Jenson update: Three months old

 

Our sweet baby boy is 3 months old and SO much fun!  About midway through the month he became so interactive and talkative.  He’s such a pleasant baby and we are ridiculously lucky.  Going back to work was hard on me and such a change, but we’re doing okay.  He’s well taken care of during the day and we rush home to him.  I want to hold him constantly and have to remind myself to lay him down sometimes so he can kick around and play.  And I can’t stop kissing him!  Luckily he’s not old enough to protest yet.  And once he is, he and Boof can complain to each other about it.  It’s so fun to see him grow and change, but I don’t want it to go by too fast!

• Diapers: We are also using cloth diapers full-time now and its going well!  He’s had very few leaks and doesn’t get more than a tiny spot diaper rash every now and then. We still do disposable overnight because we’d rather he “feel” dry longer and cloth doesn’t always allow that.  Once I got some stay-dry options in my stash, we were going to start using cloth at night (and did a few times), but then we got a Snuza breathing monitor (more on that later), and the cloth diapers are a little too thick for the monitor to rest against his stomach correctly.
  I still don’t have a clear-cut favorite. I like the Best Bottoms because the inserts snap in and are thinner (I have the hemp inserts and just got some overnight ones for Christmas).  We mostly use covers (happy flute, alva, and flip) with inserts laid inside (bamboo, cotton bamboo, charcoal bamboo, cotton, and hemp options).  We have a few pocket (alvas) and AIO’s (all-in-ones: bumgenius, grovia), but we don’t like how you can’t reuse the cover on either of those options like you can with the cover/insert combos – and the AIO’s take forever to hang dry – like days.  He’s pooing less often finally, so we actually get to reuse the covers sometimes, which helps with laundry.
  Speaking of laundry, we FINALLY got our new washer and dryer that we ordered after Black Friday.  I really like it now – for the diapers I do a cold rinse and then can set the wash cycle to do extra rinses which are necessary for cloth to prevent soap buildup and/or rashes.  And the dryer actually works!  Our old one was REALLY struggling and often taking more than 1 cycle for most loads – especially diaper inserts (covers/pocket dipes get hung to dry).
• Hair and Eyes: He’s always had pretty good hair, but it’s definitely filling in more now and looking longer, except for the line of hair that he rubbed off in the back, and that’s not so noticeable.  It’s dark brown (Lo and I both had blond as babies/toddlers), and it’s very fine like mine so far.  His eyes are still dark blue, though I’m fully expecting them to eventually turn hazel like ours.  Mine lean towards green, but Lo’s are straight hazel.

• Teeth: None.  He’s starting to drool more. While visiting at my mom’s for Christmas, he went through several bibs that I only took just in case we randomly started to need them (and they were Christmas bibs).  I have lots of cute pics where he just has drool running down his chin for 2 days, and then for a week he didn’t need a bib, and now he’s back to needing one most of the time.  ML often has a bib on him since she bottle feeds him during the day, but he goes back and forth with being slobbery.  I certainly hope he isn’t an early teether though!
• Sleeping: A few days before Christmas he started sleeping through the night (Merry Christmas to us!) in his crib, and most nights has done so, though he’s occasionally woken between 5-6 a.m. to nurse.  He goes to bed between 8:30 – 9:30 most nights and when he sleeps through, he goes until about 6:30, which is when I have to get up on work days anyway.  He’ll nurse then (or slightly earlier) and go back to sleep for about 2 hours.  He wakes and fusses throughout the night, but he puts himself back to sleep (or doesn’t fully wake up).  Sometimes I jump the gun and grab him to nurse and realize he wasn’t really awake, but I just go ahead with it. When we stayed at my parent’s house, he slept in a combo of the mini pack-n-play and the rock-n-play, and we stayed at a friend’s house on NYE and he slept through the night in his rock-n-play.
  I mentioned getting the Snuza – I’m going to post separately about it – but basically it’s a breathing monitor that clips to his diaper touching his belly and will start beeping if he stops breathing for 15 seconds.  It has great reviews and is sensitive enough to register slight movement with few false alarms according to reviews – plus is portable for when the baby isn’t sleeping in the crib (unlike angelcare monitors).  I didn’t think I’d “need” a breathing monitor because realistically I know that SIDS isn’t all that common – but you only get once chance with that. And it would be so devastating.  My fears started about two months ago when I read that a Facebook friend (sister of an old friend of mine) lost her 7 month old granddaughter to SIDS.  That, combined with him starting to sleep for long stretches at night in his room (and not by our bed where I could hear him breathe), finally convinced me that I’d sleep better with him wearing it.  AND I DO.  It’s pretty awesome.  I don’t worry that his swaddle or pj’s will get in front of his face and block his breathing, or that he’ll roll over and not be able to get back.  I got one for my sister to have for her baby because it would have been so amazing to have in those first few weeks of birth when you feel like you constantly have to see if they’re breathing.  In reality, SIDS is more common from 2-4 months (I think that’s what I read anyway), but everything is just so scary in the beginning when you don’t know what you’re doing.
• Eating: 100% breast milk. Pumping is going well at work, but man it is time-consuming!  I don’t know why anyone would “choose” to exclusively pump if they are capable of nursing.  It usually takes me 20-30 minutes to pump – and then add to that washing all of the bottles and pump parts (though ML usually washes the bottles after he takes them).  I usually have about 1 bottle extra per day that I get to freeze, sometimes more depending on how much he takes when I’m at work.  He usually will have four 3.5 oz bottles while I’m at work, but occasionally he’ll have the 5^th that we prepare just in case.  Once I’m home, he’ll nurse about every 2 hours until he goes to bed (2 more times). Lately in the evening he’s been a fussy nurser and keeps pulling off and immediately re-latching.  I’m not sure if he’s not getting enough, or not getting it fast enough, or if he’s mad that I leave him all day, lol.  I usually have to nurse both sides each feeding in the evenings and I think that’s because my supply is used to me pumping both – so one side isn’t filling enough to give him quite enough now.  In the morning he usually only nurses on one side, so I have to pump shortly after I get to work.
• Movement:  While I was drafting this I wrote about how he hates tummy time, so we don’t make him do it often enough because it ruins his life for 5-10 minutes afterwards.  But he sobs so hard that it’s not worth it sometimes, especially knowing that he has reflux and has belly aches.  He holds his head up so well and we just assumed he’d be slow at rolling over because we don’t make him try very often (big deal), and a few days later HE ROLLED OVER!  He was being fussy while playing with Lo and I heard him say – “if you’re going to fuss anyway, I’m going to put you on your stomach”.  And a minute later I heard “OH MY GOSH”.  I immediately thought he spit up or pooped bad or something and he said “Val – he rolled over!”.  He got high up on his arms, started leaning, and just tipped over.  I got him to do it again on video the next day, so it wasn’t just a fluke.  We definitely thought he was going to go back-to-front first, because he arches his back so much, so we were pretty surprised.  I wouldn’t be surprised if back to front is within the next month though.  Sometimes it looks like he’s trying.

He regularly bats at toys and tries to grab things.  If I put something in his hand (blankie or small toy), he’ll grasp it for a few seconds, but doesn’t know what else to do unless he can get it to his mouth to suck on.  He gets his fists in his mouth regularly, but get frustrated because he can’t keep them there.  He prefers the binkie instead because he can keep that in.
My favorite movement he’s started is what I call “kick it out”.  When we lay him down on his changing table, he immediately starts moving his legs like he’s running somewhere really fast.  It doesn’t matter if he’s sleepy or tired, he still does it and it’s so cute.

• Words & Sounds:  He babbles like crazy now and will even hold what seems like conversations with us.  He’ll babble something and wait for us to respond, and then he’ll babble again and wait for a response.  He’s definitely finding his voice and he’s learning how to yell and squeal for no other reason than to hear his own voice.  I can usually tell what his cries mean – hungry, tired, or bored.  I think he’s already manipulating us with his cries.  I can’t help it – his sad face is heartbreaking!

 

 

• Favorite Toys/Activities:  He likes ceiling fans, his playmat and the animal faces that dangle, and laying on his changing table.  He likes looking in the mirror and will smile at himself, and he still likes Sophie the Giraffe.  He definitely is starting to like his swing more, and now has taken to a rocker seat with a toy bar that Braxton has lent him.  He likes to be held and swayed, and I can’t help but want to hold him constantly in the evenings after being gone all day.  He likes his baths and kicks his feet to splash water.

• Dislikes:
  -Tummy time
  -Straight baby zantac – we have to mix it with milk
  -Putting on or taking off his onesie (though I think that’s one of his fake cries).

Monthly Photos: