Our sweet boy is still growing like crazy!  His 4 month appointment on Friday confirmed that he is still perfect!  He weighed 14lbs 8oz (43%), was 24.25 inches (27%), and his head circumference was 42cm (44%).  He handled his shots like a champ again (Jason says he is a tough guy).  We spent the rest of the day snuggling on the couch, but he really didn’t seem to have any discomfort after.

Ethan has started to do so many fun things in the past few weeks.  Instead of chewing on his blanket when we put him on his belly, he pushes his head up and has even rolled over a few times.  He is getting much better at sitting up in his bumbo chair, though I think it will still be a while before he will sit up on his own.  He still loves sucking on his hands, but has also mastered pulling his toys in his mouth and sucking on them as well.  He is making lots of fun noises and babbles and smiles all the time.  His new favorites noise is looking at us and making a “keeeeee” sound with his tongue, usually spraying us with slobber.  He is usually smiling when he does this, and it is pretty cute.  He has started to giggle too.  We have some cute videos we will try to post soon.

Ethan has just recently not been eating very well so we decided to space his feedings out to every 4 hours, which seems to be going well.  He is still not the best sleeper.  His naps are still short (usually around 45 minutes) but he will occassionally take a nice long morning nap (2 or 3 hours).  He is sleeping better at night, but still isn’t very consistent.  On a good night, he will fall asleep around 8 or 9 (depending on how much he fights it) and sleep until about 4, eat, and go back to sleep until 7 or 8.  Some nights he still wakes up crying several times.  He has been breaking out of his swaddle, so we tried putting him down unswaddled, but he wakes up very mad.  We have switched him to the miracle blanket, which he cannot break out of, and he has been sleeping much better.  We are hoping he can sleep without the swaddle soon because he gets very mad at night when we swaddle him!

Ethan is such a sweet, happy baby these days.  He occasionally gives us a flash back to his newborn days, but most of the time he is such an angel.  We are enjoying watching him grow and change every day!

This is Ethan’s favorite new game.  We have to keep him covered so he doesn’t pee on us during a diaper change.  He immediately grabs the washcloth and waves it in the air or chews on it, then drops it and grabs the next one we cover him up with!

Drool!

More drool!

Our handsome little valentine.  Watch out, ladies!

Such a big boy!

Ethan had his 3 month pictures taken last week at Portrait Innovations.  They turned out great!  The photographer took over 90 pictures but I narrowed it down to these two.  He was such a good boy!

Precious smile.

I had to get a picture with his favorite activity right now – chewing on his hands!

In other news, Ethan is finally starting to sleep better!  This past week he has slept between 8-10 hours every night!  Except for last night, but I’m hoping it was just because the snow plows woke him up.  Naps are still all over the place but occassionally he will nap for 1.5-2 hours!  Sleep or no sleep, he is a sweetheart and we are enjoying every second!

Ethan has changed so much in the past few weeks!  It is crazy to think about how different he is from when he was born.  Here is a run down of what he is up to these days.

Sleep:  His nights are still a bit of a rollercoaster.  We have made some progress.  He is now sleeping in his crib and only eats once at night, around 2am.   Some nights are good – he will sleep at least 5 hours without waking.   Others are bad – up every hour all night long.  Last week was really good until about Thursday night.  For my first weekend back at work he decided to wake up every hour  (or more) both nights!  He doesn’t nap very well either, 45 minutes or less.  I’m just amazed he can make it through the day!  And sometimes he amazes us with how well he sleeps.  He seems to sleep at church with no problem!  Jason and I joke that we just need to sleep at the church at night.

Eating:  Ethan still loves to eat!  He is so big – 13lbs 10oz last week – over double his birth weight!  He has been great taking a bottle while I have been at work.  I think he actually prefers the bottle because he can suck it down so fast!  Jason has also been giving him a bottle at night before bed so he can spend more time with him.  He is taking 5 oz during the day and 6 oz before bed.  We thought giving him a big bottle before bed was helping him sleep longer at night, but apparently it was just coincidence!

Activity:  Ethan’s new favorite toy is his hands!  He is sucking on his hands every opportunity he gets.  He loves sucking on things in general (usually our clothes when we are holding him).  He is still really enjoying his activity mat and getting really good at batting the toys and grabbing them (and trying to put them in his mouth).  Some nights he is getting his hand out of his swaddle and sucking on it.  He is doing really well at holding up his head.  He also loves having his diaper changed, bath time, and any other time that involves being naked.  I’m not sure what it is, but he just kicks his little legs and coos and smiles.  He has also been “talking” a lot lately.

Not so sure about this tummy time thing…

He thinks tummy time is another opportunity to suck on something.

Handsome little man.

I’m naked!

Beautiful blue eyes.

Nomnomnomnomnom.

This is what I came home to after work on Saturday.  I don’t know what it is about the ergo, but he loves it!

We have had a lot going on the past few weeks!  First, Ethan checked out as perfectly healthy at his 2 month appointment.  We had taken him in  a week earlier due to his frequent night awakenings and he was started on medication for reflux.  I don’t think he actually has reflux, but at least now we know he isn’t waking up because he is in pain.  He had to get 3 vaccines – 2 shots and one oral vaccine.  He sucked down the oral vaccine like it was the most delicious thing he’s ever tasted (he loves to eat!) and took his two shots like a champ.  His stats were as follows: weight 11lbs 9 oz (48th percentile) height 22.5 inches (35th percentile) head circumference 40 inches (52nd percentile).

The day before Christmas Eve we drove to St. Louis.  We had planned on leaving on Christmas Eve (in the morning) but with the impending snow storm, we decided to leave early.  I managed to pack all of my and Ethan’s things in 45 minutes!  We were hoping he would sleep the whole way since we didn’t leave until around 7, but he kept waking up and would just look around.  He finally fell asleep around 10 and stayed asleep until 1.  He was so good the whole time we were in St. Louis.  I think he enjoys being around a lot of people!  He slept well at night and took some good naps.  And he tolerated being taken lots of different places!  One of the fun things we did in St. Louis was going to the new Cotton Babies store in West County.  It is a cloth diaper/baby store and is so cool!  Jason watched Ethan (at the store) so I got to spend lots of time looking at everything.  We also got to celebrate Lorelei’s (our niece) 1st birthday.  We had such a great time!!

When we were in St. Louis Jason and I both got a cold.  By the time we came home poor Ethan had it too.  He was so congested and snotty.  For 2 nights Jason and I had to take turns holding him upright while he slept, since it was the only way he could breathe.  It broke our hearts to see him so miserable (especially Jason – he couldn’t stand it!).  Luckily he got over it quickly and seems to be feeling good again.  He has started to go back to sleeping well at night again.  He still wakes up twice at night to eat, but only wakes up when he is hungry, which is a huge improvement over every hour all night long!  He is still sleeping in his bassinet.  We hope to transition him to his crib soon, as long as he continues to sleep well.  He napping is still a bit irradic, but he is napping better in his bassinet (and not in my arms) so I can get some things done around our neglected house!

This is my last week of maternity leave.  I’m not dreading going back as much as I thought I would.  I’m looking forward to getting out of the house and seeing my coworkers again.  And I know he will be in good hands while I’m gone.

I can’t believe how much he has changed and how big he has gotten over the past 11 weeks.  Last week he weighed 12lb 8oz and he is officially in Carter’s 6 months clothes!

One last very cute story: the past 2 days Ethan has woke up very happy.  We hear him making noise and look at him on the video monitor and he is just smiling and kicking his legs!  We leave him until he starts to fuss.  Yesterday I went in to get him and as soon as he saw me his sad face turned into a huge gummy grin!  And he did the same to Jason this morning.  It makes up for all of the bad nights of sleep!

Our little penguin

So happy!

Practicing his smile

He loves bath time now

Photos shoot with daddy.

Comparison:

3 days old

2 months old

The past 2 weeks have been a bit of a roller coaster!  After a few days of showing signs of settling into a good sleep routine, Ethan slowly started to have bad nights – really bad nights!  It started with him waking up about an hour after he ate, and we would go in and soothe him.  Then he would wake up several times every hour.  One night I got up between 10-15 times!  He also went back to eating every 3 hours around the clock.  He’s also been really fussy all day long, with a full blown “witching hour” in the evening where he will cry inconsolably for an hour or so.  We find that it is worse when he is over tired.  He also really fights sleep.  He will rarely fall asleep unless we really help him – lots of rocking, the swing, the car, white noise, etc.  We are learning to deal with these tough evenings and hoping he grows out of it soon!  Last night he finally slept well – a 6 hour stretch, and 2 hours between two feedings.  We are at least hopeful now that it will get better, even if we do have some more bad nights.

Now on to the good part!  Ethan is continuing to grow like crazy.  I think a growth spurt may have contributed to his bad behavior.  Last Thursday he was 11lbs 5ozs – up 15 ozs from the previous week!  He is quickly filling out his 0-3 months clothes, and I anticipate having to go up in size sooner than I thought.  He is starting to smile and coo a lot.  In the morning after he eats he has his best awake time – he is so happy and smiley.  He also has very good control of his head and likes to whip it around when I’m holding him and smack me in the mouth.  He loves focusing on his toys and our faces.  He hasn’t starting reaching for things yet, but I anticipate this starting soon.  His hair is growing too!  I’m anxious to find out if it is going to stay dark or lighten up.

Even though it’s been a rough few weeks, we are enjoying the time with our little guy.  Here are some pictures of how big he is!

He has hand dimples – I am clearly not starving him!

Hanging out with daddy.

Happy baby!

Yes, he is huge.

Peacefully napping.

Ethan has changed so much in the past few weeks!  He is so happy when he is awake, especially in the morning.  He has even started to smile!  At first we thought they were accidental smiles, but he has continued to smile at us for about a week now.  I haven’t weighed him in the past week, but I can tell he is still growing.  He is still eating great, about every 3 hours during the day.  He is starting to get on a consistent schedule with his eating which is great!

Sleeping is becoming more consistent as well.  It is still not great, but at least consistent!  We are putting him down in his crib around 8 or 9 after he eats.  He only lasts about 15 minutes in the crib, so after he wakes up we put him back in his rock n play sleeper.  Then he sleeps until about 1am.  He wakes up again around 3 or 4.  He will cry for about 30 seconds, then fall back asleep for about 2 minutes, over and over until one of us goes to check on him.  Then he will wake up about 5 to eat, but then do the crying routine around 7, then wake up for the day to eat at 8.  We can’t quite figure out why he keeps waking up crying.  I know he is not hungry, because if I try to feed him he won’t eat very well.  We’re hoping if we keep up his routine he will eventually stop waking up!

Ethan has been a much better napper the past week.  He is letting me put him down for naps which is great!  I can finally get some things done around the house.  I think he actually prefers napping in his swing or carseat (when we are out) to being held.

We got to celebrate our first Thanksgiving with Ethan!  He got to meet lots of family and did great in the car.  The worst part was packing up all of his stuff!  On Thursday we went to my Oma’s (my mom’s side) where he got to meet my aunts, uncles and cousins.  Thursday evening we went to my Aunt Gina’s (dad’s side) where Ethan put on a good show for everyone!  We put him down on the floor on a blanket and he cooed and smiled for all the ladies.  On Friday we went to Louisville and Ethan got to meet his cousins Julianne and Lorelei and his Uncle Stephen and Aunt Allison.  Julianne was very excited to meet him!  We had a great Thanksgiving holiday and even had the weekend at home to settle.

In other news, Jason and I decided it was time to retire the ’95 Civic and get a new car for him.  We got a great deal at Terry Lee Honda and are now the proud owners of a white 2011 CR-V!  We quickly realized that we were going to outgrow our 4 door car and an SUV would be much better for trips.  Maybe next will be a minivan???

Here are some picures of our 6 week old little boy!

I can’t believe my baby is one month old today!  He has slept so much better the past week.  We finally decided to put him to sleep in his room last night (still in his rock n play sleeper, he does much better in that) and we all slept much better.  He is such a noisy sleeper, and I think I was getting him up before he was really awake because I was afraid he would wake up Jason.  But of course, Jason hardly ever hears him anyways!  He also ate much better last night since he was actually hungry.  We have also been doing naps the past few days in his room (instead of in my arms), so I can actually do things around the house!

Today he weighed 9lbs 8oz and was 20.5 inches.  I can’t believe how big he is getting.  He had his 1 month appointment today and Dr. Wheeler said he was just perfect – we agree!  He is so much more alert during the day.  It’s been really fun to play with him when he is awake and happy.  He is really starting to focus on things much better too.  He loves his activity mat.

We gave Ethan his first bath last week – it did not go well!  He screamed the whole time like I’ve never heard before!  Obviously it was very short and we switch back to sponge baths for now.  We will try again later!

We have been using cloth diapers exclusively for over a week now and it is going great!  I must admit, I was a little nervous about switching because the disposables were so easy, but once I got the hang of it they are no problem at all.  And I love that we don’t have to buy anymore disposables!  I will try to do a separate post on the diapers soon.

Here are some pictures of our sweet little guy.

Daddy’s rock star!

Ready for Butler basketball!

He loves tummy time.  He is doing so good with his head control.

This face cracks me up!

3 weeks already!  Our little guy has had another good week.  At his follow up doctor appointment he weighed 7lbs 13oz – up a whole pound in 2 weeks!  I knew he liked to eat!  In other exciting news, his cord stump fell off on Thursday night.  The nurse was able to look at it and put some silver nitrate on it to help it heal faster.  We were able to switch back to cloth diapers and have been doing great with them!  Next up is his first real bath.  This should be happening in the next few days once his belly button is healed a bit more.

We are still struggling a bit with sleep.  Some nights are good and some are more difficult.  But he is such a good baby I feel like I can’t complain.  Today we took our first trip to Target and he did so good.  We also went to church for the first time yesterday and he did great.  He has had more alert time every day and it is so fun to see his little personality.

Here are some pictures from the last week.

He loves napping on his belly.

Happy and alert!

Looking handsome in his Bum Genius all-in-one size XS.

Snuggling with daddy (check out those chunky cheeks!).

Warming up to the swing (with roller coaster hands).

Ethan has continued to be a little gentleman over the past week.  His favorite activities include eating and being held.  If he could eat and be held all the time he would always be happy!  We’ve had a tough time this week getting him to sleep at night.  He tends to only go 2 hours between feedings at night and then does not want to be put down, which results in very little sleep for me.  Jason has been giving him his last bottle of the night so I can go to bed early and get a good chunk of sleep.  Last night we tried swaddling him for the first time and it worked great!  He slept for 3.5 hours then another 3 hours.  I think I ended up getting around 8 hours of sleep (broken, but I’ll take it).  He also took a very long nap this morning so I was able to get a few things done around the house.  Hopefully he has gained enough weight that we can let him have these long stretches of sleep without having to feed him.  Last Thursday he was 6lbs 15oz.  I have been going to a breastfeeding support group at the hospital so I will get to weigh him again this week.  It was our first trip out of the house (just the two of us) last week, and it was nice to be able to talk to other new moms.

In other news, we started using our cloth diapers last week.  After a few user- error leaks, we seemed to get the hang of it.  But his cord stump hasn’t fallen off yet and the diaper covers were irritating it, so we switched back to disposables with the umbilical cord cutout for now.  Hopefully it will fall off soon!

Here are some pictures of our little man this week.

Learning how to control my head!

Wide awake!

Happy Halloween!

Hangin’ out in my new swing!

Ok so I’m a few days late – we’ve been busy!  Ethan has been such a great baby the past week.  Every day gets a little better.  He is doing all the right things – eating, sleeping, and making lots of dirty diapers.  He is even letting daddy sleep through the night – he only fusses a bit when he is ready to eat and usually goes right back to sleep without fussing.

We went home from the hospital on Wednesday and he weighed 6lbs 7oz.  Friday we went to his first doctor appointment and his weight was already up to 6lbs 13oz!  They like for babies to be back at their birth weight by 10-14 days, and he is already over his birth weight.  I am going to weigh him again tomorrow – I can’t wait to see how much more he is gained!  I feel like his little cheeks are already chunkier.  The past few days he has had more and more alert time during the day.  He usually has a fussy time once a day in the evening, but we are learning how to keep him happy.

Jason went back to work yesterday and Ethan and I survived our first tornado warning at home together!  Poor grammy was on her way up but had to stop when the storm got bad.  Ethan didn’t seem bothered by the storms!  After my mom got here I was able to leave the house for the first time by myself.  I missed him, but it was nice to get out!

Ethan had his newborn pictures taken on Friday – they are so great!  I will be posting some soon.

Here are some pictures of our precious 1 week old.

I haven’t been very good about taking pictures of the three of us – I need to be more intentional!

He loves playing with his tongue and “smacking his chops” as I like to say.

He’s working on tummy time – he seems to at least understand the idea of head control even if he can’t do it yet.

Big fan of the paci.

He loves his daddy (and daddy likes him just a little bit too!)