8 Weeks – Update

Aedan:

Almost 2 months old and as adorable as ever.  I’ll post about our vacation last weekend separately, but he did great on his first weekend away.  Babies at this age are just so adaptable.  He’s great at sleeping anywhere, anytime, so it’s easy to take him along places.

He is still growing and I love his chubby legs and belly.  He will have his 2 month appointment next Monday, so we’ll know for sure how much weight he’s gained.  I believe he’s still on pace to be bigger than his brother was at this age.  He wears 3-6 month clothes as well and 0-3 month clothes.  We’re wondering how much longer he’ll be in size 1 diapers.  I love that he’s keeping more of his hair than Brody did, and it hasn’t started to lighten up yet.  Could he be keeping my hair-color?  Let’s hope!

Oh and my favorite part right now?  He’s right on track with Brody and sleeping 8-9 hours at night.  We’re on a streak of wonderful full nights of sleep.  Now, I just have to try to move up his bedtime so he goes to bed earlier and wakes up at the same time as his brother.  That would make my life so much easier!  But beggars can’t be choosers.

Brody:

Brody is a great big-brother.  He loves Aedan and constantly gives him hugs and kisses.  He can be a little rough at times, but not on purpose, and rarely.  At least we’re to the point that I can leave them alone in another room and not worry about it.

Last week, I ran upstairs to get dressed while Brody was watching TV and Aedan was sleeping in his swing.  A few minutes later I heard Aedan fussing and started to head downstairs.  Brody was on his way upstairs to get me and tell me that Aedan was crying.  Such a sweet brother.

He still strives for attention, so we’re working on some behavior problems.  We started a behavior sticker chart about 3-4 weeks ago.  He gets a sticker for good behavior.  It’s working pretty well for some items (staying in his room during bedtime/naptime) and not as well for others (going #2 on the potty).

He’s no longer at daycare during the day, so I am loving some of the fun things he says and that we’re doing together.  I am constantly trying to make sure we have enough to do so he’s not bored, but it allows us to do different things.  Right now, he’s doing a lot of Thanksgiving crafts.  As much as it makes sense for him to be home and as much as he loves us, he actually loves daycare.  After the first week, he started asking when he gets to see his “Sunday School” friends.  Unfortunately, he hasn’t been to Sunday school in awhile because of Aedan’s baptism, vacation and a trip to Madison.  And he won’t be going this week because of his cousin’s baptism.  Then, he started talking more about his daycare friends.  He thought he was going back to “school” this week (by accident), so when he woke up and I told him he was staying home, he was very sad.  Then he started telling me how he wants his school friends to come over to his house.  We’ve had a few playdates, but his school friends he’s used to seeing every day.  I think we may look into sending him a couple times before I return to work, just to see his friends again.

Me:

I’m adjusting to life at home with two boys, but I know it’s a time I may never get with them again.  With only 4 more weeks to go, it’s bittersweet.  I can’t wait to get back to my job, to feel useful, to talk to someone other than a 2 year old all day and to make decisions other than what’s for lunch each day.  However, I know after a week or two, I’ll be dying to stay home with my boys…just not every single day.

Officially dairy-free for 10 weeks now…except for those couple days I enjoyed some cheese.  It’s helping Aedan, though I suspect he may still have a sensitivity to more hidden dairy items.  I’ve been trying to eliminate all of those as well, hoping it gets better.  Next step may be eliminating soy, but we’ll talk to the pediatrician next week.  I’m happy though that Aedan has only had breastmilk for 8 weeks, much longer than Brody.  However, unless I can start pumping more milk, in 4 weeks, Aedan will have to start some formula.

Aedan is 1 month old

Aedan is 1 month old today! Can you say, time flies when you’re having fun? Or when you’re too sleep-deprived to know what day it is…

Aedan’s first month was actually a lot easier than Brody’s.  It helps that I knew what to expect, what to worry about and was a lot more patient with breastfeeding.  It doesn’t hurt that Aedan is sleeping better than Brody already.

He’s a great sleeper.  Once we let him sleep on his own he started off with 3-4 hour stretches.  In the last week, he’s slept 7 hours for 3 nights and 8 hours last night.  I am getting so spoiled!  Brody was a great sleeper and even he didn’t sleep for 7 hours until 6-7 weeks old.  He’s amazing.

Aedan weighs 10lbs 11.5oz and is almost 23 inches.  He always seems so much longer than they say he is, but I think it’s just the way he’s built.  His torso is very long.  He’s in the 90th percentile for height, 75th for weight and 50-75th for his head.  Definitely a big kid, which is a huge relief that we’re not constantly worrying about his size.  He’s fitting best in size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes.  Some of them are getting tight though, so we may end up in 3-6 month clothes sooner than we did with Brody.

In the last week or so, Aedan has found his voice. He’s practicing oohing and aahing. It’s adorable. Much better than the grunting I normally hear from him. He has great facial expressions, that are practically identical to Brody’s baby faces, so that’s pretty cute. I’m enjoying him being awake more often during the day and we’re using it to do some tummy-time. It can be kind of quiet when the baby sleeps all day!

Aedan gets out of the house fairly often, since I have a hard time staying home.  On the fun side, he’s been to a few birthday parties and a pumpkin farm.  He’s also been out shopping more times than I can count.  When my very tolerant husband started asking what I was going to Target for, again, I realized I probably go a little too much.  But there’s always something you need, right?!?

3 Weeks

Aedan:

Sleeping: He’s a pretty good sleeper, but still wakes up every 3 – 3.5 hours throughout the night. Once, he slept for 5.5 hours, of which, I got 4.5 hours of sleep because I was dumb enough to stay up for an hour reading a book. I’m hoping to get another one of those soon!

Eating: This totally depends on the day, but on a good day, he eats every 2-3 hours during the day and 3-4 hours at night. Some days though he eats every hour. It’s Aedan’s world and I’m just living in it.

So, now that Aedan is up to his birth weight and growing so well, I thought I would introduce small amounts of dairy into my diet. I thought I would start with a piece of cheese here and there. Then I had pizza one day for lunch. First, he got fussier, but I wasn’t sure if that was due to growth spurts. Then, we noticed changes in his diaper. But that could have been due to his cold. Then I found blood in the diaper. This is exactly what tipped us off to the dairy allergy with Brody, so alas, I’m finding history repeating itself. The good thing is that we figured it out a little earlier this time. The bad thing is, I’ve been dairy free for almost 5 weeks and I hate it. Apparently we eat a lot more cheese and dairy in this house than I thought! However, the switch to formula will be even more annoying, since we’ll likely have to start with hypoallergenic. So back to dairy-free I go!

Development: Aedan is more and more attentive every day. Jason swears that he “smiles” at him / recognizes him. I don’t doubt that, I know he recognizes his voice from even before he was born, but I’m thinking he’s exaggerating the smiling part. 🙂



Exciting night in the Johnson household

We haven’t spent a ton of time on tummy-time, but his neck is pretty strong when we lay him on our chests. We’ll be working on getting him in his playmat more and more.

Brody:
 Big-Brother is still adjusting.  I don’t expect him to accept the change quickly (I know I don’t react well to change), so we’ll continue to give him more time.  But we’ve had good days and bad days.  Still working on getting more good days than bad, but the rainy weekend didn’t really help with that either.

2 Week Check-Up

Today we had Aedan’s 2 week check-up.  The most important part of the appointment was finding out if he gained his birthweight back.  We struggled with Brody gaining weight, so I’ve been worried constantly about how often he’s eating and if he’s growing.  But like the many differences between my two pregnancies, they are obviously different children and will have many differences.

The funny thing is, you’d think we’ve been through this before and we wouldn’t have many questions for the pediatrician…yet, I had a list of them.  I don’t think you ever become an expert at this!

First, he’s at 9lbs 13oz.  Woohoo!  That’s up 1 lb in less than two weeks (he went down to 8lbs 13.5oz at 4 days).  He’s 22.5 inches long.  That’s the same length as Brody at 2 weeks but more than a pound bigger than he was.  Aedan’s going to be my little chunky monkey and I love it.  I don’t know if giving up dairy helped him gain weight (he doesn’t spit-up nearly what Brody did), but if it has, it’s totally worth it.  Next, I plan to phase in small amounts of dairy and see if it affects him.  Also, I can stop waking him up in the middle of the night for feedings.  I’m so sick of hearing my alarm at 1am and then trying to convince a sleeping baby to eat, so I am very excited about that!

Then we went through our list of questions/concerns:
1. Aedan has a cold.  Ick.  2 weeks old.  We’ve been monitoring his temp and he isn’t running a fever.  The doc listened to his lungs and has no concerns.  Just need to keep up what we’re doing (clearing his nose, humidifier, etc.), and we’re pretty much experts at colds by now having Brody in daycare.  It does freak me out when Aedan starts gasping for air because he’s so stuffed up, but we just have to keep doing what we’re doing and wait it out.  Jason had a cold last week and managed to infect the whole household.  So aside from Aedan having a cold, Brody & I got it as well.  Not fun. 

2. Aedan’s hearing.  Tuesday, we took him to the hospital to repeat the hearing test they do when he’s first born.  His left ear failed on day 2, but since a lot of times this is due to fluid from birth, they just re-test to determine if it’s an issue.  Happy to report that he passed with flying colors.

3. Aedan’s eyes.  His right eye keeps turning inward, making him look cross-eyed at times.  The doc says this is totally normal for 2 weeks, but if it keeps up by 1 month we’ll take a closer eye on it.

4. Umbilical cord.  It fell off last week, but still bleeds from time to time.  Again, it’s apparently normal and said it actually looks really good.

Overall a good check-up!  We head back at 1 month, when he’ll have to get more vaccines, poor guy.

Worn out from the appointment, napping in his carseat

2 Weeks

2 Weeks Old

Aedan:
The very exciting life of a 2 week old.  Aedan is eating every 2-3 hours during the day and 3-3 1/2 hours at night.  He’s a good sleeper right now, but I’m still waking him at night to eat until he’s back to his birth weight.  His 2 week appointment is on Weds and I’m just praying that he’s surpassed 9.5lbs so we can let him sleep on his own.  According to our home-scale this morning, he’s actually over 10 lbs, but since it’s not a very scientific way of weighing him, we’ll see what the pediatrician says!

After eating every hour all evening the other night, I tried letting him wake on his own.  4 hours later he was still sleep and I felt bad, so I woke him up.  Of course once he’ll be allowed to sleep as long as he wants, I’m sure he’ll start waking every 3 hours.

This week, Aedan also got his newborn photos taken.  He did an awful job, but we had a great photographer who was very patient with him.  Once we get more pictures back, I’ll blog about our experience.  Here is one that turned out pretty cute.

 



He’s becoming more attentive, but still sleeps a lot during the day.  We’ve pulled out the playmat to give him some tummy-time when he is awake.  We’ve also introduced the swing, which he seems to like.  He watches the mobile above the swing, which I don’t remember Brody paying any attention to until he was older.  It’s pretty cute.



Brody:

He loves his baby brother.  It’s clear that he realizes he’s not getting as much attention as he used to and has been acting out a little more.  The good thing is, he’s not taking it out on Aedan.  He still wants to hug him and give him kisses.  Our biggest argument about Aedan is when Brody gets mad that we won’t let him carry his brother. 

Reading a book to his brother

Newborn photo shoot

Me:

Nothing much here.  I’m feeling well, just tired.  A couple of weeks of only sleeping 2-3 hours at a time, eventually catches up with you.  However, it’s been fairly manageable and Jason is still being a huge help with Brody.  The weekends are easier to take naps because I know Jason is around to watch Aedan while I’m sleeping.  Even though he’s sleeping, sometimes I still worry about him.  At least at night I’m getting 6-8 hours of sleep, even if it isn’t consecutive sleep.



Routine

From early on in Brody’s life, we’ve worked to keep his bedtime routine fairly consistent. Usually, we take him upstairs for pjs, put his sound machine on, read a book, hug and kiss goodnight and lay him down. We’ve had to switch it up a little over time, like when we stopped bottles & formula and rocking him to sleep, we started reading books. Since he’s such a good sleeper, I try not to mess with what works.

Though generally stick to the routine, we’re not at all rigid about it. Sometimes he falls asleep in the car if we’ve been out, every other night we do bath, some nights if he’s tired enough, we don’t even read a book.

So apparently we weren’t being consistent enough for Brody…

He’s going through a stage where he’s latched onto one book that he has to read before bed EVERY night. No matter what. And there’s no playing tricks on this kid, he knows right where the book should be each night and demands that it’s read to him.

After several nights of reading the same book over and over, I tried to put it in his closet. He caught me doing it and started crying and pointing at it instantly. Fine, we read it anyway.

Then…last night I thought I’d lucked out. He brought the book to the bathroom but then got distracted by the running water and set it down. He loves baths just about as much as this book! After bathtime, we went to his room, leaving the book behind. He instantly went for the shelf where it belongs. When it wasn’t there he looked up at me with a sad face, like where did my book go?! Then, he quickly remembered where he left it, ran out of his room straight to the bathroom door.

So what did we do? We read the book. Why mess with what works?

P.S. Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Sara for the “Baseball Counting Book,” he loves it, we hate it. 🙂

Stomach Sleeper

Not so fun first

Baby’s firsts are always great right? First smile, first laugh, first time rolling over…ah the joys of a little baby.

Well…first cold? Not so fun!! Brody has had a stuffy nose for at least two weeks now. We’ve been vigorously cleaning it out (which causes him to scream his head off) and just trying to keep an eye on his temp. This is what the pediatrician suggested and it makes sense. There’s really nothing you can do to get rid of a cold.

However, we’re past the stuffy nose stage and now on to the chest congestion, tiny cough and I can’t breathe and suck on my paci at the same time stage. So sleeping of course is a real challenge. The first night after the cold worsened, Brody kept spitting out his paci so he could breathe. Then he wanted it back. Remember how I told you he’d try to get it on his own? Apparently sick-Brody isn’t that independent. So that just resulted in crying every 10 minutes until he was in a deep enough sleep not to need his pacifier.

Night two went much better, but he still woke up screaming his head off at 3:30 in the morning. I’m not sure why, but he’s much crankier when he’s sick. Just like his mommy…

Luckily he’s still sleeping well at daycare, he doesn’t have a fever and he’s still a pretty happy guy. And what did his teachers tell us when we mentioned his cold? Oh yeah, most of the kids in the room have been sick this week. Ugh. Well at least he’s working on building his immune system!

Little Mr. Independent

For the last 12 months Brody has been completely reliant on me. He needed me for 9 months in utero, then as a newborn he couldn’t do anything without my help. Now he’s growing up (you know, he’s almost 4 MONTHS old!) and he doesn’t need me as much as he once did.

Brody is already exhibiting signs of being able to do things for himself. About a month ago, I reported that he was already trying to hold his bottle, tonight, he held his bottle for the entire time. After letting him feed himself with some assistance from me I was feeling a bit sad and proud at the same time. Then he did something that brought tears to my eyes.

I placed him in his crib after his bottle. He was tired but still awake. So I sat back and watched him put himself to sleep. All of a sudden he dropped his pacifier. Now I’ve seen other kids at daycare do this and it brings instant tears. But Brody? Nah, he doesn’t cry. But he didn’t fuss either. What did he do? Tried to get the paci back!

First he rolls onto his side to get his mouth closer to the pacifier. He tried to grab it with his mouth. But his weight shifted and he was on his back again. After two more attempts at this he still wasn’t giving up and still hadn’t cried for help. He remembered he has two hands that can grab things now. So he picks up his paci and brings it to his mouth. However, he grabbed the part of it that goes in his mouth. Now he’s trying to put something in his mouth that just doesn’t feel right. Now does he cry for help? Nope, he just happily sucks on the part of the pacifier that you’re supposed to hold onto. That’s when I step in and fix it for him.

I had to admire how much he’s already showing signs of strength and determination. He already has an “I can do it!” attitude. While I do hope this continues into his childhood and I do think self-sufficiency is a good trait to have, but it is sad to not have him need me as much.

Then I look back and remember that he still hasn’t figured out how to put his bottle in his mouth. At least I’m good for something!

I’m going to start sleeping with my camera

because I really wished I had it last night!

Brody has started sleeping on his side. We lay him on his back and about 20 minutes later he’s on his side. This was one of the first signs that he’s getting strong enough to move the way he wants.

Then, last night, I woke up in the middle of the night. Thanks to our really awesome video monitor, I peeked in on Brody. What did I see? An EMPTY crib! Or at least that’s all the video camera could see. I dashed out of bed and ran to his nursery.

He was peacefully sleeping on the other half of the crib with his feet facing to the top of the bed and his head towards the bottom. I just sat there thinking, how the heck did he get like this?

Then, a couple hours later, I heard him. He was just making noise in his sleep, but I checked the monitor just in case. All of a sudden he looked like his head was towards the top of the crib. So I lay there in my sleepy state, thinking, “did he really turn around again? or was I imagining it a few hours ago?”

So I went into his room. He was now sideways in his crib! Then I realized I was looking at the monitor wrong, his head wasn’t at the top, it was on the right side of the crib (it’s hard to think straight at 3 am!)

This morning Jason and I were wishing our video monitor also recorded. It would have been hilarious to see how he managed to make his way around the crib last night.