FOUR MONTHS!

Dear Colin,

You are now 4 months old.  I had a very hard time figuring out when to take your picture because this year there were only 28 days in February and since you were born on the 31st it didn't seem right to do it earlier so I waited until March started and we had a day with some sun in the morning to get good pictures.

Onesies were made by our friend Sharon! 

Of course, I also did photos in an outfit that your brother wore for his 4 month photos.  The shirt must have been discarded because I couldn't find it so I found something similar for you to wear.

And this Colin, is what it looks like when you don't want to get dressed or get your diaper change, or are cold, or mad that you are being put down so I can tend to your brother, Hunter or some other matter.  I still love you but no more ugly face!

SLEEP:
I have started having you sleep in your bedroom at night and you seem to be doing ok with this but you still wake up every 2-3 hours (sometimes less).  You are still swaddled but if I unswaddle you then you are awake even more.  I have a week off of work coming up so I might start unswaddling you then since I won't be so busy and we don't get a lot of sleep it will be ok.  You go to sleep around 7pm.  Are up at least once before 9 (if not twice), then up again around 11pm.  Last month I used to then bring you into my room but now I leave you in your room until your 1:30am wake-up.  Once in bed with me you tend to wake at 3 or 4, 6am and then if I am able to get you back down at 6am you are awake for the day at 7am.  Napping is hit or miss.  Sometimes you will nap at home up in your room if I am able to swaddle you and set you down almost asleep.  Sometimes I will nurse you to sleep and bring you upstairs to your swing to sleep.  During these times you will sleep for about an hour.  If you and I are home alone and I am wearing you - you will sleep for an hour or a little bit more.  You are not a great car sleeper but sometimes you will nap in the car too.  Overall, I would say you are getting 2-3 hours of sleep during the day when Mommy is home.

Sleeping in Mommy's bed - 2.20.2014

FOOD:
You are still a piglet and you are eating every 2-3 hours during the day and night.  You are on strictly breastmilk for now but you love to sit on the table at dinner and breakfast and be apart of the meal (unless you are napping).  Only two more months before I let you have food in your little hands!

CLOTHES:
You are currently in 6 month clothes from major "name brand" retailers and size 6-9month in most others "store brands or specially made for box stores".  It appears that despite seemingly to be growing at the same rate as your brother we will be buying you a lot of clothes because the seasons just aren't lining up correctly.  It seems the 1.5 months difference in birthdates is making a HUGE difference in clothing.

PERSONALITY:
You are such a happy baby when you are happy.  You smile from the tips of your very toes.  Your whole body is used to make the smile and it is infectious.  You smile at old people, young people, babies, toddlers, your Daddy, Me - just about anyone (but it doesn't make it any less special).  You are hysterical with Conor.  He can make you laugh at the drop of a hat and he loves to do it.  You have an adorable belly laugh and its fun to see you enjoy life so much. 

Your not all smiles though Mister.  You are also very demanding!  You do not like to be put down.  You require entertainment (you are not self-soothing just yet and you still get overstimulated too easily) from Daddy Conor or I unless its really short bursts of time.

 

DEVELOPMENT:
You are such a strong little boy!  You have been able to stand since shortly after birth but now you have some core strength and can sit (though you are bent at the waist quite a bit).  You are able to use those muscles to pull yourself into a standing position when holding my hands.  You hold your head up really high when on your tummy and you are starting to do so when sitting.  You do not love reclining anymore and are always trying to pull yourself into a sitting position if leaned against a pillow or blanket while on your back.  You are able to hold toys now and guide them into your mouth fairly nicely (though you do get very upset when you can't figure out how to let go of said toy)!  You also reach for things if they are placed just outside your reach span. 

You track people as they walk about a room and you turn your head when your name is called.  You also recognize voices and faces and produce smiles without prompting for certain people (Conor being #1). 

EXPERIENCES:
This past month you enjoyed your first true fun in the snow.  It was finally warm enough to play outside in the snow.  You watched the neighborhood kids sled and it was fun seeing Conor try to keep up with them.  You went for a ride in the sled and sat up on the big snowpile with Mommy and Conor (2.20.14).

We also went to a play place in Dover NH with Auntie Ana and this was your first time there.  You had a lot of fun watching the kids play but you were a bit too little for everything there so its a good thing you were content just to watch!  We also went out to lunch at a restaurant.  You did okay but it had been a long day and you were tired by the end of it (so were the boys!).

First Holidays: Valentine's Day and you attended your first Valentine's Day Party Playdate a few days later at Carter's house.  There you hung out with the Mommies and played with your friend Link.

Such a size difference in boys born 2 weeks or so apart!

GODPARENTS:
In the last month we also asked two very special people to be your Godparents.  Who?  We asked Chris and Auntie Cathlin.  They are also Conor's godparents but they are very special people in our lives and we felt they were the perfect choice the first time and therefore when it came time to pick again it only made sense that you deserved the best as well!  We were elated when they each said "YES" again.  Now, to make plans!

Colin, you are a wonderful little baby and I can't wait to keep watching you grow.  Until next month little man.

xoxo
Mommy

PS.  4 month comparison photo - Conor Above and Colin Below.

Colin is TWO MONTHS

Dear Colin,

On December 31, 2013 you turned 2 months old and we celebrated your little birthday in the hospital.  The day before you had started to seem a little unlike yourself and then in the late afternoon Daddy and Mommy both noticed that your breathing sounded a little funny.  Mommy called her friend whose son has had croup but it didn't seem like that is what you had.  However, because you were so little Mommy packed you up and took you to Urgent Care just in case.  Good thing - turns out you had the FLU!  Because you were so little they decided it was best to send you up to MMC for observations incase the virus settled in your lungs or your temperature went higher (we had been watching your temp. all weekend because Conor and Mommy had been sick and you were fine but between your last check and getting to the clinic it had jumped to 101).  I had packed in haste and didn't have a cell phone charger so the lovely nurses at Urgent Care let me borrow theirs while we waited for the ambulance (yup, they required you to go by ambulance).

You did really great in the ambulance despite being nervous.  It was clear you wanted to be held but it was safer for you in the car seat and Mommy doesn't take any chances.  So, they turned the lights down low and Mommy held your hand and talked to you until you fell asleep.

When we got to the hospital they checked you out an confirmed you had the flu.  It was not pleasant to deal with the resident because she kept wanting to pretend she was HOUSE and do a spinal tap to rule out "anything else that could be causing his fever".  Ummm....no, you are not sticking a needle in my baby's spine.  Don't worry Colin - Mommy is great at speaking her mind and standing her group.  I made it clear from the start that it wasn't going to happen and, in the end, they did not (though I also had to use reverse psychology and encourage them to call DHHS on me). 

Since we were confined to the room because you had something that is considered highly contagious and there were other, much sicker babies on the floor, we spent the day talking, reading, and watching TV.  Daddy and Conor also came to visit and brought Mommy and you some clothes and the much needed cell phone charger!  You were very unhappy in the hospital.  They required you to be in the crib whenever I needed to use the bathroom or when they came to check your status.  You hated that crib and you hated all the wires they had on your body.  So many of them were unnecessary but since they were not intrusive I permitted them to stay.  When they finally came off you were so happy!

Not happy about having your vitals taken.

Yeah!!!  No more wires!

I will not sleep in this metal thing!!!

Daddy is a great Daddy and he brought your Rock n' Play so you slept in there the night of your two month birthday until your third wake-up and then you slept in the chair with Mommy.  We weren't allowed to co-sleep in the parent bed in your room but the nurses said the chair wasn't a bed so they could look the other way.  Therefore they brought me a GREAT reclining chair from another space and we slept there (it was basically a twin bed).

I took your monthly photos a few days later once you were feeling better (and so was everyone else in the house)!  At two months old you were sleeping in 3 hour stretches, sleeping in the co-sleeper for the middle part of the evening, you recognize the faces and voices of your family members, you engage with Conor, and you are starting to uncurl your fingers and toes.  You loved the bath, Mommy's face, and Conor.  You were still terrible at breastfeeding but Mommy was used to it now and we just go went it.  You hadn't taken a bottle yet but had spent some time with Daddy without Mommy around. 

You are wearing size 3 months clothes and have started sporadically wearing cloth diapers.  You love the bath and make BIG splashes....your tub must be in the tub or there is big cleanup!  You adore the ringsling and dislike the structured carrier.  You aren't crazy about the swing or your playmat at this point either.  You are still on medication for reflux and you spit up variably thought out the day.  Tummy time is slow to come since it causes you to spit up.

Your two-month exam went well.  You are incredibly alert and your reflexes and muscles are developing beautifully.  Here are your stats:

You were a big heavier than Conor and a half inch taller than he was at this age.  But the two of you love the doctor's office and it makes for super cute photos!

However, you did not like getting your immunizations.  Right now there are many parents that are choosing not to inoculate their children against anything and everything.  Some people are on delayed schedules or they are choosing to give some immunizations and not others.  Right now, after a lot of research, your Daddy and I have decided that we will continue to immunize Conor and we will immunize you for everything except Hep A and Chicken Pox.  Until there is more concrete evidence out there that immunizations are causing terrible side effects in children I would rather you not suffer the diseases that your family members in the past may have had to endure.  I held you close as your shots were given and the first one stunned you for a moment and you unlatched from the breast and screamed like you had never screamed before.  At that point the next two were just about over and I was able to calm you down and settle you into nursing for a few minutes in order to comfort you and take the pain away.

Waiting on shots.

Back to your monthly photos.  I did not have the same outfit that Conor wore because it was Valentine's Day when I took his monthly photos for month 2 but I did have a similar baseball type outfit so that is what I used.  Here you are in all your two month glory!

And because Mommy likes to compare her two little boys because everyone says that you two are so alike I did a comparison photo.  The two of you are a lot alike but there are differences and so Mommy always knows who she is looking at in the photos!

Conor above, Colin below

It has been so much fun watching you grow Colin - I can't wait to see what the next month brings!

xoxo
Mommy

Halloween Party!!!!!

Dear Conor,

You went to your first Halloween Party on October 24, 2012.  It was thrown by your friend Charlie and his parents!

Mommy had to work in the morning so Daddy drove you to the party and I met you guys there!  I was so glad that Daddy was also able to come because he loves to see you visit and play with all your friends!  So - what were you for Halloween this year? 

A BEE

 And not just any Bee but the most adorable Bee that you ever did see!  Initially you were going to be a pumpkin but I couldn't find a pumpkin costume that looked cute.  While shopping one day we found this Bee costume and we (you and I) knew that this one was a keeper.  We brought it home and Daddy agreed!

Mommy is a Bee too!

 Your friend O was dressed as a Candy Corn - her costume was so sweet!

Your friend M was a Cow - Mommy's camera wasn't working well so she doesn't have a ton of photos but he was a really cute cow and his Mommy was dressed as a farmer!

Your friend A was dressed as a pretty fairy - you loved her wings!

Your friend N was dressed as the Very Hungry Catepillar - the two of you were adorable bugs!

Your friend A was a puppy - she was so sweet so you were careful not to sting her!

Babies in Costume - L as the Rooster, R as an Owl, Conor as a Bee, A as a puppy and C as a Mummy (missing his costume)

Mommy and Baby Bee

Towards the end of the party you were getting tired so you snuggled with both Mommy and Daddy!

I hope you enjoyed your first Halloween Party my little Bumble Bee!

xoxo
Mommy

4th of July Parade & swimming

Dear Conor,

On July 7th (Saturday) you and I went to the Town's 4th of July Parade.  I had never been before so I thought it would be something fun for us to do while Daddy got the last of his work done.

waiting for the parade to start - the sun was right in your eyes

Shriners

Fireman Shriner

Circus Shriner

Savings Bank Bear

Oakhurst Float

Watching the floats go by.

After the parade we went to Grandma and Grandpa Jakan's house to go swimming.  This was your first time in their pool.

Not so sure about this Dad

Mom?

Okay - I like it

And I even stuck my face in!

After swimming you took a nice nap and then you played outside for the first time on the blanket so that Daddy and I could get a little bit of yard work done.

You have had a very busy July so far Conor and it's only the first week!

xoxo
Mommy