Cooper: 3 months

Sorry for the absence. I will blame it on the following:
1. I have a three month old and a 2.5 year old. 
2. Breaking Bad (we are devouring episodes nightly and I can't tear myself away to blog).
3. My laziness when it comes to uploading pictures to my computer. 

A quick comparison shot to begin...

Noah.

Coopie. I think they look about 2% alike.

Now, onto the update...

Sleep - Whoa. We thought we were going to have the best sleeper ever (is this another famous last words situation or what?!). It is true that we have yet to have to "Happiest Baby on the Block" Cooper. He goes down for the night like a dream (contrary to Noah that took  a lot of convincing to fall asleep). However, he absolutely refuses to stay asleep for too long. Around two months he was waking at 2 and 5 to nurse. This was doable and I figured he would keep pushing that 2am feed later. HA! Try the other way around. Last night he woke up at 12:45 and no amount of rocking, patting, pacing, snuggling, was going to make him go back to sleep. So, I finally threw in the towel at 1 and fed him. He was up again at 4. And then 5:30. By 5:50 I had him back in his bed with a pillow over my head and was officially handing over the reins to Scott. He awoke at some point because I finally rose to him screaming at 7:30 ready for some food. 

I made the mistake of going back and reading what Noah was up to at 3 months. Sleeping from 8 to 3, then until 6. All this did was frustrate me and I am having a hard time reconciling that Cooper has different needs and is only 3 months old so I just need to stick it out. I keep trying to rush the sleeping process and have threatened that I am going to let him cry it out (don't worry, only to push the feeding, not stop all together at this point). But, I always cave and know that neither of us are ready for that step. He's just too little. And 2 seconds after my frustrations pass, I am happily spending a few extra minutes soaking him in in the middle of the night.

Early morning dad snuggles. This will be the final habit we break...right now it gives me a much needed hour or so of blissful sleep (for me!)!

As you can tell, the sleep thing is frustrating. And that doesn't even touch on naps. NAPS! Second babies are hard. I have read every imaginable schedule but none work with Noah's schedule or a realistic look at our life. Once Cooper gets a bit bigger and has two daily naps, it will work, but right now the main victory is that when we are at home, all naps take place in his bed. We eliminated napping in arms which means that naps are much shorter but I think this policy will do us good in the long run. He currently naps about 4 times a day and for around 45 minutes each. 

I can't talk about sleep any more...

Weight - My little guy is plumping right up! He is about 14.5lbs. I don't know for sure as we didn't have a doctor's visit to get a true weight but our bathroom scale clocked him here. It is pretty amazing to me that breastmilk has taken him from 8lbs 3oz to 14+ in a matter of 3 months. He is such a little chunker with a giant head and it kind of blows my mind the way the human body works in the baby department sometimes!

Speaking of...

Breastfeeding - Yet another topic I could ramble on and on about. But I'll try to keep it brief. Mainly, I don't mind breastfeeding as much this time around. The day time sessions are easy peasy and I don't think twice about it. Actually, it is all fairly painless aside from the milk storage situation. Instead of pumping twice a day as I did with Noah, I am only pumping once. What this means is that my "stash" of milk is significantly less than it was with Noah. What I pump at night goes towards the next night's bottle (the boy can down 7-8oz. before bed) so I rarely have any extra to freeze (usually an oz or 2). While this isn't a big deal 90% of the time, sometimes I need a date night, girls night out, or have to attend 3 weddings (true story...watch out september/october!) and there will be a varying degree of alcohol consumption involved. So, my stash is going to start depleting and I need to make some sense of what that looks like for me and how I feel about it. I guess the moral on breastfeeding is that physically, it's a-ok, mentally, it's a tough one. More on this another time. 

Noah is fascinated by the pump. He really like to pump his "elbows".

Life with two - This is really the easiest part currently! Other than bed time routines, I don't really feel that much more stressed out with Cooper in tow. Bedtime routines are a bit of a circus and "all hands on deck" situation but for the most part, both boys are kind to their mama and we all get a long just fine! I have come to the conclusion that two kids isn't really hard, having a three month old is the hard part!

It's very rare Noah falls asleep in the car. Love my two sleeping babies.

Cooper - Aside from the sleep thing, Cooper is a fantastic baby. He really has such a great disposition and the number one thing he wants is for people to talk to him. His little face lights up and gives the gummiest, happy, smile when you goo and gah at him. He can get moderately agitated if you walk away and he is starting to get bored with his current toys (Bjorn Bouncy & Activity Mat). He is also currently developing a strong desire to be held on a regular basis. I see a sling in our future! 

His head might be in the 99th percentile, but he sure is strong.

He is actually starting to become deliberate with his hand movements and has started grabbing his toys and trying to make sense of what to do with them. Usually it ends in frustration but he is getting there!

I am sure I am forgetting a million things but that seems to hit the high points right now. Life is sleep deprived but happy around here!!