2 month check-up

Garrett had his 2-month check-up today and everything went well. He is 12 pounds, 6 ounces which puts him about 75th percentile. I can't remember the other two measurements, but he is between 50 and 75th percentile with everything. Which means he is getting enough food, despite his constant spitting up and occasional puking. I was telling her that I pretty much can only feed him on one side because if I ever do both sides it is instant pukage. She said not to worry, that whatever I'm doing is working, and to just keep doing it. :)

Dr. K was laughing at me because I was asking her when Garrett could be expected to sleep longer durations and when I could get him on a daytime schedule. She chuckled and said "ok, second child mom, you need to chill out and just enjoy your babe!". Ha. Am I wrong to look forward to those things? After explaining my frustrations that Garrett seems to have a built-in 4am alarm clock, she said "be glad it's a 4am alarm clock and not a midnight, 2am and 4am alarm clock!". We've put him down at 9pm, 9:30, 10pm and once I even fed him at midnight only to still have him wake up at 4am. What happened to those two magical nights where he pushed it to 5am or 6am?!??

Needless to say I think we are going to try and start inching back his bedtime to get him down a bit earlier to see if he could still make it to 4am. We'll try to do that this weekend when we don't have anything pressing the next day, just in case I am up a bunch of times as a result of our experiment.

And apparently schedules during the day don't really happen until between 3-4 months (they can come later, too, if you aren't looking to get your child on a schedule).

I was laughing at myself as I was walking out of the doc office and thinking that I was definitely jumping a bit ahead of myself here. Next thing you know I'll be wondering when he can start riding a bike fer cryin out loud. I mean, he moves his legs a lot, shouldn't he be able to get on one of those pedal bikes?!?

We are thrilled about Thanksgiving as we are going over to Jasper's house (Delaney's true love) and there will be a few other families there from the Acorn School. Should be fun to let the kids run around like crazies while we get to socialize with each other. Our neighbors are having a party on Thursday morning and then other neighbors are throwing one on Friday. Should be a fun weekend.

Yeah for a healthy babe and Thanksgiving weekend. All is good.

Second children

As I have mentioned a while back, Garrett is infinitely easier as a baby than his big sister Delaney. I think the gap of fussyness is larger than most gaps between first and second children, but it seems a generality that most second children are more easygoing than the first. I've heard a number of theories thrown out there for this phenomenom, but the one I hear most consistently is that the parents are more relaxed and therefore you know how better to handle an infant.

Could this be the main reason why second children are easier? I am not sure this can be true in our situation. I was arguably more stressed being pregnant and in the first few weeks of Garrett's life than I was Delaney's. Through Delaney's pregnancy I was generally happy and excited about the cooing and sweet newborn that I expected would come my way. Then out she came, spitfire cries and all, and I was convinced it would go away quickly. Because everyone has sweet little newborns that sleep all day, and I was sure she would come around. Ha! I think finally around week 2 I realized it was official and we had a colicky baby.

Now with Garrett's pregnancy I was emotional, moody and worried that we would create another colick nightmare. And even in the first few weeks when he would cry I would jump to conclusions that the colick man had arrived and we were stuck.

But he is SO much easier than his big sister, so much so that I feel guilty even talking about how wonderful he is as a baby because we did none of that with Delaney. I know it wasn't her fault but there is no doubt that we are both more affectionate and feel more love towards Garrett in these early weeks. Don't get me wrong, we loved Delaney from the start, but there wasn't a lot of time to talk about how much we loved her since we could barely hear each other over her crying.

So if that theory of "relaxedness" (I'm sure that's a word) is true then we have bucked the trend.

I can't say I'm complaining about it, however it came true. I'm just glad that someone took pity on me somewhere and blessed me, despite my stressing hormones, with a pretty chill babe.

Speaking of, gotta go feed the little man. :)

New Hands Free Driving Video

I found this on Dooce. So darn funny.

Serious cuteness

Delaney went to school today in one of the cutest outfits she's ever had on. I love that recently she has come to letting me put her in dresses. This comes after a full year of her absolutely REFUSING to wear anything girly. Who knows with this one...








and here is one that's not great quality of the little man, but it's from last night so it's recent.

Family photos

Trying to freshen up the blog

I'm trying to add some new pics to the left hand column, and make some updates to the content. Who knew this could consume so much time?!?

I am loving life today as a mom, loving my casual day with Garrett. Aside from a puking incident from G Love (my new name for him) about 2 hours ago, it's been an all together CHILL day. I'm wondering how it's possible that it's already 1pm?!?!

We had a great weekend as a fam. Saturday Kevin and I both got to workout and enjoy the mild Colorado fall weather. We watched a bunch of football both days, and also went on a family run with the double stroller on Sunday. I'm wondering how, with all of this activity and exercise I'm getting, it's possible that I still have a huge stomach pooch?!? This weight-loss thing is going to be even harder this time around, I can see that now.

The big update on our lives over the weekend, however, is that Delaney officially moved into her big girl room AND bed without a hitch. Two naps, and two overnight sleeps and I'm prepared to say that it was much easier than I had anticipated. She still calls for us to come and get her and her sleep has not been affected as of yet. Yeah!

Now on to that pesky little potty training thing....

Precious sleep

I am probably jinxing myself by posting this, but for the last two nights Garrett has been an absolute rock star sleeper. Two nights ago he went 7 straight hours and last night he went almost 8 hours without as much of a peep! This is almost exactly how Delaney did it so I'm hoping he's setting himself up to be the same kind of nighttime sleeper as her.

My parents are here and are busy with projects and watching the kiddos. Yesterday my dad put up some gutters on our garage, took Delaney to Home Depot and the park. I got to go for a run, do some errands and basically have a relaxing day. Then Kevin and I went out to Jax for dinner.

Today Delaney is at school and my dad is back to work with projects (more gutters, fixing the guest room toilet and putting up shelves) and my mom has offered to spend all day with Garrett. I am going to my workout class at lunch, finishing up buying Christmas gifts for the nieces and nephews and then I get a haircut at 5pm. It's almost like I don't have two kids, with all the personal things I am able to accomplish. Woo-hoo!

Then we are all going out to a local Italian restaurant tonight and hopefully will watch the Jets/Patriots game afterwards.

Tomorrow we are supposed to get our first snow and since it is the last day of my parents visit I am cramming in a nail appointment and a massage. Then they are off to Arizona early on Saturday morning.

It's been wonderful to have both sets of grandparents in town and get some good help. Yeah!

Busy, turning a corner, visitors

Let's see. I haven't posted an update in a while.

Just after Garrett's one month appointment, he caught a little virus that had us visiting the doctor daily for 4 days. His fever didn't go much about 100 degrees, but since he is still so little and young, the docs always want to be as cautious as possible. His sleep definitely regressed during this period and he was more lethargic than usual during the night. If he had been one week younger they would have automatically admitted him to the hospital for two nights. I'm glad we just made it out of that window. He seemed to rally through the illness with little issue and I suspect that he will end up having an even more rock solid immune system than his sister given that he is exposed to tons of germs (from his sister) every day.

Then Jo and Bob (Pop pop and Nana) came for a visit. They were both here for 4 days and then Jo stayed on for an additional 6 days. It was great to get some grandparental help around the house and I think they enjoyed getting to know their grandson.

Garrett is doing really well and seems to be getting more chill by the day. He has fussy moments, and usually it's at its worst during dinner, but he is SO so much easier than his big sister that it seems downright easy to take care of him. The days that it's just he and I are wonderful and I get to fully enjoy spending time with the little fella. I feel like I am finally getting the newborn/infant experience that I wanted. Yeah! He is still gassy and you can tell that it's gas that's bothering him a lot of the time. From what I hear this almost always resolves itself by 4 months, sometimes between 8 and 12 weeks. Hopefully for his sake it will resolve sooner than later.

Garrett spits up and pukes more than Delaney did, which leads me to believe he inherited more of his dad's stomach. Delaney almost never spit up or puked and has also avoided a lot of the stomach ailments that have plagued a lot of her classmates. This is similar to my typically rock solid gut. But Garrett... just last night I was feeding him and noticed he was having a particularly good feed. Well, just after having thought that I got a few cups of recently drank breastmilk regurgitated all over me, the boppy, him and the couch. Since Kevin generally has a more sensitive stomach I think maybe they are more similar.

Halloween was great. Delaney seemed to relish in trick or treating, and especially liked going down to Pearl Street where a lot of the storefronts open up to kid trick or treaters and the place is jam packed with kids in costume. She was Elmo this year and I hope to post some pics soon.

Delaney is still as feisty as ever and can be a handful when it's just the three of us. While Nana was here I got to get out with just her and enjoy a few mornings of girl bonding which was fun. She is still way more emotional than usual and we are getting a bit more tantrums and acting out than we used to, I sure hope that will start to settle down soon. I can tell she loves her little brother and is always trying to help me take care of him by bringing him pacifiers, blankets, spit up rags, her toys, etc. It's very sweet but I definitely have to keep an eye on her around him because sometimes she gets a bit overzealous in her affection and caretaking.

My parents are due here in Boulder tomorrow for a quick 3-day visit. I am thrilled to have my mom back and my dad gets to meet Garrett for the first time. I have a bunch of projects queued up for my dad and we are also planning on getting out for dinner and on a separate night, a movie. I definitely miss going to movies. I have also scheduled a massage, a nail appointment and a few trips to the gym. Woo-hoo, I will definitely get some great "me" time this week.

We still have yet to get our first snow in Boulder, although there have been a few days where it threatened. They said on the news the record latest day for snow here is November 15 and we are potentially poised to break it this year. I can't say I'm complaining.

Garrett's sleep has improved enormously since we put him in his own room. He took a step back when we had to put him back in our room because of our visitors, but I was relieved to see that as soon as he got his own room back he started to put in some good straight hours of sleep again. On Saturday night he slept for 6.5 straight hours. And then 3.5 hours after that stretch, which meant I was only up once with him in the middle of the night. I am hoping this means he will be as good of a nighttime sleeper as his sister. It does seem clear that him having his own quiet space makes a difference. With those kind of good sleep nights it feels like we are turning a bit of a corner on the newborn daze.

I think that's most of my update and hopefully now that out visitor schedule is settling down I'll be able to get back on here more and post some pics and updates. Today's project is finishing Garrett's birth announcement.