Theophilus is one month new today! It has been incredible adding Theo to our family. I remember when Henry was born, that first month felt overwhelming and each new day felt so different as a family of four. I swear I woke up every morning thinking, How are we managing as a family of four?! I don’t know if I’m cut out for this. I was worried all the time and had a pretty terrible bought of postpartum anxiety. But this time around, our family of five feels whole and, although not exactly complete, it feels like we are who we are supposed to be. Even though Theo was our unexpected baby, he’s been a joyous and life-giving addition to our family.
God is funny that way.
Now, let’s talk about Theo, shall we?
As you can see by his lack of neck and multiple chins, he is a chunkster. He’s an excellent eater and we are so grateful my body can keep up with his appetite. However, this has caused me to be a ravenous eating machine so if you plan on being in my vicinity, you better have food ready. I wouldn’t say no to more sleep either. He eats every 2-3 hours throughout the day and night and sometimes a gal just wants to sleep for more than an hour stretch.
It’s a good thing you’re so adorable Mr. Boy.
Speaking of sleep. We are still not getting much. He prefers to be held while he is sleeping. He likes to sleep on his tummy right on our chests. We are trying to get him to sleep in his crib more during the night and I am working on crib sleeping during the day to get him more used to it. Although we co-slept for both Emma and Henry for over a year for each, we want to avoid the nursing-on-demand-all- night saga this time around. We’ll see how good we are at that goal. #suckers
He absolutely hates having his diaper changed or getting dressed. For those few minutes laying on his back on the changing table he screams like a banshee. He has a loud and piercing cry but only does it when he is disgruntled about something and is not one for long crying sessions, thank heaven. Theo is also a fairly gassy baby (sorry if you are reading this teenaged Theo). I blame my power washing letdown which causes a lot of gulping and taking in air on his end. Poor thing. We usually get some crazy burps and toots out of him after he eats.
Theo loves his sister and brother and they love him. There is absolutely no sibling rivalry between them and it fills me with joy and gratitude. If anything, Emma and Henry fight each other over who gets to hold Theo next. Emma loves to walk around the house holding and rocking Theo and Henry never leaves the room without giving Theo a little kiss on the head. Whenever they get home from preschool they immediately search Theo out to greet him. Sometimes he is napping when they get home and I have to guard the bedroom door otherwise they’ll be all about hello kisses and telling him all about their days.
Cute alert: whenever Theo is crying in the car, Henry says over and over, “almost home baby Theo, almost home, there, there”. I about die of cuteness overload. Emma will reach over and hold Theo’s hand for the rest of the car ride.
Theo loves: big sister and brother, nursing, tummy time, and handing out in the baby carrier.
Theo hates: baths, gas, laying on his back, being swaddled.
We haven’t weighed or measured him since his two week doctor’s appointment so I don’t know his stats. Hashtag third kid problems. Although, he does have some gnarly baby acne going on. I hope it clears up soon.
I am also hard at work at introducing the pacifier. I would like to have another soothing option rather than nursing all night long, ha. He’s somewhat interested in it. But whether it be his thumb or the pacifier, I hope he finds some self-soothing mechanism. Fingers crossed.
He’s definitely my chunkiest baby and I’m loving every roll, nook, and cranny. We have been trying to figure out who he looks the more like, Paul or me, but looking back at the other kids at one month old, we realized that Theo is the spitting image of Emma at that age. Too cute.
