Three Months

What!?! How has it already been 3 months!

Adelaide, here is what you have been up to this past month…

• I’m not sure how much you weigh, we go for a shot visit next week so I will update then. I am guessing you are between 12-13 lbs. So much smaller than Aedan was at this age!
• You wear size 2 diapers and all size 0-3 or 3 month clothes. I think you will stay in this size for another month since most everything still has a decent amount of room in it.
• Your eyes are still blue, but they are a much darker blue than Aedan’s. You are getting more hair and it is pretty light blonde on top and darker in the back.
• We started putting you to sleep on your tummy right at 8 weeks. Aedan’s naps got horrible right at 8 weeks and didn’t get better until we flipped him to his tummy around 14/15 weeks. I told myself if/when your naps started to get bad, I’d put you on your tummy immediately. Sure enough, the day your turned 8 weeks, you started waking up early from all your naps. We flipped you to your tummy and they were instantly better again. If I had a third baby (we will not, but just hypothetically), I would probably start it sleeping on it’s tummy from day one.
• You take 4 naps a day, usually 3 longer ones and one catnap in the evening. You go to bed around 7:30 and will sometimes sleep all the way until 7:30 the next morning. More often, you wake up to eat around 5, and go back to sleep until I get you up at 8.
• I figure 7:30 pm-5 am is a pretty good stretch, plus you go back down very easily so it is not so bad. Although, I have to feed you and then change your diaper and put you back down. With Aedan, I always changed him first, then he nursed back to sleep in the middle of the night. You haven’t nursed to sleep since you were about 2 weeks old and you are super picky about having a clean diaper. One night I tried to change you first and then fed and put you back down. It was taking forever for you to fall back asleep so I finally realized what I had done, changed your diaper and you were out in about 5 minutes. Seriously.
• You eat about 6 times at day, every 3 hours until the evening and then we do every 2 hours to squeeze that extra feeding in. You nurse really well, although most of the time you only eat on one side per feeding. This had me worried for awhile, but you are growing and I can’t make you eat so I ‘m fine with it now. It is nice because it makes our feeding sessions pretty fast.
• You also take a bottle pretty well. Although I have noticed that the days you take a bottle, you tend to wake up twice at night. I’m not sure why. I have tried to give you bigger bottles but the most you will take is 4-5 oz.
• You are super smiley. Generally we just have to look at you and you smile. You are also pretty talkative, but generally more so when Aedan is asleep. Maybe you feel like you can’t get a word in when he is around. No worries, we feel the same way. :)
• You are pretty content playing on your play mat or sitting in your bouncy seat. You are not a big fan of your swing, but you will sit in it for a while if I need you to.
• You have gotten better about the car, but you are still not a huge fan. If you are awake or super tired you are fine, but if you are anything in between it is not so fun.
• Overall you are such an easy baby. Maybe you are just a typical baby, but compared to Aedan, you are easy. He was a great sleeper, but he was so sensitive to everything when he was awake. You are much more laid back and noises really don’t seem to bother you that much. In fact you even went down for a nap just like normal when we had a playgroup over here. It was pretty loud and I was sure there is no way you would fall asleep, but you did.

Adelaide, we are having so much fun getting to know you. I can’t wait to see what the next month brings!

-Lauren-

We Survived

Jon was out of town all last week. He left Monday morning and wasn’t supposed to come home until late Friday night (but he got to come home around lunch on Friday instead).

It was the first time he had been out of town since we had Adelaide, which meant it was the first time I was on my own with both kids. Yikes!

During the day it was fine, but the evenings were a little rough. Once it came time for dinner, baths, cluster feedings and bedtime things got pretty hectic. Once I got both kids down for the night, I was ready to go to bed myself! When Jon was home on Friday, the evening was so much easier! The week may or may not have consisted off a little more TV watching, a little more crying, a little less of a clean house and a little more take out for dinner. :)

The weather was nice and we did get a lot of outside playing in during the week. We even hosted a playgroup, which was really fun and the perfect way to fill out a morning and wear Aedan out for a good afternoon nap. :)

Jon is going to be doing some more traveling in the next few months, so I am going to have to get used to it. He gets to go to Brazil, Amsterdam and probably Malaysia again…lucky! The good news is his next trip is scheduled for spring break so my sister and mom are going to help me out for a few days. And then the next one probably won’t be until April or May. As Adelaide gets older our evenings will get less hectic and hopefully that will mean it will be easier to do things solo if I have to.

On Saturday, we had a babysitter come over so Jon and I could do a little shopping for the house. We want to finish off our bonus room this year and are looking at getting some new furniture. It is amazing how much fast you can shop without two kids with you! We hit up all the stores on our list and got to have a nice lunch out. It was great and the kids did well too…thanks Katelyn!!

We pretty much just hung around the house on Sunday gearing up for a busy week. Jon has a few appointments/meetings this week and I have a bunch of work stuff going on. It is only Tuesday and I am already looking forward to the weekend!

-Lauren-

The Newborn Stage

Today Adelaide is 12 weeks old. That means she is out of the newborn stage or the “fourth trimester” as I have heard it called. On my calendar I wrote “have things gotten better?”. I added it when she was about 2.5 weeks old. I remember it was late one night, I was exhausted and Jon was bouncing a very small, swaddled Adelaide because she wasn’t falling asleep and did not want to eat. Both Jon and I just wanted to go to bed. We were still trying to adjust to our new normal. I glanced at my calendar, counted the weeks until she would be 12 weeks old and marked the date. It was like I needed something concrete to look towards. Obviously I love my daughter, but I do not love the newborn phase.

So are things better?

Yes, things are much better. I think we have adjusted to having two little ones and we have our routines pretty much down.

Adelaide is on a pretty good schedule and for the most part our days look the same and run smoothly. She is getting better about putting herself to sleep and does it for about 75% of her naps. She is really good at doing it at bedtime and when/if she wakes around 5 am to eat (last night she slept from 7:30 pm-7:30 am!) and since those are the two times I really don’t want to be patting her to sleep, I’m pretty happy with that.

She is much more content to sit in her bouncy seat or my lap while Aedan and I play or I get things done around the house. She likes to lay on her play mate and I think she is close to being able to start grabbing at the toys. She still does not love (read: hates)riding in the car for the most part, but she does pretty well riding in the carrier when we are out and about so once we get to where we are going, things are good.

I think the hands down hardest part of her newborn stage was losing out on the free time Jon and I had in the evenings. We had gotten so used to putting Aedan to bed between 7:30/8 and then being totally done for the night. It was hard when she wouldn’t settle for the until 9:30/10 and then just be up to eat again around 12:30. Thankfully Adelaide goes down at 7:30 now and right after I put her down, I put Aedan down so by 8 we have our free time again. If she wakes in the middle of the night, it is usually around 5/5:30 and I can feed her and put her straight back down so I am out of bed for maybe 15 minutes.

So goodbye newborn phase, bring on babyhood. I can’t wait to watch this little one grow!

-Lauren-

A Busy Week

It has been a busy week and I am so glad the weekend is almost here!

Aedan started back at school this week and he cried when Jon dropped him off on Tuesday, but when I took him on Thursday he was totally fine. :)

Adelaide went to the sitter’s house for the first time this week also. She did pretty good. She took a bottle with no problems which is more than Aedan did when he started going at this age. She didn’t sleep great but I expected that. Apparently my kids do great sleeping at home, but not so great anywhere else. Oh well.

I feel like we have had something going on every morning this week, so this morning I decided we were just going to stay home. I am so glad neither Jon or I have to rush out the door every morning. It is so hectic trying to get everyone ready and breakfast eaten while trying to get out the door! Props to those of you who work full time and/or work outside the house. This morning Aedan and I did a lot of playing and Adelaide got to take her first two naps completely uninterrupted (although she decided to wake up early from her first one, but at least I was dragging her out of bed).

We have a fun birthday party to go to tomorrow and then I am hoping we find some time to enjoy the great weather we are supposed to have this weekend. Adelaide is just getting big enough to ride in the ergo carrier without the full infant insert, which makes it much more comfortable for me.

I didn’t take many pictures this week other than on my phone (which I generally post on instagram…you can follow me under laurenelissa). I was going to post a couple of cute videos but live writer is not cooperating right now, so hopefully I'll get them up this weekend.

-Lauren-

Happy Friday!

We hope you have a great weekend!

-Lauren-

2 Month Check Up & More

 

• Adelaide had her 2 month check up yesterday morning. She weighs 11 lbs. 10 oz. and is 21.75 in. long. She is a full two pounds lighter than Aedan was at 2 months…now wonder I feel like she is tiny!
• Her Dr. and I were talking about all the things she is doing now and he asked about her sleep…I told him for the past 5 nights she has done between 8.5 and 11 hours straight. He asked if I meant she woke up and ate in between that time…nope, girlfriend goes to sleep around 8/8:30 and doesn’t wake up to eat again until after 5:30 am, most mornings it is more like 6:45/7. He said his 4 month old twins weren’t even doing that. Hopefully she keeps it up, because it is so nice!! 
• While I took Adelaide to her appointment, Aedan went to his sitter’s house. He hadn’t been since October so it was good for him to go for a few hours. I also got to have Adelaide meet everyone when I picked him up…she will start going next week. I can’t believe it has already been over 2.5 years since Aedan started going there!
• Aedan starts school again next week and I officially start seeing clients again the following week, so this week were are just taking it easy and hanging out at home. Today it has been raining all day, so it has been the perfect around the house day. Aedan and I watched a lot of Thomas the Train, played with cars and blocks and most importantly he fought some robots (aka the yoga ball we bounce on with Adelaide). Now both kids are down for a nap and I am going to try and watch the first episode of the Bachelor. After each session is over, I tell myself I won’t watch another one, but I always do. :)

-Lauren-

Adelaide’s Room

I figured it was about time I posted some pictures of Adelaide’s nursery. You know, since I said I was going to do it before she was born and all. Opps.

This is the view from her bedroom door.

This little sign used to be on my nursery door when I was a baby.

This recliner used to be my grandmother’s. It is so comfortable and definitely the perfect place for those middle of the night feedings. Although, Adelaide has given me two nights of 11 hours straight sleep and two nights of 9 hours straight sleep this week, so maybe those middle of the night feedings will be a thing of the past soon!

I keep meaning to get some things hung up on the walls. I need to hang these two pictures somewhere and I also have a set of old fashion alphabet cards that I want to hang over the dresser.

Here is the dresser that I redid over the summer. I still love it!

Here is a better view of the window corner. I made the curtains as well as the bed skirt on the crib.

And the crib…I had the bumper made and it turned out so cute!

And the inside of the crib, with my little helper. :)

-Lauren-

Happy New Year

Jon was off all last week and the first part of this week, and we pretty much just hung around the house everyday. It was pretty chilly and gloomy outside so it was easier to just stay in. It was nice to have such a relaxing (well as relaxing as it can be with a toddler and newborn around) week at home, but I am ready to get back into a normal routine.

We didn’t do much for New Years Eve other than order dinner in. Jon and I did stay up until midnight, but I regretted that decision when Adelaide decided to wake up at 1:30 to eat. Sigh. Dear daughter, please start sleeping longer soon, mommy is so tired! Anyway, we stayed up watching a new show…Falling Skies. It is pretty good, although it is no Walking Dead. :)

I am working on getting everything together to go back to work in a couple of weeks. I’m a little overwhelmed at the thought of having to get work done at home with two little ones, but I am excited to see my clients again and get back into the swing of things. It feels good to get some things scheduled on my calendar.

We have all had colds this past week. Ugh. Poor Adelaide is only two months old and has already had two colds. I think we are all on the mend now so hopefully we will all stay well for awhile. Aedan still has a lingering cough but it only seems to bother him when he is laying down. Today he asked me for medicine for his cough so I gave him some Benadryl before nap time. He played in his bed for 2.5 hours. Apparently Benadryl does not make him sleepy. At least he has been pretty content waiting for his bunny clock to wake up so he can come out. He had an early bedtime tonight to make up for it!

Our neighbor brought over a huge box of Cars toys a couple of days ago. Aedan is totally into anything Cars or Toy Story related so he was so excited. Thanks Mandi!

Oh and Dear Aedan, when you look back at these pictures and wonder why you aren’t wearing pants, just know that was your choice not mine. :)

Happy New Year everyone!

-Lauren-