Matthew: Two Months!

Yes, it's another photo of the image from the screen on the back of Darrell's camera. If you're thinking quarantine would be a good time to get things done around the house--like catching up on uploading and editing photos--you'd be wrong. I swear there are fewer hours in the day now than there were pre-quarantine. 

Height/Weight: 12 lbs, 6 oz and 22.5 inches. Roughly a pound lighter and an inch shorter than his brothers at this age--which is enough to have this Mama be a little concerned, even though our pediatrician didn't bat an eye at his stats. I've been doing the super un-official weighing at home to make sure that I'm seeing consistent gains every couple of days and I suppose as long as that is happening I should stop worrying about comparing him to his brothers and just let him be himself (which--let's be honest--I should probably do that regardless).

Wearing: Well, I pulled out his 3-6 month clothes because I *knew* he was going to be needing them by two months (because his brothers did, obviously) and, guess what, we're still rocking pretty much all 0-3 month stuff. Likewise, I started to run out of size one diapers, which was fine, because I *knew* he'd be moving up to size two diapers by two months (because his brothers did, obviously), so when we ran out of size one and slapped on the size two, imagine my surprise when they were a little big. But, we're making do with them because I've been too lazy to get more (plus, you know #quarantine). Fortunately, he isn't prone to explosive blowouts, so the fact that the diapers are perhaps a little big hasn't been a huge issue.

Eating: He eats every 2-3 hours during the day, but he is usually only up once at night(!!), so I'll take it. Plus we introduced a bottle a few weeks ago and he's pretty much taken it like a champ every time. We're continuing to give him a bottle every Saturday and Sunday just to keep him on his A-game, and it seems to be working so far. Granted, we can't exactly go anywhere right now, but when we can, you best believe we will and he'll be darn ready to take that bottle.

Sleep: Well, like I mentioned, he's only waking once at night to eat. It's pretty wonderful... But I honestly still don't feel like I'm getting enough sleep #momlife. We've been able to get him to take probably one nap or so a day in his crib, but generally his best naps are when he is wrapped in his swaddle and laying in the swing. It's not ideal and definitely a short-term solution, but life is pretty much survival mode right now so we're letting it fly. I really don't think there's too much else to say on this front, and honestly, I've probably already said too much and jinxed myself to high heaven. Oh well.

New Stuff: So this is usually the spot where I rattle off all the things we've done as a family over the past month and count it as "new" stuff for Matthew because at only two months old, most everything is still pretty new to him. However, since roughly March 12th, we've been under quarantine due to the Coronavirus. So I guess technically that's "new"--although it entails just being at our house, which is definitely starting to get really old. He did take his first trip to the lake cabin at the end of February for Garrett's birthday party, but other than that it's been a quiet month.

Developmentally, he figured out the smiling thing just shy of six weeks old and has been all over that business ever since. Darrell can even get him to chuckle a little bit and it's pretty wonderful. He's started to pick his head up a little bit during tummy time, but given that his height and weight are in the 30th and 50th percentiles respectively and his head is in the 80th percentile, that is a task that is easier said than done for him. But he's getting there. He's also started to have rather infrequent bowel movements, which isn't inherently concerning, but he spends a solid 12 hours before the poop being super gassy, squirming in apparent discomfort while eating (which makes nursing super fun #not), and sleeping restlessly, and those things make the infrequent bowel movements more of an issue. Our pediatrician recommended him giving him a little bit of apple juice to help get things moving along more smoothly, so we started doing that a few days ago. Unfortunately, it's likely that this is just the way his body is (Connor was the same as an infant, as opposed to both William and Garrett who had multiple dirty diapers a day and way more frequent blowouts), so it's just something we'll all need to get used to. And as long as he keeps flashing those gummy smiles at me on the reg, I think I'll manage just fine forgetting a handful of slightly unpleasant nursing sessions every few days. Because baby smiles just make everything better (including quarantine).