3 Months Old!

Soren was 3 months old on Wednesday! A week ago he weighed 10 lbs. 12 oz. at the lactation consultant's office, and a few weeks ago he was 24 inches long. He's really starting to fill out now, and has gained thigh, arm, and wrist baby fat rolls...they're too cute for words! This last month Soren has changed quite a bit in his development and characteristics, I really love this age!

Soren is still eating every 2 hours during the day. He almost always nurses, but usually once a day he'll receive a bottle and will take 4 oz. At night he'll usually do a 5 hour stretch, then will eat every 2 hours.

Soren's reflux seems to be improving a bit, we're having less projectile activity which is nice. We're definitely still dealing with lots of spit-up but based on his great weight gain, we just wait until he'll outgrow it. He is still taking Prevacid solu-tabs once a night and doing the Pulmicort nebulizer to keep his airways calm in hopes of reducing his chance of getting sick. Soren's pediatrician has been working hard on getting him qualified for the Synagis RSV vaccine, and he's been approved! A children's home health care nurse will come out to our home once a month from November-March and administer the Intramuscular vaccine. I pray that we can keep him out of the hospital and healthy this Winter...it breaks my heart just thinking about the possibility :-(.

This last month has been a little bit more low-key for us. Soren, my mom, and I went camping for a weekend mid-September, and had a great time! Soren was also baptized this last Sunday, and we had a great celebration with family and friends! I will include more details in a separate post. I have also been working hard at applying for social work jobs, hopefully I'll be able to find one soon.

One big thing we've been working on lately is starting to get him used to his crib. I'm not ready to have him sleep in there all night yet, but I do want him to start getting used to it for when the time comes to transition him. We've started to incorporate crib time into our nightly routine. Currently, around 9pm, I'll give Soren a bath, get him dressed, sit in the glider in his room and give him his meds., do his nebulizer, and read him a book. I try laying him down in his crib and cross my fingers that he'll fall asleep/stay asleep but that has only happened once so far. What HAS been working is holding him in the living room after his routine, and wait until he's in a deep sleep, then put him in his crib. One night this week he went 3 hours without waking up, but usually he'll go an hour in his crib before waking up. I try to go back in there and put his paci in his mouth, but he doesn't fall back to sleep... it's almost like he needs to be held or in his swing to fall asleep. I'm not sure how to break this, he's been like this since the day he was born. I'm definitely not one to let him cry it out, so hopefully when he gets older he'll be able to just fall asleep on his own.

Soren is becoming much more vocal and alert now. He squeals, coos, and today he made a 'ma' sound for the first time...momma secretly hopes his first word is 'mama' ;-). He has also learned how to make a pouty face, curled bottom lip and all! Soren is becoming more content under his playmat as he enjoys looking at all the colors and toys. Also, we have mirrors in our cars so we can see him in our rearview mirrors, and he loves looking at himself in his mirror. He's not a smiley baby all the time, he likes to do things on his own terms ;-). He does have more alert, happy periods during the day when he will interact with us a lot.

Soren is often sucking on his fist now, I'm pretty sure he'll be a thumb-sucker once he figures out how to get it in there. His fists are still mostly clenched, but occasionally he'll open up his hands and grasp my finger. He does not hold onto toys yet, but I have a feeling that's just around the corner. Also, Soren can tolerate tummy time for just a bit longer now, but he still hates it. He kicks his legs a bunch so he will kinda move around but has yet to roll over (except that one fluke time when he was 6 weeks). Because his reflux seems to be improving, he enjoys laying on his back more, and will kick his feet non-stop.When holding Soren, I can usually sit him upright on my lap, bracing him with one hand on his tummy and one on his back (or side-to-side), and he will sit up straight and balance his head. Today I bought a jumperoo for him, which he's still too little for, but he did okay just sitting back in it without tipping.

This week I have started to read to him at bedtime, and he really seems to enjoy it. Also, him and daddy have lots of fun time together talking, singing, and playing on the playmat. When I (finally) get him to sleep at night, Soren will instantly wake up when he hears daddy's voice when he gets home from work. It is kinda sweet, not gonna lie :-).

Soren is just starting to grow out of his 0-3 month clothes, and is starting to wear some of his 3-6 month clothes. He is wearing one-size and Fuzzibunz perfect size small cloth diapers. Currently, our favorite cloth diapers are Fuzzibunz Perfect size smalls and Softbums. At night we add a Hemp babies doubler to his diapers because he pees a lot! We sure do love cloth-diapering, let me know if you have any questions about them!

Well, that's all I can remember for now, toota-lou