The Stracener Scene: Luke 2 months

I have a feeling I am going to be saying this alot but oh my goodness time is flying by and this little baby is growing up. I seriously cannot believe it has been 2 months since we met this precious and I cannot believe I have been away from work for 9 weeks and only have 3 more weeks until I have to go back. It always seems that just when you really start to enjoy life with a new baby it is time to go back.

So alot has happened in this past month. I will be honest and say that 2/3 of this month was not fun. We went through some very emotional times. I made a big decision to begin adding more formula bottles and start pumping less. It was a hard one because I struggled knowing breast milk is best but also thinking that the days we were having with my stress level and lack of sleep something needed to change. Luke also digressed on his sleeping patterns and began to only sleep for 2 hours at at time...whew those were some tough nights/weeks. He wouldn't scream or anything he just wouldn't sleep for a long period of time. I spent the days scouring the Internet for tips, sample baby schedules, read blogs, read articles...I was desperate! I felt like we were doing everything the books and internet said to do. And it is so hard not to compare to your first child but I have learned that James spoiled us with his sleeping. He may have had some colic issues but he was a good sleeper. I read in his baby book he started sleeping through the night at 7 weeks and we were at 7 weeks at the time and not even close! Then right at 8 weeks Chad and I made a change in his night time bottle time and bumped it up to 9 instead of 10 and bumped him up to 6 and then 7 oz for that bottle and whola! For the past week he has been consistently sleeping 4-5 hours straight and then I give him his paci and he will sleep another hour and half. I feed him at 4 then he goes back to sleep until 7:30 or 8. I think a combination of what we did plus him turning 8 weeks helped tremendously. I read sometimes around 8 weeks things just start to click. It is amazing how much better everyone is with a little more sleep!

For more of the positives he is just the happiest baby. He smiles non-stop during the day. It doesn't take much to see that big toothless grin and it makes you just want to squeeze him. I can be talking on my cell phone and just look at him and he thinks I am talking to him and gives me the biggest grin. It really just makes your day so much better. And he really smiles at anyone who will talk to him even total strangers. The funniest thing he does is I will get him all swaddled for a nap and he will fall sound asleep in my arms and the minute I lay him down he opens his eyes and gives me the biggest smile. It is like he is saying "yeah right mom I am so not asleep". We went to his 2 month check up today. He is weighing 13 lbs. 14 oz and is 24 1/2 in long. He is the 90th percentile for both height and weight. He is such a chunky thing! He did have to get his first round of shots and it was just awful. I think it way worse on the mom then it is the baby but we cried through it together. And not to leave out brother but every day I enjoy watching James interact with "Lukie" as he calls him and he just LOVES his little brother so much. He constantly wants to kiss his forehead and he is always letting me know when he cries because he knows I need to pick him up. We are so fortunate he is not jealous! He are some pics from this past month...