February!?

It is hard to believe that Liam was born a little over 6 weeks ago and it is already February!

Time is flying by!

Disclaimer: This post is full of random things about Liam and such....

Over the past few weeks, Liam's schedule has gone from wanting to eat every 4 hours, to every 2 hours, to every 3 hours... and currently there is still no telling when he will wake up wanting to eat, so of course we are going with it! :-)

There have been a few nights that he has slept in his travel swing; simply because once I laid him down, he would wake up exactly 20 minutes later... and we both had to get SOME sleep! haha

For me to accomplish anything (outside of the house), it really does become a big adventure once we begin to head for the car; or should I say truck. ;-)
There have been times that I get him all buckled in and he will totally melt down - he can get VERY bright red when he is upset - it makes me feel horrible to see/hear him so upset! So, of course, I unbuckle him, calm him down (sitting in the back seat with him) and we try again to get out of the driveway! haha I never thought I would be feeding or changing a baby in so many parking lots of town, but we are able to run errands that way so it works! :-)

I have found that my truck, although I dearly love it and have for the past 12 years, it isn't very family friendly. The one "infant in a car seat" friendly feature is that with Liam's car seat, in the back, in between the two front seats, I can reach back, without looking, fish for his pacifier and put it back in his mouth. Other than that, it is not made for those with small children. The third door can be a bit of a challenge, seeing as how you have to open the front door to get to the third door, to get to Liam, most especially when someone parks next to me. I try to purposely park in the back of the parking lot and/or somewhere where no one can park on that side, but inevitably someone will.
Seeing as how it is a bit of a challenge, we are more seriously considering replacing the Neon; which we have talked about for a while. The tentative plan is for Nolan to drive my truck and me to drive whatever we get to replace the Neon. At the moment, it seems that a Honda Odyssey Minivan is in the lead... It has so many family friendly features! Although, I NEVER (never say never) thought I would be a minivan driving mom! LOL We won't be buying one next week, but in time I guess... :-)

Liam is by no means on a schedule, but we do seem to have a mini routine for each time he wakes up, which is nice. Of course, there are off times, but for the most part he wakes up, gets his diaper changed, eats, plays on his mat, begins to get very fussy, is swaddled and patted (his bottom) while swaying and he is out! :-) This usually takes about an hour and a half, although can sometimes take longer... During the night, he is really good about "just waking up to eat," and falling right back to sleep. I have read that at about 2 months we can start a bedtime routine, if you will. I might try that in a few weeks...

I weighed Liam at the Naval Hospital today and he weighs 9 pounds. Almost 3 weeks ago, he weighed 8 pounds 1 ounce, so he is gaining weight, but he still seems very lean to me; maybe that is just his build - Nolan isn't an incredibly big guy. We know for sure he is growing in length - as of a few days ago, we began changing out newborn clothes for 3 month clothes. The newborn clothes are now too short in the arms and legs; he starting to wear 3/4 length sleeves and unable to fully stretch out his legs when he was in the newborn clothes.

Although the newborn diapers still fit, we are going to use up the few that we still have and switch to size 1 diapers. They size 1 diapers seem HUGE on him, but the newborn ones seem to be fitting a little too snugly these days - although he doesn't seem to mind/notice...

A lot of people have asked how his tongue is doing since it has been clipped; as I had mentioned before, he seemed to heal almost immediately and doesn't seem to have any issues with using it effectively to eat. :-) He has, since the clipping, taken to pacifiers; which is nice for us I guess you would say, since we don't have to put a pinky finger in his mouth to try to soothe him. It is funny to see him literally spit the pacifier out when he doesn't want it however.

As I know all babies do, Liam has become almost too good at scratching his face! AH!!! We are hoping the scratches don't scar, although Nolan jokes that "chicks dig scars," to which I can't help but laugh and add, "but not ones you got as a newborn!" haha With that being said, we try to keep mittens or socks on his hands, most especially when he is eating!

When we feed Liam, we try to burp him after every ounce or so. It is pretty funny that when you take away the bottle (to burp him) he squeals and fusses - "give that back!" Lately burping has changed from needing to be patted on the back, to simply changing his position; often times just sitting him up will bring up the air bubble! :-) Often times he will fall sleep, we will lay him down in his bassinet, only for him to wake up screaming because he has ONE more burp to get out before he can truly go to sleep. Sometimes he will wake up screaming an hour or so later, with formula coming out of his mouth and nose - it is horrible!!

Over the past two weeks or so Liam began tracking - following us with his eyes - more and more. It was hit or miss, whether he would track or not - but now he is definitely following us consistently! It is really neat to see that development! It is also neat to see him "track" Sandi as she walks by. He has also, just recently been able to move his head from looking in one direction, to looking in the other direction, when he is laying on our chest (as we are sitting on the couch).

Last Thursday night, with Nolan's suggestion, I "let go" (my words) and put Liam to bed (that night) in his bassinet, in his room and used our video/audio baby monitor for the first time! :-) The audio/video is great, although sometimes the monitor cuts in and out and actually last night the battery died between feedings! (Note to self - it has to be plugged in :-( ) My body seems to think it has slept for HOURS (when it has only been like an hour or two) so I guess I didn't miss anything with the monitor being off. ha

He wasn't down for the night at 11:46pm - he got up 20 minutes later; he's more of a 2am "bed time" kinda guy... usually between 9pm and 2am he will eat and cat nap, but not really go down for 3 - 4 hours at a time until 2am rolls around... we will have to work on that.. in time... ;-)