Sam's 1 month doctor visit

Saturday was Sam's one month check-up and he passed!  I guess we'll keep him.  I was curious to see how much weight he had gained because I feel like my milk supply is better this time.  But, surprisingly, he didn't weigh that much.  And much less than Jack at the same age.  I was kind of bummed.  And he didn't gain much in height.  Perhaps we're destined to have a little guy.  Too early to tell I suppose but I hope he gains in percentiles over the next few months.  Here are his stats:

Weight - 8lbs, 15ozs (30th percentile)

Height - 21.75 inches (55th percentile)

The doctor asked us about sleep and she didn't seem that impressed that we were holding Sam in bed all night.  Don't you think that's impressive?  In fact, it was history repeating itself.  I looked up my blog post from Jack's one month appointment and this is what I wrote:

The doctor asked us different questions and we described life with Jack, including his nighttime sleeping routine.  She said she thought he should be sleeping more than 2 hours at a time at night.  Well, I agree.  That would be nice.  She wants us to try to establish a nighttime routine and put him down in the crib or bassinet.

Well, we got the exact same speech.  Of course, after Jack's appointment I immediately started a very structured bedtime routine that involved goodnights, bath time, the same book and song, etc.  Not sure how I'm supposed to do this with Sam when I'm putting Jack to bed at the exact same time.  And Sam is still pretty darn sleepy during the day.  After some feedings, there are lots of times where he just won't stay awake for his alert time.  So...I've decided that I'll attempt a bedtime routine but won't really feel any pressure about the whole thing until he's about two months old.  Procrastination!

Housekeeping...and blood.

I realize that, while I've been good about posting pictures of Jack here, I've been pretty bad at documenting milestones and schedules and specific development.  And I know 99% of you don't care about that... but I think I may want to look back and know when Jack's nap schedule changed or when he started drinking this or that or when he got his teeth.  I think the ship has sailed on a lot of this stuff but I'm going to try to just jot down some notes here so I can remember.  So, basically, this post is for no one but myself.  Enjoy!

Naps:
Jack is now down to one nap and has been for about a month I suppose.  He wakes up around 6 and then goes down for a nap any time between 11:30 and 1:00pm.  Then he usually sleeps a good 90 minutes to 2 hours.  Bedtime is still around 7:30 or 8.
(Truthfully I can't even remember when he went down to two naps but I think it was a long long time ago).

Drinking:
He's been on milk since he turned a year old.  When we switched from formula to milk we almost immediately ditched the bottles.  Well, upon waking he has milk from a soft spout sippy cup.  Then the same thing after his nap.  Then at bedtime he gets a bottle because, hey, why rock the boat?  He's going to bed so nicely nowadays and I don't think there's anything wrong with a bottle at bedtime.
He also drinks water and in the past couple of weeks, toddler juice boxes.  Or I fill his cup with water and put a splash of apple juice in it.  He can use a straw sippy cup but still doesn't like the hard spout cups.

Books:
He still loves books.  And still loves his old favorites like Elmer, Dr. Seuss (especially the Eye Book and Mr. Brown Can Moo), and animal picture books.  Now he also likes to feel the fuzzy, texture books too.  But he's also started to read some books with more words and less pictures.  I'm particularly delighted that he now likes the Big Red Barn, Goodnight Moon, all the Curious George books, and It's Time to Sleep My Love (a really lovely bedtime book with beautiful illustrations that he got as a gift from his cousin Christy).  He will sit and read them for an hour.

Sleeping:
Oh man.  It's been, on the whole, blissful.  I think around 12 or 13 months he finally started sleeping through the night.  And let me tell you, it's glorious.  Before that he used to need a bottle around 3 or 4, but for the past two months he's moved past that.  I have never been so happy in my life.

Teething:
This brings us finally to the blood portion of the blog.  The night before last Jack uncharacteristically woke at 3am with a lot of crying and we couldn't get him back to sleep for 2 hours.  We took turns rocking him in his dark room until he finally went back down.  Then yesterday morning I pulled Jack out of his crib to discover that his sheet was covered in what I would call a good bit of blood.  One spot the size of an apple and the rest of the sheet covered in lighter spots where the little guy had obviously smeared it around.  Combine that with bloody finger prints on the side of a white crib rail and you have yourself a scene from CSI.  I freaked out and examined him thoroughly but saw zero sign of where it came from.  No cuts, no dried blood on his face or anything.  I called the doctor and we figured out that it must be from his molars breaking through.  I had read that the toddler could bleed a bit when they finally broke through but I didn't think it meant it would be a giant gush of blood.  But, sure enough, he has all his molars.  Well, I think 3 of the 4 have officially poked through and the 4th is almost there.  Poor little guy.  It must have hurt so bad.

To make it up to him, I let him run around naked most of the day and he seemed to enjoy it.  :-)

 

 

How he sleeps

Our little guy moves around a ton when he sleeps and, luckily, with our video monitor we get to witness all the action. He really is a cutie.

Today Jack is...46 weeks old.

We are slowly marching towards 52 weeks and Jack is getting bigger and bigger. Some people swear that he looks bigger than he did last time they saw him two weeks ago. They may be right because I swear that he is taller because he can reach into higher drawers. Which is not good. The past few days he's hung off the highest drawer trying to do a pull-up. Of course this has resulted in him pulling the drawer off the track and essentially breaking it over and over again. He's just into everything. He climbs up on anything and everything and tries to push it or pull it or destroy it. Devilish little child...

Nowadays he's super into hide and seek and "chasing". I get down on the floor and crawl around the house and he chases me, giggling the whole time. Here he is looking around for Pop-pop and then finding him.

And here he is chasing Pop-pop into this giant box (his new favorite toy)...

Other new developments...he's discovered shadows and it's pretty adorable. The other day he was in his swing outside and I caught him staring at his shadow in awe. And every morning the sun hits the pool and makes these shadows on our ceiling that he loves. It's pretty cute. He also loves brushing his teeth. Of course, I use the term "brushing" lightly because I don't know how much he's actually cleaning his teeth, but he thinks he's doing a good job. Hopefully all 8 of his teeth are benefitting.

His dad can even make him laugh while he's brushing.

We took another trip to the zoo with Grammy and Pop-pop before they headed back to Pennsylvania. It wasn't quite as successful as the first...I think he was tired and it was just so hot (80 degrees after Christmas...what the heck?). But he again loved the lizard and wanted to give him a high five.

A last update, on his sleep. At almost 11 months he still takes every nap in my arms. Yes, I try to put him down but he wakes right up. I'm going to have to try to do daytime sleep training soon but we're working on getting back on track at night so I don't want to tackle two things at once. Besides, he's just so darn cute in my arms.

And now, (LOTS) more pictures from the week!

Modeling his "It's Always Sunny" onesie with pride.

Driving his "car" with Grammy

Reading with Aunt Julie

Yet another swing picture

Cruising around the family room

Playing with the broom

Waving to the birds next to the pool

Morning time with daddy!

Waiting for his dinner at Islands. A very successful outing. He loved the restaurant with all it's plants, tree, parrots, and tvs. And the endless french fries.

Family at the zoo

Pushing his friend Violet in the shopping cart.

And I didn't get much video of it, but what I did is downright adorable....

Today Jack is...42 weeks old.

Who is that kid?! Certainly not my baby. That's a real life little kid with front and bottom teeth, a full head of hair, and he's standing up on his own! Just crazy. He looks so old all of a sudden. I see him standing and cruising all around our living room and our bedroom and I just can't believe it's the same tiny blob we brought home 9 months ago.

Anyways, as I said earlier this week, he's into everything. Yesterday he figured out cabinet doors so we need to get those child locks on asap.

He is still enamored with doors and will open and close them again and again. I didn't take a video but I do have a little sampling of what it looks like...

He's been pretty good with the Christmas tree. I'm not sure we need this fence around it but it makes me feel better when I leave him alone in the family room for a quick second.

The Christmas moose on the other hand, needs no protection. They are good friends.

Unfortunately this week was tainted by what I can only describe as hellish sleep. He's regressed back to his 5 month sleep habits which I haven't missed. We're up with him around 11 for an hour or so and then again at 2:30 or 3 for another hour. And then he's up at 5 or 6. It's a damn shame because he's so cute and lovable during the day...not sure why he has to turn into a devil child during the night. I'm sort of at a loss what to do...wait it out, take drastic measures...I don't know. Just want it to stop!

Speaking of hellish weeks, Jack took time out of his busy schedule to write his Aunt Julie a message.

And now, more pics from the week!

Enjoying his play table which he literally stands at for hours a day

Look at those eyes!

One of the funniest faces I've ever captured. As John says, very punk rock.

Today Jack is...40 weeks old.

40 weeks old! Man, we are quickly approaching 52 weeks. Just insane. In some ways it's flying by...in others, man, killing time til his bedtime is rough when he's in a bad mood. But even with his odd whining this week, that beaming smile above keeps me sane.

I wrote this post before Thanksgiving so I'll have those pics later in the week. Ever since he got his cast off he's been super moody and just fussy. I don't know if it's actually the cast or if it's teething (his two top teeth came in) or if it's a 9 month growth spurt. All I know is that he is fighting sleep hard. He'll be exhausted and yet squirm and kick and cry when I try to get him to sleep. Ahh, more sleep talk. I just hope he gets over it soon.

In the meantime he's into everything. I have to watch him pretty carefully because he likes to explore.

After months and months of trying to teach him, I think he finally learned how to wave. Of course, he doesn't do it every time but I did manage to capture it on film.

Okay, sadly, I don't have many pics this week. Here are the rest...Enjoy!

had to include this...a beautiful Fall day in LA

One of my favorite pics