Love: 3 Months

Age: 3 months

Weight: 12 pounds 4 ounces

Length: 23 ½ inches

Clothing Size: 0-3 months, although Daddy has decided the other day he was tired of his 0-3 month clothes, so we moved him to 3-6 months just because.

Likes: Connor enjoys sitting in his bouncer and can now bounce himself. He also enjoys watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. There are many mornings that I leave him strapped into his swing watching Mickey Mouse so Daddy can get some more sleep. He also loves bath time. There have been nights that he is not happy and even just getting him ready for his bath calms him down.

 

Dislikes: He does not like being left in the room alone. We don’t have to be holding him, just don’t leave the room without him.

Sleeping: After his 8 or 8:30 feeding and a book, he goes to sleep. He generally sleeps until about 3 a.m., eats and goes back to sleep until 6:30 or so. He naps sometime after every feeding during the day, but Daddy is having a hard time getting a good long nap in the afternoon. I plan to work on that when I get out of school. Although he would love to be sleeping in our bed, he does spend most every night in his own bed. Even though he is not rolling over, he does spin in circles in his bed.

Eating: He normally eats 7 times a day and is transitioning between breastfeeding and bottle feeding very good. Although, JD says sometimes he looks at the bottle like “Are you really giving that thing?!”

Playing: Bouncing in his bouncy seat, and playing on his play mat, but JD says he can’t get him to do a lot of tummy time any more.

What we did this Month: The biggest change was that I went back to work this month. Thankfully he is staying home with Daddy during the day. It works out pretty good, there have been a few days that he has had to bring Connor to me at school, or he has had to go to a sitter.

 Helping Daddy shine his brass.

 Sydney loves Connor.

I never want to forget this face.

Love: Two Months

Age: 2 months

Weight:  11 pounds 4 ounces (25-50% percentile)

Length: 22 ¾ inches (25-50% percentile)

Clothing Size: 0-3 months

Likes: Connor loves to be able to look around. He gets frustrated after much time on his belly because he can’t see, when you flip him over he is content as can be. He still loves to be on daddy’s chest. He is also becoming very fond of baths.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dislikes: Can’t  really think of anything he doesn’t really like.

Sleeping: For the most part Connor is successfully sleeping in his own bed. He goes down for the night after his 8:30 feeding. We are getting into a great bedtime routine, with a bath, feeding, reading a book, and rocking for a little while. I do not have to rock him all the way to sleep, he is beginning to be able to lay him down and just fall asleep. This does not mean he can be awake and lay in his crib, he has to be sleepy. Then he will sleep until sometime between 2 and 3, to eat, then again between 6 and 6:30. During the day he will stay awake for about 2 hours from the time he starts feeding, then nap for an hour, and most days he will take a long nap in the afternoon.

Eating: We started parent directed feedings (Baby Wise) to help get us on a schedule and be able to allow him to just sleep at night. I wake him up every 3 hours starting at 8:30 am (5:30 am when I go back to work, which is just about an hour earlier than he wakes up to eat). I consider myself blessed with the breastfeeding, it has been going well, but he also takes a bottle well. It gives me a break, allows daddy to feed him some, and allows us to go out and do things without worrying about breastfeeding. I also want to continue breast feeding so we have been training him to take the bottle for when I go back to work. When he started taking the bottle it took him about 45 minutes to drink 4 ounces, now he’s down to about 30 minutes. He is still a little messy with a bottle, so a bib is a must.

Playing: He is spending more and more time on his play mat, although he doesn’t care much for being on his stomach. I think he prefers to be able to look around. He has become fascinated with a moving ceiling fan and lights. He is holding his head up very good, and I don’t think it will be long before we get out his jumper, which I think he will really enjoy. He loves to be where he can see things.

 

 

 

What we did this Month: Connor took his first trip to the mall to go shopping. He was great, very alert and looking around. We also went to church for the first time, and several more after that. We started with a Wednesday night, then our first Sunday as a family of 3. Over all he was good, a little fussy with his belly. We also made the trip home again for Easter. Thankfully daddy got off for the whole weekend and got to enjoy it with us. He also had more family in to meet him. So far he has been great in the car while we make the 3 hour drive.

Live: Frozen Lemonade Pie

A Summertime Favorite

 

We finally had some sunshine and warm weather this weekend, hopefully it is the break through to spring. With the good weather I thought it was time for one of our favorite warm weather desserts.

 

Frozen Lemonade Pie

It is delicious!

 

 

*Warning* There is no meringue in this pie.*

Ingredients:

graham cracker crust (of course you could make your own, but I just buy the pre-made one)

2 cups heavy whipping cream

8 oz sweetened condensed milk

6 oz frozen lemonade concentrate

 

Directions:

1. Whip heavy whipping cream until it forms stiff peaks.

2 . In a separate bowl mix sweetened condensed milk and frozen lemonade concentrate.

3. Fold in milk and lemonade mixture into the cream.

4. "Pour" into pie shell and freeze for at least 2 hours.

 

Variations:

Of course you could use a variety of frozen drinks such as pink lemonade, or strawberry lemonade. (I'm not sure how juices would taste.)

 

It is also wonderful topped with fresh berries. 



Live: Strawberry Fruit Pizzas

Ingredients:

Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough (I like the roll instead of the break apart because they turn out round)

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

8 oz. cream cheese (softened)

strawberry glaze

strawberry slices

 

Directions:

1. Bake sugar cookies as directed on package. Allow time to cool.

2. Mix together cream cheese and powdered sugar (should be like an icing).

3. Spread icing onto sugar cookies. 

4. Spread strawberry glaze on top of icing (I found it works best with a heaping tablespoon of the glaze).

 



5. Top with strawberry slices.

 

*I found that these really need to be eaten the day you make them, otherwise the cookie softens so much you can hardly pick it up.*

Love: Maternity Pictures

Better late than never...

Love: Newborn Pictures

Love: 1 Month

Age: 1 Month

Weight:  8 pounds 6 ounces (at his 2 weeks check-up, I think 9 pounds now)

Length:  21 inches (at his 2 week check-up)

Clothing Size: 0-3 months. I decided before he was born that I was not going to buy a lot of newborn sized clothes because I didn’t know how big he was going to be. I originally had 2 outfits and 3 sleepers. I took back one of the outfits right away because he was 8 pounds when he was born. Good thing I didn’t buy much (2 of the sleepers were gifts) because he wore them for less than 2 weeks.

Favorites: His absolute favorite place to be is on Daddy’s chest. I really feel like he could lie there all day long. He also loves his swing.

 

Sleeping: There are many nights that he will sleep for 4 to 6 hours straight, although that may come after being wide awake for 2 hours. He goes back and forth about where he will sleep. There are times that he will sleep in his bed for the first block of time at night, and then he may or may not go back into his bed. There have been many nights that he has spelt on one of our chests, or in the bed beside us (trust me I know this is bad, but when you need sleep you do what you have to). He has had two full nights of sleeping in his own bed.

 

Eating: It took us about 2 weeks to figure out the whole breastfeeding thing, but we finally have it down pat. The key for us was to not try to wake him up to eat, but rather wait for him to want to eat. If I tried to wake him up it was a fight to get him to latch on, sometimes 30 or 45 minutes. Now that he is waking up to eat he latches right on. There is no consistent schedule for eating yet, he eats about every 3 hours (end to start). He has had some bottles, especially in the morning after I have gone 6 hours, I just want to pump. Although he is slow when eating from a bottle, I consider it a blessing, because it doesn’t seem easy to him, which I think makes it better going between breast and bottle.

 

Breast Feeding Must Haves:

1. Medela Pump in Style Advanced Breast Pump: I didn't think I would need a pump this early on, but it has been great. When he sleeps for 4-6 hours I wake up and have to pump. It was also helpful during our trip home when there were people over I could pump so everyone could still visit with Connor instead of me taking him away.

2. Boppy: Or any breast feeding pillow to help support baby.

3. Lansinoh Breast Therapy: Relief is only 15 seconds away, just stick them in the microwave.

4. Nursing Tanks: I have preferred tank tops over the bras just because I am cold natured so I like for my stomach to covered while nursing.

 

Playing: After 2 and ½ weeks we were finally able to start tummy time. We lay on the floor several times a day for as long as he will lay there. When he is in his bouncy seat does watch the waterfall feature on it, and sometimes I think he does hit the animals to make it come back on when it goes off.

 

What we did this Month: Connor has hardly been out of the house. We did make the trip to my parent’s house. He was great for the 3 hour car ride, slept there and back. He had many visitors while there, and we were exhausted when we got home. At 2 ½ weeks old we did venture out of the house, Cracker Barrel for lunch then Kroger to go grocery shopping. The great thing was just like the ride home he got in the car seat and fell asleep. He slept the whole time we were out, so we kept the car seat covered. He hasn’t been anywhere where people will want to see him or hold him or anything.

 My Must Haves:

1. Fisher Price Zen Collection Swing: He loves to swing, and what I love about this swing is that it has a built in blanket and the seat comes off, which he has slept in many nights in our bedroom.
2. Bloomin' Bath: I really like that this tub will be good as he grows, it also dries quickly, travels easily, and fits in any sink (I am not looking forward to leaning over the bath tub).
3. Car Seat Canopy: You can just about always find a promo code to get one for free, just pay the $12 for shipping, and it's worth it. Being a winter baby anytime we go out I want him covered. Also it has allowed us to keep him covered while grocery shopping.