Gosh, I'm tired tonight, but I'm trying to be productive since ALL the kids went to bed early tonight.  Thankfully Andrew continues to be more cooperative going to sleep (most) nights.  Tonight was the earliest he's gone down - just after 7:00 - so hopefully he won't be wide awake at 5am in the morning!

We've been getting more baby toys out and Brian put this "classic" musical play gym together the other night.  Andrew, like his older siblings before him, is entranced by the swinging toys and the chipper music it plays.  The big kids love it too and my days are once again filled with humming "Old MacDonald" to myself. 


Andrew's also has been grabbing onto things more.  I just noticed that he's holding onto the play gym upright in the photo above, but he's also been grabbing onto the one over his rumble seat and has pulled it out of its slot a couple of times, collapsing it on top of himself.  We've gotten the rattle in his grasp a few times, but with both of these he still doesn't realize that he's responsible for what that hand is up to. 

The rest of life is just... life.  I think I'm 100% adjusted to being a mom of three!

I don't think there's much to report about 10 weeks. I feel like I've really got the groove down as a mom of three... well, for the most part. Of course I've got the most amazing support team with Brian and all four grandparents, which has made the transition much easier.  I've only had to take/pick up the kids from preschool two days since Andrew was born because Nana and Granddad are still chauffeuring the big kids.  Nathan and Sarah have also been having Grandparents' Day at least one day a week and sometimes including a sleepover, which lightens my load considerably.  And Brian's just starting another stretch of vacation!  We joke about how he hardly has to work at his job, which isn't really true but definitely feels that way after residency and fellowship.  However he has a mission during his time off - get the Oldsmobile put back together!  He wants to have it driveable before we move to a new house, and we are in serious house-hunting mode now that its spring and the market's picking up. 

But back to Andrew.  What else should I talk about this week?  Of course!  His eyes, which are definitely blue!  My sweet little blue-eyed boy! 


And sleep... its always about always sleep with infants!  I think we are finally working our way out of the fussy evening phase.  In the past week Andrew's gone to sleep at 8:00 and 7:30 and slept all the way through until morning (of course still waking up to feed, but going right back to sleep).  It isn't happening every night, since sometimes his schedule gets thrown way off by family walks in the evenings or picnics in the parks or just plain weird napping days.  But I'm feeling good about where we are!


Today when Nathan asked to hold Andrew, I went into the study to get my camera and laid Andrew down on the floor.  I realized that once again I hadn't taken any portrait type pictures of Andrew to post, so when I saw how cheerful he was there on the floor and the nice light coming in the window I started talking to him and snapping photos.  And once again in one or two minutes I got some really great expressions from my sweet baby! 

Then it was back to the couch for a "test shot" with Nathan.


Brothers.  I so look forward to seeing how their relationship grows and changes over the years.  I'm so thankful that Nathan has such a sweet and nurturing spirit.  He loves his little bro so much!  I continually hear "Mommy, can I pet Andrew before you pick Andrew up/milk Andrew/put Andrew to nap/etc?"


I think this is just so telling about Nathan - we were having a big discipline issue with him a few weeks ago and as Brian was prompting Nathan to list his privileges around the house (to then lead to the discussion of potential consequences), along with TV and phone time he listed "pet Andrew" as a privilege. 


Yeah, and Sarah?  Although she was excited to take a turn holding Andrew too, when I tried to take pictures of the two of them all I managed to get were awkward angles and weird expressions.  So my mission for next week: get a good picture of Sarah and Andrew together!

Sarah made it to almost 3 1/2 without getting her first haircut, though in hindsight I should have done it a few months ago.  Remember the rat's nest that was Sarah's hair on days I didn't brush her hair?  Well I'm sure not brushing her hair every day was part of the problem, but part of the reason that I shirked my duties was that it was such a chore to get under control.  I guess it was just a terrible downward spiral: tangled hair = not brushing = more tangled hair = more not brushing.  BUT, that has changed!!

It was Nathan and Daddy's day for haircuts, so I popped Sarah on the counter beside Nathan and got to work.  Here's "before" after brushing all the tangles out. 


Both kids were intent on their Iphone activities, almost oblivious to the ministrations of Daddy and me. 


Sarah was watching my phone while I was taking the before pictures and she didn't even notice when I put the camera down to pick up the scissors and make my first cut.  I reached around her to put the first lock down (so I could bag it later for a keepsake), and Sarah said surprised "Did you cut my hair already?!?"  So thankfully no angst on her part about the actual cutting. 


I basically just started cutting, not analyzing the length or anything.  When I got done Brian was pretty surprised at how much I had cut off ("Wow, that's Boston short!") but I think it was for the best.  Now her hair is basically the same length all the way around - no more "mullet" in the back.  And its a lot more curly and less tangly and we all were super happy with the results. 



Sarah's haircut was short and sweet with just some snip-snip-snips, while Nathan's took quite a bit longer.  He really likes Daddy to use the electric razor on his hair since that's how Brian cuts his own, but apparently that takes Brian longer then it would to cut it with scissors.  Didn't matter to Nathan, though, it just meant more phone time for him!


So by the end of the morning, three out of the five of us were looking much more spiffy!

I have to just say for the record that Andrew is a really good baby. He is so good tempered and easy going most of the day.  He puts up with his siblings' loud noises and in-your-face loving without batting an eyelash and just seems to roll with whatever the day brings.

Take mornings, for example.  I can get a shower every day because he's so cheerful in the morning (once he's fed) that he'll just sit in his rumble seat for the time it takes me to shower and dress, even on those mornings when I just have to stand under the hot water for just a few extra minutes before I'm ready to face the day.  Then I'll move him to the kitchen floor where he watches all us big people get breakfast - which is quite a production I might say!  Then back to the rumble seat while I eat and then he's still usually cheerful enough to let me work on the dishes before he "tells" me he wants to be picked up. 

Or running errands.  He doesn't usually fuss in his carseat, which I remember both other kids doing (though I can't remember at exactly what age).  And since I always carry him in my ring sling when we're in stores, he either just looks around or sucks on his hand or falls asleep.  He's perfectly behaved and hardly ever makes a peep!

Its just evenings when my understanding of him and his needs fly out the window.  He will just FIGHT going to sleep at bedtime!  He will rub his face back and forth and all around on your chest, he'll jerk his legs, he'll be asleep and as soon as you set him down he starts flailing around and fussing - none of which he does during the day at naptimes.  I keep waiting for him to grow out of this phase, and occasionally we will have a night that will give me hope.  I guess he has moved on from the nurse-constantly-for-2-hours evening ritual, so I need to remember he's making some progress. 

Speaking of progress, this kid is STRONG!  Look at him holding himself up!  And this is the expression that he makes a lot that I think of as "looking around in wonderment at all the amazing things" expression. 


Not only can he prop himself up pretty high, he can ROLL OVER!!  Late last week I set him down for tummy time while I was making breakfast.  I was by myself that morning since the kids were sleeping over at Gran and Pawpaw's. He rolled over, I rolled him back, then he rolled over again!  Well, I'm a quick learner so I grabbed my camera before I put him back on his tummy and sure enough, over he went again!


The all-knowing internet said that babies usually don't roll over from front to back until 4 months, so he's crazy early on this milestone. After thinking about it for a while though I realized that he only rolled over right after I put him down, when I'm sure to prop him up on his elbows.  So I wasn't sure it really counted (although three times in a row!  wow!).  Later that day he was trying his hardest to roll over, but just couldn't reach the tipping point and got pretty angry.  But since then he's rolled over multiple times on different days, so I guess he's just so big and strong that he's super early on this milestone.

We also had his two month checkup this week and here are his stats:

Weight: 14 lb 12.5 oz (92%)
Height: 23 1/2 inches (75%)
Head: 16 in (90%)

So I guess when we weighed him a few weeks ago and thought he weighed 15lbs, our technique and scale wasn't quite accurate.  But he is definitely a chunker!

And the big kids are still totally in love!

Since I just posted two videos of Nathan, I thought Sarah should have a turn next. :)

We've had some really nice warm days the past week and we've been LOVING the chance to be outside!  We even had dinner out on the patio a few times and I got my first mosquito bites of the year (although it was exactly one week after we got freezing rain so I'm not sure exactly how any were alive already!).  Anyway, one afternoon the kids discovered the sled on the back patio filled with water and, well, I guess someone's gearing up for summer already!

The back story to this post starts in December when the kids got balance bikes for Christmas from Mommy and Daddy.  They were super excited about trying them out right away, but of course neither of them got the concept the first day out and the novelty quickly died.  Here are some photos I took of the kids on their first day riding, the day after Christmas when we took our brand new bikes over to Nana and Granddad's house to try out. 




I don't think she wanted me to take her picture...


Balancing!  (But not for long.)




Of course the middle of winter isn't the most opportune time to put the bikes to use, but Brian and I would encourage the kids to practice riding them whenever the weather was mild.  They have been riding sporadically over the past three months, with Nathan much more interested then Sarah.  I actually thought it would be the other way around, with Sarah being gung ho about learning to ride (she's more a 'do-er' and less of an observer then Nathan was at her age) and Nathan lagging behind (because he can be a perfectionist and sometimes gets frustrated and gives up).  But Sarah has shown little to no interest in her bike while Nathan kept getting better and better each time he would ride. Brian and I estimate he practiced less then 10 days before he learned how to do this:



We told the kids that when they learned to ride their balance bike, we would let them pick out a new bike - a balance bike with pedals, as Nathan calls it.  But to try and provide more instant gratification, we pulled the training wheels off a (too small for him) bike to see how he would do with pedals. And...



Yeah, Nathan crashed at the end of the video and was upset but not hurt, so no worries. Brian and Nathan headed to Walmart and Target the next day in the hopes of finding something suitable, but they were out of luck unfortunately.  So soon, very soon Nathan will be cruising around on a brand new balance bike with pedals!!

Prediction: Andrew will be a thumb sucker like his big sister. He tries and tries and tries his hardest to get his hand in his mouth but he's not quite there yet.  Just give him a few more weeks...





I realized that I've been neglecting tummy time for Andrew lately.  Tummy time usually would deteriorate into Angry Andrew Tantrum because he would rest his head on the floor right next to his fist, so of course he would try to suck on his fist but couldn't get a good latch and that's just so frustrating!  But this week he surprised me at how high up he could hold his head.  In fact one morning the big kids and I were astounded when he rolled (toppled) right on over to his back! 

Side note... I was looking at this picture of Andrew and got deja vu.  Here's Nathan in the same oufit during tummy time at about 10 weeks.  Looks a lot like the same baby to me!


I've been bracing myself for days for the World's Biggest Diaper Blowout.  As of today, Andrew had not pooped for 5 days, but even that was small, so it had been 7 (!) days since he had a substantial size dirty diaper.  He hasn't seemed uncomfortable and internet research says that while it is uncommon for breast-fed babies to go so long between poops, its not unheard of.  But lately I've been really nervous about taking him out of the house in case he exploded all over himself/me/the carseat.  So yesterday morning Andrew had his first bath (he's taken a few showers with Daddy so don't think we've totally neglected his hygiene), in the hopes that it would help him relax and poop.  Sarah was super excited about "washing" Andrew in the bath.  He enjoyed bath time, but it didn't bring about the desired results.



I gave him another bath last night, again without the anticipated results.  So tonight Brian did some intervention and was rewarded with a full diaper.  I'm certain we will all sleep better tonight for it!


Andrew's skin turned really terrible around the 4/5 week mark.  He started getting baby acne but then his skin just felt hard, so I've been diligently keeping his face moisturized with Sarah's eczema lotion and this past week his skin has started looking great again.  He also started developing cradle cap so I've been slathering lotion all over his head as well.  Daddy scrubbed his scalp in the shower, but not too hard so he wouldn't rub all of Andrew's hair out (which happened to Sarah when she was a baby).

And sleep?!?  Daytime naps are pretty good and mostly predictable, but evenings and nights are still crazy random.  We CANNOT figure out how to get this kid to bed in the evening and have him stay asleep.  On the bright side, the time change went super smoothly for the whole family which I am thankful for.

Andrew turns two months old tomorrow and he'll have his check-up next Tuesday at 9 weeks old!  Time is flying!

Postscript: While I was just nursing Andrew to sleep again this evening, I remembered this video of Sarah trying and succeeding in sucking her thumb.  I had to find it and figure out how old she was.  She's just a week or two older then Andrew is now, so maybe he'll get that thumb in the next few weeks.  (She succeeds in getting her thumb about 1:30).

Its been a while ago now, but on Thursday Feb 26th we got the "big snow" that I was hoping for this year. Since it came on the heels of 10 days of very cold weather and lots of missed days of preschool it wasn't quite as welcome as it might have been (another day of school canceled!), but we did get to do the rest of the snow activities that we wanted!

By my very scientific and accurate measurements, we got 5 inches of the white stuff!


I wasn't sure how long Sarah would last, so right away I asked the kids to take one picture with me. 


Then we got right to work building our snowman.  Nathan rolled the bottom section, I rolled the middle and Sarah made the head. 



Immediately after we got the first one constructed, Nathan was ready to make a "Mommy" to go with the "Daddy" snowman.  Sarah wasn't interested in rolling any more snowballs, instead wanted to do some detail work on the one we already had standing. 


The kids were eager to get a face on our snowman and asked me to get a carrot for his nose.  Unfortunately I only had baby carrots in the house, so it was quite a diminutive schnoz.  Nathan thought of using cucumber slices for his eyes and then I grabbed some grape tomatoes for his mouth. Not the most beautiful snowman ever to be built, but we were definitely proud of him. 


By this time Sarah was ready to retreat back into the warm house, but I waned to keep her outside a little longer so I offered to show her how to make a snow angel.  Both kids loved seeing it and promptly set about making their own. 




I wish I had taken a video of Sarah walking around and making about 10 snow angels.  She would lie down and make one, the pop up and walk a few feet to some fresh snow and plop down again.  I would follow her, feigning surprise and astonishment as I would ask "You're going to make ANOTHER snow angel?!"  But finally she tired of that activity as well and headed inside. 


That allowed me to help Nathan continue building our snowman family.  We completed a Daddy and a Mommy (with faces) and had built two children before Andrew started crying and I had to run in and get him up from his nap.  Nathan lost interest at that point as well but even so we had some impressive creations to show for our morning's work.


Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) the weather stayed above freezing that day so by the afternoon one of our snowmen had already collapsed against its neighbor.  There was still enough snow left that evening to make snow-cream, which is what Sarah was sure to tell everyone about when they asked her about the snow.  The snow thankfully melted over the weekend but we were all glad of one more chance to enjoy the winter weather before it warmed up - hopefully for good! 

Not me!  I have to smile back, even if its a video.  (Though it could also be that this is my baby smiling).  Anyway, here's a long video of Andrew smiling and (at the end) cooing. If you want to hear him talk (a little), skip to 1:20.

This is how I think of Andrew at this stage - standing in my arms, looking around with his mouth wide open and a wondering expression on his face (his expression in the picture isn't quite as full of amazement as it usually is).  He is so wide-eyed a lot of the time, staring at windows and ceiling lights and fans, the pictures on the wall behind the couch where I nurse during the day, and especially my shirt when I'm wearing stripes.


The other Andrew trait I think of these days is smiles!!


Andrew continues to grow like a weed.  He weighs about 15 lbs these days, averaging about a pound a week weight gain since his 3.5 week pediatrician checkup.  We finished up the last of the size 1 diapers today so we've bumped him up into size 2s.  Just in time too because he only likes to poop once every day or two, so we need all the diaper we can get to contain that mess!  Also this week I've packed away his 3 month footie pajamas and pulled out the 6 month size.  He still fits in 3 months pants and tops, but has gotten too long for the one-piece outfits that I mainly dress him in.

The big kids still LOVE LOVE LOVE their little brother.  On Friday Andrew and I went to the kids' soccer practice for the first time.  I was going to feed him as soon as I got him situated, but he started fussing before I was quite ready.  Sarah heard him and announced to the class that it was her baby Andrew crying, then jumped up and ran across the gym to pat him on the head and say "Its ok Andrew, its ok Andrew" before running back to join the team.  When Andrew starts fussing in his rumble seat, Nathan will say "I'll give him comfort" and then pat him and talk to him.  Both kids also love to be nose-to-nose with Andrew when they're excited and playing with him. 

Sleep is still unpredictable.  We've have "good" evenings when Andrew will go down by 8ish, but two nights ago he was up and down until almost 10pm.  He has slept almost all the way through the night twice - both times I did a dream feed around 10:30pm and then he slept all the way through until 6:30.  I try hard to keep my expectations low, remembering how Nathan slept through the night four days in a row as an infant before he began the sleep issues that culminated in waking every hour all night long.  Plus the time change tonight is going to have who-knows-what kind of effect on things.  But every day he gets a little older and a little closer to a more consistent schedule (hopefully)!  As Grandmother told me that she used to tell herself, if you can get to 3 months old you know you're going to make it!