Beckett at Three Months

I want to periodically document the details of Beckett’s life and routine so I don’t forget the little things. 

Right now our routine is eat, play, sleep, repeat.  We started this when he was maybe six weeks old, and I don’t know if it was the structure, him being a bit older, or us figuring him out better but our life changed big time.  Before he was a little fussy, particularly in the evenings.  Not bad, but it took a lot of work to keep him happy.  Now it is COMPLETELY different.  He is seriously the happiest baby in the world!  Most days I’d say he fusses/cries for maybe two minutes total.  We didn’t mind the fussing before, but man is it nice to have him be so easy to please now!

If I had to sum him up in a word, during his first six weeks I would have said ALERT.  He was awake so much of the time, and his eyes were always big and attentive.  That is still true, but it’s not quite as unusual anymore for a baby his age.  Now, the word would be HAPPY.  Man, this guy is so unbelievably happy.  It takes nothing to make him smile.  He’ll give you a big gummy grin if you just look in his direction.  He’s never upset and only fusses when he gets too hungry.  He stays in a good mood for a really long time.  His happy demeanor is probably the thing people comment about most these days.  He’s our little happy boy.

 One unique aspect of Beckett is how talkative he is.  This kid has a lot to say!  He babbles and coos and squeals.  I have a lot of conversations with him where I’ll ask him questions and he’ll look right back at me and respond to each one with really assertive baby sounds.  He certainly thinks he’s communicating effectively.

His life:  EAT. PLAY. SLEEP. REPEAT.

EAT.

I nurse him about seven times a day.  Beckett is a sloooooooow eater so I feed him for an hour each time.  Needless to say, that sums to quite a big chunk of the day but I don’t mind it one bit.  It’s a special time that we have together and I love it.  Nursing him is still going great, and I’m pumping when I’m at work (which really sucks, pun intended) so we can keep this breastfeeding thing going. 

For quite awile Beckett had really taken to spitting up.  We kept a bib on him most of the time and always covered ourselves and anything else under him with a burp cloth but still it got everywhere.  Everywhere.  Oh well.  Laundry was the name of the game.  You wouldn’t believe how many burp cloths and bibs we’d go through each day.  And I’d say one of my first “you know you are a mom when…” situations was when he’d spit up all over my neck and chest and it was so gross and I really needed to shower to get myself clean but I just halfway wiped it off for the moment, then next thing I know it’d be the next day and I realized I never got that shower.  It’s a miracle people don’t notice the dried spit-up smell that accompanies me most of the time.  But around his three-month birthday he seemed to have turned a corner with the spitting up.  He still spits up a lot and nothing is ever safe from it, but we seem to be on the downhill side.

PLAY.

He plays happily for an hour or more after each feeding.  He likes to be propped up with pillows and interact with us, whether it be smiling, talking, “playing” with a toy or just looking around.  He also loves his playmat and will lay there for a long time kicking is legs and waving his arms and cooing at the lights and shapes.  He’ll bat at some of the toys that hang down and can often grab onto them (even if it’s accidental).  He also likes to be in his swing for a bit, especially if it’s pointed toward a window.  More than anything else, he LOVES to lay on his changing pad.  I don’t know what it is about it.  He stares at the wall of framed baseball cards above it and just smiles and squeals and has the time of his life.  It’s really funny (and bizarre) how much he likes it there.  When we’re out and about—at church, at someone else’s house, at a store, etc.—he usually stays awake for a bit longer and just takes it all in.  He used to want to come out of his carseat immediately when we got somewhere but he’s now content in it for a little while.  He’s happy to be held by anyone and everyone and usually gives out smiles liberally.  He has a huge fan club at church.

The developmental milestones that he’s reached are smiling intentionally (first time at 6 weeks old), holding his head up very steadily, making eye contact, vocalizing A LOT, tracking moving objects/people, turning his head to find a voice, bringing his hands together and to is mouth, grasping a toy, batting at objects, holding on to blankets, “talking” back at you when you talk to him, and the week before his three month birthday he laughed for the first time.  By far the best part of this stage is that he’ll smile at us when we smile at him.  We’re soaking up this short phase of life where that’s all it takes to make him happy!

SLEEP.

For the first couple of months he slept about half of what is average for a baby his age.  Apparently the world had a lot to offer and he didn’t want to miss anything!  Recently he’s gotten a lot better about logging more hours of sleep.  He usually takes 4 naps a day.  If we hold him he’ll often nap for 1-2 hours at a time.  In his crib he naps for 15-45 minutes.  He certainly prefers to be held while he sleeps, and I oblige most of the time.  What better do I have to do than hold him?  He’s only little for so long.  But I do know he needs to learn to sleep on his own so at least once a day I put him down in his crib, and he is slowly sleeping for a little longer stretches there.  At some point we’ll try to transition him to fewer, longer naps but right now he seems to need those power naps before I feed him again or he falls asleep as soon as he starts eating.

Our nights are a work in progress.  He slept through the night (a six hour stretch) for the first time when he was 2.5 months old.  That week he slept 5.5-7 hours straight for a few nights in a row.  Then he went back to waking up in the middle of the night.  He now usually sleeps from 10pm-3am, then I feed him and put him back down and he usually until 5:30-6am, although a lot of the time he is really restless during that stretch so we bring him into bed with us so we can pat him back to sleep easier.

Our biggest challenge with his sleep is helping him learn to fall back asleep on his own.  His little tummy rumbles quite a bit and it causes him to stir.  When he’s being held, he stirs but then settles right back in without ever waking up, probably because we respond to his movement with a little rock or pat or because he senses that he’s being held and is content enough to not bother waking up.  But when he’s on his own, his tummy rumbles and he stirs, and a lot of the time the stir escalates to a lot of fidgeting and then eventually his eyes open and it’s game over. 

He slept in a Pack ‘n Play next to our bed for the first three months, then we transitioned him to his room (which completely broke my heart).  He’s officially a big boy now!

That about sums up his little life right now!  The thing that Kolby and I just can’t get over is what a happy baby he is.  I seriously couldn’t imagine a happier one.  He is such an amazing boy and brings us so much joy!