Baby Merlin's Magic Sleep Suit!

Ever since Matty was days old, we have swaddled him for sleep. He has always loved it and slept pretty well. We tried the regular receiving blankets of various sizes but never got it tight enough that he didn't bust out. We then found the Kiddopotamus...a cool blanket/pocket thing with Velcro closures. It looks a little like a straight jacket, but it always worked like a charm. In the past week he has seemed to outgrow the Kiddapotamus and either got his arms or legs or both out of it in the middle of the night (hence the difficulty sleeping lately!). I tried some other swaddles we had collected and nothing kept him in tight...he always seemed to get out or wake himself up flailing his arms and legs if we didn't swaddle him. So we bought the next size of the Kiddapotamus, thinking this will solve the problem...he's too small for them! For some crazy reason, they only make a "small" and a "large"...what happened to the medium??? Anyway...I was at my mom's group yesterday and someone suggested the Baby Merlin's Magic Sleep Suit. It's kind of like a light weight snow suit that prevents a baby (who has gotten too big to swaddle) from moving their arms and legs around a lot and waking them up...just like the little kid from The Christmas Story! The place where I go to the mom's group (Nini Bambini) sells these and let me take one home on a trial basis to see if Matty would like it. We put him in it last night and after Andrew and I laughed at the poor kid for about 20 minutes, he fell right asleep and slept 5 hours, woke up to eat and them slept another 3 (this was after him sleeping in his swing in the living room for 3 hours so a good night of sleep overall). I'm going to try it out on him again tonight and see if it works again. Honestly, I'm excited that this is helping him sleep but I really just love the way he looks in it!!!

Happy 3 Month Birthday Matty!!

This past Sunday was Matty's 3 month birthday...and he went through a major growth spurt to prove it! He seemed to grow right in front of our eyes! He also did all those other wonderful things that go along with a growth spurt, including waking every two hours at night to eat, sleeping a lot during the day and being a real cranky pants when awake. Luckily he is past most of that although he is still waking a lot during the night...I must have jinxed myself since last week I was just saying how lucky we were to have such a good sleeper! On average he was sleeping 5 hours straight at night and even had a few 6 and 7 hour nights! Now we are lucky if he sleeps 3!

Here's a few of my favorite pictures of him lately, including his 13th week picture on his chair...unfortunately, he never seems happy when I want to take his picture in it!

All swaddled up for the night...too bad I don't have a picture of him busting out of it 2 hours later!

In his bumbo, and dressed in overalls for his Grammy!

Cool dude...

Bruce Springsteen impression...can you tell his dad likes to dress him up in strange outfits?

Sitting up in his co-sleeper (we propped him up, he didn't do it on his own!)

Where has the time gone???

So my last post was Matty's 2 month check up and this Monday is his 3 month birthday...where has the time gone???? So much has happened and so many "firsts" for us all...here is a quick rundown...

1. Andrew finished his first year of teaching!!! Yeah!!! Now he is off for the summer and enjoying the time with Matty and Me.

2. Matty made his first road trip with us last week when we traveled to NY to visit family. First we stayed at my parents house where Matty met Willie, my parents dog for the first time, and got his first lesson in which way the ceiling fan goes...clockwise or counter clockwise. We then went to Long Island to visit Andrew's family and met many family friends for the first time including his Great Grandfather who will turn 100 this years! Next we headed to the Hamptons where he met his cousins, Max, Dani and Alex for the first time.

3. While on vacation, Matty saw his first fireworks...he was fine until the finale.
4. Also on vacation (while sunning ourselves in the Hamptons),Matty swam in a pool for the first time and went to the beach for the first time. He seemed to really enjoy both...takes after both mom and dad.

5. Matty went to the movies for the first time when we went to see UP! at the drive in...great idea with a baby! He also went to the movies for the second time when we saw The Hangover...he laughed a lot (no, he really slept a lot)...who said you can't do anything now that you have a baby?

6. Matty experienced the first real "big celebrity death" of his life...and 2 weeks later, aren't we all just a little sick of hearing about it?

7. And the biggest first (since becoming parents...) Andrew and I are first time home owners! We recently bought a townhouse and are moving at the end of this month! We are so excited to have more room, a backyard and a bathtub to look forward to with our family! Not to mention not having to trudge up 3 flights of stairs! So the rest of the month is all going to be about packing and moving(hopefully with a little summer fun beach time thrown in a bit).

Here's a few recent pictures of our recent adventures with the little one:

Swinging away on the 4th of July...he had a very patriotic outfit on.


Matty and Daddy...toes in the sand.


What a little sneak...busting out of his swaddle.


Taking a picture of him each week on his chair hasn't really been working...I think this might have been 9 or 10 weeks.


Modeling his "baby legs"...the coolest thing instead of pants, like giant leg warmers for babies. These will be great when he starts crawling, and they make diaper change so easy.


Ready for the pool!


In the pool!


At the beach in Bridgehampton. I think Matty was looking around for famous people.

2 month check up!

Today was Matty's 2 month doctor appointment which meant...shots! 3 of them...poor little guy. He took them like a champ and only cried for about 5 minutes or so and then fell asleep for about 2 hours. They say the shots can either make them really sleepy or sometimes really cranky...guess which one showed up tonight? Mr Cranky Pants. He's finally asleep and calmed down, all swaddled up in his swing. I'm hoping he stays calm and sleeps well through the night, he definitely seems out of sorts.

On a positive note...he's up to 12 lbs! Dr Eric (Doogie Howser MD) said he is doing great and told us we were doing great as parents, which is always nice to hear! His weight is in the 53rd percentile and he is 23 inches long which is 47th percentile. Such a big boy!

Dr Eric was pretty impressed on how well he can hold his head up too...I told him Matty loves his "tummy time" and we do a lot of it every day. Here's a couple of pictures of him demonstrating his great head control in the bumbo seat*




*(okay...to be fair, the chair has a pretty high back and supports his head! He wouldn't be sitting up so well in any other chair!)

9 week picture...and Happy Birthday Andrew!

Today is Andrew's birthday! We celebrated with some yummy pasta and salad for dinner and an "icebox" cake for dessert. Tomorrow is the real celebration when we head to the Verizon Arena here in Manchester to see Fleetwood Mac...I got the tickets for Andrew for his birthday. He is a big fan, I am not but I'll go along for the ride! Matty won't be attending his first concert and instead our friend Meghan is coming over to babysit (thanks Meghan!!!). We have reservations for dinner at a new restaurant in Manchester, Mint Bistro as well. Looking forward to a fun night out!

Here's a few of Matty's 9 week pictures...along with his way of saying Happy Birthday to his daddy!

8 week picture

2 days late...and I missed the 7th week so I'll make up for it by posting 3 pictures of Matty in his chair!

Blog? What blog???

I know...we have been blogging slackers lately (especially Andrew...I think he forgot how to blog!). I can't really say that anything has been going on other than Matty, Matty and Matty! Yes, he consumes our lives and we just love it. Hard to believe he is 8 weeks old already! Here's just a couple of things he is up to lately...

Smiling, laughing and overall melting our hearts with his new facial expressions. Sometimes he does it on his own and sometimes we have to make faces or noises (he especially likes the "muhah" kissing noise)to get him to do it. Lucky for us we caught a few on camera.




Holding his head up...he's a pretty strong little guy and enjoys his tummy time. He is holding his head up longer and higher every day.


Showing us his naked tush...yes, I am posting naked pictures of my baby. I'm sorry, I can't help it...he is just too damn cute when he is naked.



Going out to eat with Sweet Cousins Daniel and Audrey...well he would have been happy through the whole experience except his dad made him wear this stupid hat


Big yawns....I can't believe the hearty yawns this little guys has. I always thought big hearty yawns are something learned, and often quite exaggerated but he was born with it!