2 Months Old

Our littlest guy is just over 2 months old!  Holden is growing so fast and seems so big to me already.  He's just like his siblings and packs his weight into his cheeks! My favorite.  We all love him to pieces and he gets lots of attention all day.

Holden is usually a pretty good sleeper.  He is getting better about going to bed without so much work and usually sleeps for at least 4 hours before waking up to eat.  He is not consistent at all with what time or how often he wakes up.  It's usually 2 or 3 times.  One night he woke up only once....it was so nice!  Too bad it only lasted one night.  Gary has had to put him to bed with a bottle once or twice now, while I am teaching class, and he seems to do well on those nights.  He takes the bottle okay and goes to sleep pretty early on those nights.  Hope he continues to do so well when I go back to work Thursday.  Yes, Thursday.  I am dreading that but I know I have done it before so I can do it again and am so thankful I had these last few months at home with my babies.

Unfortunately, it's been determined that Holden is my first colicy baby.  Boy, this is hard.  I thought I had fussy babies before but that was nothing like this.  With the other two you could pick them up and make them happy.  So it just required constant holding.  That was also hard but at least they would stop crying.  It's heartbreaking to not be able to fix things for your baby.  Yesterday he cried all day long.  Not just cried but screamed.  It didn't matter if I was holding him or he was left alone.  He cried.  I had several periods that I had no choice but to set him down to either tend to the other kids or do the one house chore I accomplished for the day, the dishes.  He screamed through the whole thing.  He never slept for more than 10 minutes and that was a restless sleep while I held him.  He would wake up and scream.  Of all the parenting challenges I have faced over the last 5 years as a mom, crying babies has always been a hard one for me.  It makes me anxious, stresses me out and creates an overwhelming frustration. I want to fix it and when I can't it makes me sad.  So yesterday was hard.  So far today it's looking like it may be similar but he is napping independently in Cannon's crib right now so that is a win over yesterday.  He started this behavior a few weeks ago and it's progressively getting worse.  At his 2 month appointment last week the doctor confirmed he believed we are experiencing colic.  Holden screamed thorugh his entire appointment.  Well at least until he fell asleep just moments before he needed his shots.  It was awful.  The doctor and I couldn't even talk over the screaming.  The doctor said, "Welcome to the world of colic."  In a way, I am happy that this is what is going on because it means there is some end in sight....hopefully.  Colic usually resolves around 3-4 months.  So fingers crossed that this only continues a few more weeks at most.  Because he is so fussy, he gets fed often.  He also pukes often.  The doctor feels like maybe I am feeding him too often and that is why he is puking so much.  We have been working on spacing out his feeds a little more and he does seem to be puking less often.  This means he is going to have to get better with a pacifier instaead of eating all the time so we've also been working on that.  He still doesn't love it but he's getting better with it.  Other than than that his appointment went well.  He's growing perfectly and the doctor has no concerns.  Poor guy had to get three shots and of course screamed through them all.  It doesn't get any easier the 3rd time around.

He doesn't seem to care for his swing much, just like his siblings, and really doesn't even like his bouncer much.  He usued to like to be bounced in it but now he just cries.  He will sit in it a little of the day without crying but it's short lived.  He gets held a lot.  He doesn't seem to like the front pack like his siblings did either.  Hopefully, it's all just a stage and he'll learn to like things a little more soon.

Now that the not so fun stuff is out of the way...Holden has the best smile.  I know I've probaly said this about all of my kids but it's just perfect.  When he's not screaming and actually calm he smiles and coos aften.  It's so sweet.  I wish he did more of this!  He loves to be talked to and loves to talk back.  When he's happy, he's so happy.  He's not as serious or selective with his smiles as Cannon was, so it's fun for everyone to get a few smiles out of him. 

He loves it when his brother and sister talk to him and is still very tolerable of all the attention he gets from them.  Delaney loves to "pet" his face and hair and talk to him.  Cannon loves to give him a hug or two throughout the day but other than that leaves him alone.