3 months old!

So while Liam is napping, I thought that I would finally finish his 3 month update! I have been working on it since he turned 3 months old, 1 1/2 weeks ago, so I thought I would finally just finish it! By the way, get ready for a picture and video overload. I can't stop taking pictures and videos of this kid, and I don't plan to ever stop. Sorry! :)

I really feel like I was just writing about how he is 2 months old! This last month has DEFINITELY gone the fastest! I can't believe he is 1/4 of the way to 1 year old! That is crazy.

My adorable, happy little man!

So I am totally in love with our little guy. He is so much fun! He is getting so big too! At 3 months he weighed about 17 pounds and is wearing 6-9 month old clothes and size 3 diapers! In fact the outfit he is wearing in the picture above, is sized for a 6 month old! A couple days before he turned 3 months old, I realized that his Sunday outfit was too small so it was time to find something better. I found an outfit that my brother-in-law and his wife gave us and put him in it and it fit perfectly! Come to find out later it was sized for a 9 month old! I was so shocked! He is still in between the 95th and 100th percentile for weight where he's been since his 20 week ultrasound! :)

What a gorgeous smile!

So I didn't realize how much he has changed in the past 3 months until I compared his pictures from 1 month, 2 months and the one I took the other day! I see him every day so it's hard to see the change until I look at his pictures! It blows me away!

Click on the picture to get a bigger version. It's pretty crazy to see the difference!

By the way, the bear that is in the 1 month picture I found out it has a new home with my little sister in WA...I think she accidentally took it with her when they left last month!

This last month has been interesting! About a week into his 2nd month he started sleeping 6 but mostly 7 hours waking up around 3 or 4 and then wouldn't eat again until around 8. It was great and he did that for about 2 weeks. We also started to get a good schedule with his naps and our daily schedule was pretty predictable! I knew when he would go down for his morning nap (around 11) then we would play, he would sleep again in the afternoon and then again around dinner time. He was just as happy as ever and life was good. But I made the mistake of thinking how lucky I was that he was 1. sleeping so well at night and not giving us any problems 2. so good with his naps allowing for more predictability. About 3 weeks ago that all changed. At first I thought maybe he was going through his 3 month growth spurt early because he was sleeping all the time during the day and only going 4 hours at most in between his feedings at night! He hadn't done that since he was 1 month old!! And he was really cranky! But I thought it was odd because he wasn't eating a lot like he normally does during a growth spurt, but every 2 hours during the day like normal. Then it hit me. He was probably sick! After a little while, we went to the doctor and sure enough, his throat was a little red. He is almost over it, but now I am almost certain that he is going through a growth spurt! haha! Because now he is eating every hour and always seems to be hungry! So I am feeding him whenever he acts hungry which I think is good because it will also help him get over his sore throat. When I took him to the doctor he offered to write me a prescription for anti-biotics. We have decided not to use anti-biotics unless we really need to but rather allow his body to fight off this illness and allow his immune system to get stronger. I am glad to see him get feeling better!

I am glad to report that his sleeping schedule is back to normal and even better than it was before he got sick! We moved him into his own room the other day and I was really afraid that we would lose our 7 hour stretch! But, he has been sleeping not only 7 - 7 1/2 hours, but another 5 or 6 hours! It's so nice. After reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" to learn how to sleep train him for his naps better, we have a great little schedule going! He wakes up for the day and eats around 8, takes a morning nap around 9:00, eats again at 10:00, we play and then I feed him before his afternoon nap around 12. He sleeps for about 2-3 hours and if he is still sleeping after 3 hours, I wake him up to feed him. Then we play together until about 4 when he takes his evening nap for an hour. I feed him when he wakes up at 5 and then we start his bedtime routine between 7 and 7:30, feed him at 8 and he is down around 8 or 8:30! It is so nice to have a schedule finally! Also, we use the techniques from "Happiest Baby on the Block" to soothe him before going to sleep so he hardly cries and if he ever does, it only lasts about 5 minutes! THANK GOODNESS FOR GOOD BOOKS! Of course lately, he eats more frequently, but the above schedule is how it normally goes when he isn't going through a growth spurt. We also have our bedtime routine down pat which is nice. Most days he takes a warm bath, I put lotion on him, put his jammies on, read books, I nurse him, swaddle him and bounce/rock him while singing lullabies and then put him down when he is drowsy, but still awake.

Taking pictures during our playtime

After his long afternoon nap Liam and I have a lot of fun doing playtime! I usually also do tummy time with him as well and try to help him learn to roll-over. We also do "learning time" where I introduce things that are different textures (like hard, soft, crinkly etc.) and we do flashcards of the ABC's and numbers and listen to foreign languages. I know you all are thinking he is too little for these things, but in my child development classes we learned that areas of the brain that are not stimulated at his age are pruned (or gotten rid of) and so it is important to stimulate your babies as much as possible when they are this young. Man, I am so glad I took those classes. Anyways, he really seems to love learning time but is still not a huge fan of tummy time unless he is doing it on daddy or the boppy! :) It's cute because almost everytime I sing the ABC's he will either giggle or smile at me. He thinks it is really funny for some reason.

Doing tummy time on the boppy!

Here is a video of him watching cars drive by outside when he was doing tummy time! so cute.

Speaking of--he is giggling! As of April 23rd (haha...we are obviously first time parents)! He is so cute when he laughs! He loves when I move his legs like he is running, do patty cake, tickle his tummy, pretend to chew on his cheeks with my lips, blow raspberries and sing the ABC's among other random things!

Here is a picture the day he started laughing! He was giggling and laughing after I fed him and Richard was going to take a video of it, but accidently took a picture which is adorable so I am glad he did!

Here is the first half of him giggling the other day. It is broken into 2 parts because he spit-up a little and so Richard stopped it and then started it up a couple seconds later...

He is laughing, I swear. His hiccups are breaking his giggles up :)

I LOVE this picture! It really captures the essence of how happy he is!

I love how happy and social he is! No matter what he is doing (falling asleep, eating, etc) if we smile at him, he will smile and talk/babble back to us. It is so cute! We are definitely best buds forever.

At 3 months Liam can...

--Turn towards the direction our voices are coming from and tries to find us

--Recognizes our faces and voices

--Holds his head completely steady

--Squeals, coos and makes other 2 and 3 syllable noises (we call his squeal his alien noise because it sounds like all the alien noises in the movies)

--Can sit momentarily without support

--Brings hands together and grabs for/bats at/grasps toys

--Coos/talks back when we talk to him

--Turns towards new sounds

-- Can reach for objects

--Laughs and giggles (my favorite)

--Blow bubbles

etc.

At 3 months Liam likes...

--Sitting up! If we put him against something where he would normally sit, he will use his stomach muscles and pull himself up so he is sitting upright.

Here is kind of an example of what I am talking about

--Listening to me talk to other people. Whenever I hold him while I am talking to someone, he usually will smile, giggle and babble while watching me talk. Adorable

--When I sing to him. A lot of times when I sing to him, he will make noises that sound like he is trying to sing as well.

--Patty cake, move his legs like they are running and when I tickle his tummy and under his arm pits. In fact yesterday I was getting him ready for his bath and as I was taking off his onsie, I accidentally tickled his arm pits and he started laughing! That was the first time he laughed when I tickled his armpits! It was way cute.

--Laying on the pad on his changing table. As soon as I lay him down he starts kicking and moving his arms around like crazy and smiles and babbles the whole time

--Watching the cars drive by through the window

--Grabbing at books when we read them to him and trying to suck on them

Daddy trying to read scriptures to Liam...which is hard when he is constantly grabbing at and trying to turn the pages!

--Sticking his tongue out! He has definitely found his tongue and is almost constantly sticking it out! Which shouldn't be a surprise since his tongue is sticking out in almost all the pictures we take of him recently... :)

--Playing with his stuffed bear or froggie! He will either study their faces or suck on them, but when he drops them he tries with all his strength to get them back even if they are too far away! They are his best friends.

--Standing while we hold his hands

--Scratching things like boxes, pillows, books or anything he can get his hands on (he scratches my back when I am nursing him which I love).

--(and my favorite) giving mommy kisses! It is so cute! I will kiss his cheek then if I put my cheek on his mouth he will keep it there and make a grunting noise! I used to love it when my siblings would "kiss" me on the cheek like that so I was so happy when he started doing that!
ETC.

At 3 months Liam dislikes...

--(like always) being tired or hungry

--Tummy time that isn't on daddy or the boppy

--Having his nose cleaned out (but he is a happy camper once we are done)

...and honestly not much else! He is such a happy baby!

Before I finish, here are my 2 favorite pictures of Liam with Richard and I from this last month...

We were eating dinner and Richard looked down and Liam was talking and smiling at him!