2 Month Doctor's Visit

 

Sam had his two month doctor's visit and it went off without a hitch. Poor little guy had to get three shots but he did pretty well. The doctor seemed happy with his progress and his little body checked out just fine. He is a little guy though.

 Here are his stats:

Length - 23 inches (55th percentile)
Weight - 10 pounds, 14 ounces (35th percentile)

Sam is 2 months today!

 

There's our Sammy! Can't believe what a difference a month makes when they are so little.  If you care to compare, here is Jack at the same age.

  

The past month has been full of ups and downs. Around week 5 and 6, he hit some peak fussiness where he cried almost all of his awake time. That wasn't too fun. He had (has) some gas issues too so I've cut out a lot of dairy and that seems to have helped. Or maybe he's just getting older. But the past week he's been lovely and pretty darn happy during the day. As long as he's being held of course. :)

  

The nighttime hasn't been too terrible either (fingers crossed). I know we're due for a sleep regression but for now it's very manageable. He'll go down between 7 and 8 and then will sleep until sometime between 11:30 and 1:00am. Not too bad! After that he might go down for another 90 minutes and then after that he just wants to be held in bed with us. Like I said, it's not great but we seem to be managing.

  

I feel a little bad for the poor little guy because his life so far consists of getting dragged to Jack's school and activities. And he is NOT a fan of the car. Not as bad as Jack's hyperventilating and choking, but bad enough to cry and wail for 30 minutes straight. Hopefully he'll grow out of it in a few months like his big brother did. I try to remember to talk to him specifically and play with him one and one and engage him, but sometimes it's hard with Jack wanting so much attention. I'm sure it'll even out soon.

  

But, all in all, Sam is pretty darn adorable. It's hard as hell to go places with the two of them but I'm trying to enjoy how small Sam is because I know it'll go by super fast. Happy two month birthday Sam!

"And... I'm out."

Sibling love

Jack has been slow to warm up to Sam.  As I had said before, I never got that cute sibling picture in the hospital because Jack wouldn't get near Sam.  For a week or so Jack completely ignored him.  The picture above was about the closest Jack would get to Sam.  (At least they are in the same frame.)

Then the next week he would actually look at Sam which was progress I guess.  Though I think in the pic above he was acting cute in order to get a cookie or something.  

Most of the time he kept his distance and was pretty wary (as exhibited above).  Then slowly he got more interested...

And more brave...

And he started being pretty darn cute...

Sometimes Jack's affection resembles something like smothering but it's all out of love.

Yesterday Jack told me that "Baby brother doesn't do anything.  All he does is cry."  Well, that's pretty accurate buddy.  He often complains in the car now because with all of Sam's crying, "I can't hear my music!!!"

I hope they only get cuter and cuter together.

What we've been up to lately...

Well, it was certainly nice having John home for two weeks.  I seriously can't imagine doing this on my own.  Can't imagine putting two grumpy kids to bed at the same time.  I don't seem to have enough hands.  But, oh well.  I'll figure it out.  In the mean time, here's a few pics.  The one above is from our first family trip to the zoo.  Sam loved all the animals so much that he slept the entire three hours.  

And here's a rare pic of Sam NOT crying in his car seat.  He appears to love the car as much as his brother Jack.  May have something to do with his severe gas issue we've been dealing with this past week.  After each feeding he kind of screams in pain and cries because of gas.  Then he often spits up.  Like more than normal.  Plus he's having trouble having a bowel movement.  Anyways, it all adds up to a very fussy baby.  Hopefully this phase will pass soon.

We took Jack to the farmer's market because he loves the petting zoo.  He may be a goat whisperer.  

There's always time for park play dates and Jack had fun with his buddy Owen while I bounced with Sam off camera.  :)

(Another) Daddy's little boy

It seems that Sam has an incredible bond with his daddy.  I mean, look at that picture.  Are you kidding me?  From what I've heard from other moms, infants don't immediately take to their dads and prefer being held by their mothers.  But, much to our delight, Sam loves John.  In the middle of the night when Sam is fussy and won't be put down to sleep, he prefers sleeping with his daddy.  John claims it's only because I smell like food but I don't know.  It could also be that his chest is flatter than mine but there's definitely a bond there.  It's pretty darn adorable.

John with his boys!

Merry (belated) Christmas and Happy New Year!

Wow.  It is really hard to blog with a toddler and an infant.  I commend all the other moms who can keep it up because it's ridiculously difficult to find time to do it.  BUT, here I am!  We survived Christmas (barely) and rang in the New Year.

Christmas was a little rough.  John and I referred to it as possibly the roughest Christmas ever but that means that next year can only be more fun!  It wasn't too terrible, but Jack was just really rough.  It started with a very fun Christmas Eve.  My parents and sisters came up for the day and we had a nice dinner.  Then we headed on out to see the Christmas Caroling Truck which has become sort of a little tradition for us.

Sam slept through all the noise and lights and kept warm with his reindeer hat.  Our friends tagged along too which Jack really enjoyed because, besides being buds with the little boy his age, he has a giant crush on his two sisters.  It's pretty cute.

We had so much fun at the parade that Jack got completely wired and didn't go to bed until 10pm.  We were hoping (but not expecting) that he might sleep in on Christmas day but no such luck.  At 5:10am he stumbled into our room holding his new prized possession from Aunt Julie - a number placemat that counted up to 100!

The minute he walked into the family room he asked one question, "where's my number puzzle?"  You see, he had asked Santa for one thing...a number puzzle.  And he wanted that thing immediately.  I suggested opening his stocking first but he just said, "umm...where's my number puzzle?"  He was momentarily distracted by his new basketball hoop that he loves!  Daddy let him take a few shots inside but then mommy insisted on moving it to its more permanent home outside before too many ornaments were broken.  

Sam seemed to like it too.



Of course, after his insistent questions, we handed him a package and guess what Santa had brought him?!  A number puzzle.  He was in love.

Of course, one of his other favorite presents was the drug store calculator that Aunt Leslie got him.  It's the simple things.

Of course, in general, Jack was pretty blasé about the whole thing.  Christmas?  Not too exciting to this guy.  Couldn't be bothered to open more than two presents every hour.  At least he enjoyed each present that he opened.  It was just a slow lazy process.

Sam, on the other hand, clearly amped up about this special holiday.

Well, he got into it eventually....

But it turns out Jack just needs more than 7 hours of sleep because by 7:30am he was done.  It was tantrum time and there was lots of kicking and screaming and throwing things and lying on the floor.  Then hiding in the garage.  Then just screaming that he wanted to go on a walk.  So there we all were, all four of us walking to Starbucks at 7:30 on Christmas Day.  I guess we are that family.  The rest of the day was just a back and forth between happy and miserable and screaming.  Sigh.  Like I said, next year...

On the 26th we drove down to San Diego to see some of my high school friends and spend time at my parents' house.  It was a good decision because Jack is always super happy at their house.  Turns out Sam thought it was pretty nice too.  Who doesn't like sunbathing next to a gorgeous pool in December?

It was super fun to see my high school friends and see our kids play together.  Two baby boys a month apart, two 2 year old boys, one 3 year old girl, and one 6 year old boy.  Woohoo!  And we haven't changed a bit since our graduation 17 years ago.  (Ha!)

Of course, another highlight was getting away for a few hours courtesy of grandma's babysitting.  John and I had a delightful lunch on the beach without any screaming kids.  Very lovely.

Of course the best part of every visit to SD is seeing how much fun Jack has with his grandparents.  He's at an age now where he loves Grandma and Grandpa so much and constantly asks me when we can visit them.  He had a great time with them both!

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!

Sam is 1 month old today!

I can't believe it's been a month already.  It's flown by!  Probably because we are otherwise occupied with our first born.

Sam is doing great and has his one month doctor's check-up tomorrow.  He seems to be growing a lot so we'll see exactly how much.  His sleep is not good...just like his big brother he refuses to be put down at night so he's sleeping on our chest or in our arms.  But for some reason this time it seems less horrible.  Even if we only get 90 min or two hour stretches at a time.

All in all though, he seems like a mellow happy little dude.  Can't wait for the next few months when a personality emerges.  :-)

Happy one month birthday Sam!!