isn’t really an activity for him, but it does allow mom to get things done J He usually just sleeps. 

 “Schedule”:

6:30(ish)am: Wake up for the day!  Nurse and then playtime on the playmat upstairs while mom brushes her teeth, puts in her contacts and sometimes even takes a shower!

7:30-8:30am: Nap (sometimes downstairs in the bouncer, sometimes upstairs in the crib)

8:30am-7:30pm: The rest of the day basically follows the EASY schedule: Eatà Activityà Sleepà Yourself.  He usually eats another 4 times and has another 3-4 naps, ranging from 30 minutes to 2 hours.  His best naps seem to be in the late afternoon in bed with me.     

8pm: Bath

8:30pm: Nurse

9:00pm: Bedtime (swaddle, lights out, white noise) His sleep here is pretty great with minimal fussiness or waking.  Jake rarely has to intervene. 

3:00am: Wake for feeding (shift change: Mom on duty)

3:30am: Back to sleep.  From 3-6am his sleep isn’t great, although it does seem to be improving since the tongue-tie and lip tie correction.  Often I’ll bring him into bed with me since I usually have to pat, rub or otherwise soothe. 

Sleep:

“Moms on Call” to the rescue!  Our first night of trying the MoC recipe (tight arms-down swaddle, total darkness and loud white noise) little J slept 6 hours straight! It felt like a miracle.  And he’s been sleeping a good 5-6 hour chunk every night since and has officially dropped the midnight feeding (which was Jake’s feeding).

Health:

We still battled monster gas but had a couple breakthroughs:

(1) I gave up dairy after learning a lot of babies have tummies that are dairy-sensitive.  It’s been hard living without cheese and ice-cream, but honestly not as hard as I expected.  There are a lot of meals I enjoy just as much without cheese.

(2)  We also discovered that he had both a tongue-tie (posterior) and a lip tie, which evidently were preventing him from having a deep latch and allowing air to get in while he nursed.  Since having those corrected (via laser), his latch is much better and he seems to be less gassy and fussy. Here's hoping he continues to sleep better!

Things I want to Remember:

-Jake invented “Jonah Ball”: a game played in the backyard requiring one person to bounce with Jonah on the exercise ball while the other person tried to “bowl” other balls close to the Jonah Ball without being deflected by the bouncer’s feet.  It was basically an attempt to find a game we could play that Jonah would remain happy through.

-We started going to church again! We sit in the back with him in the carseat. Jake takes him downstairs if he gets fussy.   So far, he’s done wonderfully.  He usually sleeps the whole service.  There are even several families with babies close to Jonah’s age! 

-Bought the automatic bouncer at BuyBuy Baby…right off the shelf J

Gotta love those baby blues.

Jonah: 1 Month Update

J-MAN: ONE MONTH

Weight: 8 lb 14 oz

Length: 21.5 inches

Milestones:

-Jonah’s been able to lift his head pretty much from day one.  We first noticed it when we held him over our shoulder to burp him.  He’ll lift his head and turn it toward your face and root around, looking for a nipple, I guess J

-He startles at loud noises, focuses on faces (especially Mom’s) and can find his fist and thumb to suck on. 

Favorite Activities:

-Bouncing on the exercise ball with Dad.

-Sleeping on a pillow in mom’s lap.

-Rocking on the front porch.

Bouncing on the exercise ball with Dad.  

Daily Routine: 

Calling it a routine at this point would be generous, but here’s what a typical day might look like, starting with our nighttime routine:

9pm: I nurse him and change his diaper and hand him off to Jake who puts Jonah to sleep. He doesn’t normally sleep as well between the 9pm and midnight feedings; it takes some coaxing to get him into an extended period of quiet sleep.

Midnight: Jake gives Jonah a bottle of breast milk, sometimes supplementing with formula if necessary. 

3am: I tap Jake out, nurse Jonah, change a diaper if necessary and then put him back in his crib while I sleep in the guest bed.

6am: Another feeding. Sometimes he’ll go back to sleep and I’ll get another 45 minutes-1 hour of sleep and sometimes we’re up for the day.  We head downstairs, I get a Diet Coke, open the blinds, and we turn on The Today Show.  Sometimes we sit on the porch and watch as people drive to work.  Around 8:45 we eat breakfast with Dad and send him off to work. 

Morning: Another feeding, then I’ll get dressed and we’ll head off for our morning outing.  I try to schedule at least one outing every day; it’s been really good for me to get out of the house. Some days it’s a trip to Buy Buy Baby; others it’s a Nursing Mom’s support group or a trip to Chick-fil-a for breakfast.  I’m much more comfortable venturing out into the world with him now; I try to keep him in his car seat and away from stranger germs, and he’s been great while out and about.

Afternoon: I’ll grab a quick lunch and feed him again.  Sometimes I’ll get a short nap when he’s sleeping.  In between feedings and naps I try to get a few chores done around the house or work on a blog post. 

Evening: The first month we were lucky enough to have friends bring us dinner three nights a week.  This means we have visitors (and tasty food) several nights a week.  It is nice to catch up with friends and sometimes we even convinced them to stay and hold the little man while we ate.  For some reason Jonah almost always demands to be held right as we sit down to dinner J Around 9pm I’ll feed Jonah, sometimes downstairs while we watch Jimmy Kimmel and sometimes upstairs, while Jake would read from the Jesus Storybook Bible. 

Sleep: 

Jake is in the nursery on Jonah duty from 9pm-3am while I sleep in our bedroom, that way I can get at least 4-5 hours of uninterrupted sleep.  At 3am (or whenever Jonah wakes up for that feeding), we swap and I’m on Jonah duty. 

Feeding: 

He’s eating 4-5 oz every 3-4 hours.

Health:  

He’s a monster gas-making machine, which unfortunately makes him cranky.  Otherwise, he’s as healthy as can be, gaining weight well. Look at that big 'ole belly! 

Best Moment: 

The sweetest moments are either when he’s alert and calm or when he’s sleeping.  One of my favorite moments was lying next to him on the sofa while he was awake, but calm.  I talked to him and sang to him and he just watched me, moving his mouth in big O shapes to try to imitate me.  He has such big bright eyes.  I love when I get to look at them.  Then he slowly got drowsy and drifted off to sleep while lying on my chest. 

Things I want to remember: 

How amazing my mom was the two weeks she spent with us.  After a really hard start to motherhood, she got us back on track and helped us figure out our nighttime routine, which has been essential.  Aside from all the help with Jonah, she did so much around the house and was a huge emotional support for me, encouraging me, crying with me, and helping me find my confidence as a mom.