It’s been a while since I’ve done a real update on Sam, so here goes! He’s just over 15 weeks now, and just over 13 pounds, but only barely 22 inches (putting him in the 3rd percentile for height! Lil’ shorty!). He is still eating like a champ, and still wanting to eat every 3 hours, even at night. I am anxious for him to start sleeping longer stretches, but I know that might not happen for a little longer. He was such a good sleeper until about 5 weeks old, when he started to get colicky. He didn’t nap well during the day and when he didn’t nap well, that meant that nights were rough, too. We’ve gotten on a pretty good nap schedule, and our days are much more structured than they were for the first 10 weeks of his life.

Our day looks something like this:
7:00am- Dad gets up for work, and Sam wakes up, too. He doesn’t want to miss out on any fun! He eats and head downstairs to make some breakfast and coffee for mama
8:15am- Naptime! Usually sleeps til around 9:45 or 10:00,
10:00am- Eat again, then we do some tummy-time and try to play some on the baby-gym. He’s still not really interested in toys, but I keep putting them there, knowing one of these days he’ll figure out he can grab them and play with them
11:00- Nap time again! While he’s napping I make some lunch, catch up on laundry, try to do the dishes, keep up with the house. This is usually his longest/best nap of the day, so I take advantage of it!
1:30/2:00- Finally wake up from nap and eat (he’s usually starving by this point and a little grumpy) after he’s fed we try to get out of the house. Lately I’ve been just putting him in the Ergo and we just walk somewhere. Luckily Moscow is small, and downtown is about a 10 minute walk away from us, so oftentimes we walk down to the Co-op to grab a pesto-roll (mama’s favorite!) or to Bucer’s for a mocha (mama’s other favorite!)
3:30- Return home from walk, do a bit more tummy time, or sit in the Bumbo and we have a good chat. He seems really talkative at this point in the day, so I try to encourage that as much as I can. He loves it when you sit really close and talk in a high pitched voice.
4:00-Nap again! Then I figure out dinner!
5:00- Paul gets home from work, and Sam will usually wake shortly after he gets home. This kid does NOT want to miss out on any dad time. Whenever Paul is home Sam wants to be around him. This kid likes his dad a lot! So we hang out and pass Sam back and forth while trying to finish up and eat dinner.
7:30- Bedtime routine starts (sometimes a little bit earlier if he is getting grumpy or tired) we go upstairs into his quiet and dimly lit room and we change his diaper, nurse, swaddle, sing a few songs and put him in his crib and he will almost always conk out by himself within a few minutes. He’s usually up around 12:00am, 3:00am and 6:00am to eat.

However, the past two weeks I’ve been filling in at the church office in the afternoon a few days a week, and Sam comes with. That’s been interesting… but I think he enjoys some different scenery!

We’re still doing the cloth diapers, except Sam is a heavy wetter, so we switched to disposables at night because he was leaking through the cloth every single night, and I just felt terrible that everytime I would go get him he was wet through his onesie and swaddling blanket. That had to be cold and uncomfortable for him, but other than that the cloth diapering is going great! I just have to remember to keep up with the laundry!

Sam also likes to stand. The other day I set him next to the couch and he grabbed onto the slip cover and stood like this, completely on his own for more than 60 seconds! He kept this shocked look on his face the whole time, like he was surprised by what he was doing. It was pretty hilarious.

He has seemed to calm down a lot in the past few weeks. When he was 14 weeks old (Weekend before last) he got a cold, and it was just the saddest thing ever. He couldn’t breath through his nose, and would wake himself up coughing. He stopped eating almost entirely for 3 days, so we took him to the doctor (I was scared that it might be RSV or something) but it was just a bad cold, and so we set up the humidifier and just spent a lot of the night rocking him to sleep, since he would get so stuffed up while lying down flat on his back. But, it seemed that the cold somehow made him calmer! Ever since then he’s been a lot more chill. His doctor did say that the colic would probably start to abate somewhere around 3 months, so it may have just been a coincidence, but whatever it was, I don’t care! He’s a happier baby, which makes a happier mama and a happier house in general.

He was teething for a little while, but it seems that his tooth has made it’s way back down into the gum. I was hoping it would break through, so we don’t have to go through this again, but the bump is no longer to be found on his gums.

And WOW, when he is happy, oh my word, he is the most fun person in the world to be around. He loves to smile and coo when you tickle under his chin. And his smile is so sweet. Sometimes at night after I put him down he will spit out his pacifier, and when I turn around to put it back in he will raise one eyebrow and then break out the hugest grin. How can you not laugh at that? Trust me, it’s impossible not to smile at him when he flashes his little gummy smile to you. He also will mimic sounds, now, which is funny. If we say “Hi” he will make a high pitched “Eye” squeal sound, which is pretty adorable. He also says “mamamamama” which, you know, I am pretty inclined to believe is “mama”, I can dream, right?

I think we’re beginning to hit our stride, Sam and I. I am able to read his signs a bit better and figure out what’s a hunger cry vs. a “change my diaper” cry (he hates being wet!), a tired cry vs. a “I just want to be held” cry, and once you figure out their cues, it gets a lot easier to make them happy and everyone is the better for it. Being a mama sure is challenging, but it’s pretty great, too.

I never posted these pictures of Sam in the baby-sack I made him!

It was handy during those first few weeks where he wanted to be really cozy.

I can not believe how tiny he was!

What a teeny little squirt he was! With barely any cheeks!

These were taken on 9/14/11, when he was just 11 days old! Goodness- I’ve already almost forgotten those newborn days!