Justin & Marcie: Garrett

Diapers

He was in newborns most of the month. We literally just used up our last pack of newborns and decided to go ahead and start using size 1’s because those start at 8lbs so Garrett could have probably fit into 1’s from the beginning, but he also fit into newborn diapers so we just used those for a while. We don’t have anymore newborn diapers from diaper showers that we had while I was pregnant, but we do have a TON of size 1’s, so we’re just went ahead and moved him into 1’s a couple days ago.

Shoe Size

He doesn’t wear shoes yet so I have no idea!

Clothes

Newborn and 0-3 month clothes. I’m interested to see how his growth will compare to Carter. Carter is now almost 3 years old and still wears mostly 2t clothes. He’s pretty small for his age so I wonder if Garrett will be small too or if he’ll be my little linebacker.

Feeding

Garrett eats about 7 times a day, most of which is breastfeeding. We do give bottles at night, sometimes it’s a breastmilk bottle, sometimes it’s formula. It just depends. As far as how much he eats, obviously I have no idea how much he gets when he nurses, but when he takes a bottle, he gets about 4oz. We still struggle keeping him awake during feedings too, but he’s getting a little better about staying awake.

Babywise

I started Garrett on a Babywise schedule about 2 weeks ago and he’s done extremely well with it. If you don’t know about Babywise, it’s a book that shows you how to create a schedule for babies to promote nighttime sleep. The whole schedule goes off of a “feed/wake/sleep” routine. During the day, he eats about every 3-3 1/2 hours. He’ll eat for about 30 minutes or so and then he’ll have waketime for about 30 minutes again and then he goes down for a nap which last anywhere from 2-2 1/2 hours. I usually have to wake him up for feedings, which is a GREAT problem to have! Sometimes he wakes up on his own, but most of the time I wake him up.

At one month old, Garrett only wakes up once a night, usually around 3am. The timing of when he eats at night depends greatly on the times that he eats during the day, but for the most part, his last meal of the day is around 10pm and then he’ll wake up around 2:30-3am for a feeding and then he wakes up for the day around 7-7:30am. Babywise is working out great with Garrett, but I’m trying to extend the waketimes a little more as he gets older.

Sleep

See the “Babywise” section above, but for the most part, Garrett still gets roughly 16-18 hours of sleep a day. He also has already been transitioned to the crib. Naturally he had no issues with it :) He still sleeps in a little co-sleeper downstairs in our dining room (which is right outside our bedroom) at nighttime so that we can be close to him. But all of his naps are upstairs in his room. He has shown no preference for either place. As soon as he starts sleeping a bit of a longer stretch at night, I will let him sleep upstairs at night.

Waketime

Every waketime is different, but he’s usually on the floor. If I need to pump or take a shower or something in the bathroom, he just lays on the bathroom mat and stares at the stuff around him while I do those things. He also has 2 playmats in the living room that he lays on and looks at the stuff that hangs from them. Sometimes I hold him in the playroom and we watch Carter play. Sometimes we go outside, if it’s warm enough. It just depends! We started tummy time recently and he sometimes lifts his head, but most of the time he just lays there.

Mother’s Day Out

Garrett will go to the same KIDS program at our church that Carter goes to. Unfortunately, he can’t be enrolled until he’s 6 months old. His first time to go will likely be during summer school next summer. Our church offers a summer program for 4 weeks in June where the kids go Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9-1. I always enroll Carter and will likely put Garrett in next summer as well. I am definitely not ready to let anyone else take care of him other than me for right now, but by next summer he’ll be about 8 months old and I want him to get used to being taken care of by other people.

Justin’s Travel

Justin was home pretty much ALL of October. We kept thinking that Garrett was going to come sooner than he did so Justin’s dad (which is also his boss) arranged for him to be home in case Garrett came early. This was great for me because Justin helped out with Carter a ton which is just what momma needed at 37+ weeks pregnant. However, it also meant that once Garrett arrived, he wouldn’t be able to be home as much as he was with Carter. Carter was born in December and at that point, their travel season is over. Justin was home for a long time after Carter was born. Not so with Garrett. I think his first out of town trip was when Garrett was 2 weeks old. And it was my first time with both kids. Thankfully it was a short trip (Wednesday through Friday). I wasn’t scared at all of keeping both kids and it was actually a big success. Carter was a great helper (he’s seriously such a great brother) and Garrett sleeps all the time. The week after that was a little different. Justin left Sunday and didn’t get back until Thursday night. What made this difficult was the fact that sickness struck me the day he left. I had what I thought was either a cold or small sinus infection (about a week later I went to the doc and it turned out to be walking pneumonia) that had developed a 100.0 degree fever. I could barely walk due to the headache so I had to call in reinforcements to help with Carter. Papa came to pick up Carter after church and he spent the night with them. Can I just say how GRATEFUL I am that both grandparents live within 5 miles of us?!?! I have no idea how anyone parents without help! Anyway, after the 2nd trip, Justin was in town for Thanksgiving week but starting next week, he’s gone again for all 3 weeks before Christmas. All I can say is thank GOD I don’t have PPD this time around!!!

Statistics

Garrett’s first doc appointment where they measured him was his 2 week appointment. At that appointment, he was 21.5 inches (80th percentile) and weighed 8lbs 15oz (60th percentile) and his head was 14.5 inches (80th percentile). His next appointment isn’t until December 15th so I don’t have an official weight or height, but I have a scale at home and as of today he weighs 10lbs 10 oz. I attempted to measure him on my own too and I came up with about 21.5 inches still. Based on the CDC chart I see online, this means that Garrett is in the 80th percentile for height and 75th percentile for weight (assuming my measurements are correct). Again, this is an estimate since we didn’t have a 4 week appointment. I’ll do another blog post after that appointment and give the stats.

Abilities

Well, I’m not sure there’s much I can put here yet. We’ve done tummy time a little bit and he doesn’t hate it, but he doesn’t love it either. He usually just lays down. Sometimes he tries to lift his head, but I don’t think he quite understands yet that lifting his head is what I’m wanting him to do. When he lays on my chest he lifts his head a lot. He just doesn’t do it on the floor all that often.

Teething

Definitely not there yet!

Discipline

Again, definitely not there yet!

Other Notable Things

Likes

His pacifier, but he doesn’t require it, which we love. Those few times that he wakes early out of nap or that 5% of the time where he doesn’t fall asleep on his own…those are the times that we give him a pacifier and it fixes everything. But again, he doesn’t require the paci.
His thumb! I can’t believe it, but around 3 weeks old, he found his thumb. It was likely on accident, but he likes sucking on it and I’ve noticed that during waketimes he puts his hands in his face trying to find it.
Being held. What baby doesn’t like being held?? He is content on the floor or in a bouncy chair for a while but he will whine when he gets bored with sitting there. That’s when he wants to be held.
Lights-what newborn doesn’t like lights?? During his waketimes I put him on mats that have lots of toys hanging above him for him to look at but he usually looks right past it and to the lights.

Dislikes

Honestly, I haven’t found much that he dislikes at this point. I’m sure he’ll start developing preferences soon and when he does, he will show what he dislikes. But for now, he’s a pretty happy baby!

How Carter Is Doing

Carter is such a great big brother y’all. We figured out quickly that we MUST allow Carter to give Garrett a “kiss and a hug” before we put him down for naps. If we don’t, this happens:

True story. He will actually cry if he finds out that we’ve put Garrett down for a nap and he hasn’t been able to give him the kiss and hug yet. So far, Carter wants to be very involved in everything. If he hears Garrett make a noise (ANY noise at all) he’ll come running to him and pat him on the head saying “it’s ok. Carter’s here”. A lot of times he’ll lay down with Garrett if he’s on a playmat, like in one of the pictures above. He’s asked to hold Garrett a couple times but I only let him do it once. He thinks Garrett doesn’t weigh much, but 10 pounds is a lot when you’re 3. Now that Garrett takes naps upstairs in his room, Carter has to actually walk up there with us to put him down for a nap. He’ll turn on Garrett’s rain machine and everything. He also likes to pick out which diaper we put on Garrett too. So basically, he’s enjoying his job as big brother right now. I know that this love won’t last forever because they’ll eventually start fighting over toys and such, but for now, I’m going to enjoy how much he loves his little brother!