Month Three!

[caption id="attachment_784" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Three Months Old![/caption]

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, OH MY GOD WHY IS TIME PASSING SO QUICKLY???  I swear we were just at the hospital with you two, admiring your teeny-tininess.  And you are still teeny-tiny.  Just a bigger, plumper teeny-tiny.  As much as I miss how sweet and precious those first weeks were, I have to say, with every day, you both show more and more personality and it is an utter delight to be around you.  Except when you’re pooping.  That is less than a delight.  But other than that, delightful.   Some of the fun things that happened this month:

• You had your picture taken with live baby chicks.  Okay, that probably wasn’t that much fun for you, but it was for me!  I can’t wait to see the pictures.


• You got to hang out at Grandma Lise and Grandpa Larry’s house – your mom’s childhood home…which sadly, has now been sold…but luckily, Grandma got some good pictures of you in the old house AND word on the street is that their new house has a pretty sweet pool and playground – score!


• You got some quality one-on-one time with Grandma Rose, including one big cozy snowstorm of a day…and visits from Grandpa Bill, Aunt Becky and Uncle Tim.  You also were a part of what was the first of what will be many ‘BBQ’ weekends.  It’s just not a Haberberger weekend unless BBQ is involved.


• You started going to the sitter when mommy went back to work.  This was not as much fun for mommy, but you seem awfully happy about hanging with your new friends.  In fact, could you tone it down just a bit so mommy doesn’t get jealous?


• You slept through the night!  Okay, it’s only happened a few times and it’s probably more fun for mom and dad than for you, but still…the hope is there that we might actually get a decent night’s sleep soon!

Ellie:

I’m starting with you this month, because holy cow, you’ve gone from showing zero interest in anything but eating and doing your own thing to smiles for miles and oh, I think I’ll just sit here in your lap and be adorable and look around, if you don’t mind (which, incidentally -  no, we don’t.).   Your Dad and I both love when you wake up in the morning and strrrrrrretch your arms and then look around and smile when you see us.  Melts. Our. Hearts.  And your little coquettish coos…don’t even get me started.

You enjoy:

• The afore-mentioned lap-sitting and gazing about the room or staring admiringly at your Aunt Becky’s face.


• Fans…oh, how you love ceiling fans.


• Eating – I don’t know how much you weigh now, but I’m guessing you are still bigger than your brother.  Your thighs are certainly gloriously, gloriously chubbier.


• You still love your kick and play piano and are very curious about reaching out and grabbing things in general.


• "Talking” to us…in fact, your sitter tells us that you are much more talkative than your brother these days.  Who would have thought?


• Imitating – generally if I stick my tongue out at you, you’ll reciprocate and then coo with pleasure at your own awesome-ness.


• By about 11 weeks, you were really getting to be too big for your 0-3 month clothes, but I squeezed you into them for a longer period than I probably should have.  You are now wearing 3-6 month clothes (and even a few 9 month items!) which is terribly sad and yet also, completely exciting.  Your dad gets excited as each new outfit is unveiled.


• Chewing on your own fist. (Or your brother’s, if he happens to be near)


• Smiling!

You do not enjoy:

• A less than quick response to your requests for attention.  You will go quickly from mild whining to “This is the worst day of my life!” type screaming.


• Tummy time.  I get it, I really do.  I don’t really enjoy working out either.  But it’s a necessarily evil, girlfriend.  Embrace it.

Jack:

Phew, buddy – this was an exciting month for you!  One minute we’re at your two month check-up and the next minute, we’re being admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit!  I’m sure this is just the first of many times in your life where you will scare your dad and me, but have no fear – you worked that hospital room like it was your job.  All is well now – but at the doctor’s office, he heard a heart murmur…and that combined with a couple of high blood pressure readings and an EKG that revealed some narrowing of one of your heart vessels landed you in the hospital for a weekend.  Luckily, the scary heart condition they thought you had (coarticulation) did not exist and you were sent home after just a few days of observation.  Your heart murmur is benign and follow-up visits revealed mostly normal blood pressure readings, so for now – you are in the clear!  During your stay, you had the nurses wrapped around your little finger; it was not an uncommon sight for me to leave the room and then come back to you charming them with your sly smiles and coos.  Keep it up, buddy, keep it up.  Charm will get you far in life.

You enjoy:

• Pretty much everything.  You are one content little dude.  Fans!  Windows! Cat walking by! My hand!  All of these things are the Best. Thing. Everrrrr!!! And will incite general merriment on your part.  That said, the fan still holds a special place in your heart.


• Performing for a crowd…it seems that the bigger an audience you have, the more apt you are to smile that big gummy grin and generally share your excitement to be alive.  Which, hey – no complaints here.  You seem especially interested in putting on a show for your Grandma Rose and Grandpa Bill.  When they came to visit, along with your Uncle Tim and Aunt Becky, you were sick and I was sure that you would be in a grumpy mood all weekend.  Not so…you pushed through the pain and retained your status as Happiest Baby Alive.  The moment they left, your cold symptoms mysteriously resurfaced.  Coincidence?


• Your Binky Ducky…I need to write about all of the baby items that got us through the first few months, but your Wubanub duck pacifier would definitely be on that list – 1) because phew – thank god you take a pacifier and 2) it serves as sort of a ‘lovey’ for you during naps and 3) they are nearly impossible to lose and the cats don’t steal them.


• Eating – you are also a good eater – although you do tend to eat a little less than your ‘baby’ sister.  You wear a very intense look on your face when you eat, though – it cracks us up.


• Tummy Time with the boppy.  You are getting really good at holding your head up and looking around…all with a very “I am so impressed with myself” look on your face.

You do not enjoy:

• The snotsucker.  ‘Nuff said.


• Gas – we’ve had some screamy baby episodes with gas that made your dad and I’s heart break to hear you cry.  Luckily, we discovered a remedy called Tummy Calm that has worked miracles for us, time and time again.  The only downside…it’s black as night and stains your poor mouth black.

Lots to look forward to this next month…including Easter AKA your Grandma Lise and I Will Not Miss an Opportunity to Put You in Adorable Clothes!  And now some of my favorite pics from this month...

[caption id="attachment_803" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Grandma Lise and Grandpa Larry's House![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_786" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Ellie is judging you.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_790" align="aligncenter" width="225"] She smiles! She really smiles![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_791" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Mischief.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_794" align="aligncenter" width="225"] I make this boppy look good, amIright?[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_795" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Hey, girl...[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_799" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Quit watching The Bachelor, Mom.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_804" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Somebody loves their Aunt Becky![/caption]

Sleep Like a Baby

I don't know who made up that saying...with the implication that baby sleep is peaceful and tranquil.  Spoiler alert - it's not.  Or at least, not all the time.  I seriously don't know how I made it this long in life without knowing that!  Babies are so noisy...or at least ours are, particularly Ellie.  She's much better now but there is still a fair amount of grunting and carrying on that goes on at night.  I guess we're just used to it at this point.

[caption id="attachment_756" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Girls Night Out now consists of napping[/caption]

And when you have infants, the questions people always ask you are "How much are they sleeping?  Are you getting any sleep? Sleep, sleep, sleeeeeeeep!"  I understand - I really do.  It's the thing I am curious about with infants, as well.   As such, I thought I should document how things are going in that department.  For posterity, you know.

The first six weeks were such a blur...I'm not even sure when, how and where we were sleeping.  I know Jack and Ellie were definitely NOT on the same schedule as we were still feeding on demand.  And they both were pretty consistently eating every three hours (or less!) and sleeping in between.  I watched a LOT of TV during that time...especially in the middle of the night so I didn't fall asleep during feedings.   I would go to bed around 7pm to get a few hours of sleep and then take over for Nick.  I don't remember a lot about those weeks. :)  Thank goodness for all the help from our family and friends, in particular - Nick's mom who stayed with us for two weeks and my parents who were with us for the first few weeks and then as needed.

Eventually we got the hang of feeding them both at the same time and with the blessing of our pediatrician (he wanted them to be around 10 lbs before we started a schedule...apparently ability to sleep for longer periods of time is related to the weight of babies...who knew?), instituted more of a schedule for feedings.  I am using the term schedule very loosely because it is still driven by their needs. But, if one baby wakes to eat, the other one generally is going to get woken up shortly thereafter to eat.  Sometimes we feed at the same time and some times we feed back to back, but we try really hard to keep them eating at around the same time. Hence, because we have more of a feeding schedule, we are also starting to develop more of a nap/night schedule.

Up until about a week or so ago, Jack was still waking more frequently than Ellie to eat at night, but we were down to just one feeding in those wee hours...usually around 2am or 3am.  I think we are inching closer to sleeping through the night, but I am not in any particular hurry...to be sleeping through the night at 11 weeks (7 weeks adjusted because of their early arrival) is not necessarily an attainable goal.  I'm really just working on slowly increasing the amount of time they are sleeping at night and helping them go back to sleep when they wake at night...without immediately jumping to feed them.  The things that work really well to help 'cue' them to sleep at night are a sound machine (I like ocean waves, Nick is partial to rain and thunder...the sound machine is on as loud as it will go...at first, I found this disconcerting, but from what I've read, the louder the better for white noise), a darkened rooms and sleep sacks.  We use the swaddling sleep sacks because Jack sleeps better with his arms swaddled.   They are still in the co-sleeper in our room and while I keep saying that we are going to move them to their cribs, I am in no hurry to do so.  I find it is much easier to take care of them when they are so close.  And well...it just makes me feel better to have our babies next to us.  They are too small for their cribs!  Not really, but when I put them in their cribs, it looks so imposing.  However, I purposely mix up nap location...sometimes in the boppy, sometimes in our bed (while I watch them), the pack and play, the swing, a blanket on the floor, their carseats.  My goal is for these babies to be able to sleep wherever and so far, I think I'm succeeding.

Last night, Jack slept from 10:30pm-4:30am and Ellie slept from 11pm to 5am (although, she might have been able to go longer, but I woke her up to feed because OMG! The SCHEDULE!).  You'd think that would mean I was able to sleep until 4:30am...nope.  I woke at 3am, confused because babies weren't crying.  Then, they started making noises like they MIGHT want to get up, so I spent some time putting pacifiers in to help them soothe themselves back to sleep.  It worked really well on Jack, but Ellie was crying a bit, so I brought her to bed with me and she immediately zonked out.  Even though I didn't get to enjoy the fruits of the extra sleep, I am still putting this in the 'win' column.

Our next big hurdle is going to be figuring out a schedule for when I go back to work, which is in a week. I have no idea how that's going to work, but I'm hoping if we inch up their bedtime and keep the one night time feeding around 2am or 3am, we can wake them up at 6am or so to get ready for the day.  Or something like that.  Obviously, babies have their own ideas about how these things should work. :)

I've been reading a lot of sleep advice and honestly, all it does is stress me out.  Every author has a different opinion and I've just realized that while having the advice of experts is nice, it's more important to do what comes naturally and happens organically.  Babies know what they need.  I will say the one piece of advice I find helpful is 'sleep begets sleep'.  So, we follow an Eat, Play, Sleep pattern throughout the day with the goal of never having the babies awake for more than about 90 minutes or so.  Ellie has developed a habit of getting cranky at night, but other than that, things are working for us.  They've also started stretching out their nap in the afternoon (3-4 hours), which is awesome.

What would a piece devoted to sleep be without pictures of adorable sleeping babies?  Some of my favorites...