Baby H: Four Months of Patrick

He...

[+] 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

I...

[+] 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.

Baby H: Maternity Photos (times two)

I'm playing a bit of catch up when it comes to our professional photoshoots that have revolved around our little Patrick. Somehow he is already 3 months old and neither his maternity or newborn sessions have made an appearance on the blog!

Regardless, at 36 weeks we scheduled our maternity session just a mere 9 days before this little one decided to make his arrival! April can be such an odd month in Colorado weather wise as it can be as snowy as the winter or warm enough for shorts making planning an outdoor session kind of difficult. For us, the weather was perfectly warm but we were about a week too early for all the pretty spring blooms making location the tricky aspect. With a suggestion from our photog we headed to Downtown Littleton to wander around some empty buildings and up the streets of the cute little town. A more "urban" shoot was something we had never done with her and I'm so glad we did this time.

We brought along Patrick's quilt and wooden "P" just like we did with Mark because it's made for such a cool trend for us to look back on. Mark was such a stud and did so great through the whole session only needing a few M&M bribes. I was only mildly uncomfortable (which if you were around me those last few weeks you understand that was a huge deal) sitting and laying with my big Patrick belly. I truly couldn't love these photos more! They perfectly captured our last few days as a family of three before adding our missing puzzle piece to the family. Enjoy!

Baby H: Newborn Photos (times two)

Photos that capture perfect details, brand-new life, sweet moments in time and lots of love are basically my favorite thing ever. And we were blown away yet again by the images of our sweet Patrick and life as a family of four. 

It is so special to me to not only have these photos to look back on of a moment when our life changed forever but also to have them in the same room where big brother Mark's were taken. The nursery has changed a bit for our newest boy but there are just enough similarities for me to love. Not to mention all the extra moments of love between brothers that Amber so perfectly captured. 

Take a look and you'll understand why I'm so obsessed... 

Baby H: Three Months of Patrick

He...
[+] weighs 13#9oz according to our scale at home but we won't get a length or head measurement for another month. Mark didn't weigh 13# until he was 4 months old so all this chunk on Pat makes me so happy!

[+] is officially sleeping in his own room and completely in his crib. He's been napping in his room from the beginning and we wondered if it would make him sleep better at night if he was away from us. We used the same method as we did with Mark to help him transition to his crib and it didn't take him long to make the switch. He's still swaddled which will be another battle to deal with I'm sure but it's working for now.

[+] goes to bed around 8:30pm, gets a dream feed around 10:30pm when we go to bed and usually sleeps until 7am! It's been glorious (and yet we still find ourselves tired some days, ha!). Some mornings he'll fuss around anywhere from 5:30 on but if he does it usually just means we rock him a bit and he'll sleep till morning. He hasn't gotten fed in the middle of the night in forever minus the one night he broke free of his swaddle and I couldn't get him settled until I fed him.

[+] eats every 2.5hrs during the day still and while I'd love to start spacing out his feeds to 3hrs, we're keeping it the same for the sake of my milk production. I'm worried about how transitioning back to "work" is going to affect my milk supply (on top of not feeding him during the night anymore too) so dropping a feed isn't something I want to do just yet.

[+] went to his first weddings this month and was such a good little guest. His first included a Greek ceremony in the church and he didn't make a peep which I was thrilled about because of how much it would have echoed. The second included a trip to Seattle where we got to play tourists for a few days on our first "vacation" as a family of four.

[+] is still a great nurser (most of the time) which I think is huge for my milk supply and my relationship with him. He's also started getting bottles as I transition back to med school life. We offer him 3.5oz each time which I think is on average what he gets from me and while he sometimes has a hard time taking the bottle, overall it's been a fine switch for him. Obviously I want him to eat well when I'm gone but it is nice he doesn't LOVE the bottle because it means he'll nurse well from me when I'm home still.

[+] nicknames: Pat Pat, Fat Pat, chunky, baby brother, Sir

[+] likes: baby talk, watching big brother, Ollie, his swing and bears

[+] dislikes: getting dressed, picking at his dry skin/cradle cap, being hit by his brother

I...

[+] have started back on rotations for my 4th year this month and it's been an interesting transition for sure. I'm in a pediatric clinic which is both good and bad for this momma. Good because the doc I'm with only works 3 days a week leaving me plenty of days off to spend with my little family. And also because his offices are close to home making the commute easy. Bad because all the babies in the office make me miss both my boys so much. And also because I'm getting spoiled with this schedule knowing I have a "typical" Mon-Fri rotation coming up that also happens to be an hour (or more!) away from home.

[+] am so glad I get to be a boy mom. There is not a single fiber in me that wishes I had a girl. These boys are so fun and so sweet and I know I'm going to learn so much being their momma. There will be lots of messes, plenty of fights and bumps & bruises, many adventures and I am so looking forward to all if it with these two. Not to mention I get tears in my eyes imagining dancing with each of them on their wedding days someday in the future!

[+] forgot what a pain in the rear postpartum hair loss is. The last week or so it seems to have ramped up and it's horrible. There are some times where my hairs been in a bun/braid for a few days and I shower and literally feel like I'm going bald it's falling out so much. I'm horrible at taking my prenatal vitamins which I'm sure would help but goodness gracious. Maybe I need a mom-chop?

Baby H: Two Months of Patrick

He...

[+] weighs 11#15.5oz (41%) and is 22 in (10%) long with a head of 39cm (45%). It's very baffling to J and I why both our boys are shorties since neither of us are "short" (I'm 5'4") or come from short families.

[+] has a little bit of a flat spot on one side of his head we need to keep an eye on. He prefers to lay looking right and the way J and I both holds him promotes him laying on that same spot too but luckily it's nothing too bad. He also has a bit of an umbilical hernia which I noticed even before our doctor confirmed it (and you can see it in the above picture). Again, thankfully, it's nothing to be concerned about now and we'll discuss it if it doesn't close by the time he's 4 years old.

[+] switched to size 1 diapers around 6 weeks because he was consistently blowing them up and it seemed like they were getting too tight around his belly. We're definitely a Huggies family around here. He also moved into 0-3 month clothing right around the same time and it seemed like both transitions literally happened overnight. This boy is definitely getting big fast it seems!

[+] has started social smiling and it's the best thing ever! And he's not stingy with those gummy grins either. Momma, Daddy, Mark, both grandmas.... it doesn't take much to get some good ones from this happy boy. He's also started to find his voice and Grammy said she heard him giggle in his sleep once!

[+] had a bout of what I think was foremilk-hindmilk imbalance for a few days. He was seeming extra fussy and extra gassy for a few days and hadn't had a good dirty diaper. Then when he finally did it was way more green than it had ever been and seemed almost watery. A quick google search lead me to believe that's what we were dealing with and it made sense after looking back at our feeding logs. I made a conscious effort to change our feedings slightly and within two days he was back to normal!

[+] went on his first plane rides this month to celebrate Auntie's graduation in California and was a great traveler. I wore him in the ring sling through the airport, nursed him when and where I needed to, he took naps on the plane and didn't make much of a peep the whole time. The place we stayed had pack-n-plays for both boys to sleep in and he did surprisingly well in it. He went to the beach, toured the college campus, sat in many restaurants and was such a perfect boy.

[+] got his first sunburn on our trip to CA and I felt horrible about it. Graduation was outside and it was a cloudy, perfectly warm day and he napped soundly in my arms through a big portion of it without trouble. Until we woke up the next morning and realized one half of his face was red. #momfail

[+] still sleeps in our room at night and I'm honestly not sure when we'll move him which is so much different than with big brother Mark. After our vacation and him doing so well in the pack-n-play I decided to get ours out and give it a try instead of the rock-n-play. So far he isn't sleeping any worse (or better) in it so we'll stick to it for now. He still naps in the rock-n-play in his room and is still swaddled anytime he sleeps (except in the carseat/wrap/etc obviously).

[+] he goes to bed around 9pm, wakes twice in the night to eat, usually around 2am and 5am, and we start our day somewhere between 7 & 7:30am. We stopped doing the 10/10:30pm feed before we went to bed because it wasn't making a difference with how long he'd sleep but I'm wondering if we should start doing it again. He still eats every 2.5hrs during the day and is such a good nurser which I am loving. Occasionally I'll do weighted-feeds with him just to see how much volume he's taking and it varies between 2.5 and 4.5oz depending on the feed.

[+] officially has blue eyes for now and they are both gorgeous and shocking. Never in my life would I have imagined I'd have a blue eyed baby boy! The pedi told us that most of the time, eyes his color blue stay that color so we shall see.

[+] nicknames: Pat Pat, baby brother, buddy, little love

[+] likes: baths, nursing, his swing, big brother, being held upright

[+] dislikes: when we make him stay awake, initially being swaddled, getting dressed

I...

[+] am still loving nursing my little boy which brings me so much joy especially how things ended up with Mark. Patrick is a great nurser and I'm definitely experiencing "the bond" I desperately longed for the first time around. And in even better news, we've officially been shield free the last month (except for a rare few feedings where I used it to help slow my milk down). The only trouble we've dealt with in the last month has been managing my fast let-downs causing him lots of gas issues but with some different positioning and him getting bigger and stronger every day I think the issue is behind us now.

[+] unfortunately ended up with a whole slew of new stretch marks from this baby boy that I'm really not happy about. I knew a few of them where there while I was pregnant but they have definitely made their (dark, purple, wiggly) appearance since he's been here. They're all below my belly button which makes sense since he was so stinking low for so long and means I'm the proud new owner of a one piece swim suit for the summer. Thankfully my girlfriends all told me I was like a pin-up girl in it because it definitely makes me feel like I have a total mom-bod! Here's hoping I'll someday get back in better shape and the marks fade with time.

[+] went out of town to Philadelphia for an exam for school and was away from my baby (and my big boy and husband) for two nights and it was so much harder than I anticipated it being. One reason being I don't even remember the last time I was alone for as long of a stretch as that. Maybe before Mark was born? And the second reason being that leaving my baby was so, so tough. Sure I missed J and Mark but I literally cried in my hotel room looking at pictures of Patrick because I missed him so much. I said it in his last update but I feel so much more connected to this boy, he's definitely turning into a mommas boy, and leaving him was such a struggle.

[+] have TONS of milk in the freezer and it's such an awesome feeling seeing it all in there. In relation to my trip out of town I knew I needed to have a ton of milk stored for when I was gone with the assumption that I'd be replacing what he ate with what I pumped. Well, not only did I exceed my goal for what I "needed" for the time I'd be away but I also pumped more than he ate leaving us with a surplus. Having the extra in the freezer eases so much stress about my upcoming return to med school & pumping life.

[+] have been at home on board study month the last few weeks and while it's been so nice not having to actually GO anywhere, it's also been hard too. It's hard to make myself sit at the table and study. It's hard to be motivated to get work done when Patrick has a particularly tough night. It's hard to not want to snuggle him when he wakes early from his nap. It's hard not getting to play and go on adventures with my big boy. But I guess I should have known having two babies in med school was going to be hard, right?

Baby Pat-Pat, you are such a dream baby and I couldn't imagine loving you more. You are the perfect missing piece to our family puzzle and I can't imagine our life without you in it. Thank you for making me a momma for the second time, thank you for flashing me gummy grins on my worst days and thank you in advance for putting up with all your big brother's shenanigans. Life with you, sweet boy, has already been so grand, I can't wait to see what's in store in your life. xoxo, Momma