Mattox's 3rd Month

Taken Thursday, June 4, 2015 (technically one day after he was 3 months, but since he was 3 months one day after he was 13 weeks, taking pictures only one day apart was just too much)

Taken Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Taken Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Taken Thursday, May 21, 2015

Taken Tuesday, May 26, 2015 (the day after Memorial Day)

Taken Tuesday, June 2, 2015

3 Months already!  How can this be?  It seems like each month is going faster than the last.  This month has brought some good changes for our little guy, and we think we have him on a healthier track.

A few things about Mattox at 3 months:

• Size:  He weighed 11 lbs.  9.5 oz. last Thursday and was about 24 inches long,  He has been wearing size 1 diapers.  He can just barely wear many of his 0 to 3 month onesies and outfits because he is too long for them so he is wearing mostly 3 to 6 month clothes.  I can even see that his pants are getting tighter now around his tummy.  Big brother Evan's pants were always loose and falling off of him.   

• Developmental Accomplishments:  He is still so happy and smiley and loves to be talked to and entertained.  Although we have heard some quiet little happy sounds come out of him, he is not a loud giggly baby yet.  We think he is more like Evan here too.  Brody was so giggly and laughed at our funny antics before he was 8 weeks old.  Evan was a little more serious and took a little more work to get him laughing.  They both had very early well-developed sense of humor though.  Mattox loves when Mommy talks in silly voices to him and tickles his neck and cheeks.  He also loves when Daddy tickles him on his tummy and under his arms.  He breaks into the biggest grins that just light up the whole room.  Tummy time is not usually his favorite time, but he can hold his head up very well when lying on his tummy.  His reflux issues may have prevented him from liking to lie on his tummy as it would often make him spit up.  Like big brother Brody, he still hasn't quite figured out how to roll over although he can roll from tummy to back if I help him get his arm under him.  Brody never really wanted to roll over, and I don't think he ever really did it until he was about ready to crawl.  Brody was my "lazy" baby who was just perfectly content to sit and play in one place for the longest time.  Instead of rolling over, he perfected sitting up by himself before he was 5 months old.  We will see if Mattox follows that pattern.  

• Sleeping:  Mattox is still a great sleeper and often has to be woken up to eat about about 4 a.m. unless he wakes up to poop.  I wake him up to nurse and then he goes promptly back to sleep.  I still have to pump at night because he sleeps so long.  He usually stays asleep until after 8 a.m. when I often have to wake him up again to nurse before we take Evan to school. 

• Likes/Favorites:  Right now, Mommy is still his favorite person, but I hope he will get more play time with big brothers this month while Evan is out of school.  Evan loves to hold him. Brody is a little different story and is probably still experiencing a little jealousy.  He has his moments where he will love his little brother.  He was just Mommy's baby for a long time.  He has not been very interested in too many toys yet although he does seem to like looking at himself in the mirror.  He loves faces!  He also loves warm baths now but does hate having to get out and feeling cold and wet. 
• Health:  First, we wanted to get Mattox gaining weight and on a healthier growth track.  After dealing with slow growth with Evan and worrying so much about his weight gain that finally led to my giving up breastfeeding completely by six months, I have decided to follow the pattern I used with big brother Brody with Mattox's feedings.  At 2 months, Mattox weighed just over 9 pounds and fell below the one percentile in weight.  For the next two weeks, we started supplementing and adding two 3 oz. bottles of formula to his feeding schedule during the day.  He is now nursing about 8 times throughout the day and evening and getting two 3 oz. bottles of formula and a bottle of pumped breast milk along with his daily dose of vitamins and Zantac for his reflux.  Although the additional formula was helping him gain weight, it and the Zantac were not helping his spitting up so I took a page out of Brody's book and started adding a little rice cereal to his formula bottles to thicken them up.  I think one of the causes of Mattox's reflux is that he eats very fast.  Thickening his milk makes him have to slow down on the bottle and just seems to help the milk stay down.  With Evan, I attempted to exclusively breast feed for about six months.  After his very slow weight gain, I then tried to introduce cereal, rice first and then oats.  His little stomach just could not tolerate it, and he would projectile vomit all of the milk in his stomach up after even one little spoonful of the cereal.  It scared this first time mommy.  Even until Evan was over a year old, he could not even handle one little Cheerio!  It was crazy.  Since this phase passed, I reached the conclusion that exclusive breast feeding just did not help prepare my little guys' tummies to handle food.  When I had Brody, my larger and healthier baby, I decided not to wait.  I knew I would have to go back to work and school at night, and I knew he would need to be bottle feeding a lot.  I started him on one formula bottle a day after his first month and then went up to two bottles after his second month.  He always seemed to want more to eat and was always in the 50+ percentiles.  I also started him earlier on rice cereal.  We never had reflux issues with him.  Then, I decided to start baby food with him earlier at four months because he wanted to eat.  He was sitting up by himself with little support and great head and neck control.  We made all his baby food, and his first food was avocado.  He seriously ate the entire jar, and he continued that eating pattern and never wasted any food.  He loved it all...squash, carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, etc.  I am not sure I will start Mattox on baby food as early yet, but I do know I will take the cues from him.  If he is sitting up well and has great control of his neck and head, we may try in a month or two.  When he went back to the doctor 2 weeks after his 2 month appointment, he had gained considerable weight to weigh over 10 1/2 lbs. putting him back in the 5th percentile.  His pediatrician was so happy, she didn't see it necessary to see him back again until his regular four month checkup.
• Health concern #2:  With Mattox's right ear hearing deficiency, we have been noticing he favors laying his head towards the right side with his left ear out.  We had also began noticing his head being misshapen and protruding more on the frontal right side while being more flattened on the back right side and were a little concerned.  His pediatrician was also concerned enough to want him seen by a pediatric neurologist at UNC.  Last week, we headed up to UNC territory (Eddie was not too happy about that) for an evaluation.  First up, Mattox got weighed, and we were just so happy with his progress.  He has been eating so well and spitting up significantly less the last two weeks so we expected decent weight gain.  He weighed 11 lbs. 9.5 oz. which put him in about the 8th percentile.  Sadly for Evan, this was about what he weighed at four months.  We are thankful Evan has been so healthy ever since and has not been affected at all by his slower weight gain during his first year, but we are also glad we learned a lot from him.  I actually think he became a thumb sucker as a way to relieve his hunger needs.  After Mattox's weight check, we saw the nurse practitioner and then the neurologist.  Both of them agreed with us that it seemed that Mattox's preference for turning his head to the right is causing his skull to push out more on that side in the front and be more flat on the back.  He also has sustained some torticollis in his neck muscles on that side, and the muscles do feel very tight.  We are going to try some physical therapy to see if we can help encourage him to turn his head to the other side more and help loosen up his neck muscles.  We will go back to the neurologist in a couple of months to see if he has made any progress.

And of course, more pictures of this cutie:

This was a special new outfit for Mattox that we purchased from Janie and Jack for Mattox's little gender reveal. 

He's so happy these days.  Look, he even learned to wave!  

Of course, we still get lots of serious faces too.  He is a very curious little guy. 

He does look pretty cute in green. 

He makes some silly faces too. 

And we had to commemorate his first Cinco de Mayo.  Big brothers had a ball game that night so we ate a quick fast food Mexican dinner at Moe's Southwest Grill.  Luckily, our games are often on Tuesdays when kids eat free. 

Wearing one of Mommy's absolute favorite little one piece outfits from Janie & Jack.  I don't know why, but I just think the red and white stripes and white collar just look precious on my boys. 

My three boys.  I don't know why my biggest baby wore this outfit two months later than my two smaller ones.  Evan and Mattox obviously have the same facial expressions with their big eyed startled looks.  I actually don't think Brody looks that much bigger in these pictures although looks are deceiving.  He was never fat though and obviously was just built thicker all over.  

Silly and sweet. 

And another Janie and Jack one.  Are we seeing a pattern here?  I promise he does have clothes from other places, but I just have to photograph him in these since they are my favorites. This one was a new one for Brody. 

I thought it was cute that we had this little stuffed blue dog that matched the dogs on these overalls. 

Oh that face!  He is definitely going to be a character! 

Just doing our tummy time exercises and strengthening our neck muscles.  Mommy has to force him to hold his head on his left side and has started giving him little massages to work on his tense neck muscles and torticollis. 

And then we rested. 

Go U.S.A.!  Had to do a patriotic photo shoot for Memorial Day. 

Sweet little American boy. 

The bottom right picture cracks me up.  That face!  He wasn't crying.  It was a startled expression. 

Wearing his swim suit and ready for the pool.  This was Evan's first swimsuit. 

And of course, my little Jedi baby.  This outfit is from Evan's Build-A-Bear bear.  He picked it out when he was four when we took him to make a bear for Brody.  

I had tried the little outfit on Brody.  He was so big, he couldn't get the other arm in the coat.  Mattox fit in it a little better although the shirt was still a little tight and short.  

He's the little brother.  This was one of Brody's onesies.  It is 0 to 3 months, and Mattox has just about maxed it out.  

Pretty boy.  I just love my boys in simple white and light blue. 

I took another pose of him in his special Little Brother shirt before he outgrows it.  He was officially 3 months old and the shirt is definitely snug now.  I think we are going to put it on his special teddy bear. 

He has definitely changed a lot.  His hair looks thinner on top but thicker in the back.  Evan's hair was the same. 

Some more of his funny faces.  He looks like Elmer Fudd in these.  Haha! 

Mattox's first time in the big pool! 

And hanging out by the pool keeping cool. 

Doing some more tummy time exercises.  He isn't interested in too many toys yet, but I try to give him lots to look at to keep him interested and happy. 

His mirror is definitely his favorite. 

Big brother Evan playing with him. 

Big brother kisses. 

Sweet baby.  He still needs a little help to turn over onto his back because he can't figure out getting his arms under him. 

We just love this baby! 

Stay tuned next month for lots more firsts including first trips to the beach and mountains!