Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Evan: 5 months


I'm really loving this age right now. He's still 100% my baby, but he's less fragile than he was as a newborn so I'm able to let him explore his surroundings a little more confidently. Plus, the non-stop smiles are really great :-)
As a true third child, Evan is very much a tag-a-long kid. He is happy to just sit and watch his siblings play. If he's awake, his only care is that he not be left alone. If everyone happens to wander out of a room briefly and he's left behind, he'll start hollering about it. Otherwise, he's all smiles and all laughs.
He's on a 4 hour feeding schedule now with 4 liquid feedings and 1 meal of solids. Like with the bottle, he's needed a lot of practice with the spoon so we're just doing oatmeal cereal for now. Breastfeeding is going great and I'm still off dairy. I did have dairy at a wedding last weekend and Evan has not been happy with me about it. Mainly, when I have dairy he gets stinky gas (and I think some tummy pain from the gas, too), more frequent spit ups, and eczema flares. Those symptoms are all tolerable if I really wanted to be back on dairy regularly, but I'm fine continuing to leave it out.
He's not rolling over yet, but I also don't give him a lot of tummy time because he spits up every time we do it. He's sitting up fine in the Bumbo seat, high chair, jumperoo, etc. so he spends most his awake time on his play mat (which he loves) or sitting up watching the older kids play. I do have a concern about the "superman" pose he makes often with his arms; he holds them down straight and back from his body more often than I care for. The internet tells me this is called "unintegrated moro reflex", but I'll wait to see what his pediatrician says about it as his next check-up.






Monday, May 1, 2017

Evan: 4 months


Evan is doing great! Things have really slowed down and we have a good routine going. Evan is on a 3.5 hour schedule with 5 feedings, 3 naps, and 12 hours at night. We've dropped the swaddle and took the incline out of his crib as he started to move around a big in his sleep. He loves having his hands available to suck on for sleeping. I tried to slowly drop the swaddle by just doing one arm out and he was not a fan, so after a few days of doing just a loose swaddle (which he also hated) I decided I was done with swaddle games and we were just dropping it cold turkey and dealing with it. And he then he slept great, haha! Turns out he just wanted to be done with it, too. He is my first baby to not need a binky, but I'm still going to try and "suggest" it to him around 6 months (when he can actually put it in his mouth by himself) to try and get him away from sucking on his hands.
I'm still off dairy, but I did trial it back in over Easter weekend. While Evan did "okay" with the dairy, his eczema did come back and his spitting up increased and he was fussier. So I'm back off the dairy for now, but glad to know it's not a total day ruiner if I accidentally have dairy. At this point, I really don't mind all that much and have just accepted my new diet as part of life (although I will be so glad to have mac and cheese back in my life again when I'm done breastfeeding!).
Evan loves to watch the older kids, and he just laughs and laughs if you get him going with smiles or tickles. He loves laying on his playmat and kicking his legs around (like he's dancing a jig). He likes bath time (he frantically splashes and kicks and thinks it's super fun). Just this week he started "talking"...he's learning very early on you've got to holler if you want to be heard in our house. We are not a quiet bunch!
His thighs are my new favorite thing in life. Seriously, I just think about them and it makes me smile. I just want to hold him all day long! We'll be starting solids sometime soon-ish, it will be so cute. I can't wait. We just love this kid!


Look at those arm rolls!

I'm obsessed

Look at that yummy baby thigh!
Sometimes I think about what a gift he is to our family and it makes me cry on the spot