Two to Three Months

My little man is three months old today! Where has the time gone?

Since I have not done a great job of keeping up the blog since I went back to work, here are his two and three month stats.

Two month stats:

Weight: 14 lb. 3 oz.  (96^th percentile)

Height: 24” (86^th percentile)

Head Circumference: 16” (86^th percentile)

Clothes: 0-3 months

Diapers: Pampers Swaddlers Size 1

Three month stats (measured at home):

Weight: 15 lb. 4 oz.

Height: 25”

Head Circumference: n/a

Clothes: 3-6 months

Diapers: Pampers Swaddlers Size 2

On one hand, I cannot believe Reed is already three month old. On the other, I do not remember life without him. He is changing every day and keeps me on my toes.

·         He is a talker! He imitates every movement my mouth makes and tries to do the same. Every once in a while it truly sounds like he is saying hi, hello and even I love you. It is so fun to watch him try to communicate. He can coo for hours.

·         First virus down. We went home for his baptism this past weekend and the poor little guy just wasn’t himself. After two nights of no sleep, no smiles and terrible congestion we took him to the doctor. The doctor told us he had RSV and prescribed him albuterol nebulizer treatments. My heart broke to see him in so much pain and was glad that the treatments seemed to make it easier for him to breath. Plus, he looked so cute with the little duck mask on.

·         His smiles and giggles melt my heart. It doesn’t take much these days to get a smile out of him. If you smile at him he usually reciprocates. Even though it is more and more common, it still melts my heart every time. I can’t wait to see him every day just to see that big gummy grin.

·         He still can’t find his thumb. He tries so hard! His hands are always in his face and his mouth is wide open. He balls up both fists and then the search begins. You can hear his smacking away as he gets one close and then his glee turns into a frustrated grunt/cry when he realizes he just can’t figure it out. It cracks me up.

·         He already has the ladies drooling. Little Elizabeth (his daycare buddy) stops everything when Reed comes into the room. She rolls over to grab at him and hold his hand. If her mom is nursing her and she hears Reed she stops what she is doing to look for him. We are in trouble.

·         He loves “tubby time” as Erica has named it. Every night at 7ish we start his bedtime routine with a bath. It is his favorite time of the day. Even if he is tired and crabby at the end of a long day, we put him in the water and he starts swimming away. His eyes dart all over while his arms and legs flail and he giggles the entire time. He can spend up to 30 minutes in the tub just swimming away.

·         Reeds growth spurts have pushed him right out of the 0-3 month clothes and into the 3-6 month although since I see him every day I don’t always see the growth. I only know that my arms have more muscles than ever before.

·         We are still 100% breast feeding, but I don’t know how much longer we will be able to hold out. Now that he is three months old I am going to start traveling again for work and while I do have pumped milk stored up, I don’t know that it is enough. I really don’t want to introduce formula but I may not have a choice.

·         Manhattan Toys are his favorite. It is a brand that makes the best baby toys. It is the small things that give me so much joy. He has gone from not knowing what a toy is to grabbing and pulling them to his mouth. I pick him up and he still hangs on tight to his toys. It is so cute!

·         He now enjoys facing out. Just within the past two weeks he has made the transition. He now wants to see what is going on around him while still being close to his mommy. It makes life a lot easier now that I can sit at the table with him on my lap perfectly content.

·         He is a perfect traveler. He has now been on two long distance round trip flights. I don’t know if it is the movement of the plane or what, but he sleeps the whole time. The only challenge is when flying by myself trying to get all my belongings on the plane with only one hand!

Here are some pictures of his two and three month photo shoots J

Censored Bathtime

My sister Vicky flew up to Chicago last week to watch Reed during my first few days back at work. The first night I came upstairs just in time to help with bath time and putting him to sleep.

Who knew you don't need all the gadgets for a successful bathtime? Vicky had the tub filled with an inch or two of water and Reed was swimming away. He LOVED it!

Reed and Baby E

Reed started with the nanny this past Friday. It has been really hard on me, but he loves it! Nanny Ann sent this picture to me today.

How cute are they!! Reed loves spending the day playing with baby Elizabeth and I pick him up so happy. I even get to sneak over during the day to kiss and squeeze him.

Merry Christmas

Watch "Baby Reed Christmas" on YouTube

From our munchkin to yours! This was my attempt at catching Reed giggle. I was unsuccessful.

Reed: One Month

Everyone tells you to cherish every moment because the time flies by. It is an understatement. I cannot believe Reed celebrated his one month mile stone on December 11^th. I am posting this a week late because he didn’t have his doctor’s visit until this morning.

One month stats:

Weight: 12 lb. 1 oz.  (90^th percentile)

Height: 23” (75th percentile)

Head Circumference: 16” (75th percentile)

Clothes: 0-3 months

Diapers: Pampers Swaddlers Size 1

Reed has been such a blessing in our lives and amazes us in new ways everyday. It is hard to imagine life without this little guy. Yes, it was easier to do just about everything, but being responsible for someone else gives life so much more meaning. Here are a few milestones from the past month:

·    Reed is a champ when it comes to eating. He started breastfeeding in the hospital and hasn’t had too many hiccups since. We did have than one or two rough nights where I knew he was hungry but was so worked up that he wouldn’t eat. Thank goodness my mother-in-law was here to help me get through those nights. At three weeks we decided to introduce one bottle a day. Reed took the bottle immediately and loves his quality time with daddy. He eats A LOT (as you can tell by his weight gain!) He is gaining a pound a week!  During the day he feeds every two hours. It wasn’t until we started pumping/introduced the bottle that we realized how much he was getting during each of those feedings. He can down a 5 oz bottle in about 5 minutes and is ready for me (aka more milk) just 30 minutes later.

·    His sleeping patterns haven’t changed much. He sleeps on and off throughout the day. He takes a bottle from dad around 8PM and then we put him down between that feeding and 10PM. Most of the time he needs a topper from me to put him out for the night. Then he sleeps until 2 or 3 AM when he will wake up for another feeding and diaper change and goes back down. He is back up around 6 or 7 AM. I am ready for him to skip that middle of the night feeding. He has slept in his crib at night with no problem during the day, but we are far from napping there during the day.

·     I had to pack up Reeds newborn clothes this past week – tear. He is growing so fast!·    Every day he can entertain himself for longer periods of time on his play mat. He has been extremely alert from day one, but wanted to be held during that time. It has been nice to see him wake up from naps and not immediately cry to be held.

·    He doesn’t mind tummy time for the first 5 to 10 minutes or so. He has been able to lift his head for the past couple weeks and turn his head from side to side. He is getting so strong! Just yesterday I stood him up and he locked out his legs for a solid minute. It really is the little things that get me so excited.

·    He started smiling right before his one month birthday and even giggles every once in a while. It doesn’t happen very often, but I love when he makes eye contact and smiles at something I have done. Melts my heart every time!

·    He loves play dates and, as I’ve mentioned from a previous post, thanks to CMA he gets plenty of them.  I even took him to a see The Descendants at a local theatre that hosts a bi-weekly “Box Office Babies” event. We went with a couple other local moms. The theatre was packed with moms and babies with car seats and diaper bags littering the aisles. It was hysterical.

I don’t think I am cut out to be a stay at home mom, but I am really sad just thinking about leaving Reed to go back to work. I am thankful that we will get to ease back into it. More about that later – until then I am cherishing every minute I get with him!! Here are some pictures from his one month birthday December 11, 2011:

Charlestown Mothers Association

I love our neighborhood in Boston!

We choose Charlestown because it reminded us of Windsor, where we lived in England. It is a historical community along the freedom trail with sites like the Bunker Hill Monument, the Constitution and the Warren Tavern. It is also a short (less than a mile) walk or ferry ride to downtown Boston.

Now that we have Reed we have just one more reason to love it here, the Mothers Association. This morning, I attended a new mom's breakfast at a host mothers house a couple blocks away. More than a dozen mom's attended with their newborns. It was a great way to meet other moms with babies the same age as Reed.  A CMA board member was there and said that 10 to 15 babies are born in Charlestown each month!

I met some great ladies and was invited to a play group tomorrow afternoon. The mom hosting tomorrow even lives on our street and her son is 11 weeks old. I am excited to widen our circle of friends and hopefully meet some new friends for Reed.

CMA is how I met the family for our nanny share as well. Here is a picture of Reed and Elizabeth. E is two months older.

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Bath Time

Reed had his first bath this past weekend and did great – at least for the first half. As soon as Matt put him in the tub Reed started peeing straight up. It all happened so fast. Matt shrieked and jumped back. I was so concerned and asked what was wrong because I couldn’t see. Matt told me he was peeing, so I stepped forward to cover the stream with my hand so it didn’t go all over the bathroom. I couldn’t stop laughing at Matt’s reaction. To his credit, it was the first time Reed had peed on him, and it has already become a regular occurrence for me. Even with the WeeWee Tepee’s.

As you can see from the pictures below, Reed really liked the first few minutes of warm water, but that only lasted a few minutes. Lesson learned, we have only about 5 minutes to get him in and out before he has a meltdown. Overall, it was a success and all worth it to see him wrapped up in the froggy towel.