Sleeping Cutie

The Morton Boys

Things were a bit rough a couple of weeks ago with Dominic and I getting sick followed by poor Blake becoming catching the same cold too.  Dominic got it worse than Blake and me, as Dominic came down with a low-grade fever and ended up missing most of his activities that week as a result.  Thanks to my breastmilk, Blake has my antibodies, so at least he was able to fight the cold better than poor Dominic.  Thankfully, when I was registering for Blake’s baby gifts I decided to register for a humidifier even though Dominic already had one.  I thought about how if one boy got sick, then it’s almost definite that the other one would catch it too and both would then need humidifiers.  Apparently, this was a good idea because we had the humidiers going in both boy’s rooms.  I just needed one for me because I caught the cold as well (of course).  

Blake almost 11 weeks old and cuter than ever!

Blake is now 11 weeks old and this amazing baby is sleeping 11 hours straight for close to 2 weeks now!  We had been doing the pre-emptive midnight feeding before we went to bed, but while Blake was sick, one night when we tried feeding him at midnight he refused to eat.  We expected that he would wake up hungry later in the  night as a result, but he ended up making it all the way till his regular 9am feeding (11 hours).  Knowing that Blake was able to make it 11 hours encouraged Brian and me to try omitting the midnight feeding, and it ended up working!  He’s now sleeping from around 9:30pm till 8:30am...incredible!!  So now Blake’s latest schedule looks like this:

8:30am - Wake up
9:00am - Eat
10:30am - Nap
12:00pm - Eat
1:00pm - Nap
3:00pm - Eat
4:00pm - Nap
6:00pm - Eat
6:30pm - Cat Nap (30 min - 1 hour)
9:00pm - Eat
9:30pm - Bedtime! 

My  baby and me 

As my milk supply has started slowing down, we started trying out the breastmilk we froze when I was producing way too much milk right after Blake was born.  Unfortunately, I had not done my research enough.  Although it’s not a requirement, it is apparently advisable to heat the breastmilk over the stove before freezing it to help do something with the fat in the milk.  I didn’t do this, so now the milk smells really strange and tastes that way too.  Blake refuses to drink it, as would I since it has that weird taste to it.  So now I have to throw out all of that milk we stored in the freezer.  Very disappointing and frustrating, but what can you do?  

The happiest baby boy!

Blake is starting to show us his personality more and more.  Just like Dominic did as a baby, he smiles more at women than men, but he has started smiling more and more at Dominic (who doesn’t seem to notice that achievement).  He loves laying on his back in his activity gym but does not like laying on his stomach for tummy time.  When I put Blake down in his activity gym, Dominic loves to join him, laying down right next to him.  Dominic additionally tries to push Blake in his swing and feed him his bottle.  The highlight of my parenthood has been listening to Dominic baby-talk Blake - often with his indiscernible words.  It’s adorable!  I love watching Dominic interact with Blake.  I can tell that these boys are going to be best friends in the not-too-distant future, and I love it!  

Outside...the word he keeps chanting day after day

Dominic continues to be my goofy, little toddler.  I can’t believe he’s going to be 2 this week!  I mean I honestly feel like he was just born.  The Terrible Twos continue with more tantrums and yelling.  He’s still getting his 2 year molars - making matters worse - and has his hands in his mouth constantly, which is probably why he keeps getting sick.  Overall, I do think Dominic’s behavior has improved a lot since right before Blake was born.  As soon as I type this, I bet he’ll start acting up again.  I’m not sure if it’s timing in his development, no longer being an only child, or what, but I have noticed fewer tantrums and better behavior during activities in the last few weeks.  I hope that keeps up although I’m nervous about his birthday party.  He still has a hard time transitioning from one activity to another, and I worry that instead of going to get his cake and be sung to, he’ll want to continue to play and throw a fit as a result.  We’ll have to see how that goes.  

Although we’re in the middle of winter, the temperatures outside have been in the 60’s and Dominic has been asking chanting to go “outside!”...a lot.  I guess he got a little spoiled by the warm weather we’ve been having this winter.  He loves running around in the backyard or climbing, sliding, and swining at the playgrounds. However, his favorite activity these days is talking - and singing - in his “monster” voice.  It’s hysterical.  He probably does this at school, and his teachers think he’s crazy.  

 

Loving his new adding machine from Papa's office.

Dominic is counting MUCH better these days.  He can count from 1 to 6 and can identify the numbers 1 - 9 other than 7.  He’s also still working on learning the alphabet in order.  We’re continuing to review the letter names daily as well as to learn their sounds, but he can identify every letter - upper and lower case at this point!  However, he still sometimes gets lower case d and lower case b confused at times.  Dominic loves identifying letters everywhere he sees them - around the house, in the store, and on people’s shirts.  Now he’s becoming the same way with numbers.  His favorite new toy is the old adding machine that my parents gave him from my dad’s CPA practice.  I think he believes it’s his personal computer.  

I think that the language “explosion,” which everyone has been telling me will eventually happen for Dominic, has finally started happening!  In the last few days he’s been saying tons of new words and begun saying “my” [whatever the object], which is a big deal as he other than saying phrases like “thank you” and combining “bye” with a person’s name (like “bye, Daddy”) Dominic really hasn’t been putting words together to form phrases.  Not to mention that the use of possessives and pronouns is a higher-level part of speech.   He still loves saying “bye bye” to everyone he sees, but his favorite words are now “ew!” and “yuck!” especially when I’m changing his and Blake’s diapers.  Apparently, I must say that when I change Blake’s diapers.  haha  Dominic thinks it’s hysterical, and I have to admit that I think it’s pretty funny when he says it too. Dominic has become quite the polite child lately.  He really enjoys saying, “Thank you!” and says it whenever someone gives him something.  I’m going to start concentrating on please now.  I love that my son is so polite. :)  

Daddy is hilarious to the boys.

As far as things with me go, I feel so much more on top of things these days.  I think this is probably partly because of the increased amount of sleep.  It’s amazing how much a little sleep can make you feel like a real person again.  Also, a big part of things going better is probably that I’ve stopped napping - probably because Blake is now sleeping so well at night.  I realized that I was almost addicted to naps since I had been napping for most of my pregnancy and have been trying to catch up on sleep from being up at night with Blake.  It’s amazing how much more I can get done with those 2 hours a day - around the house or just time to myself.  Brian came home from work one day and said to me that he thought I had hired a maid to come in and clean. haha  I didn’t know if I should take that as a compliment or an insult. :)  

The cutest, little boys ever being so adorable together

I also finally conquered one of my biggest “baby buncher” fears - taking both boys to Publix for a big grocery trip (as opposed to just picking up a few things).  Brian has been nice enough to go grocery shopping for me the last 3 months as it had become too much for me to go during my last month or so of pregnancy and then after Blake was born.  Since I needed the whole main part of the cart for food, I “wore” Blake while Dominic sat in the cart seat as he always used to.  It went very well - no tantrums or tears and a minimal amount of whining.  However, carrying a big boy like Blake around was a little tiring and a bit reminiscent of being pregnant. I moved more slowly and was juggling a bit, so I ended up making a couple of shopping mistakes and forgetting 1 or 2 things.  Overall though, things went much more smoothly than I had feared but I’m definitely going to have to get used to the challenges and juggling.  Needless to say, taking 1 child around is far easier than hauling around 2!  

Another mom of multiple kids recently told me that things get a little easier each month.  So far, I think I would have to agree with that sentiment.  I think I’m slowly learning how to do this whole mother-of-2-boys thing.  I think we’re all adjusting to this craziness and are having fun with it!