Grady? Notsomuch. The first six weeks of Grady's life was tear-filled for him and for me. I wont dwell on it because, to be honest, it wasnt all that fun waking up each day thinking "Today is the day he will get into a groove..." only to be met with tears, arched back, fighting sleep, and zero interaction throughout our day. It was HARD. However, I am THRILLED to report that Mr. Grady has turned over a new leaf, rounded a corner, and is quickly earning himself a new title! He is no longer "Grumpy Grady the Difficult Baby", and he is now our sweet happy Meatball who melts my heart with the BEST, cheesy, HAPPY smiles throughout each day. Phew..like the pain of childbirth, I can finally say that the first six weeks of finding our new normal was completely worth it when I see that sweet smile on his face.
Whitney, ever-present and always listening (and repeating!) told my dad a few weeks ago:
"Gwamps, I remember when I was a baby."
"Oooh, no you dont remember it! You were just a teeny baby!"
"Oh yes I do! I 'member! I was an EASY baby, Gwamps! Gwady is NOT an easy baby. I was!"
After telling countless friends, through tears, about how "hard" Grady was, and calling my mom countless times each day to report good news followed by bad news, I began to realize that WHITNEY was the weird baby. Not Grady! Grady is a "normal" baby! Whitney was abnormal! lol She was SOOOO easy that it spoiled us and now we have been faced with a "real, normal" baby who actually cries and didnt come home from the hospital on a nice, neat schedule. He had some kinks to work out and now that we have his formula figured out, and an awesome "sleep, eat, play" routine nailed down, he is one happy dude!
Our Meatball :)
It seems as though he figures things out as soon as I resort to Facebooking about an issue. I asked my FB friends about their experiences with babies who loathed their car seat. I got a lot of honesty and was sad to hear that some kids just had to suck it up and cry for months and months and months or until they could face forward. I had almost given up and accepted the fact that I was going to have to learn to block out his cries (gah! I cant fathom it...sooo sad!) when I realized that his arms were the problem. He wasnt mad at the straps, he was mad at his own arms that he couldnt control! Who could possibly fall asleep or get comfy when yours arms keep smacking you in the face!? So I wrapped a blanket across him, pinning his arms at his sides. Instant happy baby. It didnt last long, as he is strong and was able to unstick the blanket from each side, so I did a little safety research and determined I was not putting him at any risk by putting his swaddleme blanket in his carseat. Now? We lay the swaddler in his car seat, strap him in on top of it like normal, and then wrap the sides of the blanket up over him and the straps to pin his arms safely without interfering with the straps. I checked with his pediatrician (who is new and whom I LOOVE) and she said it was no different than adding a light sweater to his outfit beneath the straps, so she was fine with it. WoooHOOOOO!! Happy baby in the car!!
Here you can see Mr. Grady all ready to hit the road :) He really doesnt mind the car at all now, and it makes our days so much less stressful! I no longer have to worry about our drive to gym classes being insane or making me want alcohol at noon. We found a solution that works, and I am quickly getting used to the comments about the "strange noise" coming from his car seat. :) (I added the white noise maker from his Sleep Sheep after watching my friend Liz and her son Ryder last year. I thought she was crazy for carrying multiple noise machines with her on her road trip down here from South Carolina, but now? She is a pure genius in my book! Thanks again, Liz and Ryder!!)
Look at those rolls in his thighs!
Ok, onto the details:
Our Daily Schedule
Two months is awfully early to have a legitimate, concrete routine or schedule down pat, but I am happy to report that we are getting closer everyday. Part of the frustration through the first six weeks was directly related to a lack of routine and predictability of any kind. Grady would take an ounce of formula here, then nurse for thirty minutes, then wait four hours before nursing again and then want a bottle an hour later...he was ALL over the place with his eating, which made it hard to know whether his fussiness was due to hunger or exhaustion. Trying to rule out the common newborn complaints (too hot? too cold? over-stimulated? under-stimulated? tired? over-tired? hungry? gas? and diaper issues?) felt like an on-going guessing game. And guessing games are fun....except when its 3am and youre beyond exhausted and more often than not, you still cant figure out what is making your sweet baby cry non-stop. So in an effort to eliminate a potential source of the tears, I stopped nursing. This solved one potential issue, in that I no longer had to guess how much he was getting and I didnt have to wonder if something I ate was causing him pain or gas or reflux. However, in eliminating those concerns, we created another in that we didnt know what kind of formula was going to work best for Grady. After trial and error, more tears, a trip to the Children's Hospital to rule out Pyloric Stenosis, and some more trial and error, we have finally figured out Grady's eating situation, which then gave us time to focus on more of a routine.
Now, with Whitney, I never had to mess with any of this madness, nor did I ever read one page of a parenting book. She was just easy. But I remember hearing good bits and pieces of the book Baby Wise, so I borrowed Mandy's copy and couldnt be more grateful for the information I read. I dont follow the book completely, but it was nice to realize that Grady was doing normal, typical newborn things that were easily remedied without creating further drama.
Now, Grady is settling into a fairly predictable three-hour cycle of "Eat-Play-Sleep" (repeat) throughout each day. He is still so young and really only able to stay awake for an hour, sometimes less, but it is so nice to know that he no longer has to cry to tell me it is time to eat since I have figured out that his bottles carry him three hours and we are getting a full-tummy at every feeding.
Like I said, Grady is still sooo young. He isnt exactly "active" in a physical sense, and I am noticing that I dont put him down long enough for him to learn how to roll over yet, so we'll work on that :) When he is on the changing table, he acts like he wants to roll onto his left side from his back, which confuses me because I thought it was easier to roll from belly to back first....but we'll see if the next month brings mobility in the form of rolling :) I know we will get the exersaucer down from the attic, and maybe the jumperoo since our buddy Easton will be here to use it in a few weeks. This next month is the month when I felt like Whitney really sstarted to blossom and interact and chat and reach and entertain herself, so Im looking forward to seeing what July brings for Mr. Grady!
Grady used to fight sleep sooooo fiercely and it was just painful for everyone in the house. He would jsut get so over-tired because he just wasnt one of those babies who would fall asleep on his own anywhere, anytime. He would fight it and fight it until he was so beyond exhausted that he just cried in my arms until he finally fell asleep between little sobs. It. Was. AWFUL. One night he went for FOUR hours straight, just crying and crying. Didnt want a bottle or a binky, burping didnt help, the swing/bouncy/swaddle didnt work, and I just had to pace the house with him until he finally settled down. Not a memory I would normally blog about, as I hate to dwell on the sad times, but I want to point it out just so I can remember how FAR we have come in just a week or so. Now, Grady is in such a routine that he falls to sleep on his own in his crib without tears or drama, and sleeps for about two hours during the day and between five and seven hours at night. After he has been awake for about an hour, Grady starts rubbing his eyes and yawning. At that point, I take him to his room, change his diaper, turn on the fan and his white noise, close his blinds, swaddle him and cuddle him for a few minutes while he takes his binky and rubs his face on his blue blankie. Then, right as he is about to drift off, I lay him in his crib and he is good to go for 45 minutes. At that point, shockingly just as the book suggested, Grady wakes up and fusses in his sleep. His eyes are still closed and he isnt really "crying" but more whining in his sleep. I can time it almost exactly to 45 minutes, and according to the book I think that is when babies tend to switch from one form of sleep to a deeper type of sleep, so its normal and apparently just a baby "thing" they outgrow. Who knew!? So, right when he starts whining at 45 minutes, i go in and give him his binky and he falls into a deeper sleep. Sometimes he puts himself back to sleep before I even get to his bedroom door. Its sad to hear him get upset, especially in his sleep, but it was reassuring to read that this "45 Minute Intruder" is normal and will be outgrown soon enough. I also realized that this 45 minute "rule" was part of the reason Grady was so fussy all the time when he was awake. I would hear him cry 45 minutes into a nap and I would instantly go pick him up and start talking to him, changing his diaper, etc. I wondered why he looked startled sometimes and now I know. he wasnt really AWAKE awake yet, so he was stunned when I showed up and started messing with him. He was never getting restful sleep and it was showing during his awake hours. Now that he is getting solid sleep, he wakes up happy and smiley, and the smiles last all the way til his next yawn :)
Grady decided he likes Enfamil Gentlease the best, and he takes four ounces every three hours during the day. Sometimes he sleeps through the next feeding, and though the book says to wake him to keep him on schedule, I firmly believe in NEVER waking a sleeping baby, so we just pick up with a three hour rotation of "Eat-Play-Sleep" once he finally wakes on his own. No more projectile puking, and rarely any spit-up makes us all much happier, and his gas issues are almost completely under control, just as his pediatrician predicted for his two month appointment. He has teased us a few times and stretched from midnight to 7am, giving the impression that he might be ready to sleep through the night, but its not consistent enough yet to call it. Im thinking it will happen in the next month though.
Just as I blogged for Whitney's Two Month update, I can officially say that Grady's personality is shining through more and more each day. Sometimes he wakes up from a nap and seems older and more interactive than he was that morning. His smiles are quicker and more deliberate, and he tosses his head back in a giant gasp that foreshadows his belly laughs that are right around the corner. I can just tell :)
He stares at the walls in his room still, and really loves to look out the window as I burp him in the rocking chair. He loves looking at the picture wall by the front door, and pretend sneezes crack him up the same way they made Whitney laugh. He started smiling at himself in his mirror, and trying to coo and talk to himself and us more and more each day. He intentionally smiled at Mickey Mouse yesterday, which sent me and Whitney into a mad dash gathering all the Mickeys in the house to see which one was his favorite. :)
The next month will see Grady experiencing his first beach vacation and a weekend-long playdate with my bestie, Mandy and her family. Including Grady's future college roommate, Easton! Im excited to see the kids together and cant wait to see if Grady likes the beach as much as Whitney did when she was his age :)
Whitney continues to adore her baby brother. She copies every. word. i. say. ALLL day, and talks to Grady all day, narrating what we are doing and where we are going and who we are going to see, etc. I know he wishes Whitney would stand just a littttttttle bit more still so he could catch a look at her face and memorize it. I know they will be best buddies once his head and neck can catch up with Whitney, the moving target. She doesnt ask to hold him as much as she used to, but she is constantly up in his face, asking him if he likes Tinker bell as much as she does, showing him her Snow White legos, and reminding him that he cant have a bite of her bagel yet. She is still VERY willing to share ALL of her toys with Grady, and I think she is loving having access to all of her old baby toys again. Being quiet is a tough lesson to learn at three years old. Espeically when youre three years old and have never shared the house with an infant needing sleep. Whitney asks me "We can be loud in the playroom, right? Just not outside Gwady's door, right?" daily, and has a tough time holding back all the songs she insists on singing as Grady tries to fall asleep in his car seat. She accidentally woke him up once by being too loud, and she felt awful about it. We dont like to make the house silent when he sleeps because he's gonna have to get used to the noise if he wants to hang in this family, but to a little girl who was allowed to belt out her favorite rendition of "Be Our Guest" wherever she wanted, the last eight weeks have taken some getting used to. :)
No, she is not giving him a kiss. This is literally how close she would stay if we werent constantly reminding her to back up out of his face. Sigh. I think she must believe that he cant hear her, see her, or smell her unless she is on TOP of him. Poor guy will get used to it, and I think it probably bothers me more than it bothers Grady at this point. In the coming months, she will learn to back up a bit when he starts grabbing the hairbows he's been eyeing and pulling her hair....but for now, she is the boss. :)
One of my favorite things Whitney has been saying in the last month is "Buh-koon". As in, "Whitney, what does a butterfly come out of after its a caterpillar?" "A Buh-koon!" She learned about butterflies the last week of school and we are constantly on the look-out for "Bill and Jill", the two butterflies her class let go from their caterpillar experiment. I am tempted to give in to the infomercial selling the butterfly garden kits, just because she loooooved that experience so much. Buh-koons are awesome.
Another Whitney funny, while Im at it.....Last night, my friend Julie and I started training for the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon we are registered to run this November. Whitney has always known that I "go in da office and run on da tweadmill", but I need to be training outside as much as possible since I cant exactly earn that Mickey medal on the treadmill. I was ready to go running when the kids went to bed last night and Whitney asked me where I was going.
"Im going running with Miss. Julie."
"Oh. On da tweadmill?"
"No, we are going to run around our neighborhood."
"Oh. You are going to run on da tweadmill wiff Miss Julie? Two of you on da tweadmill? Together?"
"No Honey, we are going to go outside and run around the neighborhood."
(tears in her eyes...obviously nervous)
"Whats wrong, Whitter?"
"Mommy. I will weally weally miss you if you run away. Pwease dont run away, Mommy! Pwease?!"
I couldnt help but laugh as I explained to her that I wasnt running away (though the thought might have crossed my mind in the previous six weeks), but just running around the block like she rides her scooter around the block. Poor girl....I wonder what she was thinking!?
And an Eric funny: Last weekend, we had a busy life! Church, shopping, birthday parties were all on our To Do List for Sunday. We all made it out of church alive and were headed to the birthday party. Eric got out of the car and exclaimed, "Man! I feel like a PIT CREW!" He then proceeded to recite all the steps it took to get our family of four to a new location:
1. Park car
2. Hit "unlock" so Kathleen doesnt yell at me when she tries to open Grady's door
3. pop the trunk for the stroller
4. Open Whitney's door
5. Unbuckle Whitney
6. Grab diaper bag and go to back of car, opening trunk while ensuring Whitney doesnt run into traffic
7. Load diaper bag into stroller
8. Get Grady out of the car and lock his carseat into the stroller
9. Dont forget birthday gifts, sippy cups, etc in back seat
10. Lock car, hold Whitney's hand and head into location
Sigh. I didnt have the heart to remind him that I am a one-woman Pit Crew Monday through Friday, to gym classes, ballet classes, doctor's appointments, etc etc. He was so proud of our Teamwork making the Dream Work, that I let it go :) ...until now. :)
And we snapped some impromptu chair pics this weekend when both kids were dressed for church.
(And for my own future reference, here is a link to Whitney's two month update)
Edited to add stats:
Weight: 13 lbs 12 oz (90th %ile)
Height: 23" (50th %ile)
Diapers: size 2
Clothes: 3 month clothes are snug but wearable. 6 month and 3-6 month clothes fit our meatball best. :)
Chair Pics!
April 2012
May 2012
June 2012
Siblings
April 2012
May 2012
June 2012
April 2012
May 2012
June 2012
and the outtakes:
LOVE them :)
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