Nolan: Ten Weeks

Nolan is now ten weeks old!  Time sure is flying.  In 2 weeks, I'll have a 12 week old!?  Insane.  As you can see, Nolan continues to chunk up in his weight.  We won't have an official weigh-in again until his 4 month well check, so based on our scale at home, Nolan is clocking in around 12-12.5 lbs.  I love kissing his chubby cheeks and his rolly thighs and belly!  This chunky monkey loves to smile and has starting laughing a whole lot more!  He is a fan of the camera, and responds with smirks, big eyes, and coos when the clicking of the flash goes off!  He's already becoming a little ham.

His napping and eating schedule has changed a bit, and although we tried to switch him to a 4-hour schedule, it was a total fail.  We only tried one day, but it was a mess and I hated seeing him so upset and thrown off.  We'll give it another week or so before trying a different schedule (maybe 3.5 hours between feedings, instead).  We've been letting him nap when he wants, which is very random, and can last anywhere from 30 minutes to 2.5 hours.  As long as he continues to eat at his designated times, I tend to let him go with the flow for the rest of the day!  He continues to nap in his crib during the day, and now sleeps completely flat in his Pack N' Play at night with no problems transitioning!  

We try to mix it up with entertaining this munchkin by having lots of convos of babbling, talking to the fan, his bear Rookie, playing on his playmat, sitting in his bumbo chair, practicing tummy time, and letting him watch T.V. when we need to do the dishes or eat dinner and many other crazy antics to get him to laugh and smile!  He has discovered his feet but hasn't been able to grab them yet, he tends to stare at them while throwing his legs in the air.  He has also learned how to happily yell... another way of hearing his own voice and loving every second of it!

Can't wait for this little guy to learn more and more every day!  We love sharing everything about him!

Nolan's Two Month Update

Two months!?  Seriously!?  How is time going by so quickly?  It seems like just yesterday this little man was put into my arms.  Now he is a completely different baby... no longer my newborn but an infant, an actual baby who smiles, laughs, has reactions and crazy emotions.... he knows what he wants and when he wants it!  I love seeing his personality emerge and I know this boy is going to grow up to be a sweet, gentle, funny, amazing little guy.  I love getting up everyday and looking forward to the next new thing he is going to do, and I know each month is just going to get better and better!  We can't even imagine our life without him.  Here's what Nolan has been up to the past month:

Height, Weight, and Sizes: 
Our struggle with weight gain is long behind us!  Nolan has gained great weight since his one month appointment, and at our two month well check (March 17th), he weighed 11 lbs. 12 oz (35th percentile).  He was 22 1/2 inches long (25th percentile), and his head is still huge, measuring in at 16 inches in circumference (89th percentile)!  His diapers are Size 1's, which are a little tight around his chubby belly, but we will probably stay in them for a while.  As for his clothing, he's graduated into 0-3 months.  Most of his onesies and pajamas are strictly 3 months, and cuter, dress up clothes and pants are 0-3 months.  We still need to pack away all of our tiny newborn things... I just haven't had the heart to part with them yet!

Feeding:
For most of the month, Nolan put himself on a pretty regular, awesome schedule of eating 3 hours during the day and 4 hours at night, taking in about 4-5 ounces each feeding.  Although, within the last two weeks, he has decided at some feedings he will take his normal 4-5 ounces, while other feedings he will only take 2-3 ounces.  I can't help but feel this is his way of growing as well as trying to get himself on a new schedule.  At 10 weeks (if not sooner), I plan on switching him to a 4-hour schedule instead of 3, so we will see how that goes and if that helps!  I'm still pumping as much as before, and am getting so much extra saved, we purchased a freezer chest for only breastmilk!  I'm hoping to keep up the pumping and storing so I'll have it for when I decide to stop pumping, that way, I can still give Nolan breastmilk without switching over to formula.  

Sleeping:
Nolan still enjoys his sleep for the most part, and up until a couple weeks ago, continued to follow a great schedule.  He consistently followed the EASY schedule, which is what I ultimately wanted to implement: Eat, Activity, Sleep, Your Time (Mommy time).  He would eat, be awake for an hour and half, nap for an hour and a half, and so on.  Recently though, his naps can vary from his normal time, or can be as short as 30 minutes!  Again, along with his weird feeding habits we've gone through, I feel as though this is a schedule change that he may be ready for.  I'm hoping the 4-hour schedule switch will also help with his inconsistent napping.  He is still sleeping solid at night, and I am still waking him at his 2:30AM feeding.  I could probably get away with him sleeping through the night, but we're going to work on the 4-hour schedule first, and then take away the night feeding when that is successful.  One night this month, my alarm didn't go off for his 2:30AM feeding... so little man slept from 11:00PM - 5:30AM!  His first time sleeping through the night.. I panicked!  Of course he was completely fine, and I know he can manage to sleep longer, so the switch of taking that feeding away will hopefully be smooth.  Hopefully by our 3 Month update, the new schedule will be in place!  

He continues to nap during the day all around the house, in his boppy, his swing, and most recently, his crib!  He takes at least one nap a day in his crib, which I wanted to implement early so he gets used to being completely flat and in a large open area before we make the complete switch to the crib.  We still aren't making that transition yet- maybe another month or so!  

Firsts & Milestones:
-Laughing!  Cutest thing ever.

-Talking to himself in the mirror, cooing and babbling much more 

-Sleeping through the night

-Sleeping (napping) in his crib

-First time away from Mom & Dad (spent an afternoon with Grandma while we got out and had fun at the Brew's Best Beer Festival)

-Time at the park

-Finding his hands

-Holding a conversation (babbling back and forth on cue with Mom & Dad)

-Dinner out at a restaurant (Lucille's BBQ)

-Starting to roll over (hasn't made it completely, yet... we're working on it!)

-Shots / Vaccinations (saddest cry, ever).  (3 days past 2 months)

-First St. Patrick's Day (3 days past 2 months)

Likes:
-Mirrors (talking to himself, laughing, smiling, cooing)

-Fans (in any room, he will laugh and smile at them)

-Rookie the Bear (favorite toy, thus far)

-Still quite a fan of his bottle and eating

-Sucking/chewing on his hands

-Snuggling/being held

-Still obsessed with watching T.V.

-Changing table (kicks and smiles every time we change him on it)

Dislikes:
-Burping is still his enemy

-Being outside (sun or wind, he doesn't like either)

-Diaper changes

-Being tickled (under his armpits, everything else is fair game)

-Having a dirty diaper

Nolan is becoming more and more interesting and fun to watch.  We can't wait to see him grow in the next month.  It really is the best feeling to watch him learn new things, and it's so exciting to see what the next thing will be!  With that... I leave you with some chunky legs and the cutest smile!  Happy Two Months, Nolan!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today we're celebrating Nolan's first St. Patrick's Day!  Unfortunately, he had a little too much green milk.... He gave me one good picture, and then this little leprechaun was out for the count (photoshoots sure are exhausting)! 

We'll be celebrating by pinching lots of baby cheeks!  Hope your St. Patty's Day is just as cute!

Nolan: Eight Weeks

Eight weeks already!  Mr. man is filling out and continuing to pack on the pounds.  We don't have an "official" weigh-in yet, but I'm guessing he's close to 11 pounds!  We will find out on Monday for his 2 month well check (not looking forward to all of those shots)!  Nolan has learned to socially smile and does it very frequently!  He is quite the happy baby.  He has also learned to let out a few giggles, yet doesn't do that as frequently.  We're learning different things that make him smile and try to get him to crack up... sometimes it works and sometimes he just likes to continually grin!  Either way, it is the best feeling to get a smile or giggle as a reaction!  We'll work on getting a video of those laughs, soon!

He continues to love playtime on his play mat and absolutely loves watching himself in the mirror, and has become quite the social talker, cooing and jabbing away.  He has also discovered the fan in whatever room we may be in, and loves to talk and laugh at that, also.  Another discovery Nolan has made are his hands!  He loves to suck on them and likes to spit his pacifier out and replace it with his fists.  I'm hoping he doesn't find his thumb and take a liking to it... A pacifier is much easier to wean off of than some fingers!  

He's looking more like his Daddy in pictures, but in person this little guy is still 50/50 on who he looks like!  He has Mommy's hair, lips, and chin, and Daddy's ears and nose.  As for his eyes, we've decided, at this point, that he has Jason's eye shape and my eye color.  We'll see if they change color over the course of his first year!  We love that he has a great mixture of both of us that he can express in different faces and emotions.

He has become great at expressing what he likes and dislikes through his smiles and through voicing his cries nice and loud!  The times he cries the most (and usually only times) are when he needs to burp during a feeding, or if he's thrown off with sleep and is tired, starting to get tired, or overtired.  Overall, he's an extremely content and easy baby still, and that's all we can ask for!  

In a few days, this chunk will be 2 months old, and we'll give the complete update (changes since one month old) on that blog post!  Stay tuned!

February Happenings

February was another month filled with Nolan love and activities!  It's safe to say our world revolves around this little guy, so most of these monthly happening updates are going to be focused on him rather than where we go or what we do... since we don't do much anymore (and we're totally okay with that)!

Harley snuggled a lot with Nolan and I captured two adorable pictures this month of these two:

Nolan turned three weeks old!

Towards the end of his third week of life, Nolan lost his umbilical cord!  Finally!  I was starting to think he would go to preschool with that thing on.  

We celebrated our first Valentine's Day with Nolan and took extremely cute pictures to send to our friends. 

Nolan celebrated his four week and one month birthday!

I bought the cutest pillow from Etsy to put in Nolan's nursery.  I plan on taking his monthly photos with him next to it to track his growth over the first year.  It's a special part of his nursery that I plan to keep with him until he goes off to college, or until he's too cool for it. :)  Check out the Etsy shop here.

We hung out with our friends from work, Denise, and her baby who is 2 1/2 months older than Nolan. They came over for lunch and later in the week, we returned the favor and went on a walk with them in their neighborhood!  These two will be good friends growing up!

We went to Bouchon at the Venetian to celebrate Valentine's Day brunch, just a day after Valentine's Day since Jason had to work.  The food was amazing and it was so nice to get out of the house and enjoy a nice meal somewhere!  It was Nolan's first restaurant experience and he did great!  He slept the entire time in his stroller, and the weather was so nice, we got to sit outside next to the cute fountain.  I think the sound of the water helped him zonk out with all of the noise!  

Nolan snuggled his sock monkey from his Auntie Desa and Uncle Dustin and looked extra adorable in his raccoon PJs. 

He enjoyed bath time and showed off his recent weight gain with lots of leg rolls (my favorite)!

I ordered some personalized mommy necklaces from Etsy and loooooove the way they both came out.  I knew I wanted one of these necklaces before Nolan even arrived.  I couldn't decide between silver or gold since I wear both types of jewelry often... so I splurged and got both!  I love them a ton and plan on wearing one every single day.  It's safe to say I'm obsessed with personalization of anything Nolan!  (see the Etsy shops here and here).

We've started a decent amount of playtime on the playmat, where Nolan likes to look at the lights and music, and has become slightly obsessed with checking himself out in the mirror.  He will smile, squeal and have conversations with the adorable baby in the mirror... He must know that he's just too cute!  One afternoon, he talked up a storm so much, that he tired himself out and passed out on the mat.

We snuggled on the couch as a family of three while Jason was at work.

We hung out with the Luks' family, and Scarlett was SO happy to hang out with Nolan and wanted to do everything with him!  She asked to show him her toys, to sit next to him, to watch movies with him, and if he could watch her do a front roll, haha!  We snapped some adorable pictures of the kiddos and she felt so proud holding him!

We transitioned Nolan into his Pack N' Play to sleep at night.  He had been sleeping in the Rock N' Play, but we wanted him to get used to a flat surface before transitioning him into his crib.  He did great, and after a few tosses and turns, he slept the same as he has been sleeping since we brought him home.  It was much harder for me to transition than for him!  Soon we will remove the napper (not being used properly, yes, I know) so he is completely flat, then we will make the final transition to the crib (mommy separation anxiety).  Not looking forward to that, but I know it's best soon enough!

Nolan turned six weeks old!

We did some more snuggling when the weather turned rainy, and baby boy made me melt with his hand on my heart.

We did some more playtime on his playmat which he loves!  He had a lot to say to that baby in the mirror!

For all the time we spend on our playmat, he really hates tummy time and exercising his muscles.  We try to get a few minutes in each day, but he usually screams after a minute or so.  We need lots of practice... any tips on how to do tummy time with a baby who hates it would be greatly appreciated!  I did manage to get five minutes of time on his Boppy, and took a few pictures for proof!

I snapped more pictures of Sir Chubs a Lot.  I love a chunky baby and love that mine is turning into one!

That was all of February for us!  Stay tuned for March!