One Month Already?!

I can hardly believe that it's already been 1 month since our sweet little boy entered our lives! Collier has just started to interact a little more these past few days, other than eating, sleeping, and crying. He's begun smiling at us and what a precious smile it is! He has the same little dimple in his left cheek that his daddy and Noah both share. His little eyes are really checking out his surroundings and he's even began cooing at us. He still looks so much like Noah did as a newborn, however, with extra chub and fat rolls. I'm dying to know what he weighs, as I'm positive it's around 10 - 11 lbs already.

Noah is in love with his little brother and constantly wants to give him kisses and hugs. He loves to grab his little hand and just hold on... however, sometimes I have to remind him to be gentle. Noah hasn't shown any jealousy, however, he is very clingy towards me when Jamie's at work and just the three of us are at home. It makes for a challenge for sure, especially when I'm trying to tend to Collier.

Last week, I began implementing a Baby Wise schedule for Collier. Some days he does really well with it and other days are not as good. He still fights sleep alot during the day so it's hard to get him down for a nap at times. However, the BW schedule has helped to spread out his eating to every 3 hours, which has freed me up and is WONDERFUL compared to the eating every 2 hours that he was doing. Each night I go to bed praying that it will be a good one because we never know how he's going to do. Over the weekend, he was up all night and would only sleep if he was held. However, the past 2 nights were much better. He goes to bed after nursing around 10-10:30 and sleeps really peacefully until 1:30 - 2ish and wakes to eat. I LOVE that I'm getting a good 3 - 3 1/2 hours of sleep. However, after his first feeding, he never gets back into a good sleep. He'll doze off for an hour, wake up crying, and so on until it's time for him to eat again. I'm not sure why he can't get back into a good sleep after his first night time feeding, however, I'm hoping it'll change as he gets a little older. Last night, he went 4 1/2 hours between one feeding (from 10:15pm - 2:45am)... that was the longest he's ever gone and it was FABULOUS. Of course, he then was up almost every hour to hour and half following. I swaddle him at night and for naps, however, and he'll sleep really peacefully, but then he also gets hot, so I wonder if that's what wakes him? I'm still trying to figure out what he prefers.

Lastly, Noah has been doing really well with standing on his own. We'll stand him up and let go of his hands and he'll remain standing for a good minute or so, sometimes a little longer. He'll begin to lose his balance, and sometimes sit down or sometimes regain it and remain standing. Last night, he was walking by holding on to our hands and I let go, he stood for AT LEAST 5 minutes! It was by far the longest he's stood on his own without ANY help at all. He had such great balance that he was standing there like it was no big deal! I just wished I could have caught it on camera!

We are so excited about our first Thanksgiving with our newest little guy, as well as spending it with the rest of those most important to us. To be honest, I can't believe it's already time for the holidays. I'm been so preoccupied with our little one that it's snuck up on me. The thought of entering the Christmas season, shopping and getting all the decorations out kind of seems overwhelming with a newborn, however that's not what's important. It's about spending this time with our loved ones and recognizing just how much we have to be grateful for this year!