Locke: 3 Months Old

Locke is 3 months old!  I cannot believe it!  It seems like he's gotten much bigger in the last four weeks.  His smiles are now BIG and light up his whole face.  He is even laughing at his Daddy!!  He has recently learned how to blow bubbles with his mouth and will mimic you if you make raspberries at him.  Locke loves grabbing his feet and chewing on his hands.  He hasn't sucked his fingers yet, but he chews and chews on them.  This baby has THE most expressive eyebrows I've ever seen -- his whole emotion can be read in the way he raises/crinkles/angles his eyebrows.  He can even do the one eyebrow raise when he's surprised (something his Mommy has been trying to learn for a while!).  He does very well in the car -- as long as we're moving.  If we stop at a stop light too long, he wakes up and starts wailing.  It's been a very busy month, so this month he has had his first amusement park ride, trip to Colorado, boat ride, and swim in a pool.  

We didn't have a doctor's appointment this month, but we weighed him on the cat scale at my office and he is just under 15 pounds.  Mommy's little chunker. :)  He is still very congested in his lungs and coughs all the time.  Our doctor suggested that he may have a milk protein allergy like his big brother and that I should try a dairy-free diet while breastfeeding.  I have been off of milk products for about a month now (which is a big sacrifice for me -- no cheese, no butter -- but worth it if it makes him feel better) and overall he does seem a little better.  He is still congested though, so I'm not sure if it is the dairy-free diet or just the additional time that is making things better.

He spends his days with Daddy and things at home are starting to improve.  He is better at taking a bottle for Daddy since he figured out that you have to start feeding him before Locke even tells you he's hungry.  Because once he's hungry, he wants food NOW and can go from happy/laughing to screaming at the top of his lungs at the drop of a hat.  And once he's mad, he refuses to take a bottle.  He is also still having some episodes of discomfort about 30 minutes to an hour after feeding and we occasionally see him gag and swallow -- so we assume he is still having some "silent reflux".  We are still giving Prevacid, but we're lucky to remember it once a day instead of the recommended twice per day.  I think that if Mommy and Daddy can get their act together and get medications done, he would probably be more consistent in his daily comfort level.

At night, he is a fantastic sleeper.  I usually feed him around 11 and he will sleep through until 5 or 6 a.m. most nights.  And even on a "bad" night, he wakes up around 2 or 3 a.m. and then will go back to sleep until 5 a.m. or so.  So I am getting much more rest than I ever got with his big brother! :)  He continues to be a fantastic nurser and his feedings have become very quick and efficient -- usually about 5 minutes max.  (At our last doctor's appointment, she thought that this was too short for a feeding, but decided we shouldn't worry about it since he is obviously getting plenty of nutrition!)

We are so happy to have baby Locke in our lives.  Ledger just loves him and enjoys kissing, hugging, cuddling, and talking to "his" baby.  Locke is already toughening up to be in a big family of boys -- he is frequently on the receiving end of very aggressive kisses, hugs, or accidental wrestling by his big bro.