Our big (little) man

Beckett is four and a half months, and nearly every day he does something new and amazing. This is just such a fun age, and I forgot how quickly infants move from one stage to the next. I feel an incredible sense of sadness with each new milestone, because while I was able to focus on each and every moment with Kate, Beckett's baby-hood is just flying by and I want to take a moment, slow it down and enjoy every second.

And as our lives fly by, I've discovered little (re: no) time to blog about the family. So I want, no, I need to write this quick post so I can look back and remember some of the amazing things my little B has done in the first months of his life.

SLEEPING:
I don't know if I blogged about our sleep troubles, but Mr. Beckett was a tough nut to crack. The first few weeks of his life, he only slept while being held by Ben or I. This lead to some drastic (or shall I say, desperate) measures, brought on by sleep deprivation. We noticed that B only slept when being held or in the car, so to mimic the movement we let him sleep in his swing at night. We did this with Kate for a short while, but Beckett took to it like a champ at about two months and then we couldn't break him of it. He would sleep "through the night" which for me meant still waking up every two hours to feed him, but at least I was sleeping without sitting up and holding him, so it felt like a win! We started supplementing with a bottle of formula each evening after a nursing session to completely fill him up so he would sleep a little better, which worked for a time, but then he fell back into nursing every two hours.

Because of his poor sleeping habits, at four months we felt like it was time to switch to the crib. Plus, our little (BIG) boy was about to start falling out of the swing. We tried getting him to sleep in the crib several times and he fought us tooth and nail, always ending up back in the swing so we could all get some rest. Finally, we decided that he might just have to fuss a little to get used to the idea of not being in the swing. We sucked it up, put him down, he cried on and off for about half an hour and then slept LIKE A LOG, only waking twice all night to eat and going right back to sleep.

THANK YOU GOD.

Two weeks later, his two night feedings naturally weaned down to one night feeding, which makes me feel (FINALLY) like a totally rested woman. He never fusses at night in his crib and he can put himself right back to sleep if he wakes in the middle of the night. At bedtime, he never fusses more than five minutes now before settling himself down and all-in-all, we feel like we might have finally got our little sleeper on track. GO TEAM EDELBROCK.

OUR BIG BOY:
Beckett is a big kiddo. It may come from eating every half hour (okay, ever two hours but sometimes it seems like I'm living life with an infant on my chest) but the boy is already 16.5 pounds and packing it on. He is tall like his daddy (in the 75th percentile) and has hands and feet like a linebacker. B is already in 9 month clothing, mainly for the length and I don't think it will be long before even those are too small. We took some photos of Kate holding Beck and they are almost comical, he looks too big for her to be holding... she is only about ten pounds larger than him, even though she is two years older!

A LITTLE BIT OF CUTE:
And now the fun stuff. The little things that make B unique and adorable.

He refuses a pacifier (I've tried every brand) but comforts himself by sucking on the pointer and middle finger of his right hand. He just pops those two fingers in his mouth and sucks away. Sometimes he will try a full fist or the other hand, but it just isn't right... the kid knows what he likes.

His smile literally can light up a room. He started grinning so early in life, and hasn't stopped since. He can be sad, tired, hungry... it doesn't matter. The kid just loves to smile. And his laugh... OH LORDY. He is extremely ticklish and you can't help but get a chuckle out of him every time you give those fat little legs a squeeze.

He loves his bath, and pees in it nearly every time (boys -- gross!) He loves his daddy -- whenever he hears his voice he peers around the room until he sees him and then just stares at him intently. And OH BOY he loves his big sister. He watches her so intently, smiles when she is near him and grabs for her whenever she is close enough.

He hates tummy time. He may not crawl until later in life because Kate and I just can't stand to hear him  wail while on his tummy. He also learned to roll over from tummy to back (okay, it may have been an accident but its one he can repeat) and I assume that was out of a hatred for tummy time. But he can sit up almost unassisted, can pull himself to sitting when he is slightly reclined and is one strong little dude.

Ben and I keep feeling such awe that we can love two little beings as much as we love our two kiddos. And while life just keeps getting more, and more, AND MORE hectic, we are so thankful and blessed for this new addition to our family.

Happy New Year!