3 months!

Alex turned 3 months old this week! 3 months truly is a fun time with a baby. They really interact with you, laughing, giggling, babbling, rarely crying, and showing some signs of a little independent playtime (whew). Sorry folks, but we still haven't gotten the video recorder to work properly yet so that the video looks right on the computer. I think we need to mess with the format or something. However, there are plenty of photos and for many many more go ahead and make friends with us on Facebook!

Last week we had a BBQ to raise money and supplies for the kids in the area needing help with school supplies for the coming year. We're taking a big box of supplies today including all kinds of things down to Hastings Family Services today. Thanks everyone! The day was nicer than any we'd had all summer and we had some great burgers and brats thanks to Josh! Alex had fun at his impromptu-3-month party, which was his first outdoor grilling party at our house. He got to see his cousin and 2nd cousins - it's so much fun to see the boys in all their different stages of development!

Among the new things Alex loves are playing in his play gym, playing airplane with Daddy, and not-quite-hating his tummy time. There's a lot of laughing, shrieking, and babbling like I said. He sits and stands with help, but doesn't really have those fine motor skills down at all yet - he's just starting to learn how to grab a toy and stuff it in his mouth. Oh well, I hear the 3rd month is "hand play" month and that's when they often learn those sorts of things.

We're all waiting anxiously for fall - the leaves are actually turning here and the corn is becoming yellow too. Back to school and football are looming, so we're excited for our favorite season. We're really in the mood for chilly weather and fall food... come on September! Then it won't be too hot and humid to walk with Alex outside, although we've taken some great trips in the Moby now that he's facing forward.

In other news, he's got me making so much milk that I had over a hundred frozen ounces in the fridge when he turned 3 months! I have signed up with a milk bank to be a donor for premature and sick babies, but they won't take any of the milk I have since I'm on Depo-Provera. Once it runs out in September, I'm going to switch to a low-dose Pill and then they'll take the extra. It just makes me sick to think of someday pouring it down the drain, right?

Meanwhile, we're dealing with Alex's first non-well-baby-visit to the doctor - pinkeye. Hopefully it's bacterial, not viral, and will go away shortly. Meanwhile, it doesn't bother him at all, but it was no fun missing Nicholas's 5th birthday party yesterday and it's just not quite the same being around other people, because they're wary of holding him. Well, he's pretty content whether he's with Mom and Dad or in someone else's arms for now!

It’s been a month since I went back to work and Alex has had a lot of fun! He’s doing great staying with his daddy in the morning and his auntie in the afternoon, plenty of time to socialize and has a great routine now. He’s started to sleep in his crib for 6-8 hours a night in the room next to ours, although he’s still cosleeping when he’s not in the crib – he has trouble getting back to sleep after any night feedings. He can now laugh, grin, wiggle, grasp the bottle or breast and is batting at toys. He does well with tummy time, keeping his head up for long periods of time – I think he’ll be working on push ups soon! There’s a 5am party each morning with Mom and Dad when Mom is getting ready for work and Dad has to feed him, but other than that he sleeps well. He’s got great chubby cheeks and seems to be growing well – in fact, I have so much milk that I have to wear cloth diapers at night to keep from leaking, and we have nearly a hundred ounces of milk frozen – so I decided to apply to donate extra milk to a local milk bank for preemies and sick newborns to drink. Hooray! All that milk makes a lot of diapers, but not too bad – we definitely found that Gdiapers didn’t work for us, so we ordered some Bumgenius Flip diapers and will be trying them when they ship. We heard about them at the awesome Bradley reunion last Sunday, where we got to see Meisha and Henry and some of the other babies from the class and tell our birth stories – it was really great to see everyone! It seems Alex isn’t the only kid with persistent cradle cap, either – I spied a few cases while I was there. He’s into playing now, in the play gym, with his toys, in the swing, and we have a lullaby and dancing selection in his room now for his entertainment. He smiles practically anytime he sees someone smiling at him, which is really enjoyable but makes it hard to leave in the morning. We even have conversations now where we talk and babble back and forth – he’s very active and talkative, which makes it fun. On the plus side, Mom’s getting back in shape really well, almost back down to the prepregnancy weight and we just bought a Mom and Baby yoga/pilates/dancing/playing video that looks really good – we watched it last night to see! All in all, a great 2nd month and Alex will turn 3 months old on Monday.