Cai Alexander: 18 Months

I'm a little late here, but I definitely wanted to make an 18 month update. Cai changes so much every day, and I don't want to forget what he's like now.

At his 18 month well baby visit, Cai weighed 23 lbs 1 oz. and measured 33.5 inches tall. That puts him in the 15th percentile for weight (he was only in the tenth for his twelve and fifteen month visits) and the 80th for height. The receptionists were surprised at how tall he is. He did not enjoy his appointment at all. He cried when he was measured and weighed before the doctor even saw him. While we waited for her to come in, I explained to him all of the things she would do -- listen to his heart, press on his belly, look in his ears and mouth-- I even demonstrated for him. I reminded him that he was safe, that I would be with him the whole time, and that the doctor was only there to make sure he was healthy and safe. I have no idea how much he understood, but he nodded and whimpered. Until she came in, then he screamed again. I think his last appointment traumatized him; it was a sick visit, and she wanted to check his ears, but they were full of wax (he HATES when I touch his ears), so she had to use a tool to clean them out while I held him down. It was awful.

PERSONALITY
Generally though, Cai is very easy going. He is sometimes shy around new people, especially in small rooms, but I can usually get him to still be polite; shaking hands or waving hello at the very least.

He has very suddenly become more "boyish" if that makes sense. We hear lots of growling and grunting, see more climbing, and experience more tackling.

He's very silly and likes to hide and giggle while he waits to be found. His favorite places are under blankets and in his closet.

My favorite thing right now is how loving he is. He will come up to me in the middle of playing and kiss my leg or my arm. When I lay with him while he's falling asleep, he will sometimes roll over just to give me a kiss. Steve taught him how to do group hugs with Mama and Daddy quite a while ago, and he loves them. He's also very diplomatic, and usually when he kisses one family member, he has to kiss them all. Occassionally though, when he is angry, he will purposefully ignore a request for a kiss or a hug (he just kissed my knee while I typed that).

Cai LOVES his stuffed animals, particularly his three puppies which all happen to be black and white. He kisses them, feeds them, hugs them, squeals when he finds them, and usually sleeps with at least one of them.

It's so fun to see the way he uses his imagination. My mother-in-law recently bought him a box of toy food for his kitchen set (probably over $100 worth of mostly Melissa and Doug stuff for $10; it was awesome!), and he has spent a lot of time cooking and feeding us. The other day he put an egg and bacon in a frying pan, then walked around the living room looking for something and saying, "Hot." He finally found his toy pot holder, ran back over to the kitchen, and used it to get the egg out of the pan!

INTERESTS
Cai loves...

Stacking horses. Eek.

• Animals. All of them, but particularly dogs, elephants, horses, and birds.
• Stacking things...horses, blocks, plastic ice cream scoops, big legos.
• Finny, our dog, who he calls "Eee-ee." He likes to snuggle with Fin, kiss him, call him, pet him, and sometimes gets to rough with him.
• The color blue, which he can say and identify. Yesterday though, everything was blue.
• Coloring, mostly with a blue crayon.
• Climbing. On the table, over the back of the couch, on the high chair...
• Riding the lawn tractor.
• Cars, one of his first really clear words. Whenever we get out of our car, he yells, "car" and points to all of the cars he can see.
• Smelling flowers.
• Blowing out candles.
• Chocolate. This kid is a choco-holic like his mama. One day I had him trying out his little potty and told him he could have a piece of chocolate if he went pee-pee, so he did. Instantly.

TALKING/COMMUNICATION

At Cai's fifteen month check up his doctor made me a little nervous because she was mildly concerned that he wasn't really talking much. I think he could say "hat" and "hot", but not much else. The suggested milestone was 3-5 words. 

The suggested milestone for 18 months was 7-20 words, and he was saying about 25 then. He has added more now. The ones we hear the most often are...

First time walking on the beach.

• car 
• corn
• Daddy
• Bye (this is his clearest word)
• Hi
• Finny (ee-ee)
• blue
• hot
• hat
• eye (also very clear)
• ball
• balloon
• bottle (all three of those sound basically the same)
• book
• gone/all gone
• go
• water (wa)
• coffee (he said this one when he and Daddy brought me a cup on Mother's Day)
• boat (he learned this one on vacation)
• please (meeb)

Recently he has also tried saying "Aunt Katie" (ah day-ee) and "Holly" (hol). I was beginning to get a little jealous because he still wasn't saying "mama", but he finally said it this week (mam). He still really only says it if you ask him where as he calls Daddy a lot and even called Aunt Katie a few times this weekend.

Easter Sunday with one of his elephants.

He makes quite a few animal sounds. Not all of them are recognizable to anyone but family, but he makes them anyway. He makes sounds for dogs, cats, sheep (this one usually gets screamed for some reason), horses, frogs, fish, turtles (those last two are more of a tongue motion than a noise), ducks, cows, moose (his Uncle Jake taught him that one), giraffes (Uncle Jake and Aunt Katie can be thanked for that one too--it's a made up sound), snakes, bunnies (he sniffs), birds (he makes this sound every time he hears a bird. He even stops what he's doing and points to his ear, then tweets), elephants, dinosaurs, lions, and bears. 

SLEEP

Cai wakes between zero and three times a night, usually. Our bedtime/naptime routine usually takes about twenty minutes tops. I read him a book and a Bible story, we pray, and I sing him his lullaby, then lay with him until he falls asleep. He will also usually tell us that he wants to go to bed when we ask. I say usually for all of this though because sometimes he fights sleep tooth and nail. Most mornings he wakes between 5:30 and 6:30, I give him a bottle and lay with him, and he falls back to sleep until around 7:30 or 8:30. Once in a while he'll skip that wake up and sleep straight until 7:30.

Huggin his new baby cousin.

Steve and I are both loving the stage Cai is in now. It's so much fun to watch him learn and grow and try new things. I could write forever about all of things he can do and all of the things I love about it him, but I'll spare you. :)

Getting ready to sit on my lap while I mow the lawn. He lasts about five minutes before falling asleep.

Pulling a "Lady and the Tramp" with Finn

Come back on Monday to check out the new serious I'm starting "Keeping My Toddler Busy"!

Cai Alexander:12 Months

Today Cai turns one year old! This year has flown by. Cai has had a cold this week and had a few nights where he couldn't sleep unless he was touching me, so we spent a couple of nights on the couch (so daddy could get a good night's sleep for work). As I snuggled with him on the couch, I thought about how a year ago, I was also laying on the couch, unable to sle
ep because I was huge and itchy and achy and had to pee and thinking about the way our lives were about to change. What a difference a year makes!

This month has been the hardest and most rewarding so far. Cai has changed so much this month!

At his one year well baby visit, Cai was 19 lbs 3 oz, and 31.5 inches tall which means since birth he has gained 11 lbs. 4 oz. and has grown 11.5 inches! He is in the 10th percentile for weight and the 75th for height. 

Cai can...

• Walk! All over the place. He is so proud of himself. He definitely walks more than crawls now.
• Sign the words "more," "again," "all done," and sort of "please." He doesn't sign any of them consistently, but he knows how. I say sort of for please, because he only does it when he wants to nurse, and he rubs my chest instead of his (but even this is far more polite than the way he normally requests to nurse by squeezing my boobs or lifting up my shirt. We're working on this).
• Bark. My sister taught Cai to bark and now he does it when he sees any animal, particularly dogs, horses, and cows.
• Climb onto the couch. He can get his little leg up so high! He likes to climb up and push everything of the couch; blankets, pillows, the back cushions, the dog...
• Ride his little bike, sort of. He has a little push bike, and he likes to ride it. He doesn't go very far. In fact, he prefers to hold onto the handles and stand balanced on the seat, one foot in front of the other.
• Call the dog, sort of. When I stick my head out the door to call Finn, Cai joins in and calls him too.
• Point out your nose, eyes, and mouth, but not his own.
• Share. Very sweetly. Mostly with the dog though.
• Do all of the motions for "Itsy Bitsy Spider"

Cai likes to...

• Read. Particularly his Little Blue Truck books. He gets gleeful when we pick them up.
• Eat!
• Climb.
• Make messes.
• His Grandpa Jack.
• Brush his teeth. If I ask him if he wants to brush his teeth, he will stop playing in his bedroom and crawl down the hall to the bathroom as fast as he can go.
• Stack things or put things inside of other things.
• Fight. Every. Diaper. Change.
• Watch Sesame Street.
• Touch soft things. He sleeps with a curtain. After weeks of having him play with them while we rocked him in the rocking chair, Steve finally took one of the panels down from his window, and now Cai uses it as a security blanket.
• Throw tantrums. Seriously, the temper on this kid is absurd. If something doesn't go his way, he throws himself backwards and shrieks. We're working on this. 
• Bite mama. He thinks it's hilarious! No matter what I do to discipline him. I even tried biting him back (I know some of you will think that's horrible and others swear by it) and he LAUGHED! Sometimes putting him on the floor and moving away from him works, but it's a battle.

Most nights, sleeping is a little better. He naps beautifully right now. Night times are one extreme or the other. Either he doesn't sleep much at all (waking often, not going to sleep until 2 AM or only sleeping with me) and other nights he wakes, eats, and goes instantly back to sleep. We had one night recently where he only woke twice, and then the next night, he went to sleep then work at 11:30 and didn't go back to sleep until 2 AM. 

Cai has either his first or his second cold right now. I'm still not sure if the first one was a cold or teeth, but this one is definitely a cold. Teeth may be making it worse, but I seem to have the same cold. We were working on the beginnings of the weaning process, but because he's been feeling poorly and not eating or drinking much of anything else, we've put a pause on that.

Cai Alexander: Eleven Months

My little boy is almost one! How did this happen so quickly? I feel like we were just sitting on the couch listening to the voicemail of my nurse telling me I was pregnant!

Cai is a joy right now. Every day he does or learns something new. It makes life SO exciting for us.

Cai can...

• Point our noses. On people, but especially on his stuffed animals which is stinking adorable.
• Climb. On everything. 
• Walk. A few steps at a time so far, but he does more every day. Today he took about five or six steps from one couch to another.
• Sign the word "more" although he's only done it a few times.
• Wave goodbye. And this week he has started doing it without me waving first. He starts when I say, "Say goodbye."
• Communicate what he wants. He points where he wants to go, and has different noises he makes for different things. Technically, he says "mama," but it's not always in reference to me; it really just means I need something.
• Yell. This seems obvious, but he does it for certain things like today he helped me call the dog in.

Cai likes to...

• Feed his food to Cai when he's bored with it.
• Sit at his little table and chairs (which my dad made for me when I was about one and a half) and eat or watch TV.
• Watch TV. I've been careful to limit it, but it's super helpful when I'm getting my coffee and Cai's breakast in the morning and also when I'm making dinner. He particularly loves Sesame Street. When the TV is on a kid's show, he sits perfectly still and is completely enthralled, especially if music is involved.
• Play with stuffed animals.
• Throw Finn's ball for him.
• Greet his Daddy when he gets home from work.
• Be held by his Grandpa Jack.
• Be fed by his Oma (my grandmother). Especially because she tends to give him cookies and has let him try chocolate...twice.
• Be bounced on the couch.
• Climb on things and in things. He likes to crawl inside Finn's crate.
• Chew on straws.
• Press buttons. He can just reach the power button on our Wii, and sometimes stands in front of it and presses it over and over again.
• Pull books of the shelf.
• Eat! He tried shrimp last week and loved it.
• Read. Books about animals Crack. Him. Up. His favorite is Your Baby's First Word Will Be DADA by Jimmy Fallon.

Cai is sleeping a little better than he was before. He is backing to take longer naps (between 45 minutes and 2 hours). He naps twice a day, going down around 10:30-11:30 AM and 3-4 PM. We have had a few nights lately where he has only woken up two or three times, but most nights it's still 4-6 times a night. Last night he only woke up twice, but it took me an hour to get him to stay asleep. I still think a lot of it is due to teeth; even though he has six now, he is still drooling like crazy and chewing on everything. He occasionally stops nursing to chew on my shirt!

Cai Alexander: Ten Months

So I haven't been so great at posting these updates. :( I've kept up with making the monthly pictures, but not with a monthly blog post. Cai had changed SO much in the past two months. Since I started typing this post he as climbed all over me, hugged my face, yelled a few times, and climbed off of the couch!

Cai can...

• Climb up stairs and onto things close to the ground.
• Cruise around the furniture quite quickly.
• Climb off of the bed and couches.
• Stand on his own.
• Walk holding onto one or both of someone's hands.
• Point to things he finds interesting or wants to see more closely.
• Open and close doors (If his bedroom door is nearly shut, he can reach it from his crib. When he wakes up he pulls it open and cries loudly!)
• Pick up very tiny things with two fingers.
• Wave.
• Give high fives.
• Touch things very gently if you say "one finger."

Cai likes to...

• Splash in the dogs water dish or spill it.
• Race to the dog's food dish when I feed him, grab a fistful of food, then spin in a circle on his butt to get away from me.
• Climb on the dog...or people...or furniture.
• Touch everything he knows he's not supposed to, especially electrical cords, Mama's laptop, and Grangy and Grandpa Jack's TV.
• Steal the dog's bone.
• Throw the dog's ball or wait for Finn to grab it out of his hand.
• Choose a diaper to wear when Mama gives him the choice of two.
• Touch flowers and earrings gently.
• "Sing" to himself while he plays.
• Laugh and be tickled.
• Hang upside down.
• Be pushed onto the bed or into a pile of pillows/blankets.
• Watch things out the window/sliding glass door.
• Eat!
• Laugh at funny noises.
• Open and close the glass door between the living room and dining room.
• Watch the laundry spin in the washing machine.

Physical growth...

Cai doesn't have another well baby check until one year, but at his nine month appointment he was 18 lbs. 6 oz. (20th percentile) and 29 in. tall (75th percentile). He has two teeth on the bottom and four on the top that are about to pop through at any second. He is so close to walking! We're pretty sure he's capable of it but afraid to try.      

 

Destruction

This week, Cai has become super destructive, haha. Actually really just the past two days. He knocked over a floor lamp and broke a light bulb, spilled a cup of coffee and a large glass of water at my parents' house. shattered my mom's 9x13 dish, kicked the lamp off of his changing table and cracked the shade...all while an adult was within inches of him. He is strong and fast and determined!

Overall, Cai is a joy. His personality shows more and more every day. He's definitely not a super easy kid anymore; he doesn't sleep super well, he's quite difficult to discipline, and he has a temper, but even the hard parts are wonderful. 

Cai Alexander: Six Months

So it's a week late, but here is Cai's six month update:

New Things: I can't believe how fast Cai is learning. He seems to change every time I turn around.

• Roll over both ways, consistently. 
• Grab things without difficulty and throw them (occasionally).
• Touch things gently, for a few seconds. My favorites are when he gently runs his fingers through someone's hair (not mine...he's never gentle with mine, but his daddy's and Aunt Katie's) or pet the dog.
• Get up on his hands and knees and even more often on his hands and feet like he's planking. He is so close to crawling. He does this stair climbing move, but he can't figure out that he needs to move his hands too. 
• Stomp his feet.
• Scream and whine. He does a lot of whining right now. He sounds like a morning dove.
• Eat. He loves food. We are doing Baby Led Weaning and he loves it. He doesn't swallow all that much of it, but he enjoys every food we've given him. So far he has had:

• Peppers: red, yellow, and green, roasted and raw
• Onions, roasted
• Lasagna
• Pierogies
• Carrots, steamed
• Asparagus, roasted
• Green beans, steamed, roasted
• Celery, raw
• Grilled cheese fingers
• Grilled chicken leg
• Apples
• Bananas
• Avocado
• Baked oatmeal, made with steel cut oats, breast milk, apple sauce, and an egg
• Potatoes, roasted with herbs
• Mango
• Strawberries
• Celery
• Ice cream and raspberry sherbet
• Pancakes
• Garlic bread
• Oranges and clementines
• Splash in the bathtub or pool.

Sleep: Cai is still napping pretty wonderfully. Most naps are between and hour and two and a half hours. If one is shorter, he usually takes and extra fourth nap. We are still struggling with weaning him from the swaddle though.

Nights are a different story. He is waking up frequently, usually to eat. He eats for about twenty minutes and will not go back down unless he passes out fully first. The past two nights have been especially hard. He woke up five or six times to eat both nights and a few other times without eating. It pretty much sucks. I have to keep reminding myself that this doesn't last long, for good or for bad, and that he's not doing it to make my life miserable. I'm doing my best to treasure these moments while they last. 

I'm pretty sure this lack of sleep phase is because of the fifth leap or wonder week or whatever it's called. The timing is exactly what it should be for that. If that's the case, it should get better in the next day or two.

Likes: Cai's favorite things right now are:

• His dog. Not all dog's, but his dog. When we got home from vacation, Cai lit up when he saw Finn again.

• His star mobile over his crib. It's been there since he came home with us, but he just seems to have noticed it. He likes to touch it when we're laying him down for a nap. Sometimes spinning it before we leave the room after laying him down helps him to fall asleep watching it.

• Peek-a-boo. This is new this week, so technically I guess it should go on the next update.

• His lion teething toy (the cheap version of Sophie Giraffe because we couldn't justify spending TWENTY DOLLARS on a teether, a blue rubber ducky, and a wooden teething ring.

• Animal noises. I've been "teaching" him what noises different animals make and he loves it. It's a way to distract him when he's whiny.

• Reaching for EVERYTHING. 
  

• Trying to drink water from Mama and Daddy's water bottles and cups.
• Rolling all over the floor. It's amazing to me how mobile he is without crawling yet. We've actually moved the coffee table and temporarily made it an end table (my idea, but it kills my sense of style) because the area rug in the center of the room is the only comfortable place for him to try to crawl.
• Being tickled.

We went on our first family vacation as a family of three last week (which is the reason I didn't post right away). We had the privilege of going with Steve's parents, my parents, my grandparents, and Steve's grandfather, as well as both of our sisters and brothers. It was such a neat thing to be able to do. In some ways, it was a great break because there were other people to hold Cai when he gets restless and whiny, but in other ways it was difficult for me. Nobody said or did anything to criticize our parenting (except maybe Granddad who was amazed that we picked things up off the floor and gave them back to Cai without washing them :o) but it is so easy to feel like everyone has a different opinion than me or thinks

there's a better way for us to do things (even if they don't really). I was also hormonal at the time and didn't get as much sleep as I needed. It's just a weird feeling when Cai starts fussing and instead of just dealing with it like I would normally (most likely by letting him cry for a bit) and everybody jumps up to hold him or stands around watching to see what you will do, haha. I'm sure I'm not the only super sensitive first time mama around.

Cai Alexander: Five Months

New Things: Cai is doing SO MANY new things. It seems he learns something new every day. He can:

• Roll over from back to belly (he has also gone from belly to back but only two or three times.
• Reach for and grab almost any object.
• Reach out to touch the dog.
• Blow raspberries. 
• Stand up with very little support.
• Laugh, squeal, grunt as a complaint, 
• Creep...sort of...he does this inch worm thing, pushing his butt up in the air and scooting forward.
• Grab the fingers of anyone holding him and shoving them in his mouth.
• Pull his pacifier out of his mouth and stick it back in (about 7 times out of 10)
• Chew on his toes.

Growth: Cai now weighs 15 lbs. 5 oz., keeping him right around the 45-50th percentile where he has been. He is now 26.5 inches long (2.5 inches of growth), jumping him from the 50th percentile to the 75th. Not that percentile really matters, it's just kind of cool. The ladies at the doctor's office were surprised at how big he had gotten since his three month well baby visit.

Sleep: Cai naps beautifully, most of the time. As long as we stick to our routine, Cai usually falls asleep very quickly. Our only problem with naps lately is that when he wakes up, even only half way, he immediately rolls over then gets upset because he's stuck on his belly. This week he started to be able to fall back to sleep on his belly or back, but usually one of us has to flip him back over and give him his pacifier. Usually he'll go back to sleep, but not always. We still swaddle him with one arm out, but we are slowly trying to phase out the swaddle. It's slow going; I had stopped swaddling both arms for a week or so and he went from sleep an hour and a half at a time to thirty to forty five minutes. It took me awhile to make the connection, but once I started swaddling on arm again, his naps got longer; he even took a two and a half hour nap this week.

Nighttime sleeping has changed quite a bit. He wakes fairly often, but usually just needs someone to put his pacifier in, and he goes right back to sleep. This week he has consistently been waking to nurse between 4:30 and 5:30. I'm not really loving having to wake up at that time, but he also has been sleeping half an hour later. I think the change is a combination of teething and the "four month sleep regression". 

Breastfeeding: For the most part I feel like we have this whole breastfeeding thing down pat now. We seem to be past any issues of oversupply, engorgement, dairy intolerance, and latch issues. Our only issue right now is this weird thing he does during his last feeding before bedtime. Not every night, but many nights, he seems hungry then starts crying after a few minutes of nursing. I can't pin down a reason for it. First I thought tummy issues, but that doesn't seem to fit. Then I thought maybe my supply is just low at night, but I seem to still be pretty full, although it could just not be coming out fast enough? Sometimes it seems to be due to teething; if we give him some Hylands Teething Tablets, he calms down and eats. Other times he just needs to stop an do something else, like have his diaper change, and then he eats without a problem. And still other times, he just refuses to eat altogether, and we put him to bed.

Overall, he nurses between five and seven times a day. The days he eats more often are usually days when he cluster feeds because he gets distracted and doesn't finish a normal feeding.

Likes: In addition to learning new things, Cai enjoys doing new things. His favorite things right now are:

Singing "Jesse's Girl" with Daddy

• Playing in his activity center. He likes to try to chew on everything and gets made when he can't get all of the toys in his mouth. He has really started to bounce in it. A lot.

• Watching Finn. Finn is the funniest thing in our house right now. Everything he does is hilarious. At least to Cai.

• Singing. Cai likes it when Mama or Daddy sing with him or to him, particularly songs like "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Head and Shoulders, Knees, and Toes," but this week he also really loved it when I loudly sang "Good Morning" from Singing in the Rain.

• Chewing on everything. Sometimes frantically. He has at least one bottom tooth getting ready to pop through. And the drool. It's ridiculous. This kid is constantly soaked.

Greg (Aunt Katie named him)

• Stuffed animals. Cai really seems to enjoy plush. He sleeps with either Greg, a little Garanimals brand "lovey," or a stuffed puppy he has. He likes to snuggle them, play with them, and mostly chew on them.

• The Wind Up. Cai apparently likes anticipation. He likes to be thrown in the air, but more than that he likes if you count to three and lift him just a little on each number before  you throw him. He also likes to be tickled, but mostly he likes when you start by wiggling your fingers in the air high above him and making them creep toward him.

Reaching for Mama's p

• Sticking out his tongue.

• Reaching for Mama or Daddy's phones, which he is not allowed to have.

• Watching TV. Ugh. We do not want him to watch TV, but this kid is attracted to it. I am one who enjoys having the TV on as background noise when I am doing things around the house, but I have to be careful now.
  
  
  
  
  

Cai Alexander: Three Months

Yesterday, Cai turned three months old. This is one of my favorite baby stages! He's starting to interact and his personality is beginning to show. Here's what's going on in Cai's world right now...

New Things: Cai has discovered his hands. They are constantly being chewed on, sucked on, and clasped against his chest. This was our first sign of another new thing, teething. He started the chewing a few weeks ago and followed it up with ridiculous amounts of drool. I thought it was highly unlikely that he was starting to teeth at two months, but in the past two days we've noticed a little bleeding on his gums where a first tooth usually shows up and some extra fussiness. He's still a happy baby, but there are times when you can tell he's uncomfortable. Thankfully it hasn't affected his ability to sleep through the night or to nurse comfortably. I do feel really bad for him though because he's not coordinated enough to put anything other than his hands in his mouth, so he can't even use a teether right now. I do plan to try giving him a frozen washcloth to gnaw on, and I bought some Hyland's teething tablets. 

Other than that, he has started to pay attention to toys around him, he can recognize mama from across the room. He smiles and giggles spontaneously at people. He has let a real belly laugh a few times, but it's difficult to make it happen. Actually, every time we've heard it has been while he's on the changing table, his favorite spot.  I'm pretty sure rolling over isn't too far away. He really likes to "stand"; sometimes it's actually difficult to get him to sit. He holds his head up pretty steadily almost all the time, unless he's about to fall asleep, then he looks like a drunk bald man.

Growth: Cai is now 13 lbs 1 oz. and 24 inches long which is perfectly average, right at the 50th percentile. He is still wearing 0-3 month clothes, but about half of those are too small.  He went through a growth spurt last week, nursing constantly. He went from spending an average of two and a half hours a day eating to five hours! I felt like I never left the couch! 

Sleep: Cai sleeps through the night almost every night. About once a week he will wake up once for a feeding, but he goes right back down. He sleeps from between 8-9 PM to 7-8:30 AM. For awhile we were struggling with getting him to go to sleep easily, but three out of the past four nights he has gone to sleep without a peep. I'm chalking it up to establishing a clearer routine for him. I nurse him in the living room, then bring him to his room, change his diaper, dim the lights, put a little bit of lavender lotion on him, swaddle him (with one arm out so he can suck on his fist), read him a Bible story, pray, sing him a lullaby, and lay him down. By the time I lay him down, he is almost asleep. It's great!

Naps on the other hand have been a bit trickier. For a long time he had been taking two 2-3 hour naps a day. Right now though, I can barely get him to sleep a full hour at a time. Most naps are over in twenty minutes. I think we need to establish a better routine for naps, and I think I need to discourage cat naps, and try to get him to go back to sleep if he wakes up to early. 

Diapering: I have finally gotten a handle on exactly what I'm eating that causes Cai's diaper rashes. I've found I can't have any fresh dairy at all. I can have butter, milk, etc. if it's baked inside things. I can't have cheese in any form. As long as I stay away from these things, he is totally rash free. I feel like cloth diapering helps with this too. We've had to use disposables a lot this week (we were without heat and hot water for a day and a half, so I couldn't wash the diapers), and it has made me super thankful for cloth. We had THREE blowouts in two days. I've never had one in cloth. In the defense of the disposables though, Cai has been pooping less lately, only once or twice a day (common for breastfed babies), and when he does poop, he poops A LOT. The elastic in the cloth diapers seems to hold this in better though. One of the nice things about the less frequent pooping is that if a little dairy slips into my meal, it doesn't affect his tushie as much as it did before.

Overall, Cai is a really easy baby. Like, to the point that I'm afraid that baby number 2 (Lord willing), will be quite a shock. Again, I know this could change at any moment, so I'm trying not to take it for granted. 

Cai Alexander: Two Months Old

Cai is two months old today, and it has been a wonderful two months. Seriously, we have the best baby ever. He is so easy going and happy. We are well aware that this may change, but as of right now, even his fussy times aren't super bad.

Cai is a very happy baby, especially first thing in the morning. I love laying him on the changing table and watching him stretch and then smile. He's still a very active baby. When I change his diaper, I lay a little baby washcloth on him to avoid being "anointed," but it's very difficult to keep that washcloth in place because he is SO wiggly sometimes!

He's also very strong. He holds his head up when held upright; I know I sound like a typical mom, but he looks much older than he really is just because he holds himself upright so well.

His two month well-baby check went well. He gained two pounds and eight ounces and grew two inches making him 11 lbs. 12 oz. and 23.5 inches long. It's amazing to me how proud I am knowing that he has grown because of the nourishment my body is providing for him. His baby acne has cleared up as well as his cradle cap. He still has that stubborn diaper rash from something I'm eating, but I'm still not sure what, and it's very mild compared to what it was awhile ago. We've found that putting organic unrefined coconut oil on it helps the most.

Christmas Day. This outfit is almost snug
now.

Cai is wearing 0-3 month clothing right now, although some of his little sleepers are getting a little snug already. This is absolutely crazy to me because the same outfits were comically large on him when he wore them on Christmas Eve.

Our little man is becoming quite "chatty." He coos and even squeals sometimes. I LOVE it. We have conversations all the time. The talking tends to come along with smiles and kicks, so it's great to watch! He's especially chatty and smiley during diaper changes.

Our little Houdini manages to break
out of his swaddle often

Cai continues to be a FABULOUS sleeper. Most night he gets up only once, if at all, usually between 4:30 and 6:30. I change him, feed him, and put him back to bed. In the beginning, I was so afraid that I was teaching him to only fall asleep by being nursed, but he wakes up on his own after I feed him and is usually quite alert when I leave the room, but he falls right back to sleep on his own. Some nights he sleeps through the night. Thursday night he slept from 9:00 to 7:00 then went back to sleep until 10:00. It was great! He also naps really well. I almost always lay him down awake and swaddled. Sometimes he'll lay quietly just looking around for a little while, but then he usually sleeps for 2-3 hours. He naps shortly after waking up in the morning until around 11:00 then usually goes down for another long nap around 1:00. After his second nap, he dozes off and on until bedtime. His most awake and alert time is between those two long naps. Right now, he naps in the cradle between the kitchen and the living room and sleeps in his crib in his room. So far he is a pretty sound sleeper. Last night I woke up because I could hear Cai making noises on the monitor (he is a VERY noisy sleeper). I heard him grunt loudly, then Steve, who was asleep next to me, made the same grunting noise. It's so funny to notice ways that they are alike.

I try to read to Cai often. We read a Bible story from The Jesus Storybook almost every night. We also read other books sometimes during the day. Sometimes he'll sit still for them and others not so much.

Cai enjoys listening to music with his daddy. One night last week, I had to drop something off at my parents house, so I drove up quickly and left Cai with Steve. When I walked in Steve "shushed" me because he had put Cai to sleep on his chest by listening to Thousand Foot Crutch and Smashing Pumpkins. Another evening Steve put on Pandora and the two of them danced to Coheed and Cambria. It's neat to see the two of them interacting that way, especially because I know it's frustrating for Steve when Cai tends to be fussier in the evening after he gets home from work.

Meeting his cousins!

This little onesie is packed away with all of his other newborn clothes :(