Ryan at 3 months

A lot changes in 3 months! For starters, he's finally growing into all that hair he was born with...

No need to sugarcoat it… those first 5-6 weeks were ROUGH. Very little sleep for any of us and, thanks to reflux, he literally cried ALL. THE. TIME. His little body was so uncomfortable and reflux meds just weren’t working yet. Just when I thought we would all lose our sanity and/or go deaf, our little boy learned how to smile. And it’s really hard to stay frustrated when he’s THAT cute… even though his biggest smiles are often followed by an avalanche of spit up.

Ryan’s first 3 months of life have been sponsored by white noise: the kitchen vent, the white noise app on our phones, and radio static. Without fail, white noise can calm him down immediately, a la Jesus calming the storm. This discovery was magical for us and has been the key to our sanity and sleep (funny how the two are related...). For over a month his bassinet stayed in the kitchen and he slept with the vent on. We were seriously afraid we would burn out the vent motor, so once he fell asleep I would turn on the white noise app on my phone and place my phone in a metal pan to amplify the sound. When he transitioned to his crib upstairs, Dave found a radio "station" that was nothing but static. The goal here is SLEEP and I'm on board with whatever gets us there. 

Reflux is still with us, but meds are helping now. Ryan has turned into a great sleeper, which I’m both grateful for and perplexed by… I’ve HEARD that babies can be good sleepers at this age, but I didn’t think that was a real thing. Katelyn wasn’t a horrible sleeper, but she never appreciated sleep the way Ryan does. I remember having to do a lot of sleep training with her and wondering why people kept asking me if she was sleeping through the night. With Ryan, I get it now and see that sleeping babies do exist (and my heart goes out to all the parents who aren’t there yet!). I realize teething and other growing pains are just around the corner and I expect his sleep to regress… but I’ll take it for now!

If I had to pick one word to describe Ryan at this stage? Aware. He is very, very aware of his surroundings. His facial expressions change with every sound or inflection in someone’s voice. I wish I knew what he was thinking. And he is fascinated by his big sister! He follows her with his eyes—which has to be exhausting because she’s always on the move—and loves sitting next to her like a big boy. It’s really sweet to watch the sibling bond develop.