Porter is 4 Months!

Where did the time go? This month has once again flown by, which is sad because December is one of my favourite months! I love getting ready for Christmas! This past week we celebrated Matt's birthday with my family, we had a cake and some presents and it was just awesome (his birthday is the 22nd). Then in the week to come we are celebrating together and with Matt's family. We are going out to eat at the Lake House (which looks amazing) and then to see the Hobbit! Matt and I both love the Hobbit so I am stoked! We also decided to see the Nutcracker (well I hinted and Matt figured it out and bought tickets!) It was amazing. The dancers were superb and it really made things feel more Christmasy! Alright, on to updates :)

Porter Maxwell Whiteley

Age: 4 months

Weight: 15 lbs 7 oz

Height: 26.1 inches

Wearing: 3-6 month old clothing, his pants are still 0-3 month size. He clearly has short legs like his mamma.

New developments: He has rolled over a 2nd time. Still from front to back during tummy time. This time Daddy saw it and Mommy didn't! He's also started grabbing everything. I put him in his little chair so I can shower and have him close and I didn't realize that he was so close to the straightener cord. He pulled it down on top of him. Luckily it missed his noggin and was turned off but it still gave him a scare! (Mommy fail moment!) He has also started talking to himself. When he is in the carseat we have a mirror that faces him (so we can see him in the rear view mirro) and recently if he's wide awake and not sleepy he talks to the mirror (very nicely). It's cute. Last but not least, he moves in his crib. Like from one end to the other in the night! I will put him down close to one end and in the morning he is at the other end of the crib! I am scared he's going to hit his head, but the health care system tells you repeatedly not to put bumped pads in. So I'm at a loss. He's also decided he hates bottles, which is rough for me, even milk in a bottle, so we're trying to figure that one out!

Favorite things: Still smiling and baths with daddy. He kicks soo much in the bath, it's a little crazy! He likes new people too, definitely not shy unless it's a ton of people all at once! He also loves to drool, much to my dismay, which ends up in outfit changes at least 3 times a day. He has just recently decided that he loves his striped monkey from his Gramma. It's adorable and he's so cute with it!

Favorite clothes: He has an adorable striped long sleeve shirt with elbow patches that I just love!

Now for the 4 month photos!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I love Christmas! The lights, the music the smells. Everything about this time of year makes me oh so happy. Our Christmas decorations (minus the tree) were all up in November! Having a baby makes this time of year even more fun. I've bought a few too many Christmas sleepers and that's what I put him in all the time. Matt loves Christmas too, but I don't think it's possible to love it as much as I do.

This year we have the Whiteley Christmas. I'm so excited to take our family onesie picture with Porter. He will fit his Christmas onesie perfectly by the time he needs to wear it. We also get to have Cooper Christmas on Boxing day. Having family close really is a blessing!

This year I really feel in the Christmas spirit. I've been able to go to a few mom and baby Christmas parties, I've made numerous cookies and treats and all my Christmas shopping is done! Last year was difficult for me at Christmas time, I was exhausted and had terrible morning sickness so I didn't really enjoy the food or smells.

We caved and bought an artificial tree. I figure next year we won't want pine needles all over the floor where Porter is walking/crawling and I don't want him to eat them off the tree so Matt went out and bought a 7ft/9ft Christmas tree and it has a million lights. I can't believe how easy it was to put up. Decorating took half the time! I love that it's pre-lit and I don't have to go through strands of tangled up Christmas lights before getting to the fun part of hanging ornaments!

Now here are some of our latest adventures.

Just hanging out with 17 other babies!

Kissing my little man under the mistletoe.

It's a diaper changing party!

Matching onesies :)

Porter wasn't used to all the noise.. he may have been a little unhappy.

The reindeer and elf :)

A little smaller party.. Porter is checked out!

Babies!

Last year we had a New Year's Brunch and sat in this exact same place but none of us had babies yet! Crazy how quick life goes.

Merry Christmas!

We had 2 criers and 2 content babies.

Porter and Auntie Em

My smiley guy :)

Love him!

He fell asleep like this...

Best Friends and Cousins :) Tucker and Porter!

I love Tucker's face in this one!

This one is blurry.. but these two are awesome!

Kisses from Mrs. Claus

Our first Santa visit was a success!

Porter is 3 Months!

This month has once again flown by! Porter caught his first (and second) cold which was no fun for mommy. He also learned how to roll over. He is a tummy time master, lifting his head and chest up. He's been great this past month, it seems we've really got into a rhythm. He stays up until about 10:30-11:00 at night and sleeps from then until around 4:30-5:00 sometimes a little later. He then wakes up to eat and goes back to sleep for another couple of hours. It's great, except when he is sick. Then his whole schedule is thrown off and we end up waking up 4-5 times a night, right back to the newborn phase. He's gotten so big this past week, he's out of his 0-3 month sleepers and in to 3-6 month ones already. I can't believe how quick this is going. I just want him to stay little but grow at the same time! No check up this month so our stats for him are probably a little off but it's close and that's what counts!

Porter Maxwell Whiteley

Age: 3 months

Weight: Approx 15 lbs

Height: No check up this month means no length! He's definitely longer though.

Wearing: 3-6 month old sleepers, 0-3 month old onesies and pants.

New developments: November 14th we got our first real laugh! It was adorable! He loves when Daddy talks like Smeagol (from Lord of the Rings), it makes him giggle soo much. Still a ton of drool and lots of smiles. 1 day after turning 3 months old he rolled over from his front to his back. I may have scared him with how excited I was. Still sleeping 5-8 hours a night straight and then going back to sleep for another 2-3 hours. He has just learned how to pull on the handle of a toad (on his little chair). The toad sings a song for him. He loves music!

Favorite things: Smiling, baths, the otteroo, eating, sitting in his chair listening to Jack Johnson with daddy, gripping anything he can get his hands on and mommy's singing (probably my favourite too).

Favorite clothes: His Christmas sleepers/onesie. I'm a little obsessed with Christmas so that may be why!

Looking super cool thanks to his cousin Sawyer.

Chubby cheeks.

Such a big boy!

Some Mamma love.

These two!

Porter and Tucker, can you tell who is older?

Checked out.

Just snuggling in bed.

Enjoying his bath

I just love his chubbiness!

Bath time with Daddy.

Testing out the Christmas onesie.

All Hallows Eve

Happy Halloween! A little late, but so it goes. We decided this year to actually participate in the Halloween festivities. Every year since we have been married we have done NOTHING for Halloween. Maybe it's just me, but Halloween is not my favourite holiday. I feel like you need to pick one holiday to absolutely love and stick with it/go all out. That holiday for me is Christmas. Sorry Halloween, you've got nothing on Christmas! 

Last year we lived in an older area, we got about 6 trick or treaters. The 2 years before that we lived in an apartment building and got 0 trick or treaters. This year we live in an area with 1,000,000+ kids, so we decorated the house, carved pumpkins and bought candy. Then we decided to go out, because it was Friday night, and Friday night is date night! So we left the candy on the porch and the kiddo with his loving grandparents and we headed out. But first we took some pictures. Here are a few from that night. I'm still waiting to get Porter into his Penguin costume.. It's a tad big, but a picture may be taken in the near future anyway!

Some funky looking pumpkins.

Dressed for date night!

He's soo strong with his little head now!

My guys.

The Otteroo

Soo last week we purchased a very awesome item called the Otterroo. Well we put Porter in this awesome floatie and placed him in our big tub. Here are the results of that! 

There was a lot more. But it was cut out due to baby nudity that the internet doesn't need to see!

My baby loves his otteroo! Best purchase ever!

Porter is 2 months old!

My baby is 2 months old! He's growing like a weed and getting stronger every day. During tummy time he pushes his whole chest off the ground and moves his head from side to side. He is such a great little guy. We had a rough first few weeks and some trouble with colic. I tried absolutely everything I could to try and help him with his gassiness and grumpiness but it seemed that nothing was working. We tried Infacol, Ovol, Gripe Water, Bio Gia drops, laying down to nurse (so he wouldn't get so many bubbles while feeding), limiting my diet to pretty much nothing (there aren't a lot of options when you eliminate diary, wheat and sugar), burping multiple times during a feed, holding his belly, baby massage, essential oils (which helped a bit) and any other recommendations we could find on the World Wide Web. I finally came across a few websites that recommended chiropractic care for babies. With a 95% success rate, It would be stupid not to try.

I had been seeing a chiropractor my whole pregnancy (mainly for terrible headaches associated with my pregnancy) and remembered that she works on babies as well. So at 5 weeks old (after 4 weeks of no sleep and a grumpy baby) I took Porter to see Dr. Amanda. She warned us after our first visit that generally chiropractic care had one of 2 outcomes after the first round. Either he would sleep like he was dead, or he would be a nightmare. So being prepared for the worst, I really hoped for the best. It turned out that I was lucky, he slept like a dream! But it only lasted a day. We had him adjusted 6 times in 2 weeks and after adjustment number 6 things were much, much, much better. It was like I had a different baby. He now would only cry when he truly needed something. His gas was better, it didn't take me an hour to burp him, he smiled more, cried less and slept more soundly. 

So this month has been infinitely better than last month. I no longer give him Ovol, Infacol or Gripe Water but I still give him Bio Gia drops since it's a probiotic and is helping his digestion. I can eat sugar and some wheat again but still no dairy. But the dairy isn't such a big deal since I'm slightly lactose intolerant anyway. Now for the latest Porter details:

Porter Maxwell Whiteley

Age: 2 months

Weight: 11lbs 14oz

Height: 23.6 inches (Still really tall, 80th percentile. Crossing my fingers he got his dad's genetics for height!)

Wearing: 0-3 month old clothing, the tops fit well, bottoms are still too big.

New developments: Drooling (like crazy). He now smiles a lot when he sees someone he recognizes. He also makes a wide range of noises (all of them adorable). My favourite new development is the 6-9 hours of sleep a night! Sleep is heavenly!

Favorite things: Smiling, mornings (How did I get a morning baby? I'm terrible with mornings), baths, sleeping, eating, making a wide variety of noises/talking to anyone that will listen, watching the cows in his swing and drooling (his newest development).

Favorite clothes: His Etnies shoes that are just the tiniest bit to big, an adorable grey cardigan and his dinosaur sleeper.

Getting his feet warmed up by Daddy.

Oh mom.

Big smiles for Daddy.

Those eyelashes! I'm jealous.

Looking super skeptical this morning.

Matt is really getting the hang of this Dad thing. 

Eating while holding a baby, classic parent move.