Spencer Sits!

 

Spencer sits! 

It's been a month in the making but Spencer can finally sit unassisted. It seems to me that many babies sit by about six months - Spencer is seven and a half months now - but he is also stabilizing a considerable amount of weight. He has even figured out how to catch himself before falling over!

Given his size I do wonder what Spencer's development we be like when it comes to crawling and walking. Will he bum schooch like Eloise or actually crawl? I don't see him as an early walker, which is a good thing, but I also don't want to be hauling all 30-ish pounds of him around until he is 17 months old. For now I'm good with sitting.

Five Months

Spencer was five months old three weeks ago, but I am just getting around to posting his monthly update now. To my second born, yet equally as important child, I am sorry, Mama is pretty behind these days. 

I haven't even cracked the cover of Spencer's baby book as I was counting on using my blog to track his development until I could properly document it. But based on my lack of posts it appears this plan is not going very well, so here is the condensed version of Spencer's recent milestones: 

• Spencer at five months is calm, happy and easygoing. He sleeps 10-12 hours a night and eats well. Always.
• On October 15th Spencer was 20lbs and 70cm long.
• Spencer started eating solid food on October 19th. We made him mashed yams and he dove right in, not surprising since he had been following and grabbing at our food for weeks.
• We took Spencer on his first flight on October 23rd, to Calgary for the weekend. 
• Our robust little boy finally rolled over on October 31st - in his Mickey Mouse costume! 
• After months of drooling, Spencer finally cut his first tooth, the bottom left, on October 23rd. His second bottom tooth popped through on November 2nd and this one has made him snotty, cranky and clingy.

 

rolls and rolls and rolls

evaluating the offerings

sitting cozy on a late flight

the moment he rolled over, mouse nose and all

Four Months

Spencer was four months old yesterday. How a quarter of his first year has already passed I have no idea. I've said it before, time is going way too fast with this little guy and I can't believe he is officially no longer a newborn.

Spencer is my dream baby. He has started sleeping 12 hours a night and is a babbling, cooing, laughing delight. He has his first tooth poking through on the bottom (without any fuss), holds his head up and is in the process of learning to roll over. At his check-up on Monday Spencer weighed in at 17 lbs 3oz and is up in the 95th percentile. In our doctor's words: "Spencer is certainly thriving." By the time he has his first birthday I'm going to have biceps of steel from carting this nugget around.

Big Fat Boy

Long before Spencer was even a bean in my belly, Chris was certain out next child would be a 'big fat boy'. Since we have always struggled to get Eloise to eat enough and even more, to sleep, Chris decided that our second baby would just do both from birth without question. As it happens, he seems to have predicted correctly. Spencer's appetite is excellent, if not insatiable, and I'm confident this contributes to his ability to sleep. 

For the past few weeks I've been trying to follow Spencer's cues when it comes to developing a routine. I definitely don't have it figured out, but I am starting to see a pattern. I'm still a little lost when it comes to his routine in the mornings but Spencer is easy going enough to sleep in the Bjorn or stroller as we do school drop off or head off on an activity. By lunchtime he is ready for a big feed and goes down for a few solid hours in his crib. He wakes up again, we feed, play a little, do a bath, get him into jammies and he's back in the crib around 5pm. Spencer sleeps right through Eloise's witching hour and the bustle of dinner before waking again around 9pm for a bottle of expressed milk with Chris, then goes down for another five-ish hours. After this stretch of sleep he wakes every two hours or so to nurse but still, not bad for a little dude who is just a month old. 

Besides lots of food, I contribute Spencer's sleeping to his sleep position. I remember a friend with two good sleepers tell me that she put both of her kids to sleep on their tummies. Spencer had been fussing and resisting sleep in his crib for hours one day so I decided to give tummy sleeping a shot. That first time he slept on his tummy was the beginning to longer stretches of sleep for Spencer and more sanity for me. I feel like I'm breaking the rules by doing this but I'm okay with that (I am a rebel after all). I put him into the crib awake on his tummy, he doesn't make a peep and then goes right to sleep. It's a miracle.  

One Week

The Babycentre pregnancy app popped up on my phone yesterday and congratulated me for reaching the 40 week mark. Forget 40 weeks, I still can't believe I was pregnant for 39.

I also can't believe that as of this evening (6:46pm to be exact), Spencer is one week old. He has already changed so much in seven days that I would be lying if I didn't say I am already feeling sad to see him grow. I remember staring at Eloise endlessly when she was a newborn and finding it remarkable that we could create something so beautiful and perfect. For some reason I wasn't sure a second baby would have the same effect - we have already been through this after all - but I find myself admiring Spencer constantly and wishing hard that he never grow up. Maybe even more this time because of the possibility that Spencer is my last baby.

They say a baby makes you forget childbirth and I would have to agree. What I am left with a week later is the memory of what turned out to be a positive birth experience that delivered me a perfect baby. And you know what, I'd go so far as to say I'd even go through it all over again (okay, minus the three day string-a-long wait for surgery). I am recovering fairly well and although I am anxious to heal so I can get on with life as I know it, the next six weeks of enforced relaxation are not such a bad thing for me. I'm taking the time to get to know my little boy, experience the joys and challenges of two children and not taking that sweet newborn smell for granted for one second.