3 month update

Happy new year! It's official, Squidge is now 3 months old, in fact, on Monday he'll be 13 weeks!! I never realised just how fast these weeks and months go, but they're disappearing quicker than I can keep up.  It feels like he's doing something new every day now, whether it's really looking at things, grasping his muslin or my hand, or cooing at toys, it's just a lovely time :)  I honestly never realised just how rewarding being a parent would be, and how happy I am each morning waking up to his smiling little face :)

Clothes

Squidge in his first 3-6 months sleepsuit

After spending what seemed like an eternity in 'newborn' size, they were even too big for him when he was born, a few weeks ago he was promoted to 0-3 months clothes, and he's now beginning to grow out of these!  I think he's catching up to where he should be in size.  Last night was the first time I tried him in a 3-6 months sleepsuit, and it was on the day he was 12 weeks old, and it fitted beautifully, still plenty of room to grow, but he could stretch his legs and feet without restraint.  I noticed 0-3 months vests are getting a little snug on him too, so I'll be starting to thin out his collection of the ones I know are a little small.

Things like tops and trousers that are 0-3 months still fit him really well, it's just sleeptsuits and vests that are getting a bit small for him - luckily I have some 3-6 months ones waiting in the wings.

Dummy!

Squidge with his dummy

Remember when I was pregnant I debated about whether we should use a dummy or not?  Well, at 11 weeks old we caved and gave him a dummy.  He was going through a growth spurt and was really grouchy, basically if he was awake, he was crying.  He's been showing some signs of early teething too, like drooling lots, chewing on the teet of his bottle, and his fists - so this could be part of why he was so grouchy.  

We had 2 sets of dummy's in the house, Nuk ones and Tommee Tippee ones, both were presents from friends and family - well, safe to say his favourite is the Nuk ones, they're smaller and don't take up so much of his face.  It's amazing how well he soothes when he has the dummy.  The silver lining is that he is learning to self-soothe with it too, when he wakes up and stirs when he's just been put down for the night, he's starting to start sucking on the dummy and going back to sleep.  The times he cries is when the dummy has fallen out, so we just pop up there, pop the dummy back in and he falls straight back to sleep.

Another silver lining, he grabbed it out of his mouth today and held it for a good 20 seconds before dropping it - this is the first time he's ever held anything :D

Sleep

William sleeping at 11 weeks old

I honestly don't want to jinx it, but I think we've turned a corner and he's finally sleeping at night! He did have his days and nights mixed up, but with us being quite strict and developing a routine, he seems to be doing much better.  Typically we'll do his last feed which is anywhere between 8pm-10pm in bed, in the dark and I won't speak to him (I do sneak him the odd kiss though).  Then when he's done, I give him a cuddle and put him in his moses basket (which he's nearly grown out of!).

He'll pretty much wake up as soon as I let go and he'll start crying, so he'll have another 1-2 cuddles and then eventually fall asleep.  We have the baby monitor on so if he needs us, we'll hear and see if he'll soothe himself back to sleep or not.  We did have a fab night last night though - fed him in bed as usual in the dark, and just at the end of the bottle he fell asleep with the teet in his mouth.  Took it out, cuddled him and put him in his basket, he grizzed for a second, so I put the dummy in his mouth and he passed right out and didn't wake up for over an hour, and that was only because the dummy wasn't in his mouth anymore.  This was at about 8:30 (that I put him in his basket), he was awake about 3:30am, so I just kept leaning over and putting the dummy back in his mouth and he went back to sleep after a little while until about 8am :)  What a trooper!

Feeding

As you know I'm no longer expressing :(  But his bottle feeding has improved.  After speaking to other October mummies, I realised his feeds were taking a really long time, nearly an hour.  Where other mummies were taking about 20 mins.  I didn't conciously do anything about this as all babies are different, but given him a bit more time, and he's started consuming more before resting during a feed (now having 6 oz in 2 parts) and in about 15-20 mins, and he's not throwing it up :)  Before, if he'd have that much, that fast, he'd throw it all up.

Poop!

He's also pooping more regularly, he's averaging about 5 poops a week at the moment, which is much better compared to the 1-2 a week we were having before.  I think his digestive system is starting to work a bit better as it's maturing.

Happiness

One happy baby!

Other than a couple of grouchy days I'll say this, he's a really happy baby.  I get so many smiles from him now, and his smile is just so infectious, I'm in love with it :)  He's loving his chair bouncer too, and he's started cooing (chatting) to the toys that dangle from it above him, so so cute!

Out & about

We haven't been to many places over the last couple of weeks since the last update, just Tredegar House and The Kymin (both National Trust places).  We've spent a lot of time at his grandparents too (for Christmas) and spent New Year there.

Next week we're off (as one big family) to Bluestone in West Wales, I literally can't wait!  The hubby's parents will be coming, as will my step-dad, so it'll be a house filled with grandparents :)  I'll be writing up a big blog post about it when we're back with lots of lovely pics (hopefully!).

Oh I nearly forgot, I've decided to do the #100happydays challenge over on Instagram, there's going to be lots of pics of Squidge, lets face it, and hopefully other random things - but since 2014 got off to such a bad start, I'm looking to start 2015 on the right foot, so if you want to keep up to date with my #100happydays come and give me a follow (here) :)

Follow me on Google Plus | Bloglovin | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest