Holy cow, he’s 3 months old! Another month has passed and my boy continues to grow like a weed! We weighed him last weekend, and he came in at 13 pounds, 12.5 ounces. That is up almost 2 pounds since last month! He is still right at about the 50th percentile on his weight. He grew another inch this month and is 26 inches tall now! That is still in the 95th percentile on height! His head is 16.5 inches, which is 75th percentile I believe. It seems like every day I put him in clothes that he used to swim in, and suddenly his feet are about to break through the bottoms, and his onesies are stretched so tight! I sigh with a smile, take him out of the outfit and pack it away, while going to the next size up in his closets and drawers.
This last month was our first without the help of our postpartum doula. I was really scared because I depended on her for so much. She kept the house together, helped me get extra hours of sleep, a shower, and hot meals every day. She pointed out to me the developmental milestones that Aaron would hit, and what to do about them. Holy cow, how can I do this on my own? It turns out that it has been just fine. About the time she left, Chris and I discovered “The Happiest Baby on the Block” DVD that talks about ways to soothe your baby when he or she gets fussy, and how to help them sleep longer. It is AMAZING and works really well. With figuring out the sleep thing, I feel like I have gotten enough sleep by the time Chris leaves for work in the morning. Aaron still gets up a couple of times in the night to eat, but we will now get a good few hours between feedings which is just heaven!
His daily schedule goes like this: I feed and play with Aaron for a couple of hours first thing in the morning, and then he takes a morning nap, which leaves me time to catch up on getting cleaned up, eat something, and maybe a load of laundry or two. Aaron wakes up and eats. We hang out for a bit until he’s ready for his afternoon nap, where whenever I can, I lay down with him and relax while he sleeps resting on me. One way or another, everything gets done. We have officially settled into life with the baby, and we are somehow just doing it.
He has really discovered his hands. He will look at them as they move in front of him. He will play with his hands, and his new favorite activity is trying to stuff his fists in his mouth (sometimes both at the same time!). He is losing interest in his pacifiers because his fists are apparently far more entertaining to suck on. He has let us know that he no longer likes to be swaddled with both arms tucked in. He will get fussy and squirmy if you do that. He wants one hand free so that he can work on it when he needs comfort. It is also interesting to watch him interact with his toys now too. Where he used to bat them around, and enjoy the noise and movement that it produced, he now spends more time really focusing on his toys, and enjoys grabbing onto them and holding them as he moves them around. It is amazing to watch how he changes!
He is also so much more talkative! When he is awake and feeling great after a good nap and a full stomach, he loves to lay around on his play mat or in his crib and “talk” to us. He loves to try out new sounds and squeals, and will watch your mouth as you make noises to try to copy what you are doing. We are nowhere close to actual words by any means, but trying out sounds is fun for him. He loves to look you in the eyes while he “talks” with you. He also has a wonderful laugh! He is going to have a great sense of humor! I have been trying to record some of our conversations. Here's one:
We had our first Christmas with him this month too. We had so much fun! This was the first year that Santa made his appearance at the Wilkerson household, and Aaron got a lot of really fun toys! He got a foot piano (a piano that attaches to the side of the crib that babies can play with their feet). Aaron has very busy feet and has had a blast playing with it! He also got a “jug full of bugs,” which is basically a fabric container of stuffed bugs. He likes to hold onto the spider and the grasshopper’s legs and fling them around and try to fit them into his mouth. He got a lot of board books too. He still really enjoys being read to. He got lots of Dr. Seuss and the old favorite Pat the Bunny. We took our time Christmas morning and opened gifts for as long as he was awake. We let him take a nap, and then when he was awake we opened some more. We didn’t finish until 2pm! It was a relaxing and fun day, and so awesome to have a child to spend it with!
Aaron and Santa
Aaron and his presents!
Aaron and Dad opening a gift from Grandma and Grandpa Wilkerson
Aaron and Mom opening a gift from Grandma Lester
Aaron's haul! He was a very good boy this year!
Aaron has a new cousin this month too. My brother Will and his wife Amber had their 3rd baby on Christmas Eve! Henry Lester is a beautiful little boy, and we are just so excited for Aaron to have a cousin so close in age that lives nearby. We visited him for the first time last weekend. I hope they grow up to be good friends. Aren’t they cute?
The next big challenge we face is that I am going back to work next week. I am trying not to have heart palpitations and am wondering why I can’t get paid to stay at home and raise my son all the time?! It will be good; it will just take some getting used to. I do love my job and have missed the adult interaction. Also, I have found a fabulous day care situation for him. There is a stay-at-home mom in the neighborhood that has been able to afford to stay at home by taking a neighborhood kid or two. She currently watches a one-year-old little girl a couple of mornings a week. She will have Aaron full time. Her daughter is in full day kindergarten and gets home about 2:30 every afternoon. I love the idea of Aaron beginning to be around other children. I feel a need to compensate somewhat since he will grow up without his big brother here. This mom seems fantastic and I think he will just be on her hip all day long which is perfect.
I will be easing back into my normal routine at work by doing flex time my first few weeks back. I will be in the office from 8am to 1pm. Then, I will come home, feed Aaron, get him down for his afternoon nap, and then finish out the day from home. I am so relieved to be doing it this way. I absolutely love my office for being so great about it. I hope to be back in the office full time in February.
That’s it for now! We continue to have a blast with our little guy and can’t imagine how we ever lived without him. He is a perfect fit to our family and we are doing our best to eat up every minute!
