THREE MONTHS WITH PETER

Our little guy is three months (plus a week because I’m just behind on everything at the moment) and he continues to be a ray of sunshine 99.99% of the time. I would say he definitely found his voice this past month and has given my parents a hard time during his “witching hour” a few nights that we’ve gone out for a wedding and dinner dates with friends, which I always feel awful about. (Does the mom guilt ever let up?) It’s admittedly been a tougher month because we’ve had some family health setbacks that have taken my mom off Nantucket to care for her mom for the foreseeable future and we’re all just kind of taking things a day at a time and trying to drop as few balls as possible. I know no one should have to listen to me complain but I guess I also want to normalize that no one’s motherhood experience is smooth sailing every week (or every month) and we’re going through some sad things behind the scenes lately.

changing pad  //  onesie

baseball caps  //  striped onesie

I’m also having to develop new systems and strengths that we haven’t really needed before now. We went from minimal socializing with Teddy as a newborn before the pandemic, through ~15 months at home during which time we welcomed Peter, and now we’ve been catapulted back into the world with a 3-month-old and a 21-month-old without the level of preparedness I think we’d have if we’d been out and about more in the first 1.5 years of Teddy’s life. Does that make any sense? Like it’s one thing to remember a diaper bag for one newborn and a whole new level to leave the house with diapers, wipes, sun hats, bottles, snacks, sunscreen, sweaters, changes of clothes, etc. for two kids without any gradual leveling up between pregnancies. Basically I feel like a hot mess most days! I’m sure it will get easier with practice and the start of a new routine in the fall, but I’d be curious to know whether any other pandemic parents can relate.

sun hat  //  swimsuit

onesie  //  trying to suck his thumb! I think it’s so sweet as Teddy never tried this!

On the bright side, Peter is nursing and sleeping pretty well and has been giving us 6 or 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep most nights for the past couple weeks. We were admittedly pretty lousy at any form of sleep training with Teddy and he didn’t consistently sleep through the night until he was maybe nine or ten months, so I’d love to think we can save ourselves some sanity this time around. I’m not sure we’ll ever be the parents who have our kids on a strict schedule or sleeping 7-7 every night (and no shade whatsoever to those who do — I feel like the majority of my friends fall in that camp and it just hasn’t clicked for me) but we’ll at least try to avoid some of the sleep crutches we developed with Teddy (ahem, rocking him to sleep every night and every nap until our pediatrician basically told us it was time for a change). Now that Peter is three months, I’m trying to pay more attention to wake windows (the idea that he shouldn’t go more than 75-120 minutes between naps at this age) and find it works really well when we’re able to get him to sleep before he’s overly tired. Baby steps!

baby flag sweaters in navy and white

I was FaceTime-ing with Grandy on her 94th birthday earlier this week and told her Peter had started really smiling for us a few weeks ago and she responded, “oh, I think that baby came out smiling” and it’s honestly so true. (Forever grateful they got to meet last month.) He’s just the happiest, cuddliest, sweetest little one and I feel so lucky I get to be his mom (and Teddy’s, who cracks me up about 1,000 times a day). Hands full, heart fuller over here for sure. ?

Shop the post: