3 Months

 HAPPY 3 MONTHS G! I'm fairly certain I will say this every month, but I cannot believe how big Grady has gotten.  He seriously changes in an instant, learning new "tricks" and just being the best baby boy we could ever imagine.  He is so much fun and it amazes us how much he has learned in these three short months.  We are so blessed! 

Milestones: 

• Standing - Well, pretty much standing on his own.  We have to hold him just so he can stay balanced.  He is SO strong!  This kid loves to stand.  He is so funny, sometimes his body will go stiff - like rigamortis stiff - and he will refuse to bend at the hips to sit.  He just wants to stand and look around these days.  I have a feeling we are going to have an early walker on our hands.  Not too sure how I feel about that?
• Gross Motor Skills - He has gotten great control of his hands and arms.  He sits in his bouncy chair or lays on his play mat and will swing at the toys forever.  Check this kid out:

•  "Chatting" - Grady definitely has the Dineen family's gift of gab.  He is such a little chatter box.  He tells me stories all day long, it's awesome.  I keep trying to get video of this, but as soon as he sees my phone or the Flip, he stops what he's doing and stares at it.  Grrrr...I'm not very effective at "capturing the moment" - he's one stubborn Irishman I guess.   
• Sitting - this is obviously very supported as well, but he just want to be up all day long.  If I lay him on my legs or in the bathtub he will try to sit up, it's crazy.  He loves his little chair, too. 

 
  I tried propping him up on the couch this morning to get some photos and this is what happened:

Guess his core isn't that strong after all, huh? Either that, or his head is still way too big.  Ha! 

• Grady is officially sleeping in his crib now.  We are on the 3rd night and so far so good.  I think he actually sleeps better in there because it is so quiet.  I have to say, my favorite baby purchase of the moment is the Angelcare monitor.  It has given me SUCH peace of mind.  I actually think I sleep better with him in the crib as well because I don't feel like I have to be monitoring his breathing all night --- that sweet monitor does it for me.   I know I'm a bit neurotic when it comes to SIDS, but I could not imagine a more devastating scenario.  We also have the video monitor so I can see him at any point throughout the night.  I'm SO glad we splurged on these two purchases - best money spent in my opinion.  Here's a picture of our little man on the first morning I got him out of his crib.  He woke up a little bit scared, I think because he didn't know where he was, but as soon as he saw me I got this:  

He's the best thing EVER!!

Food: 

• Ugh, I don't even know what to say about this.  I've been keeping track of how much he's eating on an app on my phone, and it was quite shocking.  For being such a big boy he's not eating very much at all.  I will give him a 4 oz bottle and more times than not he will eat an ounce or two, maybe three but then just play with the bottle.  He's not hungry.  He's eating an average of 25 ounces in a day.  I don't know how he's keeping up that chunky physique?

Sleep:
This was going so well, I'm not sure what happened.  I was dreamfeeding Grady before we went to bed, but a few weeks ago I cut that out.  It was fine for the first week or so, but then G started waking up at midnight, 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, etc.  It was a nightmare.  This last week I started dreamfeeding him again and it has seemed to get better.  He now wakes up around 4:00 and needs to eat.  I feed him then and if we are lucky we make it to 7:30.  Usually he wakes up around 5:30 and needs to have the paci put back in his mouth or possibly rocked back to sleep.  It's not all that fun to be awake at all hours of the night but I know it won't be like this forever and having a sleeping baby on your chest is the best feeling in the world.  He's amazing!  =)


Schedule:
We are just starting to get on a schedule.  I actually hate the word "schedule" so I'm going to call it our "routine."  I'm not worrying about his feeding routine yet, but more of a sleep routine.  Here it is for now:

7:30 ~ wake up
9:00 - 10:30 ~ nap
sometimes G will nod for a quick catnap around 12:15
2:00 - 4:30 ~ nap
7:30 ~ start bedtime routine (the 4 B's: bath, bottle, book, bed)
8:30 ~ put Grady in the crib

I wasn't going to worry about this at 3 months, but we are starting classes or activities 4 days a week at 11:00 or 11:30, so Grady needs to nap before we go to these.  Before, some days he would be awake all.day.long and be the crabbiest baby ever, but then other days he would sleep for 19/24 hours.  I needed a little bit of consistency and a happier baby so we are trying this out.  We are only on day 4, but so far so good!

Weight: 

• I think we are somewhere around 16 pounds?  

We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow for more vaccinations (SAD!) so I will get all of his statistics then.  I'm curious to see where he is in the percentiles now.