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!

Nolan: Six Weeks

This little booger is 6 weeks old today!  He continues to grow chunkier and become more aware of his surroundings day by day.  At our last appointment (about 8 days ago), he weighed in at 9 lbs. 10 oz., so I am assuming by now he's hit the 10 pound mark!  He certainly feels heavier, anyway!  He continues to eat 4 oz. every 3-4 hours, and we've recently started to give him 5 oz. when he seems like he may want a bit more (not often, but sometimes he will take it all like a champ!).  He has switched to size 1 diapers, even though they are a tiny bit big, but newborns are definitely too small.  

He makes lots of noise while he sleeps now, which he still does a lot of.  He grunts, snores, squeaks, and often keeps me up at night worried with all of his sounds... but he always ends up being just fine. We switched him from his rock and play sleeper to the pack and play yesterday, and he's adjusted well to the different environment.  I had a harder time adjusting that he wasn't directly next to me, instead, he's a hand-reach away now, and the pack and play is as close to the bed as it can get (separation anxiety, much!?)

His smiles are becoming bigger, better and more often!  He's learning to make use of his voice and lungs, and realizing that if he cries hard enough, mommy will pick him up quickly!  He has found his hands and waves his arms and kicks his legs a ton when he's playing in his playmat, and has discovered that he can grab things; his favorites are mommy's hair and necklaces.  He really enjoys laying on his playmate and watching the light show or himself in the mirror, and also is obsessed with watching T.V.  Soon enough, he will be awake a little more during the day, and we'll find new activities to entertain ourselves with!  

He's growing up so fast!  It's amazing that he doesn't even look or feel like a newborn anymore.  I think I will always view him as a one-week old Nolan... my tiny baby!  Here's to another week of growing and learning!

Nolan's One Month Update

It's been one whole month since this little guy entered our world, and I can't believe how fast that time has gone by!  I can't even imagine how quickly this first year will pass us by... I don't even want to think about it!  I have loved every second of this first month and getting to know Nolan.  His personality has been around since day one, but more and more we are seeing who he is becoming and how he will make us laugh and leave us melting with the new things he learns and cute things he shows us.  Here's Nolan's first month: 


Height, Weight, and Sizes: 
After a month of losing weight and struggling gaining, our one month well check (Feb. 18th), brought good news when Nolan weighed 9 lbs. 10 oz (30th percentile).  He was 20 inches long (15th percentile), and although I didn't get a number for his head circumference, he placed in the 67th percentile... Dr. Reddy said he has a big head, to be frank!  Diapers are newborn size, although they are starting to get a little tight fitting!  His clothes are mostly all newborns, with a few 0-3 onesies.  Pajamas and pants are strictly newborn sizes, and mommy is waiting until he can fit into his first pair of denim jeans... they still are humongous on his little waist and legs!  

Feeding:
We've had our struggles with this category.  The first three weeks of Nolan's life, we struggled with breastfeeding, latching, and gaining weight.  Finally, I made the decision to exclusively pump, and since then, we've formed a schedule and Nolan's weight has skyrocketed!  He loves his bottle and will typically take in 4 ounces of milk every 3 hours during the day and every 4 hours at night.  At night time, I always have to wake him up to eat.  Mommy pumps so much milk, that we already have a freezer full!  By next month, we will need an extra chest freezer in the garage!

Sleeping:
This may be Nolan's favorite activity, hands down.  This kid can sleeeeeeep!  I asked his doctor at his one month well check if it was normal that he is only awake for 8 hours a day (typically).  She reassured us that is completely normal for a tiny newborn!  He could probably sleep longer through the night, but I wake him every 4 hours to eat.  Our schedule allows for one late night feeding at 2:30AM, so really we only get up once in the middle of the night which is nice!  He is normally awake for 1.5 hours and sleeps for 1.5 hours throughout the day between feedings, although sometimes that's not always the case.  During the day, he naps in his swing, boppy pillow on the couch with our supervision, or in our arms.  At night, he sleeps in his rock and play sleeper, and has to be swaddled with his arms out.  For all times that he sleeps, he can soothe himself to sleep with or without the help of a pacifier.  

Firsts & Milestones:
-Lifting and rotating head while on mommy and daddy's chest/shoulder
-Making lots of new facial expressions and especially giving us lots of smiles!
-Being extremely alert; as early as 1-2 weeks, many people were commenting on how alert Nolan was!
-Starting to coo and make new noises other than crying
-First Valentine's Day

Likes:
-Cuddling with mom and dad, snuggling in bed with us even though we're paranoid!
-Watching T.V.  Literally, obsessed as early as 4 weeks.
-Baths, the warm, running water, and shampooing his head during bath time
-Soothie brand pacifiers and NO others!
-Getting his hair brushed (daily)
-Bottles of milkies
-Riding in the car
-Listening to you talk (anyone, in general)
-Welcoming daddy home from work
-Posing for pictures

Dislikes:
-Burping and taking the bottle away to burp.  Meltdown status.
-Waiting for mom to finish pumping if he's super hungry!
-Pooping.. lots of grunts and struggles!
-Diaper changes
-Being cold

Happy One Month, little Man!  We love you so much already and can't wait to see you grow!