Porter | 3 Months

Our baby is three months old, which seems like a big deal as we close out the 'fourth trimester' baby-hood and move into the super FUN stages! He's changing and growing so much and I really can't remember a time Porter wasn't a part of our family.











Sleep: The Mecca (aside from eating, which is the source of much stress for this poor old mama). P-dogg is sleeping a bit better at night as of the past week or so. He goes to bed around 7:30pm and wakes up in his nursery, in the MamaRoo between 12-2am for the first time. Last night he woke at 3am and then 6am and I seriously wanted to cry from being so pleasantly rested. That 7.5 hour stretch he gave us last night was maybe the best ever, but I forget that he was sleeping pretty well in those early weeks, too. After his first wake up, he may be super restless and awake every hour or perhaps he will conk out for another two hours. I have been nursing him at night, instead of caving and giving him his beloved bottles, and occasionally this irritates him to no end. One night Nate did get a 4oz bottle for me to use at 4am because P would just NOT settle down, and the babe scarfed it down in record time. However, his best nursing sessions are usually when he is super sleepy so I'm not planning to give bottles while I'm half asleep and stumbling around the house at 3 am. Nope. Not yet, buddy, sorry!

Naps are on schedule at Lori's house but not so much at home yet. He averages about three naps per day right now, lasting anywhere from 45 minutes to 2+hours. One day he slept for 3 hours at Lori's but I'm pretty sure our max at home is 2….and that would be in the Ergo;) Swing naps happen at home and have improved from their typical 20 minutes up to about an hour if he's really tired. Still needs to be held/rocked to sleep and I do not mind in the slightest, since I'll steal all of the cuddles while he lets me. Dude loves the swaddle, loves the pacifier, and likes to lay on his side a bit for snooze-fests.



I can definitely tell that Porter is falling into a better sleep routine and doesn't fight it as much and is awake and content for much longer periods. I'm still exhausted but it's reaching the point where my body is used to functioning on broken sleep. Still really looking forward to a time when 1-2 wake ups per night are the norm.

Eating: see entire post whining about this topic here. In other news, I got a brand new Medela breast pump after I finally investigated coverage with my medical insurance. Turns out this new pump has a wicked strong motor compared to my 'well-used' Hygeia pump that is almost five years old. I mean, the first time I turned on this new pump my eyeballs almost shot out of my head because my nipples were almost severed from my body with it's strength. Also, I might even get more milk from this new pump with the killer motor: 7 ounces at my first try. Yes! Just need to get a car adapter or a battery pack so I can use this at work in my van.

Also, after all of the awesome suggestions from you dear readers, I officially have an appointment with a Lactation Consultant for Tuesday. I've been emailing with my cousin who's an LC but I figure it can't hurt to visit one in person. Mostly because I want her to evaluate Porter for a tongue or lip tie, since I have no idea if his frenulums are normal despite my constant digging in his little mouth and searching online;) Maybe this could be our answer to his crappy nursing, slow weight gain, and love for bottles….or maybe not. But I'm excited to see what she has to say about his latch, his mouth, his bottles, and our plans for how to tackle this nursing hurdle. I feel like maybe this appointment could guide me a bit in how hard to push for nursing, because I certainly feel like I'm pushing him right now. So far we haven't had to give a formula bottle at home, just one at daycare each day he's there. So I'm a pumping fool, attempting to keep up with this milk maniac but the freezer stash is dwindling and I'm feeling spread SUPER thin. So something has to give. I hope it's Porter that gives in but I'm not holding my breath. Just taking it a day at a time and giving it my best without sacrificing my sanity (too much).







Other: Porter has his first little cold it seems, and really all of us have scratchy throats, runny noses, and we're sneezing fools. He just seems congested but of course, happy, since he really IS the happiest baby ever. He's so smiley and those grins are contagious like nothing else---I mean, his little face literally makes my heart hurt sometimes. Too much to handle!!







P-man still dislikes the car but (fingers crossed) it seems a little less traumatic to be in the van these days. Sometimes on the way to and from Lori's he will even look around and be content. This is HUGE! Other times he pulls his favorite stunt of flipping the heck out with blood curdling screams but now that I think about it, I really think those horrible melt downs are not the norm anymore. Yay.





He's getting really good at holding up his giant head, both during tummy time and when we hold him upright against our chest. Lori can take credit for this one as she has him doing more tummy time than I manage to do at home. #PTmomFail. He also discovered his hands and apparently they are super tasty. He will bat his little dangling friends that hang overhead in his play yard and he gets really excited about capturing one of the animals in his death grip. Porter seriously loves television and I KNOW---he is three months old and TV is the devil for any child under the age of two (sarcasm). But we noticed he especially loves to watch football games. Like, he will seriously stare at the screen for a ridiculous amount of time and his attention span for TV might be longer than his big sister's. We don't just prop him up in front of the boob tube or anything but he probably wouldn't mind.

(tummy time while watching football---his fave)








One big change this month is how vocal Porter is becoming--with the coos and the squeals and general happiness. Combine that with his ability to entertain himself contentedly for a solid 30 minutes or more? Awesomeness.

P still loves the Ergo and is an outdoorsman already--staring at the leaves and looking at the sky anytime we take him outside. He doesn't have fussy evenings anymore but if he is overtired and not into closing his eyes, I will take him outside to calm down first (almost always works) and then take him up to his dark nursery. The Baby Got Colic soundtrack will blare through his MamaRoo, he's swaddled, sucking on his pacifier, and walking around while I'm cuddling him...and then he gives in to sleep, glorious sleep. Sometimes he'll need the extra special trick of gently rubbing my finger across his eyebrows and forehead and then it's total lights out. I really enjoy getting to the point when we start to learn what our babies like and what they don't like, discovering what works and what doesn't work. Because obviously, as soon as we start to feel like we are figuring him out he will change it all on us anyway!

Porter is just a social dude and it's the best thing in the world to see him stare right at me, recognize me, and smile his face off. Literally, the best thing ever after a work day to see my baby get excited about seeing his mom. He is absolutely growing now that he is drinking so.much.milk at daycare (and home in bottles) and I really think he looks fatter just in the past two weeks. Maybe he will get weighed at the LC appointment this week, but his 6 month clothes are fitting much better and so are size 2 diapers.

Truman and Cecelia are still obsessed with our Porter-P, and they are constantly up in his biz and invading his personal space. He gives him the side-eye sometimes but kind of likes the attention, even though they breathe their germy little breaths all over him. Gee, I wonder why he has a cold?













I'll tie it up here and just say that we love this baby so freaking much that it is overwhelming at times---things are far from perfect but they are really good, even when they are hard. Three months old, buddy!! Can't wait to watch you grow up. Just promise that you will always be my cuddle buddy, alright?







Love you so much, Porter.
xo, Mommy