Alexander at 4 Months

Another month has passed quickly and Alexander is 4 months old. Growing quickly he is now 16 pounds 10 ounces and 27 inches long.

At four months:

• He is starting to grab toys and put them in his mouth.
• He definitely notices and plays with his hands a lot.
• He notices and tries to grab his feet often, but he still seems quite surprised that they are there the next time he sees them.
• He loves when his brothers talk and read to him and play nearby him.
• He loves attention! He even like diaper changes and baths most of the time because someone is paying attention just to him. :)
• He is still doing fine on just a milk diet, but is very interested in food. He has really liked the few licks of apple and pear he has had.

Alexander at 3 Months

So Alexander is already a little more than 3 months old and growing fast, weighing in at 15 pounds and measuring 26 inches. I think he wants to keep up with his brothers and loves to watch them. He is growing more content to watch his brothers play from his happy seat in his basket (at least for short periods of time).

At few random things about Alexander at 3 months:

• He is ticklish and can be quite giggly at times
• He can hold himself quite steady now so he got to go on his first stroller ride (in the back of our double stroller with five point harness on)
• He was not super impressed with the stroller yet
• He is also not very impressed with any form of baby toy yet (but his brothers like his toys)
• He favorite thing is to be held, almost all the time, and mostly by mom
• He looks like a Puffalump in his yellow outfit that we use like a winter coat and so we get yelled at less here for not dressing him warmly enough (although even though this outfit was given to us by a Chinese friend and he has clothes on underneath, it is still not considered warm enough, because we are told that Chinese babies wear at least three of these puffy outfits here all winter inside and outside)

Wow mom, you made that for me?

Three brothers enjoying books

Alexander's first stroller ride

Alexander at Two Months

As a kid I could never figure out why my parents and especially grandparents were always saying that time flies so fast, but with each child we have time seems to speed up a little bit more.

Here are some random fun facts about Alexander who is somehow already 2 months old.

• He is over 13 pounds already and growing into 6 month clothing
• He is quite strong, holds his head up well, can push his head up when on his tummy, and loves to practice standing
• If he gets mad enough he has successfully rolled over on a slant and scooted forwards and backwards so we have to watch him
• He likes to coo and can make a lot of sounds already
• He is really good at tracking things visually and has a really long attention span for such a tiny guy
• He is so good when Chinese people hold him, he smiles a lot and seems to enjoy it a lot right now :)
• His brothers (and everyone else) love him soooooo much  

Since Aaron (our first) was an early talker, and Andrew (our second) was a very early walker, it will be interesting to see what Alexander's strengths are as he continues to develop. Right now it seems like either verbal or motor skills could be his strong suit. It seems like he wants to do everything at once to either catch up to his older brothers, beat them at something, or be able to talk back or run away from them when they are loud and too loving.

It's a...

Baby!

Click here to read the birth announcement.

Birth story coming soon.

Twins!

Aaron and Andrew sure like playing with them a lot. Here they are giving them a bath.

Don't worry, we won't forget to let you know when the real baby arrives on the outside. I'm sure it will be even more fun.

39 Weeks (Pregnancy Update)

No baby on the outside yet, but we're still doing well. Everything looked really good at my checkup this week. All of baby's and my vitals are measurements are still great. The baby is head down in the ROA position, one of the two best positions for a baby to be in at the time to birth. Interestingly, all three of my babies have settled into this position during the final weeks of pregnancy.

I have been having contractions on and off, but they don't stay close together for long and then quit all together. This is also quite similar to the time leading up to the birth of my second though. I am hoping the baby will decide to come sometime during the next week that my husband has off for the holidays here. But we'll have to see, babies don't always like to come when it is convenient.

Linking up to My Pregnancy Journal at My Joy-Filled Life.

Family Fridays: 37 Weeks (Pregnancy Update)

I think this is going to be a rather boring update, but I guess that is really a good thing. My checkup today was again very normal and boring. My weight, measurements, BP, and baby's heart rate were all fine. The most exciting part was walking to the bus stop and watching everyone stare at the waddling white lady, but we generally get stared at everywhere anyway, so it isn't that big of a deal.

I am very glad that the baby is full term now, but I know that it could still be a while for the baby to come, and that's fine too. We're basically ready for the baby to come, and I am pretty ready for the baby to come. But we found out that Nate has a week long break from classes that starts a couple of weeks from now, so that would actually be a convenient time for the baby to come.

I am still working on a few little projects here and there, but don't have anything that has to be urgently completely before the baby is born at this point. Baby's got diapers, clothes, and a place to sleep and newborns really don't need much else besides love and care.

Looking forward to enjoying my older boys now and meeting this new little blessing whenever the right time is.

Latest baby creations

How did my first baby get this big?

Baby's Moses basket style bed

DIY Baby Sweater Pants

Many sweater pants, baby jeans, and baby black skirt

Another item I made quite a few of for the new baby's wardrobe are these sweater pants. I used this very basic tutorial which tells you all you really need to know is you cut off the arms of a sweater about the length you want the pants, sew a crotch seam, and make a casing for an elastic waist at the top. It is a really simply and fast project.

I don't have any of our tiny size baby clothes with us, so I used the patterns from here to guesstimate the correct sizes. In the picture of the pants you also see a little pair of jeans I made using the 0-3 size pattern. I tried to make the size of the sweater pants so with the sweater cuff folded up the pants would be about 0-3 length and down about the 6-12 month length. So far we've have big babies who have grown incredibly fast, and with cloth diapers the bum area really does need to be about the same size through all those sizes. So hopefully these stretchy sweater pants will last awhile. We discovered grow cuffs on baby clothes with our second, and thought they were amazing.

Anyway, I made a bunch of similar pants from upcycled sweaters, leggings, and knit turtlenecks. Save the other parts of the sweaters and turtlenecks for making infant gowns, onesies, hats, and even socks if you like. These will hopefully make some more great free (save the cost of thread) additions to our newborn wardrobe.

For this pair I used the hem of the sweater
to make a separate casing for the elastic.

For this pair of pants I just folded the top over
to make the casing for the elastic.

DIY Infant Gowns and Onesies

I mentioned before how we were having a hard time finding newborn clothes we liked and that I ended up sewing an newborn wardrobe for Baby # 3. The staples of this wardrobe are probably the infant gowns and onesies I made.

For the gowns I ended up using this pattern and tutorial. I upcycled clothes as well, making these gowns basically free to make. I even was able to re-purpose elastic so I didn't have to pay for anything other than thread. For a few of the gowns I re-purposed very soft sweaters instead of t-shirts, and I thought that worked well also. I didn't put elastic in the bottom of the sweater type gowns, but simply used the bottom hem of the sweater that was already more tightly woven and stretchy.

Instead of using designs already on t-shirts, I chose to applique and embroider them. This took longer for sure, but I was able to make very custom baby clothing this way. And I think they turned out really cute. I think these could also make really great baby shower gifts.

For the onesies, I could find a 0-3 month pattern on the internet, so I ended up simply folding the gown pattern into a onesie pattern. Probably tracing an existing 0-3 onesie would be even easier, but I didn't have any in that size here. I sewed the onesies together in similar fashion to the gowns, just finishing the contoured bottom with a tiny rolled hem all around and adding snaps. After I had sewed a bunch of onesies, I embroidered and appliqued these as well.

Upcycling clothing

Gown pattern folded into a onesie pattern