[+] I'll update his measurements after his doctors appointment this Friday
[+] is wearing 3-6/6month clothes and size 2 diapers already. He is so much bigger than Mark was at this age it's insane! He's growing like a weed and I'm loving the baby chub.
[+] is seriously the happiest baby there ever was! He smiles at just about everything and everyone. He only ever fusses when he has to burp right after he eats and for the 2 minutes before his nap when the tiredness sets in. He laughs at the silliest things, lights up when he sees his big brother and is just a joy to be around.
[+] could care less about tummy time and he'll just lay there looking around when we put him like that. It's such a difference between Mark who would scream his head off. But it also means that he's far from being motivated to roll yet. A few times he's gotten himself from his back onto his side but that's all so far. He kicks his feet like a wild man sometimes and hasn't found his feet just yet.
[+] eats every three hours starting at 7am which means 7/10/1/4/7. I nurse him when I'm home and otherwise he gets around 4oz of breastmilk in a bottle when I'm not. He typically goes to bed for the night between 8:30/9pm and then gets one last feed between 10/10:30pm when J and I go to bed. Every once in a while he wake up somewhere between 6/7am but more often than not he goes all the way through.
[+] should be going to bed in his crib but this momma just can't put him down at the end of the day. He is 100% napping in his crib and does great in there through the night but that 8:30pm "bedtime" is more likely than not snuggled with me on the couch. And I have to say it's my absolute favorite time of the day!
[+] is starting to transition out of the swaddle and we haven't quite gotten the hang of it yet. We tried a week in a "modified" set of long-sleeve pajamas to help settle is wild arms but we weren't noticing any progress so we decided to just go cold turkey with it. Right now he's sleeping in a pair of pajamas and a sleep sac for naps working on putting himself to sleep. We haven't stopped swaddling him at night yet and won't until his naps are better but hey, it's progress.
[+] is in the "everything in your mouth" stage which isn't a surprise. Most common items include his fingers/fists, a few random toys and our fingers when he gets ahold of one. He's a slobbery mess from it so I'll be sure to get some more bandana bibs for him soon.
[+] nicknames: Pat Pat, Fat Pat and baby brother (I think we've found his names and they've stuck!)
[+] likes: the bath, his big brother, kaboom on his butt, the frog chair
[+] dislikes: having gas
[+] am thrilled to say that as of right now I have kept up with pumping what he's been taking from a bottle milk-wise. It's awesome. Granted sometimes that means pumping more often than he's actually eating when I'm away and also throwing in a few sessions over the weekends but I'll take it because it really hasn't been that bad. I counted the other day and have about 40 5oz bags in the freezer and so far haven't had to "dip" into the stash.
[+] find myself purposefully having to put the idea that I'll never be pregnant/have a newborn/experience another baby out of my mind because I have a tendency to get sad when I think about it. These boys are absolutely perfect and our family is perfect with them in it but it's such a strange feeling being done with this "stage" of life. (I know, I'm so so dramatic. Thinking done when I only have a 4mo old!) I think some of it has to do with Pat coming as early as he did so I didn't get to cherish those last few weeks being pregnant but it's still just an odd feeling.
[+] am thankfully doing okay being gone more often this month on my current rotation. Technically it's Mon-Fri typical hours but most days were done in the early afternoon and the schedule changes quite often making the weeks fly by. I hated the 45min-1hr drive that first week but I've gotten more used to it as the days go by. Plus I checked out an audio book, The Girl on the Train, and it's actually been refreshing "reading" something for fun.
