3 Months Old!

At 3 months old, Henry:

• Rolled front to back on 12/26 (his 3 month birthday)!
• Is the happiest, smiliest, giggliest little ball of love.  Oh how we love this sweet boy!  
• "Talks" a lot!  Especially during and after a feeding, he'll look at you and "talk".  He's obviously trying to tell us something.  Something IMPORTANT.  John and I joke that once he starts talking, he isn't going to stop :)
• Eats every 3-3.5 hours during the day.  Right now his schedule is 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm, 7pm, 11pm and sometime in the middle of the night, usually between 4-5am.  
• Yes, that's right, this little guy is giving his mommy a 5-6 hour stretch at night!  And not just the time between feedings but still requiring multiple visits to replace his pacifier.  We're talking about a stretch of 5-6 hours of actually SLEEP!  
• His sleep schedule during the day is also pretty good.  He's usually awake for 1 hour (maybe stretching to 1hr 15 min) and then fusses (not really crying, but making unhappy sounds), which is mommy's cue that he wants to go to sleep.  During the day, I'll take him upstairs, swaddle him, put him in his bouncy seat and he'll put himself to sleep.  He's transitioned to 3 naps during the day--morning, mid-day and afternoon.  He's officially dropped his evening/pre-bedtime nap.  2 of the naps are shorter (roughly 1 hour) and 1 is longer (2-3 hours).
• Bedtime is a major challenge for us.  It's pretty much the only time that he's a hard baby or really even cries, unless he's in the car.  We start bedtime around 6:30pm and most nights he isn't asleep in his crib until 8:30.  He'll go down around 7:30 but we spend the next hour trying to get him into a deep sleep.  He'll fall asleep, then wake up crying.  We'll hold him until he's asleep again, put him back down, and try again.  We think his reflux is a factor but are still trying to figure out what he needs during this time.  Given how incredibly easy he is the rest of the time, I can't complain about 1 bad hour a day.
• Wears 6 month clothes.  He needs them for the length but still doesn't quite fill them out in the middle.  He's definitely not as chubby as his siblings were at this age, although we're starting to see some leg rolls and extra chins.
• Wears size 1 diapers during the day and size 2 diapers at night.  We're working through a final box of size 1 diapers and then we'll move to size 2 diapers all the time.
• Still sleeps in a swaddle, although the time is limited.  We actually have him in a miracle blanket (swaddle blanket with extra straps to keep his arms in place), but Henry Houdini breaks out of it each night (which is usually when he wakes up in the middle of the night).  I think we'll need to order a sleep sack soon, although the transition from swaddled to un-swaddled is one of my least favorite infant transitions.  
• Uses the pacifier but isn't "in love" with it like his siblings.  He'll suck on it, mostly as he's falling asleep, but as soon as he's asleep, he spits it out and doesn't want it anymore.  He's found his hands and definitely enjoys chewing/sucking on them while he's awake, but he hasn't quite figured out how to use them to soothe himself yet.
• Loves his siblings and JGray and Delia love him right back.  He lights up when they come over and talk to him.  All smiles and coos and all-around extra happy baby.
• Can't stand the car.  Yikes, he is UNHAPPY in the car!  He basically cries from the moment the car seat "clicks" into the base and doesn't stop crying until we take him out of the car.  He's fine in the car seat but doesn't like being in the car.  We think it's because he's so incredibly social and doesn't like feeling "alone" in the car.  We do our best to ignore him, but it would be nice to have a baby who enjoyed car rides!

Henry continues to bring such happiness to our home.  He is a ray of sunshine on these cold, dreary winter days and all of us are totally in love with him.

Seriously, how could you not love this face????

Merry Christmas!

We've had a wonderful Christmas!  Here are just a few of the highlights.

Christmas Eve before church

All dressed in new pajamas (thank you Pajama Elves) and ready for bed

Henry is excited about Santa too!

Happy hugs on Christmas morning

Santa!

As in years past, we drive to a less popular mall here in town to see Santa.  It started when JGray was a toddler and I knew that he probably wasn't up for waiting in line to sit quietly on a stranger's lap.  Honestly, I didn't think he'd go anywhere near Santa, so I didn't even dress him up for the occasion.  Well, he proved me wrong and hopped up on Santa's lap and smiled that huge JGray smile.  Since then we've made a point of driving to this other mall just to see this Santa.  He looks quite legit--authentic white beard--and is very sweet with the kids.  That's the Santa that Delia first visited and the tradition continues with Henry.  I took John for reinforcements tonight, just in case the baby started to fuss while I was trying to make sure the big kids' hair looked okay.  I was prepared for a bit of wait, but Santa was waiting for us!  Delia is very into Santa this year and we're lucky because JGray is still a believer.  And Henry, well Henry just goes with the flow :)  Since there wasn't a line, the photo elves spent a few minutes trying to get the perfect picture.  I think they did a great job!

Lights, lights, lights!

It's become a family tradition for us to go to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden with MaMa and Pop to see the Gardenfest of Lights.  It's an incredible light display--THOUSANDS of lights on/in/around all the plants, flowers and trees.  We're in the middle of an amazing warm weather spell with high temperatures in the 70s so we decided to take advantage of the forecast and head to the garden.  Note to self, always arrive when it opens at 5pm.  Resist the temptation to wait until it's "really dark".  The lights are just as pretty at dusk, plus you avoid all the lines to enter.  When we left around 6:30pm, the lines in the lobby to buy tickets were insane.  Plus, we avoided kid meltdown from staying out too late. A moment of mommy brilliance!

The kids were probably a little over-dressed but it was such a pleasant surprise to be warm.  The last few years have been so cold and it was nice to be able to feel my fingers and toes the entire time.  JGray and Delia had a blast running around, checking out the lights and eating s'mores.  Henry hung out in his car seat the entire time.  He continues to be the most mellow of the Schmitts.

Two Months Old

At two months old, Henry:

• Weighs 11lb 10oz (30th percentile) and is 23 inches long (50th percentile).  He's not quite the little chunk that his siblings were, but he's gaining weight and thriving.
• SMILES!!!!  Talk about a charmer. This boy loves to smile and it melts his mommy's heart.  He is already mastering the art of flirting; we may be in trouble with this one...
• COOS!!  I feel like he's going to be a talker.  He'll look at you, smile and start "talking."  He is especially fond of chatting with his brother and sister.
• Is doing a great job of holding his head up.  Tummy time is challenging with a reflux baby.  On several occasions he has spit up while laying on his tummy and then face-planted in it before I've had a chance to move him.  Poor guy.  Bless his heart, he doesn't seem to mind too much.
• Is proving to be a sweet, patient little guy.  He's exactly what our family needed.
• Still has a yucky case of reflux :(  We had him on Zantac starting at 2 weeks but still seemed to be having symptoms (lots of spitting up, looking uncomfortable when he did spit up), so we made a move to Prevacid (Delia's miracle drug) at 6 weeks.  What a mistake!  Poor guy was miserable.  He went from our mellow, content baby to one who had to be held all the time and was fussy when he was awake.  Definitely not worth the $53 price tag!  We gave it about a week and then switched back to the Zantac.  It's not perfect, but so much better.  Since he sleeps well most of the time and seems content, we'll stick with it and just tweak the dosage when we can (as he gains weight).  Thank goodness for a pediatrician who is willing to work with us as we try and figure out what is best for our sweet Henry!
• Is an amazing sleeper!  Oh what a dream it is to have a baby who will sleep, especially at night.  Most nights Henry will give me a stretch of 5-6 hours!  Best of all, it doesn't require visits to replace his pacifier!  Mommy is getting some great nighttime sleep for having a 2 month old in the house, which is such a relief since neither of the big kids takes a nap anymore.  His typical schedule goes something like this.  He eats every 3 hours during the day (I'll actually wake him up if I need to).  He eats at 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm, 7:30pm (right after the big kids are in bed), and he gets a "dream feed" bottle from Daddy around 11pm.  Then we let him sleep, and most nights he goes until somewhere between 4am and 5am.  I'll feed him and he immediately goes back to sleep and will dose until 8am (although some days I have to wake him up).  He takes a great morning nap too!  Between 45 minutes and 1 hour after waking up, he's ready for a nap.  He almost always puts himself to sleep (yay!) and he'll nap until his 11am feeding.  Honestly, he'd take great naps most of the day if I let him, but that would mean that we would never leave the house.  His mid-day nap is usually on the go (in his car seat), but then I try to get him back in his crib after the 2pm feeding.  Some days (if we have an activity or need to run an errand), then I'll have to cut that nap short, but he will put himself back to sleep in the car seat.  We let him nap in the swing (downstairs) after his 5pm feeding, although sometimes he doesn't sleep and wants to be "in the mix" with everybody.  He tends to give us some trouble going "to bed" after the 7:30pm feeding.  Not sure if it's his reflux or just a bad time of day for him, but we have a hard time getting him asleep for the night.  We try to put him in his crib, and he goes down okay initially but then wakes up frequently.  It starts an "up-down-up-down" game for us for about 1 hour - 1.5 hours and then he's asleep for the night.  Makes it hard to get chores done, but we know this "trouble" is so minor and will be only last for a brief time.  Give him a few more months and then we'll introduce "tough love" if we need to :)
• Celebrated his first Thanksgiving.  We went to MaMa and Pop's house for Thanksgiving lunch, and our sweet Henry slept through the entire thing!  He basically slept the entire time we were there, but this Mommy knows better than to complain about a sleeping baby!
• Went in his Ergo carrier without the infant insert for the first time!  He wasn't a huge fan of it, but I'm sure he'll learn to love it.  It will give us our snuggle time (yay!) but still let Mommy have my hands free to be involved with the big kids.  I see lots of Ergo use in our future this spring and summer!

Oh, how we love this sweet, sweet boy!  He's exactly what our family needed.  We're treasuring each baby moment with him as we know time passes way too quickly!

Here are some photos of our lil' man at 2 months:

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We usually try to decorate our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving, and this year was no exception. The kids were very excited to help and had strong opinions about where the ornaments should go.  They also liked to hear stories about where the ornaments came from.  The generic ornaments needed to decorate the tree are becoming less and less as the number of special ornaments grows.  Pretty soon (especially with the addition of Henry's ornaments each year), we'll need a second tree!

Henry slept through most of the decorating (I'm sensing a theme this holiday season in which Henry sleeps through most family events.  I suppose that's a million times better than the alternative, which is screaming through them!)  Even though he missed the decorating, he absolutely loves the tree!  He's quite content sitting in the bouncy seat staring at the twinkling lights.  Little baby strobe lights :-)