Santi's four month letter

7/15/10

Dear Santiago:

You are now four months old! The time is flying and you are growing so fast! We are constantly amazed at the things you can do every day!

You have started to try and roll over from your back to your front. You get about half way…we’re just waiting for the day when you roll all the way over by yourself! You still haven’t rolled from your front to your back but we know it’s coming soon too!

You’re still smiling all the time, and now have started finding us when we’re in the room. Mommy needs to leave the room if someone else is feeding you because you will find her and stare at her and not eat! You have also started to laugh a little bit…your laugh is so cute and tiny…we can’t wait to hear a big belly laugh from you though.

Here are some of the things you’re doing this month:

• Grabbing your round rattle and bringing it to your mouth

• You've gotten the hang of Sophie the giraffe and spend a lot of time chewing on her face, legs and feet!

• Laughing

• Gazing at us

• Lifting your legs up more when you’re lying on your back

• “Talking” to us more and more!

• Wearing Size 3 diapers

• Wearing size 3-6 month pants, 3-6 month shirts, some 9 month shirts and 6 month onesies

• Wearing size 1 shoes

• Wearing size 3-6 month hats

• Eating about 4-6 oz per feeding

• Loving music and “dancing”

• You have great head control and your back muscles are getting so strong. Mommy can now hold you on her hip and you don’t tip back and enjoy looking out to see the world

• Playing with your hands more and more

• Sucking on your fingers and left thumb

• Still sleeping through the night!

• Napping about 3-4 times a day with your longest nap being your nap at 12-1pm

• Love the water – mommy took you to the pool for the first time and you loved it! Even though the water was cold you let her dip you in up to your waste a bunch of times and smiled!

You’ve had a great month, and are getting so big and strong! We can’t wait to see how you change this next month!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

4 months!

Santi is 4 months old today! My little man is growing up so fast! We had a fantastic appointment at his high risk follow up yesterday (follow up from being in the NICU after he was born). They did some developmental testing and he passed with flying colors! Some of the things he was doing (picking up a toy rod placed in front of him and waving it around) the doctor said usually only 5 months and older children can do...so needless to say I was VERY proud of my boy. Especially when the doctor declared him "perfect"! :)


At four months Santi is:

* Saying more "things" - coos, oohs, etc.

* Has discovered squealing and the sound of his own voice

* Has now perfected the 4 month pose - head up, legs up on his tummy

* Has graduated to facing out when I'm wearing him

* Still sleeping through the night

* Officially outgrown his swing (he's too heavy and those feet are hanging out!)

* Loving to smile at everyone

* "Flirts" with women

* Takes one long nap a day (2-3 hours) around noontime

* Tolerates being in the stroller more

* Loves being held

* Loves looking at the "baby in the mirror"

* Can lift his legs and bottom up off the ground when laying down

* Can sit up when I hold his legs for a little bit of time

* Can be pulled to standing from the ground now (and he LOVES doing this!)

* Can "stand" (with assistance) for longer periods of time

* Loves to laugh although right now it's a silent laugh - still waiting for those baby giggles!


As of yesterday at his appointment here are his stats:

15 lbs, 14 oz
24.5" long
Head circumference is 15.8 inches around

He is in the 25% - 50% for height and head size and in the 75% for weight! Big boy!

Dinner guest

Last week I was making food and peeling corn on the cob...much to my surprise I found this guy. He was dead and had snacked down to the cob...yuck! Needless to say I threw this on out but had to take a photo of my unexpected dinner guest!

Happy 4th of July! Summer seems to have decided not to arrive in Seattle yet - we spent our 4th in the 50's and cold weather! We ended up meeting some friends and their kids for breakfast at a pancake house, and then we went to watch the parade. (Tito's dad moved in with us to help us take care of Santi last weekend, so that's why he's in the photos!)

Here are some photos of the day:

On the way to breakfast - eating his teething beads while holding his red, white and blue wand





At breakfast



With Papa Beto





Santi's really excited for the parade



It's not often that you see fleece blankets and sweatshirts on the 4th of July! It felt like the 4th of February!



Daddy and Santi



Happy boy, so glad we're in the warm car!

Really??

JUST got Santi down for a nap and this is when some guys next door decide to use their chainsaw? Thankfully he's still asleep!

Crap! Spoke too soon - he's awake. Trying to lull him back to sleep to the sound of chainsawing... :| And now the guys are yelling to one another too...yay.

New video

I posted a new video of Santi today - last weekend we woke up and put him in his bouncy chair (which he is rapidly outgrowing!) and he proceeded to "talk" and "sing" to his "friends" (as we call them) on the bar above him - a raccoon, porcupine and an owl with a "magic mushroom" hanging from it.

He had quite a bit to say - http://vimeo.com/12749214

Life...

Life has a funny way of working out, doesn't it? Three months ago, we had plans for a natural delivery, but ended up attempting an induction after being admitted to the hospital with preeclampsia.

Then after the induction failed, due to the fact that my contractions were too close together and my baby wasn't tolerating them, I ended up with a c-section to welcome my beautiful little boy into the world.

We thought things were fine, and then he ended up with an infection and had to be admitted to the NICU, where he stayed for the next 14 days until they were able to get the bacillus cereus bacteria out of his system. In the meantime, as I was recovering from my c-section, I had a set back in the form of a hematoma that was over 1000 cc's in size (that's a liter of blood people!) I ended up having emergency surgery to clamp off and eventually remove what turned out to be an arterial bleed.

After the surgery, my incision was left open, I was given a wound vac for the next week, and then eventually stitched up and sent home. Three days later, we were able to bring our baby boy home. And things haven't been the same since!

I've worked into a routine as a "housewife"...I wake up, feed the baby, take a shower, change the baby's clothes and diaper, then we usually go off to our Stroller Strides exercise class, come home, I have lunch and the baby has lunch. We will go out for a walk if it's nice, or go and run errands, or stay home and do laundry and clean the house. Around 6pm, Tito comes home and we'll make dinner and put the baby to bed together and then enjoy some time with one another before heading to bed ourselves. In one week, I was set to disrupt this schedule by returning to work.

Due to circumstances that are beyond my control, I will be maintaining my "housewife" schedule longer than anticipated. One one hand, I'm disappointed to not be returning to work, to my profession, and to be able to use my brain in a way other than coming up with songs to sing to my baby, participating in tummy time, and watching him sleep. On the other hand, I'm so grateful for this extra time with him. He's really such a neat little person and I'm loving the time I'm spending with him. He changes everyday, he learns new things everyday, he amazes me everyday. To think this little person was once just a little cluster of cells growing in my body, and now he's a living, breathing, amazing little guy whose smiles make me melt, who is the best "talker" there is out there, and who I know will be laughing for real any day now and we know once he starts, won't be able to stop.

So for now, I'll accept the circumstances, and be thankful for this extra time with my little man. Hopefully someday he'll be better for it. And I know I will be as well.

Santi's three month letter

6/15/10

Dear Santiago:

You are now three months old! I can’t believe that you have been in our lives for 12 weeks already. You are growing everyday, and learning and doing new things that surprise us all the time.

You’re constantly smiling at us, and we know we can’t be sad when we see your little grin. You have started to get darker and although you still have brown hair, and green/hazel eyes, you are looking more and more like Daddy and more Peruvian everyday.

This month, you’ve added new things to what you can do:

• Recognizing mommy and daddy when we are in the room and when we leave the room you miss us
• Smiling at us constantly
• Grabbing your keys and rattle when mommy hands them to you
• Love music – musical toys, music on the tv, etc. make you dance and stop what you’re doing to listen
• Quickly outgrowing your swing and bouncy chair and car seat
• Wearing Size 2 diapers
• Wearing size 3-6 month pants, 3-6 month shirts and 6 month onesies
• Wearing size 1 shoes (although that doesn’t happen that often!)
• Wearing size 0-3 month hats
• Eating about 4-6 oz per feeding
• Loving your stroller more and more
• You’ve graduated to the jogger stroller most of the time. Mommy uses this when she takes you to Stroller Strides classes and you like being able to face out and see the world. Sometimes you’re still in your Snap and Go stroller but not as much
• You’re so close to laughing. Mommy thinks she heard a laugh the other day but isn’t quite sure
• You realize the cats are there now more and more. Epi sometimes will sit next to you and tickle you with her tail and you laugh when she does this
• You are sleeping through the night! Mommy and Daddy put you down at about 7pm and you will sleep until 6am or later!
• You take about 4 naps a day, usually no more than 20-30 minutes each, although sometimes you’ll surprise Mommy and take a 4 hour nap. This is hard for Mommy though because she thinks you’re going to wake up at any time so she can’t really do anything 
• You still love baths

We can’t wait to see what you have in store for us throughout this next month!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Professional photos

So I never posted these, but these are the photos we decided on of Santiago. He was only three weeks old when these were taken - hard to believe he was every that tiny. Even though it's only been 9 weeks since then, it seems like he's been in our lives for so much longer!

Guess who...

Is three months old?


Thought I'd share some photos of my cute little guy:

Hanging out in Mill Creek headed for a walk

Out for dinner enjoying "summer" - the one day we have had so far!

With Dad at Green Lake

At three months Santi is:

* "Talking" more - lots of coos, oohs, squeals, etc.

* Loving tummy time and able to lift his head up for longer periods of time

* Loves being able to look out and around when I'm holding him and when he's in the stroller

* Sleeping through the night! (Actually he has since about 2 months.) We put him down at about 6:30-7:30pm and he sleeps through until 6am or later (this morning was 6:30am.)

* Quickly outgrowing his bouncy seat and swing and car seat. I have no idea what I will do when he outgrows his bouncy seat - this is my lifeline for taking a shower right now

* Smiling all the time (when he's not crying) :)

* Recognizing Tito and I and when we're not in site of him

* Taking "cat naps" throughout the day. (about 20-30 mins each. But at this point since he's sleeping straight through the night I'm not complaining!) :)