Samuel Davey - Four Months

This is a little late, but we were busy with everything that went on with the holidays! 

Our little guy turned 4 months on the 22nd of December!

Weight:
At his 4 month appointment, he weighed in at 19 pounds 4 ounces!
99th percentile

Height:
He is now 27 inches long (or 2 feet 3 inches, whichever you prefer!) - 98th percentile
His head was 45.5 cm. 99th percentile

Clothes:
We have said good-bye to 6 month clothes and have moved to all 9 and 12 month (except for a few 6 month PJs that he still squeezes into)

Sleep:
In his 4th month of life, he has averaged right above 10 hours of straight sleep at night. He had only two nights where he slept less than 9 hours, and those were 8 hours and 51 minutes and 8 hours and 20 minutes, so he's rocking it!! (I have started to not like telling other moms how much he sleeps...)
The longest he's slept is 11 and a half hours on several occasions. 
He naps okay during the day if someone is holding him. If we attempt to put him down, he will usually last about a half hour at the most, but most of the time it is just a few minutes before he wakes up and doesn't want to lay there anymore on his own. We wanted to have him 'trained' for his naps before starting daycare on the 4th of January, but I'm not so sure that's going to happen... Hopefully he does alright with the whole nap thing there - or at least figures it out fast!

Likes:

Samuel LOVES to put anything and everything into his mouth! He loves to chew on his fingers, on toys, his burp cloth, or anything he can get a hold of. I'm not sure if that's a sign of teeth coming in the near future or if it's just a developmental thing. His doctor said that was one of the signs that he's ready to start eating real food, so at least there's that...
He loves his play mat and staring at the mobile on there and on his swing. He has gotten awesome at grabbing the mobile and anything hanging above him (and trying to get them in his mouth, of course.)
Samuel got a high chair from Trent's family at a baby shower his sister threw for us and he really likes sitting in that and being able to look around while sitting with everyone at the table. I really like having him so close to us, too!
He also seems to love being naked or at least have his pants off while he's being changed. He is so happy and smiley when he's on the changing table, so changing him can take a little longer than it should because it is just so fun to see how happy he is!
Samuel likes to have books read to him. He just stares at the pictures and listens to whoever is reading so well!

Dislikes:

Being burped is still in the dislike column most of the time, especially if it's in the middle of a bottle or while he's nursing. He does alright when you have him standing up on your lap, but then there's no telling where any spit up might go and he's a little harder to hold steady while patting his back... I usually give up on the burping before I probably should because he doesn't like it all that much.
Then there's the usual stuff - he doesn't like to be tired or hungry... he also doesn't like to be left alone for long periods of time without someone paying attention to him. He's a little spoiled with attention :) Not that that's a bad thing!

Milestones/Development:
He has started to try and help his Grandmas and his dad with feeding him his bottles.
He is tons better at tummy time and actually enjoys it at times. It's so fun to see him on his belly with his head held high looking around. 
He talks quite a bit and has gotten a lot more coordinated when trying to grab onto things.

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Samuel continues to be called Buddy, Buddy Bear, Honey Bear, and Baby (by me) and mostly Stinker or Stinky by his dad. Aunt Kellsey calls him Baby Baluga every so often, which I think is super cute :)

Nana and Papa as well as Grandma Kock have still been coming to watch Samuel a few days a week so he has gotten to stay home rather than going to daycare when Trent and I have been at work. It's so great to be able to have Samuel spend time with his Grandparents and we love that we have been getting to spend time with them in the evenings as well. 

This month we traveled to Nana and Papa's and to Grandma's for Thanksgiving. We celebrated Thanksgiving Day at Aunt Mel and Uncle Russ's house and Mel threw us a great baby shower to celebrate Samuel's arrival (more on that in a later post). We then went to Grandma's on the Saturday/Sunday of Thanksgiving and got to see some extended family at a birthday party for Great Uncle Ted.

At Samuel's doctor appointment on the 17th, the doctor said he was pretty great once again (of course). He is growing like he should and right on track developmentally. She said that since he has started to watch us while we eat, can hold his head up really well, and has been putting his hands in his mouth all the time, that he is ready to start with foods other than breastmilk. She said he won't eat for sustenance now, but it will basically just be practice for him so he can get the idea of how to open his mouth and swallow, etc, while he is in this stage of putting his hands in his mouth all of the time.
He will continue to eat breastmilk as he has been, but we will be adding in prunes once a day. The only thing missing from breastmilk that he really needs is iron, so she gave us the choice of three iron rich foods (prunes, spinach, or red meat) that we coudl pick one from and start feeding him in the next 4-8 weeks. I won't go into our decision making process, but we decided to go with prunes.
So, once a day, when he isn't really hungry (like after he has nursed or been bottle fed) we will feed him prunes!! We are planning to start with the week between Christmas and New Years when we will be home with him, so we can get a good start before he starts daycare. 

On the 19th of December, we had our first Christmas celebration of the season with my immediate family where Samuel got to open his first Christmas presents. We went to a Christmas pageant in the afternoon and Samuel did so well. He seemed to like listening to all the music and checking out all the action that was going on around him. He seemed pretty captivated by it all! He will get to experience several more Christmas celebrations in the coming week!

We had our intake meeting at daycare with his teacher, Connie, last week in preparation for him starting full time on Monday, January 4th. She seemed very nice and I think it will all go very well. We went into his daycare room for a few minutes while we were there and it was all a tad bit overwhelming to be around all those babies at once (there will be 8 total in his room), but I know he will be fine. I'm sure it will take a little bit to get into the routine of figuring out what we all need to have ready to go each day and getting used to taking him with me when I leave for work every morning (I think I'll enjoy the extra half hour with him in the car in the morning and evening each day as he gets older!), but I know we'll get it all worked out before too long! I'm sure he'll make lots of baby friends and have a good time - I know I'll be excited to see him at the end of every day, though!

On the 21st, we took off for our week-long Christmas trip to spend the holiday with family. We will be at Nana and Papa's from Monday night until Thursday (Christmas morning) and then at Grandma's from mid day Christmas day until Sunday evening, the 28th. We had to pack the whole house, but hopefully it's a successful trip. It will be quite different to have to incorporate a baby's schedule into all the Christmas festivities, but so much fun to be able to celebrate Samuel's first Christmas (even though he won't really know what's going on!).

See how much Samuel has grown:
One Month
Two Months
Three Months

Here's some of the other pictures from our four month photo shoot. He had some really good smiles for me this time!

Merry Christmas from The Fredericksen's!!

Samuel's Three Month Photos

We had Steph from SM Photography come and take pictures on the 22nd of November to commemorate Samuel being three months old and to get a few family pictures for our Christmas card. Now that most people have received our Christmas card, I wanted to share them all here. They turned out so much better than I could have imagined! I sure love our cute little guy!

Samuel Davey - Three Months

Weight:
It's a non-doctor appointment month, so I'm not sure, but we're guessing he's creeping up on 20 pounds.

Height:
Not sure on this one either, but I'm sure he's growing like a weed!

Clothes:
He's pretty much in all 9 month clothes now. His PJs are mostly 6 month, but, other than that, he's pretty comfy in 9 month.

Sleep:
Samuel has gotten pretty good at sleeping about 9 hours straight at night these days. (He slept 9 hours for the first time right after he turned 2 months.) His average sleep time at night over the last 31 days has been right at 8 hours. He only slept less than 6 hours at night 5 times in the last month, and he only slept less than 8 hours 11 times. We're pretty lucky in the sleep department. Now let's just hope he keeps it up and doesn't have a big sleep regression!
We started a pretty good bedtime routine over the past week or so. Trent usually brings him upstairs to get his pajamas on right around 8 and then I take him and we read a book (if he's not screaming because he's too tired or hungry) and then I feed him. When he's done eating, I'll swaddle him up tight and rock with him a little and then put him in his crib. A lot of times, he will wake up when I put him in his crib, so I'll law in our bed across the room until he falls asleep. (I'm not even sure if he knows I'm there or not, but, in my head, it's comforting to him.) There has only been a few times where he's fussed really loudly and I thought he was going to need help getting back to sleep, but he's always managed to get himself calmed down. Hopefully this means that he's starting to recognize our bedtime routine and it really is this easy...

Likes:

Samuel loves being talked and sang to. He's got the biggest smile that just melts my heart!!
I still sing Happy Birthday to him quite often and a few other favorites recently have been Little Bunny Foo Foo, He's Got the Whole World in His Hands (with family members names inserted into the song), and the Do-Re-Mi song from The Sound of Music.
He LOVES to suck and chew on his hands as well as any toys he can get into his mouth.
Samuel also likes to just lay on the floor and be able to kick around. He plays on his little play mat with the toys that hang overhead and just kicks around and stares and swats at the toys.

Dislikes:

Samuel still doesn't like to have to stop eating to be burped or to be burped over someone's shoulder at any point really... 
When he's not in the right mood, he doesn't like to be held when the person holding him is sitting down. 
He's gotten a lot better at tolerating tummy time, so that's not as much of a dislike anymore. 
Other than that, as long as he's full and rested, he's usually a pretty happy and content little guy!

Milestones/Development:
Samuel holds his head up pretty good these days. When he's being held or sitting on someone's lap, he can hold his head pretty steady. He's also getting better at lifting his head during tummy time. It makes him look like such a big boy!
He can definitely swat at toys now and grab onto things when he wants to. It does take some extra concentration, but you can tell he gets excited and really makes the effort to get what he wants.
I think we got a real laugh from him on the 26th of October when Samuel laughed at Trent. His laugh for now is him smiling really big and sucking in a bunch of air. I'm sure we'll make it to the baby giggles at some point!
I know that he's able to see a little farther away these days because when he's sitting in his swing in the morning and I'm in the rocking chair, I get the biggest smiles from him when I make funny faces and smile at him. It's pretty adorable. 
He's really good at getting everything to his mouth from his hands to his toys to burp cloths.
I really thought that he was going to roll over (from back to front) the other day with the way he was kicking his legs and turning his head and twisting his body over, but he never made it all the way. (I got nervous that it was going to happen when Trent wasn't there to see it, so I went and woke Trent up just in case!) I think this is the start of Samuel starting to get the whole rolling over thing figured out, though!

This is what he does when I think he's going to roll right over!

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Samuel had his first overnight trips this month. He and I stayed at Grandma Kock's at the end of October on the night before the CJD Fundraiser and then all five of us stayed at Nana and Papa's the weekend after that when we were there for the big craft fair (Samuel even go to go to the craft fair with us for a while. I just wore him around and he slept most of the time!) Samuel and I also went to Okoboji for two nights at the beginning of November where we got to hang out with Great Grandma and Grandpa Kock, Grandma Kock and Great Aunt Doreen and Great Uncle Nick! Next year, he'll be running all around the place when we're there rather than just laying on the floor! :)

I started back to work on the 13th of November. It's been very strange to go from being with Samuel all day every day to only seeing him for an hour and a half or so in the morning and about 2 hours at night (all when it's dark outside). It's not so bad actually being at work and it's a good to have a routine again and be out in the world, but I definitely miss being with Samuel and hate that I miss out on his every day activities. It really makes the weekends something to look forward to so I can spend all day with him again!

One good thing about me being at work is that Samuel gets to spend his days with his dad and Grandmas. Those three have a schedule to be his babysitters over the next month or so which, I think, is fun for everyone! I'm happy that they all get some time together as well! Samuel is one lucky little guy!

A few of Samuel's nicknames have seemed to stick around for another month. I still call him Buddy, Honey Bear and Sweetie Pie pretty often and Trent loves to default to Stinker (which is a very appropriate nickname a lot of times). I'm sure there are other ones that I'm not thinking of right now.

See how much Samuel has grown:
One Month
Two Months

Here's some of the other pictures from our three month photo shoot:

What a difference a year makes!

Exactly one year ago this week, I was up in Okoboji. I was on vacation from work and was enjoying every minute of it! I stayed up late into the night watching Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel by myself while I Googled everything there was to know about getting pregnant.

We had made the decision that we would start trying to/not prevent having a baby. So, I spent my extra hours of vacation downtime reading through online discussion boards about trying to conceive and about when the best time to get pregnant was and thinking about what it would be like to be pregnant and was totally, embarrassingly obsessed. It was one of those things that I would never tell anyone about in the moment because everyone - especially my husband - would have thought I was crazy! And I'm sure none of this 'research' really even made a difference other than to fulfill my desire to gather information and try to pass the time. You see, I'm not a very patient person, so the fact that we had decided that it was time for us to have a baby meant, for me, that it had to happen NOW!

And what do you know...?!? Exactly a year later, I was up in Okoboji again with a 2 and half month old in tow. I never could have imagined at that time how in love I could be with this little baby that I had dreamed about!

We are so blessed! God is so faithful and I thank Him every day for blessing us with the opportunity to raise one of His children!

Samuel Davey - Two Months

Weight:

At his 2 month check up, Samuel weighed in at 17 pounds 8 ounces, which is greater than the 100th percentile. Someone's gotta be the front of the pack :)

Height:

He is now 25 inches long - 97th percentile
His head circumference is 43 cm. - 98th percentile

Clothes:

He's been transitioning from 6 month clothes to 9 month!! Ahh!! The 6 month onesies still fit for the most part (he's getting a little long for some of them) but the pants don't so much anymore!

Sleep:

His long stretch at night is now usually between 4 and 7 hours. I usually just have to get up once and he's fairly easy to get back to sleep after he gets changed and eats. He'll then sleep for another 2 more hours or so. We need to start working on timing his bedtime more appropriately so we know how it's going to work once I go back to work and have to get up and get ready in the morning. I'm not really ready for that, though!

Likes:

Samuel still likes to eat. He likes when people talk to him and make him smile. He still likes being held tight and walked around and he likes to have songs sung or hummed to him. A few songs that I frequently bust out for him are Twinkle Twinkle, Happy Birthday, Jesus Loves Me, and occasionally even the Ar-We-Va Fight Song.
He still likes to suck on his fists, as he hasn't quite figured out how to get his thumb into his mouth yet.
Samuel likes baths pretty well. He just chills out in his little tub, and the last few times, he's even shown his enjoyment with big smiles at me while I sing him "Rubba Dub Dub, Samuel's in the Tub!!"

Dislikes:
He doesn't like being burped upright over someone's shoulder after eating. He doesn't like to let himself go to sleep at times and he doesn't like being hungry (But who does)! He also still isn't a big fan of tummy time quite yet, but we're getting there.

Milestones/Development:
Samuel has started to open his hands more and can focus on toys we hold in front of him and tries as hard as he can to swat at it. I know he'll get better at that in the weeks to come! We can place the toys in his hands and he'll hang on to them for a little while, too.
He is really quite the social smiler. He usually wakes up pretty happy in the morning. Nothing beats his big smile when I walk up to his crib in the morning and tell him hello!

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At Samuel's 2 month checkup, the doctor used the word "perfect" to describe him and we absolutely agree! He got his 2 month immunizations at this appointment and he screamed as loud and hard as he could when they poked him with the shots. It went pretty quick, though, and he was fine after about a minute when his daddy could pick him up and cuddle him. He then slept pretty much the rest of the evening after we got home.

Samuel made his first trips to Nana and Papa's in Ankeny and to Grandma Kock's and The Observer office in Westside this month. They were quick stops, but they were the first of many!

I have loved spending all my days with him again this month. The time is going much too fast and in just three short weeks, I'll be back at work and we'll be starting what the rest of our lives will be like! I'm going to miss kissing those chubby baby cheeks anytime I want during the day! Heck, I miss him now when he takes a several hour nap in the same room as me, I know I'm not going to like being away from him 10 hours at a time each day! I'm going to make the best out of these three weeks - hopefully the weather will be nice enough for us to go out on some adventures for a few hours each day! 

Samuel has accumulated quite a few nicknames in his short life. A few of them that have been spoken are Buddy, Babooshka, Honey Bear, Snuggle Bug, Stinker, and Sweetie Pie, among others. We'll see if any of them stick and how many other things he gets called over the years!

We haven't started a real routine for bedtime yet, as he's still not scheduled enough with his sleep, but we've started thinking about it. Reading books will definitely be a part of the routine, though, and when he's in the mood, I read to him in the chair in his room, We've gotten about halfway through his Jesus Storybook Bible. I know that's a book we'll read many times throughout his childhood. It's such a good one!

Overall, Samuel is just the best. He really only gets crabby when he's hungry or tired (and by crabby, I mean he cries very hard!) and he has lots of smiles to go around. I can't wait for him to start laughing and showing his little personality even more!

He gets pretty mesmerized by the camera when I get it out, so he wouldn't smile for any of the pictures I took of him this month (and the ones I got are blurry! argh!) even though he totally can!