Oliver: six months old

Half a year old already!  Here is what our sweet boy is up to at six months.  Also, yes I intentionally skipped his five month post and the next will probably be at nine months. 

January 2017 - five months old

February 2017 - six months old

Sleeping:  Bedtime has shifted to an even earlier hour and this little guy wants to go to sleep for the night anywhere between 6:30-7:30pm.  He sleeps through the night until anywhere between 4:30-6:00am (typically on the earlier side of that range), which yes, is super early, but he is sleeping solidly for 9-10 hours stretches so we can't really complain about that.  I have grown accustomed to the early bird wake up call and am now beginning to enjoy the hour or two I get alone with Oliver in the morning before the other boys wake up. 

Naps are sort of on a schedule but not always.  If he wakes up super early then he will take a short nap two hours after he wakes up.  Another nap around 9am and then he is typically awake until his afternoon nap at 2pm, which usually lasts 2-3 hours.  Arlo has nap or quiet time at the same time so that is when I (usually) get a little break in the day.   At four months I tried to transition him to naps in his crib and he did okay, but they never lasted more than 40 minutes and when he woke up he will still tired and cranky.  So I decided to try again at five months with a Merlin Magic Sleepsuit which our neighbor let us borrow and he hated it.  I have since tried a few more naps in his crib to see if I could get them to last longer with not much success.  He doesn't nap in the swing anymore so we have progressed to him sleeping in his room, but always in the rock and play.  Nights are still in our room, also in the rock and play.  I have given up on trying to get him to sleep in the crib, I will figure it out when he officially outgrows the rocker and hopefully it will be easier when he is a bit more mobile and can make himself more comfortable in the crib on his own.

five months

six months

Eating:  Oh boy.  This kid loves food.  Our pediatrician encouraged us to start solids at four months, and initially I was like "um, no we will wait until six months like we did with Arlo."  But then at 4.5 months we randomly let him try a tiny taste of avocado and he loved it.  For the next month we did super tiny tastes of veggies and then really got serious about solids at 5.5 months.  He was definitely ready and within a few meals was gobbling down an entire jar of food.  By six months he was up to two full meals a day (breakfast and dinner) which is fun because he now sits at the table with us and absolutely loves the social aspect of it.  He hasn't had a food yet that he hasn't liked, veggies, fruits, grains, peanut butter - this kid isn't picky.  He is also still drinking the homemade formula we have been using since his newborn days.  Five ounces at a time, every three hours or so.  We stopped receiving donor breast milk around 4.5 months and I am so happy we were able to give it to him for so long!

six months

five months

Weight and length:  He was scheduled to have his six month appointment last week but with the flu prevalence we have right now in our area I opted to postpone his well child visit for another month.  There was no way I was taking both of our healthy kiddos into an office full of sick ones just for a checkup.  If I remember I will add in his stats here later or I will just post them with the next update...

Wearing:  9 month onesies, 9 and 12 month pants.  Jammies are 12 month and 12-18 months (what?!)

six months

Likes and dislikes:  Oliver has really started to get into playing with all the baby toys lately, which is quite a difference from his brother who was never really into baby toys all that much from what I remember.  This past weekend we brought out Arlo's old wooden activity cube and found that Oliver will sit next to it and entertain himself for a good bit of time.  He loves, loves, loves his brother and Arlo is definitely the biggest source of entertainment for him these days.  The more Oliver smiles and laughs at him the more Arlo will preform, so it's quite the show to watch these two together.  He still finds most things hilarious - zippers, light up musical toys, and peek-a-boo are all sure to get this kid laughing.  He loves his walker and can cruise everywhere in it.  The other day Erik came home from work and Oliver, in his walker, came zooming over to the door to greet him with a huge smile on his face.  He also loves swinging on the swings at the park while big brother plays, and cruising in the bike trailer with dad on the weekends. 

All this being said, no baby is happy alllll the time.  I expected teeth to pop through months ago but this kid is taking forever to get there, however he is still showing all the signs of teething pretty hard core.  Drooling like mad, chewing on everything, rosy red cheeks.  He's got it all.  I am beginning to think they might all just come through in one go, ha.  So this is definitely his biggest dislike these days.

New milestones and developments:   Right before he turned five months he started rolling over both ways.  Just this past weekend (he's now a little over 6 mo) he started army crawling and the very next day decided that he could finally sit up on his own now too, so long as we put him down in a sitting position.  We have upgraded him to the highchair for meals (to which Arlo first questioned "Oliver is in my highchair?!")  He has grown quite curious and always wants to know what everyone is doing, which his walker helps him to accomplish.  He is typically in his walker when I am making dinner, and during this time will go back and forth between zooming laps around the island and watching his brother play in the playroom.  I certainly wouldn't describe him as a "gentle" baby, as he grabs forcefully for what he wants (food, my hair, toys that Arlo is playing with) and rams his walker hard into things, even taking out one of my plant stands and potted plants recently.  He babbles in all the usual baby ways, although what I have been hearing the most of lately is "da da" and what sounds like "yea."

Arlo - 3 years   /   Oliver - 5 months

happy half a year old, sweet baby Oliver  :)

Oliver: four months old

spoiler alert:  he did not get what was on his wish list this year....

Sleeping:  Mid-month, we had a challenging week in this department.  Teething, a runny nose, and a growth spurt had us constantly trying to figure out what was wrong with our usually happy little man.  He had about a week of waking up between 4 and 5am, sometimes wanting to go back to sleep and sometimes not.  Fortunately, it was short lived and now, even though we are still feeling the teething pains, sleep is back on track.  Bedtime is between 8:30 and 9pm and he is up for the day between 6:15 and 7:15am.  I do realize how lucky we are to have had not one but two good sleepers and I do not take this for granted.  I feel a little guilty when other moms ask me if he sleeps through the night yet and I tell them his sleep schedule.  But... I also really, really enjoy my sleep so I don't feel that guilty, ha.

Naps are kind of all over the place right now.  I feel like we were on a better nap schedule in months prior.  Once he wakes up for the day he's usually up for maybe and hour or two then wants a short morning nap.  Then awake again for a couple more hours then wants to take a long morning nap, however this usually falls around the time that we are trying to head out for our morning excursion.  So the poor kid just has to kind of catch sleep when he can.  Sometimes he sleeps while we are out and about, sometimes not.  Depending on how the morning goes for him, sometime in the afternoon he will snooze for another 3-4 hours, but this could start at 2pm or 4pm, I never really know.  Maybe in the next couple of months we will have something more consistent going on but for now everyday is a little bit different.  He is also still taking all of his naps in his swing which we keep downstairs in the living room.  I like that I can watch him nap and am always nearby when he wakes up but sometime this month I am hoping to transition him to napping in his crib.  He still sleeps in his rock and play in our bedroom at night.

Eating:  No change from last month.  Still on donor breast milk and formula.  Our milk donor mama is a rock star for providing us with milk for this long.  Oliver still eats 4 oz at a time, every three hours or so.  Definitely tanks up at bedtime which is something I think helps contribute to sleeping the whole night through without waking up to eat.

Weight and length:  The reason this post went up a little late is because I was waiting to add in these measurements that were taken at his well child visit this week.  This little chunkster has gained nearly three pounds since his two month check-up.  He now weighs in at nearly 15 lbs, putting him in the 26th percentile for weight.  He grew almost 2 inches since his last visit and is now measuring just under 25 inches in length, which is the 19th percentile for babies his age.  Head circumference is up to 17 inches, 86th percentile.  Don't worry kid, your older bother already has quite the collection of abnormally large hats that should fit you just fine.

Wearing:  6 and 9 mo onesies and 9 mo pants.  At the 4 month mark we stopped swaddling him at night and surprisingly he had no problems with it.  So now he wears footed jammies to bed, also size 6 or 9 mo. In the last couple of weeks I packed away the newborn cloth diapers and got out the stash of larger sizes, which he is fitting well into.  So happy to have him in my favorite diapers now, the Coqui Hero's.  

Likes and dislikes:  No big changes here.  Loves to look at faces and just seeing mama or dad will bring out his wide, gummy smile.  Also loves to look in the mirror.  Laughs like crazy when we pick him up super man style and put him up in the air.  Still likes his swing and play gym.  Loves being naked and taking baths.  Also loves being in his walker and playing with the toys on it.  Loves to watch Arlo and has recently started smiling at the silly things his big brother does.  Enjoys holding onto toys and rattles and is mesmerized by ceiling fans.

Still showing all the signs of teething although nothing has popped through yet.  I would be surprised if by his next update he doesn't have his first tooth.  Teething is still his biggest dislike.  However now he can better hold onto teethers and frozen washcloths so those have been a minor help, or if nothing a short distraction from the pain.  Poor kid. We also learned this month that Oliver does not like to be deprived of his afternoon nap and then held by strangers, ha.  During three separate social gatherings he had a complete freak out after being passed around by new people.  He's still way too young for the whole "stranger danger" thing so I am sure it was due to overstimulation.  These next few months will be spent working on his social gathering etiquette, so not to worry if you were one who was offended by his rude conversational skills this month. 

"hurts right there, mom."  : (

New milestones and developments:   Right at the four month mark we saw some big changes with this guy.  He is suddenly so much stronger and can wiggle around in his swing and rock and play so we now have to make sure he is buckled in.  He has started to reach out and grab toys, and will now take things from us when we hand him something.  Mid month he started rolling over belly to back but hasn't rolled the other way yet.  It's not far off, he can roll completely to one side from laying on his back.  He laughs and coos often and occasionally seems to be having complete conversations with himself, babbling away in complete baby talk.

Looking forward to all the new changes we will see in the next month with this sweet guy!

Oliver: three months old

Here is what our littlest man is up to at three months old!

Sleeping:  Still doing well in the sleep department.  Bedtime is gradually becoming an earlier time for him and Oliver now goes down for the night around 8:30-9:00 pm.  With that change has also come a slightly earlier wake up time and he wants to eat between 4-6am most mornings, falling back to sleep after the feeding if he wakes up on the earlier side of that range.  A few nights per week he will sleep a solid 10+ hours though and we wake up closer to 7am.  And then I feel like I superhero who can do anything because I got 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep, yes please.  He is still sleeping in the rock and play in our room with no plans to change that anytime soon.  Naps are still pretty much the same - morning nap (usually semi-interrupted as we always go out in the morning), and typically a longer nap in the afternoon around the time Arlo takes his.
 

Eating:  We have far surpassed my goal of breast milk for this little guy and he's still getting donor milk from our awesome donor mama!  He receives about 10 oz of donor milk per day and the rest is the homemade formula we are using.  Still doing great on both!  Hasn't increased the amount he is taking in so we are still at 4 oz per feeding.  He always eats on demand, averaging a bottle every 3 hours or so during his awake hours.

Weight and length:   We didn't have a pediatrician appointment this month so we will find out his stats at his next appointment.

Wearing:  Goodness.  6 month onesies to fit his cloth diaper.  Pants are 6-9 month for the same reason.  I had bought some seasonal gender-neutral things before he was born that he has already outgrown.  Gah.  I guess I assumed that he would be more true to size like Arlo has always been but that is not the case.  It might change as he gets closer to 12-18 month clothes and starts to thin out but for now he's rocking the larger sizes.

Likes and dislikes:  This little guy is pretty happy with most things.  Still loves his swing, play gym, rock and play for sleeping at night.  He loves his mama and dad's faces and smiles alllll the time at us.  Loves when I play pattycake with him which always makes him giggle in his "heh heh heh" laugh.  Likes being outside as long as it's not too cold.  Loves to eat!  Has already lost interest in the pacifier which Arlo also did around this age.  Loves baths and will happily splash his arms and legs up and down until that bath time is over..  Loves to be naked and sometimes I just let him hang out in the pack and play diaper free so he can wiggle all over and kick his legs wildly which he will do for surprisingly long periods of time.  Loves when I sing to him (Gilmore Girls theme song is a favorite) and will always smile at me when I sing, which proves that he is tone deaf and obviously loves me a whole lot because I am zeee worst at singing!  He has even come around to being okay in the car seat but I wouldn't dare leave him in there to just chill for any length of time, car seats are for traveling purposes only in his book.  So when we are out and about as long as he's awake I wear him in the carrier (we splurged on a new Beco Gemini this time around and love it) which is almost essential to be hands-free when also chasing a toddler around.

A new dislike - teething.  Oliver started showing signs of teething (drooling, grunting and trying to eat his hands constantly) and 10 weeks.  10 weeks, y'all.  That isn't even fair for a baby to start teething that early!  Nothing has actually popped through yet and I am guessing we still probably have another month or so before anything actually emerges, but I have a feeling we might see something by Christmas.  I guess he's giving a whole new meaning to the song "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth."  Poor little guy, teething is rough on us all.  The evening fussiness has pretty much resolved but has been replaced by intermittent teething pains through the day.  At least they are not bad enough to wake him up at night (yet?  hopefully there's not a yet to this statement!)  After a couple of friends mentioned having success with an amber teething necklace we picked one up for Oliver but so far I haven't seen any major decrease in his symptoms.  I am hesitant to use any medications on him since he still so young, so we soothe him with the usual suspects - holding, rocking, bouncing on the ball, etc.  He is maybe sort of getting the hang of the teething rings but needs us to put them in his hands for him.

New milestones and developments:   In the last month Oliver has started to become a lot more aware of his surroundings, especially around his big brother.  He will watch Arlo with interest, but isn't laughing or smiling much at him yet.  It's more like "who is this loud and energetic person who always seems to be around?!"  His head and neck control is so much better now and in the last couple of weeks I brought out his Bumbo chair and walker so he has a couple places to "sit" now.  His legs are still way too short for the walker but we put a pillow underneath him and he seems to enjoy sitting there watching his surroundings.  And Arlo enjoys pushing him around the room when we are not looking!  Not rolling over yet, still pretty early for that, but he can roll over on his side so maybe a complete roll over isn't too far in the future.

Current nicknames are Chug, Chug Chug, Chunkster, Duder, Chunk Muffin, and baby - which is what his big bro usually calls him.  We call him pretty much everything except his actual name which I am thinking we should eventually start using!

Baby Oliver we all love you so much.  Your smile is my one of my favorite things and your sweet laughs give me all the feels.  Thank you for being such a sweet and adorable little addition to our family  :D

Oliver: two months old

Here is what our little pumpkin is up to at two months old!

Sleeping: I feel pretty lucky that this little guy is already pretty consistently sleeping through the night.  He still has a pretty late bedtime, going down for the night usually between 10-10:30pm and will wake up between 4am and 7am.  If he is up on the earlier side of that we will go back to sleep but if it's closer to 6 or 7am we get up for the day.  He is still on pretty much the same nap schedule he set himself - a long mid-morning nap and an even longer afternoon nap with catnaps as needed during his longer awake periods.  Evenings are still a bit fussy but there has been marked improvement in the last week or so.  The fussy period is getting shorter and shorter and some evenings it's barely noticeable until just before he falls asleep (I think he's overtired at this point.)

Eating:  We are so lucky to still be receiving donor milk from our milk mama!  He's getting nearly half donor breast milk throughout the day and the other half is the homemade formula we are making.  He is doing great on both and growing like a champ!  He eats four ounces every three hours or so during his awake hours, likely to make up for his longer stretches of sleep during naps and at night.

Weight and length:   Oliver had his two month appointment this week and has chunked up to a healthy 12 lbs even.  He actually dropped slightly on his growth chart and is now in the 49th percentile for weight.  He grew over an inch since his one month visit and now measures in at just under 23 inches long, putting him in the 45th percentile.  Head is still measuring large at 16 inches which is the 93rd percentile (and also the same exact size as his big brother at this age.)

Wearing:  Mostly 3 month onesies.  Size 3-6 month if he's in a cloth diaper.  Pants are 3-6 or 6 month to accommodate the bulky cloth butt!

Likes and dislikes:  Pretty much the same as last month...  Likes include being in the carrier, his swing, baths, naps, being outside, bouncing on the yoga ball in our arms, ceiling fans, pacifier, being swaddled at night, being naked, his play gym and eating!

He is still not loving the car seat but does okay if we are moving.  Oliver is a pretty happy little guy most of the time and usually only cries if he is hungry or tired or it's the evening witching hour, but like I mentioned even that is improving.

New milestones and developments:  While he was giving us some little smiles here and there before - at exactly six weeks we got our first smiles that I am completely sure were intentional.  Now he smiles all the time and Erik even got him to laugh a couple of weeks ago!  He figured out that if you hold Oliver's hands and tap the tops of them it makes him laugh and smile like crazy.  I probably never would have figured that one out, leave it to Dad!  He is still working on his neck strength and is still quite the bobblehead.  Our pediatrician said that he has a strong neck but honestly I have forgotten what is normal at this age and for some reason was thinking he would be almost able to hold his head on his own by this point.  Guess I should consult those dust-covered baby books again, huh?  File this one under second kid probs....

Good work growing, sweet little Oliver!  Your brother can't wait for you to be bigger so you two can build forts and play with trucks together (and mama is looking forward to putting you both in matching jammies!)

Oliver: one month old

Here is what Oliver is doing at a month old!

milestone blanket, hat, bunny, banner, and baby all made by me! 

Sleeping:  Somehow this little man has already put himself on something of a schedule.  In the early days home he was waking up 2-3 times a night to eat, but pretty quickly transitioned himself to waking up only once during the night.  At the time of writing this, Oliver is almost six weeks old and the past two nights he has actually slept through the night (9pm to 5 or 6am) which is so crazy to me.  Evenings are a super fussy time where he eats and eats but then is tanked up and usually asleep by 9pm.  He hasn't loved the co-sleeper so most nights he has just slept next to me in bed.  We recently discovered that he sleeps the best in the rock and play, so we have been starting the nights there and when he wakes up, either in the middle of the night or early morning, I just keep him in bed with me until we get up for the day.  He has a short awake period in the morning then sleeps for a few hours, wakes up to eat in the early afternoon, and then snoozes all the way to late afternoon when he wakes up ready to eat (and cry and make sad faces) like a champ until bedtime!

Eating:  This kid has the most unusual eating pattern.  I remember that Arlo would suck down a bottle as fast as he could and this kid is so lazy with it (although you wouldn't think so by looking at him) and will spend an hour or so working on the same feeding, stopping and starting multiple times.  More about this in another post I am working on, but breastfeeding has gone pretty much the same as last time around as I expected it would.  I started exclusively pumping the day was born after feeding at the breast wasn't an option due to latch and pain issues, but again my supply was not where it needed to be to meet his demands.  We started supplementing with formula, and I have since found a milk donor mama who has been helping us out.  The first few weeks he was getting almost entirely my milk, and maybe a couple ounces of formula at most.  Now it's about half donor milk, half formula.  I am really happy to report though that he is tolerating everything really well and growing like a champ!

Weight and length:   At his one month check-up, Oliver weighed in at a whopping 10 lb 3 oz!  He's only in the 60th percentile, but Arlo was so tiny as a newborn that Oliver seems huge to us.  For comparison, Oliver is 3 lbs heavier than Arlo was at a month, and weighs more than his older brother did even at two months.  Oliver measured in at 21.4 inches in length which puts him in the 53rd percentile.  And apparently we make large headed children, because his head circumference is 15.3 inches, 95th percentile just like his big bro always has been.


Wearing:  It shouldn't come as a surprise that with his rapid growth up to 10 lbs, the newborn sized clothes didn't last very long and by two weeks old I found myself already making a pile of clothes he had outgrown.  He is now mostly in 0-3 and 3 month clothes.  We started cloth diapering when Oliver turned a month old and with his bulky fluff butt he's actually wearing some 3-6 month stuff but definitely has some grow room in it.  The dive into cloth diapers came somewhat accidental, I had put one on for his one month photos and decided to just keep going with it.  I might be jinxing myself here but the transition to cloth this time around has been seamless, zero leaks or blowouts or rashes or any of the other stressful problems we had last time.  While I am grateful for the break we had between diapered kids, I am also really happy to have a baby back in cloth again.  I missed that cute and colorful baby bottom and while I don't look forward with glee to washing the diapers, I do look forward to the therapeutic activity of stuffing the clean ones.  Weirdo, I know!

thank you Aunt Megs for photoshopping this to perfection!  :D

Likes and dislikes:  Likes include snoozing on mom and dad's chests, being in the carrier (we splurged on a Beco this time and love it!), his swing, baths, naps, being outside, bouncing on the yoga ball in our arms, ceiling fans, pacifier (sometimes), being swaddled at night, and eating!
Dislikes include the car seat (insert sad face here - Arlo loved the car seat and being in the car with an unhappy baby is no bueno.  Fortunately he's okay when the car is moving but if he is awake and it's stopped for any real length of time, look out.)  He also dislikes evenings when he turns into a sad, unhappy little man.  Fortunately just having the knowledge that this is a normal phase and that it will pass makes it ten times easier to deal with than last time around.


New milestones and developments:   While we have gotten a few small smiles, we are still awaiting our first real social smiles.  I think they are coming soon though!  And just as his big brother did, Oliver also lost all the hair on top of his head around two weeks old and is currently sporting the cute, bald, wrinkled old man look.  His neck is getting stronger but he's still quite the bobblehead.  He does well if he's in an upright position but to lift his head for any real length of time during tummy time is still something he's working on.  That being said, I did prop him up on the boppy last week and he stayed up on his arms for a good 20 seconds or so!

Happy one month sweet little Oliver!