One for Two

Charlie

1 month

11 lbs  3 oz (83%)

23.5 in (97%)

All of a sudden it is the 13th again, and Charlie (a.k.a. baby two) is somehow one whole month old! I feel like I blinked and four weeks went by... Though at least I have the excuse of Christmas and company to explain why the time has flown by so quickly.

Having two is wonderful, and I am pleased to say that after the first two weeks (when we freaked out trying to figure out who this little guy was and what he needed and what each cry meant) I started to feel almost capable in my new phase of motherhood. Pretty sure it took six weeks for that to happen with Grace. And now that this little bun is a month old, I (pretty much) know what he needs and what I can do about it. Sweet!

Part of the ease of transition is that Mr. Charles James is on a schedule. With Gracie I boycotted scheduling in favor of on-demand feeding. And holy cow, I did a terrible job. I was feeding her all the time, and when we couldn't figure out what she needed, I fed her. She didn't have a predictable schedule (aside from bedtime) until she was six months old. No thanks. So with Charlie I tossed aside my pride and read Babywise, and he now eats on a 3 hour schedule during the day (hurrah!) and goes longer stretches at night. He is super baby! So here is his pertinent info...

At one month, Charlie...

• Wears 3 month sized clothing, and fits it pretty well. (The onesie above is 3 mos.)
  
• Eats at 7:30, 10:30, 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, and 10:30pm. Then he usually sleeps until 4:30 before eating again--so I only have to get up once during the night. Steve calls him "Teeny Little Super Guy" because he is such a good sleeper. He even once went 7 hours from the start of one feeding to the start of the next at night. Hooray! And he eats just fine being nursed or from a bottle. Champion eater, this boy.
  
• Squeaks and grunts a ton! He is not a quiet little baby. :)
  
• Has gone through several nicknames, including Tanker (i.e. Tanker Truck, because he started life eating 3oz, twice that of a normal newborn), Hoss (what Steve's school friends call him because he is so big), Squeezebox (because he sometimes wakes up and wriggles around, each movement creating a burst of gas that cracks us up), Bun (because he still curls up all fetal-y a lot of the time--so cute) and Teeny Little Super Guy, as mentioned above. Though most often we call him angel, because he is such a sweetheart.
  
• Likes a pacifier. Gracie hated them. We only give him one if he wakes up hungry before its time for him to eat, but he would totally suck one all the time if we let him.
  
• Signals sleepiness with yawns and sucking (we messed up and fed him too often at first, before we figured this out) and usually insists on crying--LOUDLY--for several minutes before falling asleep in his crib.
  
• Loves to lay on his back and look at windows.
  
• Doesn't mind tummy time at all--he has been trying to raise his head since the day he was born. We didn't know babies could do that! He pops right up when we put him on our shoulders to burp him.
  
• Prefers to be tucked in a ball, and unlike his sister, will be swaddled. When we put him in stretchy pajamas, he pulls his feet out of the legs and tucks them by his belly, so he is just a little pajama ball with empty legs dangling down.

As of right now his eyes are still beautiful blue, and he still has some hair. I think he has one of the most beautiful faces ever, and I love his cute little head. (Is that weird? I love babies' heads!) He has his one month appointment tomorrow, so we will be able to find out how big he is now! We love this sweet boy!