Friday, August 30, 2013

My big boy is 2 months old!


Paxton is somehow 2 months old already!  How is time going so fast?!  He is such a joy.  I wonder how I ever lived without him before.  He is my whole world and I am loving every minute.  It is incredible how much I love this little guy!  I'm so thankful I get to be home with him everyday.  I have no desire to be away from him.  My life and priorities have totally changed. 

He is such a big boy! He's topping the charts at 24" long (89th percentile) and is a whopping 15.2 lbs (99th percentile)!!  He's already in 3 month and 3-6 month size clothes!  He's strong and can hold his head up pretty well already.  Obviously he's a great eater and nursing has become easy for us both.  But still only on the right side! Oh well. My breast milk collection is getting pretty impressive.

I actually hate telling other parents this when I hear of their struggles, but Pax is a super easy baby.  He fusses occasionally if he's bored, hungry, tired, etc.  The one thing that makes him loose his mind is being hot.  And that's mostly in his car seat.  He is not a fan of his car seat.  Driving with him is not fun most of the time.  He doesn't get it why I'm so close yet so far!  I hate that there is nothing I can do when we are driving somewhere and he gets upset in the seat.  Since he doesn't like being in the car seat I almost always wear him in a wrap when we are out and about.  He loves being worn in the Moby or the Baby K'tan wrap.

He loves his swing.  He'll happily swing and coo and goo up at the little birdies circling above his head and then zonk out for a little snooze. He will tolerate the bouncer.  But it's not his fav.  I'm putting him on his play mat more and more.  He seems to enjoy looking up at all the cool stuff and the freedom to kick and wave his arms around. 

He loves being held.  And snuggled and loved.  He is a skin-to-skin baby that's for sure!

He loves bath time.  He splashes and smiles and generally seems to really enjoy the whole thing.  I put him in his bath every night and it's part of our night time routine.  My professional nanny friend, Hope, recommended doing the the night time routine and it has worked super well for us. She is the ultimate baby whisperer guru and she is also my little sister from college sorority days.  She says: "You are conditioning baby to fall asleep when he recognizes the cues of massage and dim lights. This also allows you to move bedtime up or back more flexibly, as they recognize massage time to mean sleepy time, and will get baby into the bedtime mindset and often straight into sleep."

My nighttime routine based on her recommendation: Dimming the lights. After the lights go down, I try not to bring them back on fully for the remainder of the night. We do quiet activities such as reading some baby books, playing some soothing lullaby music or rocking in the rocking chair.  Usually I'll nurse him a little bit. Then we do bath time, followed by massage, and putting him in his jammies.  Then I'll nurse him a little bit more, then swaddle him and put him down.  He is usually awake and will quietly put himself to sleep.  

He is a fabulous sleeper.  At night he usually goes for 5-6 hours and then another 3-4 hours.  Of course it varies, but those long 6 hour stretches are so amazing!  He started doing this at 6 weeks!  The first month he slept a lot in the Rock n Play right beside my bed.  Now he sleeps in the Pack n Play across the room.  He takes naps in his crib in his room, but I still like to have him in our room at night.  In the mornings I like to bring him in bed with me and those morning snuggles are pretty much my favorite thing ever. 

Hard to believe he's growing so fast.  I wish time would slow down because I love this time with him as a brand new baby, but I also love watching him grow and get stronger every day.  I love to day dream about the kind of boy he will be and the man he'll become.  Being a mommy is everything I thought it would be and more.  I couldn't be happier getting to be this boys mom!  I never knew I could love something so incredibly much!  Seriously, best thing ever.