2 Months Old

I've been waiting to post Dawson's two month post until we went to the doctor Friday for his two month checkup. The checkup went well. He nows weighs 12 lbs and 2 ounces and is 22 3/4 inches tall. He is still in the 50th percentile for both height and weight. The doctor said he looked perfect. We discussed some of his fussiness and eating issues and we are going to try some medications for reflux to see if that helps. I have been suspecting some mild reflux for a while now. I'm hoping it helps.


I can't believe Dawson is already two months old. Where has the time gone??? Everyday he seems to get more and more out of the newborn stage and more into the baby stage. He loves to smile and coo. I love his coos. They are so darn cute!!! He is so much more alert and active now. He really enjoys his toys. He loves just laying there and looking at them. He also has started to enjoy the swing. He stares at the moving animals at the top just like Ashlyn used to.

I wish I could say that Dawson's sleeping patterns have gotten better, but they haven't. He sleeps like a champ during the day. He is quite a sleeper and really enjoys his naps. We have gotten into a pretty good routine at night. Around seven o'clock he starts to get fussy and lets me know that he is ready to head to bed. We usually give him a bath every night. After his bath, he eats and passes right out. He is usually out by 7:45. He will usually sleep until 10:30 or 11:30 before he wakes up. That is only a three to four hour stretch and I know he should be going longer than that. He then usually wakes up again every two hours for the rest of the night! Yes, at two months old he is still waking up every two hours. After two months of waking up so frequently, it is really starting to wear on me. I'm going to continue to try every trick in the book in hopes that something will work to get our little guy to sleep longer stretches.

Dawson's colic is still touch and go. After doing EXTENSIVE research on colic, I have found that colic basically means that the doctor has no idea why your baby is fussy. I have read every theory out there. I have come to the conclusion, that no one still has a clue what colic is or how to solve it. I have read about a plethora of solutions or things to try. Since most doctors just tell you that your baby has colic and basically you will just have to ride out the next few months, I have been trying to see if anything makes it better. As I mentioned in a previous post, the probiotics did help. He was still just so fussy though. I started looking into what I was eating. I read that a lot of babies have food intolerances and that could be the cause of the crying/fussiness. The biggest culprit is usually milk. I am a FIRM believer in breastfeeding. I feel that it is my job as a mother to provide my children with the best nutrition possible, and for us that is breast milk. Giving up dairy has been very hard. It's in everything. I have given up all dairy including foods with even traces of it. I feel like I'm down to about ten foods that I can eat, but I'm going to continue to do it if it means I can still breastfeed. I feel like its a small sacrifice for all the benefits he will be getting. I have seen some major improvement! Last week, on his worst days he would scream all day long unless he was eating or sleeping. It was so trying to have such an unhappy baby. I could tell he was in pain and I just wanted to make it better. He is now a different baby. He is smiling all of the time. He will play with his acitivity mat forever just smiling away. I am praying that he stays this way. I am LOVING having a happy, calm baby.

Here are some pictures of our little guy from the last week.

Playing

Holding a rattle for the first time I love this onesie it says "little brother"

I thought this was so cute. He was laying on Joey and sucking his thumb.

Bath time. I don't see Ashlyn in Dawson a whole lot, until I saw these pictures. I think he looks a lot like her here.

Here is Dawson on his 2 month "birthday"

Such a cute little face

He loves looking at the moving animals.

I love this shirt of course because it says "baby brother"

He was not happy in this picture. Can you tell?

Ashlyn Update

Since I have been blogging a lot about Dawson since he's been born, I wanted to write a post about Ashlyn. Ashlyn is just blossoming as a little girl. She continues to amaze us daily with her intelligence. She is such a bright little girl. She knows her left from her right. This is pretty impressive to me since some of my third graders still don't know that! She is also working on learning her letters and their sounds. We are working on writing her name. Since she has such a long name, it's been a little longer of a process. Everyday she writes a new letter for me that I didn't realize she knew. I think reading will be coming soon.

She has been going to preschool two days a week and is doing very well. We got a note last week from her teacher telling us how well she is doing and how she is always entertaining them with stories. Last week, I enrolled her in a new preschool for next year. She will be going 5 days a week for half of the day. It's at an elementary school, so it will be like real school. I was hesitant to switch her as she has made lots of friends at her daycare in the past two years. However, I wanted a little more rigorous of a curriculum for her. This school is also quite a bit cheaper than her present school. I think it will be a great fit and I think she will flourish wherever she goes.

Ashlyn continues to be such a wonderful big sister. She just loves her brother so much. The other day she found a quarter in our closet. She immediately went running to her brother's piggy bank and put it in there instead of her own. I thought that was so sweet! She helps me every night with Dawson's bath. She helps to get him undressed, washes him, and helps put on lotion. Dawson already adores Ashlyn. He is always smiling at her. She loves to sing him songs when he is upset. I love seeing their relationship already developing.

Ashlyn is such an entertainer. She loves performing and making us laugh. She is always dancing and singing. She can dance like nobody's business. She loves dancing for us. She also loves to sing. She will just make up songs off the top of her head. Ashlyn has also been playing with her babies a lot lately. She is just adorable. She puts on this little apron she has and takes such good care of her dolls. She sings to them, feeds them, rocks them. They even do tummy time with Dawson. One day she is going to make a great mom! That was a short update on how Ashlyn is doing. I've posted some pictures that I feel truly capture Ashlyn at this age. She is such a silly girl!!!

Here she is in Arizona making funny faces. Ashlyn playing with her brother. She does such a good job entertaining him. Here is a picture of some "A"'s that Ashyln wrote. She loves to write them any chance she gets. Ashlyn being silly in her brother's bumbo seat.

Wearing her new Rockies hat.

Getting her baby Elmo dressed.

This is the dollhouse that Santa brought Ashlyn. It is still her favorite toy and she plays with it literally every single day.

Arizona 2011

We are back from our wonderful vacation to Arizona. Boy did we have a great time. Our only complaint was that it flew by way too fast! The weather was just perfect. It felt great to soak up some sun after such a cold winter. Dawson did fairly well during the drive there and back. We broke it up into two parts and that made it easier on everybody! I think that Dawson already loves Arizona as much as his mom does. I also think that Joey is starting to fall in love with Arizona too. This was his first time there in the spring, and he loved the weather. Ashlyn had a great time as usual and was crying so hard yesterday when we got home because she missed it. We filled our days with shopping, relaxing, eating wonderful food, and spending time with family and friends. It was so nice seeing my Grandma and our friends we only see a few times a year. I can't wait until our next trip out there. I am posting a lot of pictures so I will describe more of our trip in the pictures.

Ella and Dawson loved laying outside in the grass. Being that they were born in the winter, they have hardly been outside at all!

My handsome boy at 6 weeks old

Just relaxing and soaking up the sun

Ashlyn and Nadia playing together. They just had a great time together. Nadia is almost a year younger than Ashlyn. When they were younger their age difference was too big for them to play together, but we knew one day they would love to play together. Ashlyn kept asking for Nadia everytime she wasn't around.

Sharing a chair together

Dawson worn out from all of the activity.

Ashyln relaxing

Ashlyn and Nadia playing with the farm set

Ella's face is just too cute in this picture

Ella and Dawson playing

We had to make a trip to the train park. I have made it a tradition to take Ashlyn each time we visit since I have such fond memories of going there as a child with my grandparents. Each time she seems to enjoy it more.

On the swings

Playgrounds are her favorite

She is such a climber

Going down the slide

On the swings

She had a great time

The train pulling up to the station

All aboard

Holding Daddy's hand

She had to put on her movie star glasses

Waving

Of course she had to ride the carousel

Daddy and Ashlyn in front of a train

A family picture (Dawson is under the blanket in the carrier)

One of the things I like best about our house down there are the citrus trees in the backyard. There is a lemon, orange, and kumquat tree. Kumquats are like mini oranges that you eat peel and all. They are so sweet and so good. There is nothing like picking a kumquat fresh off the tree and eating it. Ashlyn really enjoyed picking them this year.

Picking kumquats

Looking for some good ones

Brother and sister playing together

He is so stinkin cute!!!!

Love him so much!

Such a sweet picture

Four generations

Katy, Ella, and Ashly

More cousin time

Smiles

Holding hands

Such a cute picture!

Ashlyn at a garden

I love the background of this picture

Ashlyn giving her Nadia a hug

Dawson in his St. Patrick's day shirt on his first St. Patty's day

Such festive babies

Four generations with my beautiful Grandma

Mommy and Dawson on St. Patrick's day

I LOVE this onesie because it actually says "Baby Brother". This was Dawson's nickname in the womb. We called him that so much when I was pregnant, that we still all refer to him as that a lot. It's just such a habit.

Ella all dressed up

Ashlyn having a great time in her pool

Goofy girl