This little monkey turns TWO years old.  Can you believe it?

We've had a pretty fun week over here.  Nothing too special, but Jackson has been sleeping in his crib much more now, which leaves me completely free to read a million stories, play with playdoh and color and paint and build train tracks etc etc...  Riley is clearly loving the attention and 1 on 1 time, and there has been a dramatic decrease in tantrums, as I expected there would be.  I won't share all of the funny things she's been doing lately since I'll be writing those in her 23 month post in a few days, but I will share this fab picture of her post nap hair.  Oh. my. One big fluff-ball.

This required a little action on my part...Much better.  And I wish I could have gotten a better picture of her reaction when she looked at herself in the mirror, or maybe even a video... She took one look and said, "A ponytail!!! So pretty!! So cute, Ri Ri!!!"

After her nap I really wanted to try this little outfit on her, but I had a feeling she was going to put up a fight.  I had to bargain with her, which meant giving her a paci in exchange for a few pictures in this outfit. It's a littttttttle small, but I wanted to do some of her 2 year photos with her wearing this outfit, so I might try and make it work... Aside from the fact that she turns 2 in the dead of NZ winter, and this might be the worst thing ever for cold weather... We'll see.

And then little bubby is fast approaching 4 months old, which is also crazy to me!! Even crazier is that he's in 6-9 month clothes.  What a big boy!!  I'm trying to enjoy each and every moment with him while he's still so "tiny" (like right now he's laying snuggled next to me, fast asleep, since he wouldn't go to sleep in his own bed for the night.)  These days won't last forever,!

You can't really tell in this picture, but he's apparently got some fairly bad eczema, and I took him to see the doctor about a possible infection, and came home with 3 massive tubs and two little things of cream.  He's got an emollient cream and zinc cream and bactroban for his infection and hydrocortisone (which I don't know why, but I'm reluctant to use... so far we haven't needed it) and something for his bath.  I've been instructed no soaps or shampoos, even the super gentle Mustela ones we were using...he has to be constantly moisturized, special cream on his infected eczema spots multiple times a day, only cotton clothes, minimize dust in the house... the list goes on!  My poor little baby!!  And if it still doesn't settle down, the doc suggested I think about eliminating cow's milk from my diet, although I have very little in my diet as it is, so we'll see.

And Riley is still madly in love with her baby brother.  And it makes me the happiest mama in the world. :)

The little guy is 15 weeks old! I was going to be done with the weekly posts, but decided there is a lot changing lately so this could be his 3.5 month post.  So here we go.

Let me just start by saying this little boy is such a little angel baby.  He's a happy little dude who really only cries when hungry, too hot, in need of diaper change, or very overtired.  He's getting more and more personality each and every day and it's so much fun seeing him develop into a little person rather than a (very cute) blob of a baby.

Sleeping (day time):  In the past week, he has gone from needing to be held for all his naps to sleeping in his crib for most of his naps during the day!  I decided I really needed to get him napping in his own room during the day, because it wasn't fair to him or to Riley for me to be holding him out in the lounge for his sleeps.  Riley kept waking him up, I couldn't really play with Riley and was trying to get her to be quiet... it was just not working anymore.  So I decided to try and get him in his crib, but WITHOUT letting him cry.  Wasn't totally sure how to go about it, because it's not like I could spend 45 minutes rocking him to sleep or shushing him, that would sort of defeat the purpose.  But it was way easier than I thought.  Basically, at his first tired sign, I put him in his crib with a paci, and turn on his little fisher price seahorse.  It plays music and lights up, he stares at it and kicks and plays for a little bit in the quiet, dark room.  It seems to get him nice and calm and ready for sleep.  Usually after about 10-15 minutes he will start to whine/cry, and I go back in there, swaddle him up, give him his paci again, and pat his chest and stroke his little face until he falls asleep (usually takes just a few minutes).  Now, the longest he's slept in his crib has been an hour, usually more like 30-45 minutes, but it's a start!  Frees me up to play with Riley, and he doesn't get woken by her since he's in his own space! 

His awake time is about an hour and a half, but he can go up to two hours without totally losing it.  Any longer than that and we are in for a very overtired, cranky little boy.  He takes about 5 naps a day since his naps aren't very long.  Hopefully as his naps lengthen, he will only take 3 or 4 a day.

Sleeping (night time):  The past few days he has been wanting to go to sleep for the night at 5:30!!  Both times I thought he was just going to take a catnap, but then he's just stayed asleep!  Usually for this nap I was holding him since Mark was home, so last night I put him in his bed, and sure enough he only slept for 40 minutes. :) 

Now, night time sleep... oh boy.  We do the same routine every night, bath, feed, songs/stories, bed... sometimes he will fall asleep while feeding, and sometimes he needs to be rocked/walked around.  But lately after I put him in bed, he wakes up after only 20 or 30 minutes, and just won't go back to sleep unless he's walked all over the house, or laying with me on the couch nursing.  Then we have to wait until he's SOUND asleep before transferring him into his bed, and then he'll stay asleep in there for maybe 3-5 more hours.  He no longer does a big 6-7 hour stretch.  He went through a big 3 month growth spurt and started waking to eat more often in the night, and that's sort of just lingering now...  The other night he was up at 1am... and 3am... and 5am...  Sometimes he goes right back to sleep after nursing, sometimes not... And usually around 4 months things can tend do go downhill sleep-wise, soo we'll see how this all works out!!

Feeding: We're on a pretty good eat, awake, sleep routine these days, problem is, his sleeps aren't long enough to get him to a good 3 hour schedule.  So it's more like eating every 2.5 hours, sometimes 3.  I feed him more frequently in the evenings as well in hopes of filling up the tank!  A few nights I have tried a dream feed (waking him to feed around 10:30 before I go to bed) and I think I might try and do that more frequently, that way I don't go to sleep and then get woken up an hour later to feed him. 

Playing:  Jackson LOVES his play gym.  He talks to his toys and hits them and grabs them, he kicks his legs and swings his arms like crazy!  He loves looking in the mirror, looking at books, and watching everything Riley does.  He's fine with tummy time and is definitely getting stronger, although to be honest I don't put him on his tummy all that often... maaaaybe once or twice a day.  I've read conflicting things about the importance of tummy time, and I think Jackson is developing just fine, so I'm not worried about.

His fingers are in his mouth constantly.  I'm wondering if he's going to be a thumb or finger sucker?  He does take his paci for his naps, which is good because I swaddle him for naps so he can't get his hands anyway, but when he's awake, his hands are in his mouth.  He hasn't quite figured out he can grasp toys and bring them to his mouth.  He will grab onto blankets or our hands/fingers and try to shove them in there, but not toys so far. 

He seems to have a bit of eczema, on his face and arms and legs... I try to keep him all moisturized, but it's hard!  He's still got his cradle cap which is more obvious now that he basically doesn't have any hair.  He also has what seems like a bit of eczema or skin infection behind his one ear, which I am taking him to see the doctor about tomorrow. 

He is VERY ticklish- mostly on his tummy and his sides, but also on his legs.  He laughs almost every time we tickle his tummy.  He smiles all the time, and is constantly chatting.  He loves having someone to look at and talk to.  He loves bath time and sitting propped up.  He can sit up by himself for about 5 seconds before he topples over.  He rolls from back to side, but that's it.  He still loves the carrier, and he loves going for walks in the double stroller NOT in the car seat, but in the actual stroller!

He's just a big, happy little bubba and we love him to pieces!!!

A post dedicated to my little man, who I fall more and more in love with each day.

My mom may have mentioned that she hasn't seen any videos of the wee man (hint hint), so I decided it was about time to put one together.  I mean, look at this little face....

So here you go, baby Jack, the first 3 months... imovie gave me a lot of trouble with this one, so I finally just gave up and published it as it was... it's not perfect, and the music is a little sappy (Mark proposed an Usher song for the background and I politely declined...), but I love it anyway.  7 minutes of baby Jack.  My how he's grown in three months!!

My sweet baby boy is three months old!  Bye-bye newborn days, hello big babyhood!

I seriously fall in love with this little boy more and more each day.  He is just such a fun, easy-going little baby and we are all smitten.  You don't realize when you only have one baby (your first baby) how sort of, ummm, I don't want to say boring, but... kind of boring, little tiny babies are.  Don't get me wrong, they are cute, and wonderful, and all that, but compared to a high energy toddler, or even an older baby, they don't do a whole lot.  But we are fast approaching the more fun, interactive stage of babyhood and I LOVE it.

Alright, here we go with the updates:

Sleeping (night time): Night time sleep has been getting better and better, it seems.  Our longest stretch so far has been 8 hours (7:30- 3:30am) which was two nights ago, but more typically the first stretch of sleep is around 6 hours.  After that I usually get another 2-3 hour stretch, and then who knows.  He doesn't usually need much help getting back to sleep in the middle of the night- usually just a quick 5 minute feed, and straight back in bed (in our room).  No diaper change, no rocking, no paci.  Occasionally though he doesn't go right back to sleep, and depending on how tired I am and what time it is, I may bring him in bed with me.  He didn't use to like sleeping with me, but now it works like a charm, and I really enjoy it!!  I'd say he ends up in our bed maybe twice a week for a few hours, on average.

Now for about 2 weeks, he fought going to sleep in his bed (rock 'n play) to start the night.  What I mean is, after bath and PJs and being fed, he would usually fall asleep no problem (being held), and I'd put him in his bed no problem, but he would wake up shortly after and cry and cry. He doesn't usually cry at bedtime, and of course we'd go try and soothe him immediately, but the ONLY way he wanted to be soothed was by nursing... definitely out of comfort.  So we would turn all the lights off and he would lay with me on the couch, and I let him comfort suck as long as he wanted, which was usually at least an hour, although sometimes he would lay with me (sleeping) on the couch for 2 hours!  I continue to try putting him in his bed every night, and the past 2 nights he's gone to sleep just fine in his bed, so we'll see.  I must admit, although it makes it hard to get anything done in the evenings, I do love snuggling with this little boy, and I know this won't last much longer.

Sleeping (day time):  Still a bit tricky.  He falls asleep in my arms with very little effort, but doesn't stay asleep for very long if I put him down.  Ever.  We're working on it.  Good thing is, he LOVES sleeping in the Ergo, and will also fall asleep in the car seat, and usually stay asleep while we're out.  He's not on any sort of schedule, but his sleep cues are pretty easy to read, so it's usually not a problem to tell when he's tired and ready for a sleep.  His awake time varies, but is usually only around one hour before he needs to be asleep again.  He almost always has a big midday sleep- usually 2-3 hours while Riley is sleeping, so I usually snuggle up on the couch with him and watch TV for a nice mental break. 

Milestones:
He laughs pretty regularly and it's so amazingly cute I can't stand it! And... he laughs in his sleep!! One of the perks of having a baby that wants to be held for all his sleeps is you never miss out on the amazingly cute things they do while sleeping- like laughing!  When awake, he laughs in response to funny sounds and silly faces, and sometimes peek-a-boo.  And then sometimes I have no idea what made him laugh...

He smiles all the time, and loves to talk to us, and coos the most when he has someone to coo back at him.  He says a lot of ahhhhs and oooos and ahhgooooos, and his little voice is just so cute.

He seems to be ticklish, and is really starting to like baby massage after bath.  Speaking of baths, he still LOVES bath time.  He has only cried once during a bath, and it was because I made the water too cold, and I knew it was probably on the cool side but I thought it would be okay, but he was clearly not pleased.  He likes to be nice and toasty in his bath!

Speaking of nice and toasty- one thing that's very different from Riley- he gets REALLY hot.  We're heading into NZ winter, and it has been pretty cold here some days, but if we go anywhere in the car, he needs to be in a short sleeved onesie otherwise he overheats and gets drenched in sweat.  And he gets SO SO hot and sweaty when he's feeding.  Supposedly feeding is one of the most taxing things a little tiny baby does, and he just gets so hot and sweaty!  Definitely don't remember that from when Riley was a little baby.

He has rolled from belly to back once, and that's it.  No back to belly, although he does try to roll on to his side every so often.  And to be honest, we just recently started putting him down on his back for longer stretches during the day, now that we've set up his pack n play and can be in there without fear of getting trampled by his big sister.  If he's on the ground, or somewhere Riley can get to him, she immediately lays down next to him (or sometimes pretty much on top of him), and there's no chance of him rolling like that!

He loves trying to sit up, so if he's left slightly inclined he will try and do a sit-up.  He holds his head up like a champ, and loves to look around and see what's going on.  If he's laying on his back, he kicks his legs like crazy, they are constantly in motion!

He LOVES his play gym now (as long as Riley doesn't steal all his toys off of it).  He stares and talks to his toys, and smacks them with his hands.  He'll hold on to rings and toys if you help him grab them, but he doesn't grasp onto things himself from his play gym.  He does love to grab onto fingers and blankets or clothes, especially when nursing.  He also loves looking at the mobile in his crib, especially when the music is going.  He doesn't ever sleep in his crib, but it's another "safe" place I can leave him for a few minutes unsupervised while I use the bathroom or brush my teeth or something.

His hands are constantly in his mouth, and he sucks on his fingers and makes loud smacking noises.  I thought he was going to be a finger/thumb sucker, but he has decided he really likes the paci now!  He now no longer likes the soothie ones he used to take, and only likes the MAM pacifiers that Riley used (and still uses). He usually takes a paci to fall asleep for his naps, but never takes it at night (well, we never offer it at night).

He is weighing in at 15 pounds and I can't remember how tall he is, but he's in the 75th percentile.  It's crazy to think that at 3 months, Riley only weighed 11.5 pounds!!  Jack is in mostly 6 month clothes, and size 2 diapers.  I love love love his chubby little legs and his cheeks and he is just so squishy and it is the best thing ever!

He likes reading stories and looking at the pictures, and he loves looking at himself in the mirror.  He loves Riley, and he is constantly watching her every move.  He's totally used to her loud toddler behaviors, and never gets startled by her loud outbursts. :)  He also loves his daddy and gives him the biggest smiles when he gets home from work.

That might have been the longest update ever, but so much is happening and changing lately!  Happy 3 months to my little boo boo!

Oh yeah, and just for comparison...