Simon Joseph Herschberger: Week 13
Baby Si is 3 months old! Hurray! We had a nice week, a few very busy days, a few days at home, and a weekend with friends.
Cloth diapers: This is one of the biggest new things this week and so far I love it!!! The diapers fit better and are less bulky than I thought they would be, which is great! They are just the right amount of bulky that Si fits into his 0-3 month and 3 month clothes bea-you-tifully now! They are easy to put on (even dad approved!), they look stinking adorable, and they have held in every poop really well, they even seem to keep the poop off his skin more and I use way less wipes. Speaking of wipes I am planning to switch to cloth wipes as soon as I get them made, which will probably means my mom will make them. :) I’m going to try one side flannel and one side soft terry (from old beach towels). Still debating on if I want to keep the cloth wipes wet in a container or keep them dry and have a little spritz bottle with a nice solution for cleaning his little bottom.
New clothes: I was in denial for a couple weeks, but it was time for Si to stop wearing his newborn clothes so I finally packed them up and organized his clothes. He’s wearing 0-3 month and 3 month clothes now and they fit great, especially with his bulky cloth diaper butt! I was seriously sad packing away his little newborn clothes (that he wore for 12 weeks!!!) but now it’s fun putting him in all these new-to-him clothes. He got some really cute ones from “Aunt” Cara, my favorites are the babyGap onesies, one says “Baby Love” (makes my heart melt) and one says “Little Peanut” (what I often call him). I also went back through the rest of his clothes and reorganized. He has a huge stack of 3-6 month onesies, and a couple 3 month and 3-6 month outfits that he’ll wear next, and for summer he has loads of awesome 6 month clothes.
Routine/screaming fits: I’m very relaxed with it but we’re still doing a 3-hour schedule. If we start the day with a feeding at 7am then his last feeding is around 7pm and bed is 8pm. If we start the day later than sometimes we make up the time throughout the day and still end at a 7pm feeding. Our biggest struggle has been naps and I’ve been coddling Si through naps this week. I sort of tried the “wake-to-sleep” method a couple times, this is where you slightly rouse them a few minutes before they would wake up anyway (about 40 minutes after they fall asleep) and then shush them back to sleep, hopefully re-setting their sleep cycle, but it didn’t seem to help. For a couple days I kept my eye on him via the video monitor and would go in when he woke up but before he started crying and try to help him back to sleep. Now I’ve resorted to just rocking him to sleep (only takes a couple minutes) and then waiting until he wakes up (not watching on the monitor, just waiting to hear him cry) and going back in rocking him back to sleep. Sometimes I only have to do that once, sometimes I have to do it multiple times. I’m not thrilled about it because I don’t want to do it forever so I don’t really feel like I should be doing it now, but it works and part of me really enjoys it. He didn’t nap well on Friday and I didn’t go crazy trying to help him fall asleep, I just let him be awake way more than normal and he had an absolute fit in the late afternoon. It was time for him to eat and he started screaming when I tried to nurse him and no amount of rocking, burping, singing, offering the boob, etc…. would calm him down. I texted Kyle who then called me and the lady he works with said I should just put him down and go do something else for a couple minutes so I did! A couple minutes later I went back in and he was still pitching a fit but when I tried nursing him he settled down and ate. He did that to varying degrees on Saturday and again on Sunday and I don’t think he was overtired either of those times. He just pitched a fit, didn’t want to nurse and once he did nurse he exhibited a major side preference every time, like did not want the left side, I had to sneak him over there after he’d eaten on the right for a while. Very strange!!!
Solids research: I started researching solids (which he can start in a limited way in a month) and the varied opinions of what’s right and wrong is almost as bad as all the different routine/schedule/sleep methods! I’m going to talk to the lactation consultant and our doctor, but I’m definitely leaning away from rice cereal and potentially towards oatmeal, but also potentially away from grains at all! I know for about 60 years kiddos have been getting rice cereal as their first food, but I’m just not feeling it. Anyways, I’ll keep ya’ll posted on what we decide and how it goes. :)
St. Patrick’s Day: We didn’t do anything for St. Patty’s, but I did do Si’s holiday pic. When Si was just a few days old we took some Christmas pics of him shoved into the couch cushions (so he could sit up) and I decided I’d try to do that for every holiday! So here are the three holidays he’s done so far!
Nieces birthday party: On Tuesday night we went to our nieces birthday party (Kaylin - 11, Dani - 6) at one of those bowling alleys that has a bunch of extra fun things like go-carts and laser tag. We did mini bowling which I’d never even seen before! Si slept through everything except dessert!
Movie night at church: Friday night our church (River Oaks Community Church) was hosting a double feature of Frozen and Turbo and we went to Frozen! They play the movie on the two screens in the sanctuary and everyone brings lawn chairs, blankets and pillows and gets comfy. Typically they have 200-250 people at these events but over 400 people came to this one! We were packed in there and they even had people in the lobby watching on that screen!
Weekend with friends: I had planned an overnight to see friends Kerith (who I used to work with) and Jon (her hubs) and since Kyle has a new job and isn’t traveling all of us could go! They live in Valparaiso in a house they built last year that I hadn’t seen yet. We got there midday Saturday and left midday Sunday. It was SO fun to catch up with them, see their house and relax! They have a wood stove in the living room that is just so cozy to sit around.
Weight (on Monday, on the digital scale at the lactation consultant): 10lb 15.5oz
Clothes: 0-3 month and 3 month all the way (except for the one pair of Circo Jeans that are NB).
Diapers: Cloth diapers! You wear BumGenius Freetime diapers during the day and a size 1 disposable diaper at night.
Firsts: (1) You’re wearing cloth diapers now! (2) First movie, except you didn’t really watch it, no screen time for you!
Toys: You’re obsessed with your own hands!
Sleep: Not so good this week, but I have been anticipating your 12 week/3 month growth spurt so I assume that’s what is going on. You’re up to eat 2-3x night and sometimes wake up crying an hour or two after eating.
What has mommy been reading about: Wake-to-sleep method, washing cloth diapers in HE machines, rice cereal, starting solids, baby led weaning
Likes: Being talked to!! It’s your favorite!
Dislikes: The carseat - and now that you’re using your legs more you’re making it difficult to put you in!!! You also fight sleep in the carseat a lot longer than you used to.
posted March 21, 2014