Our little 2 month old

Oh where to begin! First, I must start off by saying that we loved our time with our little tiny baby Donovan but our 2 month old Donovan is so much fun!!! Little babies are cute and cuddly but we are really enjoying the older Donovan that smiles and coo's up a storm. I remember reading the baby books that said he would start smiling at me around 6 weeks and thinking "Smiling at me? I can't even get him to look at me!". It seemed like overnight around 6 and a half weeks he was making great eye contact and smiling at me like I was the best thing he has ever seen. Words cannot express how wonderful it is to see your son smiling at you. I am pretty sure if we could bottle it, it could cure cancer or at minimum create world peace.

Donovan seems to love his changing table for some reason. He just gets on there and kicks, kicks, kicks and smiles like crazy. Even if he is crabby you can pretty much count on him calming down, if not smiling. We spend many a minute after changing his diaper just talking and tickling him up on the table. He loves it! We have also discovered that our son seems to be a bit of an exhibitionist. He loves naked time and crabs when we put clothes on him. He rarely pees on us now when he is naked so it makes appeasing him with some sans-clothes time much easier.

Vocally, Donovan has definitely found his voice and likes to talk to us, his play mat and our windows everyday. He also has altered his cry from when he was a baby, which is unfortunate for him as it is so cute now, that Tom and I let him cry more than we used to so we can giggle at his faces and imitate his sounds. Poor baby. He has also found his hands and often sucks on them when he can't get to his milk supply fast enough. I am hoping he starts to use them to soothe himself to sleep so we can knock it off with the binky since finding his hands at night will be much easier than finding the binky and putting it back in himself. He currently has his third hickey on his hand from sucking on his fist a few days ago. Watch out ladies, he is getting good at this!

One of the nicest things (other than the rewarding smiles) about him getting older is that we pretty much have a pattern down with our days. I hesitate to say "schedule" as the times of our naps/eating/happy times changes daily but we now know what to expect when in the order of things. It goes- wake up, eat, happy time (in which he is alert and awake and can often be put on the mat or in the jumperoo), then crabby time which signals the need for a nap, and then nap time. Lather, rinse, repeat. So our day consists of that pattern until we got to sleep which is anywhere from 8:15pm to 11:30pm depending on the day. It is so nice that he has that pattern now as it helps me to anticipate his needs and we have less and less crying time as a result. God help you if you try to put him on his play mat after waking but before eating though. We (tom) made that mistake yesterday and we got some big ol' crocodile tears, streaming down both sides of his face. Which brings me to another point, homeboy knows how to look pathetic and make you feel like a jerk when he wants to. Just today I took him to Babies R Us and on the way home he was pitching a fit. I could see him in the mirror, screaming, shaking his head from side to side, red faced, tears streaming down his cheeks and hands in tight fists. All I could think of was the lyrics of "American Pie" when Don McLean sings "His hands were clenched in fists of rage", which summed up Donovan exactly. I felt so bad for him!

Donovan isn't really stretching out his feedings like he should be but the doctor said it was probably due to growth spurt so hopefully that will change soon. He loves loves loves his bath time now, which is nice as we often use it to calm him down when he is fussy. It is so funny, he kicks the whole time but when you wash his face he keeps his eyes wide open and kicks like he is riding a bicycle. Too cute. On a poop note, in the last few days especially he is only pooping in a few of his diapers a day so you don't have to wipe his booty near as much. But when he does poop, you better watch out! It's a doosy. I mentioned in his dr's report how Donovan is standing/supporting his weight so much more. Well that has continued and at many of our burpings, he is standing, leaning against my chest as I try to burp him. Little man is so strong and growing up so fast! He is going to be walking before long!

I think that is most of the major updates from this past month. I am loving how much he grows everyday and I just can't wait to see where every week takes us. Where has the time gone?

Bath play time and jumperoo

After our bath the other night, we filled up the tub and let Donovan hang out in the Bumbo in the water since he seems to like being in the water/getting bathed so much. He thought it was an o.k. time, however we kinda ran out of hot water at the end so I think he would have appreciated some warmer water to play in. I had to hold the bumbo down as it has huge air pockets underneath and otherwise it would have floated and tipped Donovan out. I think he will enjoy it more as he gets older and starts to splash around in the water. We will try again and see how he likes it when the water isn't so shrinkage inducing (hehe, a Seinfeld reference for all you fans).




Donovan also seems to be liking his jumperoo much more nowadays. It is so cute seeing him bounce around in there with his little feet and his ginormous thighs. He does, however, have a breaking point as you will see from the following pictures. He only likes the jumperoo for so long.
Liking it.
Still liking it.
AHHHHHHHHH!
Get me outta here!

Family time

On Friday Donovan got to visit with his great grandparents again however, this time they brought along my Aunt Sandy and cousin Alex who were in visiting from Ohio. It was a very nice visit and Donovan was happy for the majority of it so that always makes it better. Alex is very excited to have another boy cousin, as us girls still outnumber the boys in the family. It will be no time at all before Donovan is toddling after Alex, learning lots of boy stuff from him. We sure do love our family!
Aunt Sandy, Great grandpa and Alex checking out Donovan.

Entertaining the masses.

Donovan and Alex hanging out. Donovan is so big he practically smushed Alex!

Getting comforted by Great grandpa B.

More dude time.

All the dudes from the hang out day (daddy was at work).

Great grandparents with Donovan (pardon the funny face on little man, something was perplexing him).

Success!

After finding several excuses to delay trying to put Donovan down for naps, we finally attempted to put him down yesterday (Sunday). Guess what, it was a success! Well sort of. We got him to go down twice yesterday and once today, each time for about 20-30 minutes. He needs his binky in to get himself to sleep and we wrap him up because we tried without it and he would fall asleep, then apparently feel as if he was falling because he would throw his arms out and wake himself up and inevitably spit out his binky, which would contribute to the waking up as well. We need to get to a point where we can get him to sleep without the binky because whenever it falls out, and it always does, he wakes up which accounts for the short naps he is taking in the crib, because in our arms he will sleep for much longer. It is a work in progress and right now I will take anything. 20 minutes is long enough for me to get some stuff done without him in my arms so it is nice.

2 month check up

Today we had Donovan's 2 month old doctor's visit. His stats are, drumroll please...

Head Circumference: 16 1/2 inches- 90th percentile
Length: 24 1/2 inches- 95th percentile
Weight: 13lbs 14oz- 94th percentile

=this kid is huge!

Once again the Dr was very impressed with his growth and said we must be doing a great job with breastfeeding. So I guess there is a reason for how often Donovan thinks he should be eating, he is getting bigger and bigger! She asked me how often he is eating and the answer is every 2-3 hours in general during the day and usually around 4 hours during the night. She then told me that in general, babies at 2 months of age or above 12 lbs (of which Donovan is both now) should be able to sleep 8 hours uninterrupted overnight. WHAT? 8 hours! That is awesome! So hopefully Donovan was listening and should be stretching out his nighttime feedings here soon. She thinks that he was just going through a growth spurt and maybe that is why he was beginning to stretch his feedings out several weeks ago and then promptly went back to every 3-4 hours.

She was also impressed with his motor development. She picked him up and he showed her how he can support his weight on his legs and she said that it was a "three month skill", which is great as he has been doing this for the past several weeks. Go Donovan! I always knew he was advanced ;) Then at the end of the visit she placed him on his belly to see how well he did and he of course pushed himself up on his elbows and looked around, and she was very happy with how well he held up his head and got his chest off the ground. (see below picture from the 18th)

The biggest issue I wanted to talk to the dr about was how Donovan now refuses to sleep anywhere other than in our arms. It's cute but also extremely restricting. On a related note, I am now an expert pee-er with a baby in my arms. But I digress...anyways, I told her no matter how asleep he is he always wakes up within a few minutes of being laid down in his bassinet. She recommended that we begin teaching him to go to bed in his own crib during naps first. The crib- because that is where we want him to be in the long run and he needs to get into a routine, and at naps- because we won't be as tired as we are at night so we will have more patience to try and try again to get him to sleep on his own. She said we need to set him down when he is still a little awake and then try to help him get to sleep in the crib on his own, either with the help of a pacifier or just with us patting him or something simple like that. She said it is just part of his personality that he is such a fighter of naps and is so hard to get to self soothe; which is why we need to get started now and try hard. So we will see how that goes. Hopefully we will begin that tomorrow as we are charging and setting up our baby monitors tonight for the first time. (Turns out, you don't need to use baby monitors when your baby refuses to leave your arms at any given time, who knew?) I know it will be hard, as Donovan is absolutely positive that he is being punished if you are not holding him, but hopefully we will get through it without too many tears on both sides.

The one sad thing about our appointment today was that Donovan had to get 4, yes 4, shots. Sad face. He actually did really well and only cried a little and for not too terribly long. I was really proud of him. He also got a basketball band-aid and a baseball band-aid so he graduated from the hot pink ones. As a result of the shots, they told me he might be more cranky and tired then usual and we are to give him baby Tylenol every 4 hours for the first 24 hours to prevent any fever. So far he has been sleeping (when he is not eating) since we have been home so he seems pretty wiped from the whole experience. I feel so bad for him. Hopefully tomorrow he will be back to his old self.

Big boy outfit

I saw this pj set at old navy a few weeks ago and could not pass it up. I call it Donovan's "big boy" outfit because it is a shirt and shorts and is the first outfit he can wear that doesn't have any snaps. It is just too freaking cute on him. He seems to like it too.


Other than looking at Donovan's naked bootie in the mirror after baths, my other favorite thing to do is leave Donovan's shirts/onsies hanging off his head when I am changing him, so that he looks like he either has hair, or is a nun. Tell me this is not adorable.

Three generations (and two daddies)

Tom, his dad (Jack) and Donovan on father's day.

Brothers

Best friends!



We are the same size, not for long!

Dude slumberparty

No girls allowed.

Getting closer

More tries to capture the elusive perfect smile picture.

Great Grandparents

This past Sunday, my Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom had a small family get together for the three June birthdays, Mary, Matt and Grandpa. It was a very nice day and was the first time that Donovan got to meet his Great Grandparents and his Aunt Jody. Unfortunately he was mostly sleepy and crabby while we were there but he did manage to have a few happy minutes when he showed the ladies of the family his beautiful smile. Here are some of the pictures from the day.

Donovan and his Aunt Jody.

Entertaining in the kitchen.

Center of attention.

This is how we get Donovan to smile on command, even when he is maybe not in the mood. We rub the cloth over his lips and he smiles pretty much every time. He loves it!

Putting the crabby pants on with Great Grandma B.

That's a little better.

With Aunt Mary. We found out that if Donovan is crying and does not want to calm down or take his binky, a way to encourage him to take his binky is to dip the tip in chocolate ice cream which he then takes right away. Who knew?

Close up.

Unfortunately we did not get any pictures of Donovan and his great grandpa since he was so crabby, so next time we get together we will get several to make up for it.

Catching flies

Jumper time

I decided on Sunday to see if Donovan would like to try out the jumper as he is constantly pushing himself up on his legs when we are sitting and holding him. Turns out he is barely big enough to reach the ground but I think he liked it (well, about as much as he likes anything that is not his mommy or daddy's arms). So in the future I think he will be spending more time in there, stretching his legs and hopping around.

Chewing on his hand.
Hims just a wittow (aka "little") guy!

Tasteful Nudes

From last night's bath time. Aunt Jenna was in attendance.