TMI Tuesday: Adjusting And Replacing

Our son is growing. This is far from a surprise but that doesn’t mean that the rapidity of his growth is something that we were necessarily prepared for. We knew that we would be changing clothing sizes on a regular basis according to months but we are quickly finding out that those numbers on the back of the clothes are merely a suggestion (diapers too). Currently our three month old son is fitting comfortably in six month clothes. What can I say, we have a long baby… and a heavy baby too.

In addition to the bassinet that we previously moved him out of because of space limitations, we are now finding ourselves having to purchase a separate changing table for the same reason. We originally decided to purchase the changing table attachment for the crib that we selected. The thought that this would last a bit longer than it has was obviously a mistake. He is now only an inch away from the top and bottom which usually leads us to change him diagonally. We knew he was growing but we thought we had some more time. Looks like another visit to Amazon.

We have also been frequently adjusting his car seat. When we first started driving him around we got an insert to keep his head up and to just make things more comfortable for him. The insert is now gone and we have now had to adjust the straps twice so that he fits. All because he is getting to long for the previous setting. Again, we thought we had a little more time but that is simply not the case… time is flying and our son is growing way ahead of schedule. We wish we could slow things down and enjoy more of the moments and him as a certain size but that is one of the many things beyond our control in this adventure in parenting.

While we should probably start trying to plan for the continued growth of our, not so little, baby it seems as though any timeframe that is suggested as the ‘norm’ just doesn’t apply. He is growing faster than all of the books, websites, and the doctors originally thought and he is slowly becoming more aware of everything around him. In nearly all categories, he is ahead of schedule regarding all means of growth. His coordination is progressing, his strength is dramatically improving, and his size is beyond what we expected. We have a healthy baby boy and that is all we could have every hoped for.

TMI Tuesday: Baby Needs Space

Yes, the Swingline stapler went with him.

Not really a TMI post but it is still about the baby so here you go…

As the days and weeks have passed, our son keeps getting bigger and bigger. This seems to be happening way too fast (we were warned that this would happen). While he has yet to reach the 3 month mark he has already grown out of most cloths that bear that same marking and is now well into the 3-6 month items that fill his dresser.

While he is a bit chunky like his daddy, much of this outgrowth is because of his length. Because of this the swaddles that he once seemed to swim in are now too short to accommodate his outstretched legs and the bassinet that has remained beside our bed can barely contain him. His rapid growth forced us to make the switch over the weekend finally moving him out of our bedroom and into his crib in his own room.

So far he seems to like the privacy and I can’t say I blame him. While he can still hear much of what is going on in the house, he no longer has to hear the snores echoing off the walls (although this amazingly didn’t seem to bother him before). He has his own space in his own room… it really is amazing how fast things seem to be changing.

We have watched him slowly take over more and more of the bassinet over the last couple of months and now that he is in his crib it seems as though we have hit the reset button. It is a large crib and our growing boy seems lost in there. Thankfully, the transition was harder on my wife than our son as he is enjoying the extra room and the slightly softer sleeping surface. I guess we will now get to watch him slowly take over and outgrow his new bed.

I must admit that I do miss hearing him sleep on the other side of the room. I enjoyed the brief time when I could just lay in bed and listen for his muffled snores (and sometimes little farts). It was nice knowing that he was right there. Although it is much easier for me when I come to bed as I don’t have to worry as much about waking him up. He is already growing so fast and now he has his own bedroom and his own crib (where he takes advantage of the extra space by spreading out when he is not swaddled) with his mommy still watching him on the monitor from her side of the bed. Some things just aren’t going to change.  

A Good Place To Sleep

When we first moved into our last place we didn’t have much to fill the space and it took some time before we were able to make the small apartment comfortable. Over time we accumulated a fair amount of stuff and by the time we finally got out of that building we were able to fill much of our current house. In fact, it was nice spreading things out across multiple rooms.

Since we first hauled everything through the door it has, once again been a slow accumulation of stuff. The vast majority of these new items were not optional as we had a long list of things that our son was going to need both when he arrived and soon after. It is safe to say that this has filled the rest of the rooms and overall space that we gained when we moved here.

However, of all the things that we have accumulated lately (more about that in a separate post) there are a couple of items that are particularly meaningful to us. As has been evident in many of the posts on this blog (another one is on the way), family is very important to me and my wife. This is why we were excited when my mom thoroughly cleaned the family bassinet so that we could use it in our home (it has been around many cats over the years). My grandparents bought the bassinet 75 years ago and it has been passed around the family ever since providing a bed to countless relatives.

It wasn’t until after our son arrived that we were given something from my wife’s side of the family with the same kind of history behind it. My wife’s cousin approached us and said that she had something very special for our son. As it turns out my wife’s great grandmother had knitted a blanket over 40 years ago for her cousin but, for one reason or another, it was never used. It was put away in a closet for over four decades before they decided to give it to our son.

The two are now together… two families now one. We don’t hold on to many items that carry so much history but it is nice to have just a few that we can use and, more importantly, that our son can use. Now, every day, our son takes his naps surrounded by both sides of his family and over 100 years of combined history.