Height & Weight: Well, I can't honestly say because we haven't gone to the doctor since his 2 month appointment on July 7th. He was 10 pounds, 10 ounces then, so my guess is he's around 12ish now?? He's got a few small rolls on him, which are adorable. The kid has huge, chubby cheeks and when he's sitting upright, they are no match for gravity and those cheeks sag and are too cute. But wow has he grown
Looks: Jaxon sure has his mama's chubby cheeks. In most pictures I take, he's laying down so you can't really see the cheeks in their fullness. But sit the kid up and gravity is not kind to them! He looks like a completely different child. Still beyond adorable, that's for sure!
His eyes are still a very dark grey blue. I'm told they should start changing soon so I'm anxious to see whose eyes he will have; my brown eyes or Nick's ever changing green-to-blue-to-green eyes.
The hair that fell out on the top of his head has grown back in. It looks dark, until you take him into natural light and then it looks pretty light. Take him in the direct sunlight and it looks like it has a slightly red hue to it. Definitely looking strawberry blonde now. Which wouldn't be surprising since my hair has a slight red tint and Nick is Irish and has an orangish-red beard. I'm told their hair color changes a lot in their younger years so who knows what it'll be!
Everyone says Jaxon looks like Nick, which I think most days. I did think he had my cheeks and chin and then when looking through a photo album of old pics, I saw this picture of me and was like, "OMG that's Jaxon!" So he does look a lot like baby Melanie :) I need to find a baby picture of Nick to compare them now.
Routine: I plan to write a separate post on this, but I was beating myself up over getting Jaxon into a routine. During the day, I let Jax lead. He naps when he's sleepy, nurses when he's hungry, and plays when he's happy. Sadly, his naps were only 20 minutes, but towards the end of this month, they were lengthening to about 45-60 minutes. Most days, our routine goes nap, eat, play, nap, eat, play. Sometimes he'll eat again before his nap for a light snack and I'm perfectly okay with this.
I tried for almost two weeks to create a routine/schedule and it was just stressful for both of us. I realized that after almost two weeks, if he wasn't hopping on board, it wasn't going to happen. That's what happens when you read books and think you need to follow their advice. But here's the thing: my baby didn't read this book. He doesn't know this is how he's supposed to act. So I let go and decided to go back to letting him lead the day, because it works for us and we're both much happier that way. The child is napping longer now, he's eating well, and he's happy. He goes down easily for naps on his own but still enjoys nursing to sleep at night.
Sleeping: When people ask how he's sleeping, they don't care about naps. What they really mean is, "is he sleeping through the night?" So I'll start there.
As for nights, half of this past month, Jaxon was sleeping through the night. He went down around 8pm, would wake for a dream feed between 10pm-11pm, and then he was down until about 6am-7am, followed by a two hour nap from 9am-11am. Then it was his usual 20 minute cat naps the rest of the day. Towards the end of the month, as he got closer to the 3 month mark, he began waking again around 3am for a feed and I'm thinking this might be his 12 week growth spurt because he's also taking those longer 45-60 minutes naps (which makes for a happy mama!) But now that he's waking again for his 3am feed, he's sleeping in until 8am-10am, which this mama loves! Nick and I are night owls and love sleeping in so it seems Jaxon gets this from us ;)
He still sleeps swaddled. He hates it because he loves to move around, but if we don't swaddle him, the startle reflex wakes him up. Frequently. So swaddling it is. I think we're going to try transitioning him to the Zipadee Zip and see how that works for him.
Diet/Eating: Jax is still exclusively breastfed. 98% of the time he's on the boob but there are times he gets a bottle (when Nick takes the late night or early morning feed on weekends to help me out and let me sleep, when we're out and my outfit isn't conducive for nursing, or when I'm gone and Nick is home with him).
He gets tummy aches occasionally, but when keeping track of my food, nothing seems to have a pattern. His pediatrician said it's just common for them to have a belly ache from time to time. However, I do know he doesn't like fajitas and too much garlic. Which super sucks for me :( I looooove fajitas. We eat them once a week but I guess I'll have to stop that for now. Which makes me super duper sad.
Jaxon used to spit up a TON which I've now realized happens when he nurses from a breast that is a little too full. This makes things pretty annoying for me, because it means I have to get up and pump before nursing him on that boob. I'm usually awake well before he's awake in the morning (due to Nick going to work) but I'd love to just lay in bed relaxing, awaiting Jaxon's wake, not pumping a boob that's about to explode.
Health: He's a happy and healthy boy!!! As far as we know, he's gaining weight and eating just fine. *Knock on wood* he hasn't had any issues. He had a small cold but it was just a 24 hour thing and it wasn't bad at all.
Movement: This boy loves to move! I think it's why he hates all carriers and babywearing is not in the cards for us right now. He loves to lay flat on his playmat or our bed and in his bouncer and just kick, flail his arms about, bring his legs straight up in the air, turn on his side, etc. He loves to stretch out and is always moving!!! Towards the end of this month, he's become bored with laying down and playing so now he loves to sit up (and even stand!)
He definitely follows things with his eyes and head. He's still not reaching out to grasp things he sees, but he's close! He puts his closed fist against them, but doesn't open it up to grab them.
He has almost full control of his head, (but not his upper body) so he loves for you to hold his little torso so he can bear weight on his legs and sit/stand upright to look all around. It can tire you out pretty quickly to just hold him up so we're going to get an exersaucer for him to use. Since he sits deeper in it, the lack of upper body control won't be an issue (we tried out a friend's exersaucer who was using it for her son who is a week younger than Jax).
The beginning of this month he was still stretching all the time. He'd wake up and spend 5 minutes stretching. But now, I rarely see those adorable, full body stretches with the even more adorable accompanying faces :( I miss them (Thankfully someone recommended to video all the little things and his stretches were one of the things I made sure to capture).
Jaxon also still loves to look right. Not as much and it's getting better but he definitely still prefers his right side.
He also looooooves to hold his right fist in the air when laying down. But only when laying down flat. It's just straight up in the air. Although, now he notices it and sometimes brings it down and sucks on it. The entire fist.
Mood: I think he's your typical baby. He's happy when he wakes up and continues to smile and babble until he's hungry, bored, or getting sleepy. It's pretty easy to get big smiles out of him :)
Sizes: He's now in 0-3 month clothing. There are a few newborn clothes he is still fitting in, but for the most part, he's in 0-3 month and 3 month clothing.
Likes: Jaxon loves when you make silly noises at him. He'll stare at you for a second, trying to figure it out, then give a very excited grin. He loves his playmat and bouncer. He absolutely loves sitting outside. He could sit out there on our laps for hours and be content. We spend many afternoons out there, him on his playmat or in my lap, just feeling the breeze, and watching the storms blow in. He is now loving things like playing airplane, small tosses in the air, etc.
He also loves loud noises: shower, blow dryer, the Ninja, the sander and saw (when Nick is doing projects), etc. He could be crying his head off and the moment I turn on the Ninja to make a smoothie, the crying stops...until I shut it off then it resumes.
Dislikes: Jaxon still dislikes getting dressed. Eight out of ten times he will fuss and cry when you change his clothes. I don't really understand this other than he apparently likes to be a nudist.
Jaxon also dislikes burps from us. I should clarify and say he dislikes belches. Loud ass burps scare him. (And it's so funny!!!) He also hates being burped himself. He throws quite the tantrum!!
Milestones: At the beginning of the month, he rolled over twice from belly to back but hasn't done it in almost 3 weeks. He does roll on to his side, and semi on to his belly but I wouldn't consider it a full roll.
He's now swatting the toys in front of him, and he slowly puts his fist up there to touch it, but he hasn't yet figured out to open his hand and then grab it.
We're still awaiting a real laugh. He looks like he's about laugh a million times a day; that super wide, happy grin. But no noise. We thought he was going to be laughing now since my aunt caught one on video while she was here, but sadly, it was just that one time.
Things That I Don't Want to Forget: The way he smiles when we go to him in the morning. He's just laying in his Pack n Play, talking to himself. When we get out of bed and look down at him, he smiles so big, brings his hands up to his face, lifts his feet in the air...he just gets so giddy to see us and it's beyond adorable.
Mama Update: I'm doing okay. I'm struggling with a few things, emotionally and physically. But this little boy, his smiles, his sweet smell....goodness, they make me melt.
If you saw this post, then you know that I'm a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom)....for now. The decision was easy to make, but I'm still adjusting and it has it's difficult days.
I had some moles removed on my chin and belly. Because nothing in my life can ever be complication free, they became infected and it was bad. It made me anxious, had me in a lot of pain, and prevented me from working out (didn't want to rip them open). But they're on the mend now, thank goodness!!!!
Daddy Update: Seeing Nick and Jaxon together is my favorite thing ever. Nick has never been a fan of babies or kids and he's not necessarily the nurturing type. But with Jaxon, you'd think he grew up around babies. He's so great with Jaxon, the way he plays with him, talks to him, and calms him.
Nick is getting into work ups and when he's not gone, he's crazy busy. He has a lot of house projects he wants to get done and various other things around the house, but since he doesn't see Jaxon much, it's a battle of what to do. Spoiler Alert: Jaxon usually wins.
Doggie Update: Vino is slowly making progress. Very small baby steps. She will now come up and get in his face to sniff him (probably from spit up) and smell his dirty diapers. She'll also lay by him. But if he makes a move towards her or we bring him to her, she walks away.
Yadi is still loving Jax. She's always by him and still thinks she needs to bathe him every chance she gets.
What we did this month: Jaxon had some visitors this month :) My Grandma, Aunt Janet, and cousin Melissa all came to visit and we had the most amazing week with them. Then just a week after they left, Nick's aunt, uncle, cousin, and her boyfriend came for a weekend. It was so wonderful having family here to help and love all over him.
We were a little more low key this month (Jaxon doesn't sleep all the time as he did as a newborn so being out and about for long periods of time makes me anxious).
Jaxon attended his first wedding. It was for a guy in Nick's squadron but he just sat in his car seat, awake and content through the entire ceremony. Afterwards, there was a small, one hour reception of light food, lemonade, mingling, and cake cutting. Jaxon pretty much slept through it all.
Other than that, just your typical errands running!
This picture below....this boy haha. We tried these pictures three days in a row and every time, this is the face he was giving me. He just wasn't having it.
