Carter: 3 months old!

I woke up today and all of a sudden, he was 3 months old!

[and because I missed the 1 month and 2 month updates, this post is quite long and full of photos!]

A few days old.

He napped in our bed a lot during the first month.

This was one of Madison's favorite toys when she was little.

1 month old here

Eating

The first 4 weeks were quite a blur, which seems to be the norm.  The first 6 weeks went by quite fast while Madison's felt slower.  I think the first 6 weeks with a new baby are probably the hardest.  Carter was eating every 1.5-3 hours.  Usually it was every 2 hours, 24 hours a day.  He has been a great eater from the start.  Breastfeeding has been great for both of us.  He had a great latch from day 1 in the hospital.  His feedings now take 10 minutes or less.  In the beginning, it would take around 25 minutes to feed and burp.

He has had horrible acid reflux.  Really bad.  For weeks, it was so bad that he was wheezing and coughing like it was stuck in his throat.  He would spit up even 2 hours after feeding.  But he was never super fussy.  After researching, all the symptoms lined up and around 7 weeks, I called the doctor in Oregon from the beach in North Carolina and had her call in a prescription for ranitidine.  It's been helping especially at night.  He still spits up a lot, but not nearly as bad as it was.  We are almost out of it so Im wondering if we should get more or see how it goes.

This little cutie is definitely putting on the pounds.  We haven't had an appointment since 6 weeks old, but he has some cute rolls on those chunky legs!

Sleeping

With all of our craziness moving, going to 2 different beaches for a week each with both families, then moving into temporary housing and soon into our permanent apartment, we haven't had him on any kind of schedule.  In fact, I barely even watch the clock anymore to see how long and when he is napping.  It's been more of a "motherly instinct" where I think, is he hungry, is his diaper clean, when did he last sleep?  I've been so much more laid back with him and it's been great for both of us.  Just the past couple weeks, I've noticed patterns.

Around 6 weeks, he started going for one longer first stretch at night.  It was 3 or 4 hours, then because 5, 6, now almost 7 hour stretches.   For a long time, we thought he didn't prefer to be swaddled.  he would sleep all stretched out.  Around 7 weeks, when we were at the beach with the Whiteds, he wasn't falling asleep as easily as usual.  Genius Uncle Brett swaddled him tight and made him sleep for a 6 hour stretch!!  From that day forward, we have swaddled him for naps and bedtime.

Now I put him down around 7:30pm when Madison goes down, then I wake him up to feed right before we go to bed around 9:30 or 10pm.  He wakes up around 2:30-3:30am to eat, then wakes up again at 6:30/7am.

He's been sleeping in the rock n play at night and for most naps either in our room or in the bathroom.  It's at a good angle so he's not flat on his back with bad reflux.

He usually takes 3 naps a day, morning, around noon, and late afternoon/evening.  The naps are anywhere from 20 minutes to 1.5 hours.  not usually longer than that.  I have somehow miraculously been able to get both him and Madison taking the noon nap at the same time which has given me a decent amount of sanity and free time to blog, wash dishes, or research things like how to say "baking soda" in German for my next grocery shopping expedition.

She likes to make sure he has enough blankies. 

The usual.

She is more excited than anyone for him to grow up so that he can be her playmate.

What's new

He is smiling and giggling all the time.  It is so easy to make him smile.  He is easily ticklish, on his neck especially, so we enjoy hearing that sweet giggle.  He is grasping toys and kicking a lot.  He really likes to be held up and use his leg muscles to (sort of) stand up on our laps.  His legs seem pretty strong.  I remember Maddie also enjoying that around 3-4 months old.

Even though he is 3 months old, he still seems so little.  However, he is definitely out of the newborn phase (which I am okay with).  He is the sweetest little guy.  Every day, we are saying "He is so sweet!" or "Aww look at that smile!" or "So cute!!"

He is FULL of smiles.  I mean, all we have to do is look at him, smile, and say "Hi Carter!" and he is beaming.

 Phone pictures!

It's fun to see the differences between the two little ones.  A look at Maddie at 3 months old, if you'd like to see.