Tales of *tiny* Ty: Three Month Round-Up

Look who's three months old today...

Sleeping through the night (when he feels like it), smiling on demand, rolling over, and I’m sure he just started “laughing,” Ty’s third month has been some the most fun I’ve ever had. I say that, and it’s true, but I’m typing it to the sound of his stubborn I-hate-naps cry in the other room. *Sigh* If you saw my previous post then you already know what a terrible napper he is, so I won’t reiterate. 

But seriously, he’s a terrible napper. 

ANYway…

I was so surprised when Ty started sleeping for eight and nine hours right after he hit eight weeks! I’d heard of babies doing that sort of thing but never for a moment thought I’d get one. He slept through the night pretty consistently for his ninth and tenth week, but the day he turned 11, it stopped. Completely. He was 13 yesterday and has only managed to do two all-nighters in the past two weeks. Kids. What’s with them? Despite his sudden shift backwards he does usually do six or seven hour stretches, so I’m sufficiently sleeped up :) 

I wish I could remember his first “real smile,” but I can’t. He smiled accidentally almost as soon as he was born (you know, the ones they do in their sleep, that sort of thing.) But I distinctly remember that at four weeks, he “smiled” four times during one of his feedings, each time after I had looked at him. It was too consistent to be chance, right? One of my favorite smiles is the behind-the-paci one. It’s especially cute when the smiles get too big to keep the paci in and it just kind of hangs there on his bottom lip. A few weeks ago, Todd was holding him on his lap so that Ty was facing him, staring right at his face. Something on the TV made Todd laugh and as soon as he did, Ty got this HUGE smile on his face that made the paci fall completely out. It was so cute. So, so cute! 

Rolling over…that happened yesterday for the very first time! It’s kind of a coincidence, since I had just started wondering how he was ever going to manage it. He usually doesn’t like being made to do tummy time (though he so enjoys sleeping on his stomach…), but yesterday something clicked. For the first couple of rolls (he did several) I had had him up on his forearms so the “rolls” he achieved should probably be categorized instead as “tipping over.” But then I laid him just on his stomach with his arms out from under him and he pushed himself over! I was so proud…not sure why, exactly, but I was :) 

And then, two nights ago—this is probably my favorite thing ever—I am completely convinced that I got him to laugh. No doubt in my mind. It wasn’t a long, hearty guffaw, but that little noise that kept accompanying smile after smile was certainly, certainly a laugh of the finest quality :) He did it again yesterday, and once it sounded even more laugh-like. So far I’ve gotten him to do it by singing “You Are My Sunshine” (I’m sure that particular song has little to do with the laughter) and either suddenly jerking my arms if I’m holding him, or bouncing the bed if he’s lying down. 

Please, nobody tell me if it’s supposedly impossible for a three-month-old to laugh. I’d rather believe that what I heard was the first of many joyful giggles. 

Let’s see…what else? He’s making up for his lack of spit-up as a newborn and we blow through burp cloths at an alarming rate. He is proficient at removing his paci with his fingers and likes to try to stuff his fist in his mouth. This usually results in a very loud sucking noise as he ends up really going to town on the knuckle of his index finger (the acceptable paci substitute). He’s yet to pee on me while getting his diaper changed (impressive, right?) and enjoys his nightly bath in his little green plastic tub. He follows movement with is eyes and will turn his head to keep watching something, if it’s interesting enough and is getting better at reaching out and grabbing the rings on his jungle gym mobile. 

I spend about 70% of my day playing and have decided that there is no shame in that. I wish everyone could do it. I’m not sure how Todd manages to go to work all day…isn’t he sad about all the fun he’s missing?! What a sacrifice. I’m glad he’s willing to keep working because now that I’ve tasted the sweet mom life, I don’t think I could ever go back :)

Now for a little photo gallery to review Ty's third month:

He now tolerates the "bumbo"...for short periods of time. And this is his Batman onesie which, I'm sorry to report, we've had to retire due to size :( 

Ty's often a bear of some kind. This adorable little Pooh outfit was a gift from a friend! Todd had to remind him once that "It's Winne the Pooh, not Whiney the Pooh." I'll let you guess what kind of behavior inspired that remark ;) 

And when he's not a bear, he's terribly stylish. 

Aw...there's the behind-the-paci smile I told you about! You can see it in the eyes. 

This was Ty back in the early days of tummy time...he's come a *little* way since. 

My first attempt at taking a "together" picture without the help of Todd. 

Say cheese!

This was that one morning when I thought, "I'll put him in the Ergo and get a ton of stuff done." Twenty minutes (and a ton of stuff) later, we were both DONE. But the Ergo is great! I prefer Todd to be the one wearing, though. 

He isn't always smiling...

Sometimes he's neutral...

Sometimes all he can think about is getting one or both hands in his mouth. 

But he does smile a lot :) 

And just like that...he's three months old. What in the world did I do before he got here?! 

The Naptime Flunkie

"I didn't know it was for a grade..."

My son attends the school of baby life and this semester he's got two major subjects: eating and napping. It's considered a full course load. He's also heavily involved in his extracurricular activity. smiling. Since he's rapidly closing in on the three month mark, it was time for a little progress report. Here's how things went down...

Smiling: Great! (not that it matters...)
Like most kids, it looks like Ty's strongest subject is the one that won't make it onto his transcript. Who among us didn't thrive in our after-school functions? Smiling definitely contributes to making him a well-rounded and extremely endearing baby, but let's be real; it's not pushing him into the next developmental bracket, which is, of course, the obvious conscious pursuit of every wise baby. Everyone knows that babies are born with a heightened Must-Be-First-To-Roll-Over reflex. It's right up there with rooting.

Good job, buddy, but maybe we should direct our attention to your school subjects.

Eating: Meh
It's been a while since I was in school. What would "meh" be? C? B-, maybe? Let's just say that while he is eating (one look at that adorable round head will tell you that), there's some room for improvement. He tends to be distracted by the wall, pillow, smiling, daddy opening the door, daddy not opening the door, smiling, sneezing, daddy blowing his nose (ok, who wouldn't that distract?), smiling, falling asleep, crying, smiling, flailing arms, tickling mommy's side, and smiling. Some days it's a battle to get him to focus on the task at hand. Days like this I resort to pinning his arms to his sides and covering his eyes in the hopes that he'll redirect all that energy to his mouth.

There's hope for you, honey. Just keep a'going and good things will come, I promise.

Napping: F, F, F!
Uh-oh. Looks like someone failed a subject, and we all know what that means: retaking the course. Luckily, he has a good three years at least to master it. At the rate he's going, he'll need every practice nap he can get. I would look into getting him a certified nap tutor, but turns out that's not a thing. Naptime summer school? No openings. Is there a magazine for parents of the nap-challenged offering time-tested advice and activities to do while the baby doesn't nap?

But really, now that I look at the grade, F might be a tad harsh. He did deliver a handful of times, and he wasn't always showing up late...so I'm open to discussing the possibility of making it a D.

Sometimes I let his failure to apply himself stress me out but I guess at the end of the day (or semester) he's just a bad napper who has the occasional good day. That's just who he is. Sure it'd be nice to have one of those extra-sleepy varieties, but super-smiler's not bad, even if it's not offered for credit. If one of those big gummy grins can make me laugh and forget just how rotten of a napper he is, it's obviously worth all of his non-academic effort :)

"This works like a charm...gets her every time."

How I fell in love with diapers

I'm a practical being. It's usually a nice feature but sometimes it just takes over and I'm going, "I'd really like to just do this the easier way." This is how it was when I started thinking about diapers. Disposables=easy, while cloth, for us,=smart.

Ty wasn't due for months but I was already thinking about how much diapers were going to cost us. While I've never had to buy them in America (beyond a pack I gave at a baby shower once), I thought they were probably more expensive here. Maybe not. Maybe I just haven't bought when there's a fantastic sale going on. Does it really matter? Bottom line: you have to have them and they're not cheap.

This is when I stated seriously considering cloth diapers. Though the very thought of going cloth stressed me out and basically had me wishing I'd birth a four-year-old who was already potty trained, the realization of how much disposables would run me over the course of at least two years was more than I could justify. My mind was tug-of-warring itself, one side pulling for MUST.RESIST.CLOTH!! while the other was all CAN'T.HANDLE.DISPOSABLE.PRICES!!

I broke down and started to face the music. Cloth it was.

I started researching, reading blogs, watching videos and talking to cloth diaper veterans. I had about 40 questions and a diaper-load of doubts, but I managed to pick up a few tips. I found the most luxurious, most cushy-tush diapers on the market and ordered two dozen. They looked easy to work with and had rave reviews. My thinking was, "if I'm going to do this, I'm doing it MY way!" I researched approved detergents (because you can't use just anything, apparently) and ordered some on Amazon, since my mom was coming for a visit and could bring it. I also purchased the perfect dirty diaper trash can to store the things in until washing day, which, by the way, happens every 48 hours. I was set.

I wanted to wait until Ty's thighs were substantial enough to hold back the masses so we didn't get this party started until he was eight weeks old. Today marks three weeks into our cloth diaper venture, and I just need to say this loud and clear:

I love cloth diapers!

Me! How did this happen? How could this happen, is the better question. There is absolutely nothing glamorous about it and I was so sure I'd hate it to death. But somehow, I don't. Somehow, every time I slap one of those *extremely thick and padded* diapers over Ty's shiny little hiney, I think about how great they are. I can hear the savings :) That's an exaggeration, but I haven't had to buy diapers in over three weeks. I've earned the right to exaggerate.

The diapers we went with are the BumGenius All-In-Ones, and they are the best of the best in my mind! One of the reviewers called them the "cadillac" of cloth diapers, and while they are the only ones I've ever used, I couldn't agree more. They are so easy, ANYONE could do it. I could probably train Ty. No, I couldn't, but seriously, these things are easy! They are one-size-fits-all, from 8-30ish pounds (please, tell me I won't be changing his diapers when he weighs 30 pounds). The snaps work beautifully and we haven't had any "instances" beyond what you normally experience with a baby in diapers. As far as I can tell, they work just as well as the Pampers he was using.

Now, I won't lie to you; cloth diapers are an investment. I ordered 24 diapers and it cost me almost exactly $400. My mom about had a cow. But when you do the math, I came out on top. While I would't pay $400 up front to put Ty in disposables, by the end of year one I would have spent probably at least that much. Then you've got year two. And as go the diapers, so goes the price. Bigger diapers, bigger price. Next, quality cloth diapers can be reused with successive children, something you definitely can't do with disposables :) Finally, the icing on the cake was that I was pretty sure we'd get a few cash gifts when Ty was born. People were very generous and at this point, we've recouped our losses in their entirety.

Our process right now is simple, since he's still nursing exclusively: put dirty diaper in trash can, put all dirty diapers in washing machine every other day, hang on line to dry, repeat. The washing cycle recommended is a clod wash, a warm wash, and an extra rinse. I don't do detergent with the cold wash, and in order to have a warm wash, I'm boiling two electric kettles-full of water and dumping them into a small amount of cold water already in my machine; I don't have a hot water connection to the washer. But this has worked great for us so far! Then the sun bleaches the washed diapers so well, you can barely tell they've been used!

Once Ty starts solids, his diapers will also start solids, pardon the graphics. At that point, I'll have to change my pre-wash routine to include a bit of scraping and swirling (sorry, I know it's gross). Todd feels my lack of having to do...that...might be why I love cloth diapers so much. He could be right; our relationship might change from one of absolute infatuation to mild disgust, but for now, I am seriously loving the cloth :)

A few pieces from our collection, awaiting the bleaching power of our strong winter sun :) 

And of course, one very cute diaper model :) This one is his "Einstein" diaper, the wearing of which gives him the world's most intelligent bum.