Happy 3 Months Cole!

Today, Cole is 3 months...yay! So Cole, what have you been up to this month??

• You weigh about 15 pounds and are 25 inches long
• Size 1 diapers are getting a little snug on you, almost graduated to size 2
• Tummy time is getting a little more bearable, we don't scream AS hard anymore
• You still aren't sleeping through the night, you consistently sleep 5-6 hour spans. ONE night you slept 8 hours, but that was because you were going through a growth spurt
• For some reason this past week, you went through a little nursing strike, not sure why but we are almost back to normal
• We have started putting you in your own big boy bed at nights, no more sleeping in mom and dad's room...kinda sad!
• You are so fun to watch in the mornings, you just smile and giggle and make the best noises
• For some reason, you sort of by-passed all your 3 month clothes and went straight to 6-9 month clothes...porker!
• You still love your baths, but hate to get out...you usually cry while putting lotion and clothes on
• You have really taken to eating your hands
• You have peed and poo'd many times in mom and dad's bed...we sure have to wash our sheets quite often

Any Ideas??

So, does anyone know why when we were in Corpus Christi for the weekend, Cole slept for 7 hours before waking up, but when we get back home he goes back to his 5-6 hour spans?? Hmmm....
I have a couple theories:
1. Corpus is extremely humid and right now in Dallas it is extremely dry, so I'm wondering if the dry air here in Dallas makes him more uncomfortable. When we are at home, he sounds congested sometimes...maybe we need to get a humidifier.
2. I think Cole got fed more while in Corpus...we had to do a lot more bottles because we had rehearsal dinners, the actual wedding, receptions, etc. When he takes milk from a bottle he takes in a lot more than if he is nursing, so maybe the more milk got him through more of the night.
3. Or, he just flat out is used to a certain routine while at home and is used to that

So....what does everyone think??? Any ideas????

Little Update

It has been so long since I have posted, so sorry! Quite a bit has happened in the last week or so. Cole took his 2nd plane ride to Corpus Christi for Beau and Stacey's wedding. He did awesome on the way down there, but on the way back, it was a little rough. First off, the plane was SO dang hot and it was one of those small planes that gives you no leg room, so we were all a bit uncomfortable. Second, I had yet to nurse Cole on a plane, or in public for that matter....so this was my first experience with that. Third, he had a huge poo explosion and this plane had nowhere to change a diaper, so the flight attendants let us go to the way back and I sat on the attendants seat and put Cole on my lap and Nick changed his diaper...ha! Oh good times! THEN, to top off the already eventful afternoon, we few into DFW airport and then Nick had to leave 45 minutes later for Chicago. He is gone the whole week for training, so being home alone with Cole for a week is kinda stressful. However, Ryan and Rachel are flying into town on Thursday for a long weekend. It will be great to have them here. They were able to spend time with Cole while I was home last, but with everyone wanting to see him, they didn't get to spend as much time as they would have liked.
I have also come to the realization that I have less than 2 weeks till I have to go back to work!! Boo hoo!!! I am so bummed out that I have to leave Cole, but at least it's only for 5 weeks, then I'll have the whole summer off. I wish so bad that I would have just taken the whole semester off, but that would have meant no shopping or fun outings for us for awhile :-)
Cole will be going to our babysitter on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then Nick's mom will come up here Thursday and Fridays, and then the last week and a half of May, my mom will be here. I think what I'm going to miss the most is our mid-morning time. That is when he is so happy and we just play and play. I get him dressed, he watches me eat breakfast and then we'll go into his room and either listen to music or I'll read to him and he is so attentive and just smiles and giggles...it's the best! I'll be sad to miss that, but at least I'll have the weekends to do that!
Sorry I don't have a whole lot of new pictures to post, I'm sure after Ryan and Rachel are here I will post some fun ones.
This picture is funny, Tracy's cousin Charlie and his wife Molly were in town and got him this onesie...it's a 6-9 month, but it is already pretty tight on him so he probably won't be able to wear it that much longer. It's cute though, and boy does he look like a little chunk!!

Holy Moses!!!

Well Folks...believe it or not, Cole slept ALMOST 6 hours straight last night!!! I couldn't believe it...he woke up extremely hungry, I fed him, then went right back to sleep for another 3.5 hours. Now I'm wishing I would have gone to bed earlier because I'm pretty tired today.

Another hurdle we are going to have to tackle in the next month or two is breaking him of his swaddle blanket. That seriously is the only way that he will sleep more than an hour at a time. We mostly use the miracle blanket b/c it basically secures his arms down so he can't move them because we would use other swaddle blankets and he would wiggle his arms up to his face and wake himself up, but the miracle blanket does not allow that. NOW, I ordered a swaddle sack called The Woombie, which is a zip-up swaddle sack that is good for weaning babies off of being swadddled. It kind of looks like a tight sleeping bag. It gives them more movement capabilities, but won't let their hands up by their face. Then you can gradually unzip the bag, an inch or so a day till they are out of it. Oh, I sure hope this works!
I really like swaddling him, but my good friend Angela warned me that once he is able to rollover, that he could flip over like her little guy did, and that is scary because he could suffocate.
This is a picture of what the Woombie looks like....this obviously is not Cole. :-)

First trip to Colorado

Cole made his first trip on an airplane to Colorado. Ryan, Ross and Rachel had not yet seen Cole so it was about time we made the trip. Everyone asks, "how did he do flying?". Well, he did great! On the way there he fussed a little at the beginning, but I gave him some bottle and he went right to sleep. I carried him in a sling which made it super nice because I had my hands free. Although, he is getting a little big for the sling now, guess next time we will have to use the baby bjorn.

We saw so many friends and family while we were there, sometimes in the evening Cole would get a little overstimulated and Nick would take him in the other room to get away from all the comotion. We were definitely sad to leave though, our next trip will be mid June and that will be for 10 days...can't wait!

Here's some pictures of our trip...

Cole finally able to wear his cute winter hat

Uncle Ross holding Cole

Uncle Ryan holding Cole

Aunt Rachel, she got a leg workout bouncing you around!

Me and Nick watching some basketball

My cousin Lauren holding Cole...he looks so comfortable huh? :)

Happy 2 months Cole!!

Look who is already 2 months! Hey Cole, what have you been up to?

• You have finally graduated to size 1 diapers, for being a little porker, you sure have a little booty!
  
• You have doubled your percentiles in height and weight, we are just loving all the rolls.
  
• This past week you have been smiling at us so much. The mornings are the best because you are so happy and just smile all the time. Even though the evenings are our cranky time, we still get a few smiles out every once in awhile.
  
• The doctor tells us that we now need to start giving you a "bedtime". Till now, I have always just put you to bed when I go to bed, but now we have to start putting you to bed at 8:00. Kinda sad! That means daddy won't get to spend as much time with you...but that also means that mom and dad get to spend more time alone.
  
• You still won't sleep more than 5 hours at a time at night, but after getting up and feeding you, you go right back to bed, so I usually feel pretty rested.
  
• At night you are getting so good at putting yourself to sleep. The doctor says at night to feed you and just put you to bed, even if you aren't completely asleep...you are a champ at that! Although, sometimes I do breakdown and rock you because I love that time together.
  
• The puppies just love you, sometimes when I leave you on the bed for a few minutes, I'll come back and find Benson cuddling with you. Roxy is like the mother hen, if she hears you crying, she will be the first one in the room, the only problem with her is that she wants to lick you all the time.
• You rolled from your tummy to your back...at 2 months! Wow! Mommy didn't do that till I was 4 months.

Here is a picture of Cole with a big smile!!! Wait, is that a booger in his nose? ha!

2 month doctor visit

Can you believe we are already at 2 months?? Nick and I took Cole to his doctors appointment yesterday and it was quite the experience. He has changed so much since his last doctors visit...he is now almost 13lbs and 24 inches long, he has doubled all of his percentiles. For instance, he is in the 91st percentile for height...now that doesn't mean that we are going to sign him up for basketball right away, his height won't tell us anything till he's at least 2 years old. Overall though, he has grown so much and has become quite the chunky monkey!
The doctor talked with us about his sleep schedule, she said that we need to start putting him to bed at 8:00pm, then wake him at 11:00 to do a quick feed just to top him off and she said that he should start sleeping longer and in a few weeks we should be able to drop that 11:00 feeding and HOPEFULLY by 3 months he'll start sleeping through the night. Hopefully this new schedule works!
Cole also got his shots...it wasn't as bad as I was imagining. He was being so good throughout his check up (even though it was right in the middle of his nap time), but he finally had enough and just started wailing so when they gave him the shots, I don't think it even fased him, he was already mad!! ha! I was and still am very nervous about all these shots, it just seems like so many at one time. With the whole autism thing and with him being a boy (boys have a much higher chance of getting autism) of course the shots make me a bit nervous, however our doctor requires that they get certain shots and honestly I don't have the knowledge to back up my fears, so it's not like I can tell the doctor that I don't want him to get immunized...just b/c I'm scared. So for now, I'll do what the doctor tells me and we'll just pray that he remains a healthy, happy little boy!
Ok, back to some more upbeat news....we are headed to Colorado today and I'm pretty nervous about flying with Cole for the first time, but we are so excited to get there so my whole family can finally meet him. Also, Denver is supposed to be getting hit hard with a snow storm today so everyone pray that our flight isn't delayed or cancelled, that would not be a good situation with a new baby!
I'll try to post some new pictures once we get to Colorado...

6 More Weeks!

As of today, I have 6 more weeks left till I have to go back to school....I know that is still a super long time and that's only the amount of time that MOST women get all together for maternity leave, but it makes me so sad that my maternity leave is already half over. I can't even imagine having to leave him with a babysitter and not being with him all day.....so sad!!!

This evening, Nick and I are going to meet our future babysitter. My friend Tracey that I used to work with uses Teresa and she lives very close and she's an in-home babysitter...I'm definitely not ready for day care yet. I guess I'm the typical first-time mom and think that he needs more one-on-one care. We are excited to meet her, she is also the sister-in-law to one of my assistant principal's at work, so it's kind of a small world.

When I do go back to work on May 4th, I think we are just going to use Teresa 3 days a week, and then Nick's mom will do the other 2 days. THEN, the last week and a half of school, my mom is going to come down and watch him. So luckily, he'll only have to go to the babysitter for a few weeks. Then come August when I go back to school, hopefully he will be able to continue going to Teresa full-time. Teresa and her husband have had in-home daycares many many years and this is what they do, so I completely trust them.

I always thought I would be one of those mom's that would have to work, that couldn't stay home full time with my kids...but I have totally changed my thinking on that! I would absolutely love to work only part time and stay home the rest, but Nick has informed me that we won't be able to do that for a couple years. It's funny how you are willing to compromise to stay home...I would totally cut down on our "things" so that I could stay home, but again, Nick says "Not yet"...booooo!!!! :-) Guess the hubby knows best!!!

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the last couple days.

Here is Cole laying on his playyard, he's rockin the baseball outfit today!

Cole working on some "tummy time"

Thinking he's not diggin the tummy time today....poor guy!

My Dad's a Geek

So I thought it was appropriate that since I put a picture of Cole wearing a "mommy" shirt that I should post a picture of him wearing a "daddy" shirt!! Hahaha!!! This fits Nick perfectly because we always like to make fun of Nick for being a computer nerd.
Oh and by the way, am I the only one that thinks Cole's belly looks gigantic in this picture?

My Mom's a Fox

Nick's Aunt Peggy got Cole this shirt and it cracks me up! It's says "My mom's a Fox". It fits him perfectly right now so we took a few pictures of him in it. However, don't mind the spit up that is all down the front of the shirt.