The Fourth Trimester

photo credit: Olivia Reed

They call the first three months after birth the "fourth trimester" - typically babies eat, sleep, and grow a lot and not much else. While our dear Finn has been a champ at eating (and growing), he apparently didn't get the sleep memo. These past three months have been a doozy. Max and I are basically running on 2 hour chunks of sleep. At one point I was legitimately quizzing Max on whether or not we could die from lack of sleep - apparently sleep deprivation makes me very paranoid. There are studies that show that an insufficient amount of sleep makes the brain function in a similar way to being drunk, and I'll attest that the night I squirted contact solution onto a cotton ball and tried to take off my eye makeup with it felt very much like having one too many drinks, ha ha! I eventually figured out that I needed makeup remover instead but it took a hot minute. Here's a look back at Finn's first three months...


| MONTH ONE |



At one month, Finn was still wearing newborn size clothes and newborn size diapers. We celebrated his one-month birthday with champagne and cupcakes (sparkling cider for big brother). That first month threw a lot at us. I came down with Mastitis that very first week home (apparently if you've had it before, you're more prone to getting it again but at least this time around I saw it coming and got an antibiotic before it went full blown like last time). Parker brought home a fever from kindergarten that first week as well, which is the last thing you want around a newborn (but all was fine). We took newborn pictures at three weeks with Olivia Reed, then Max had to leave for an entire week on business. This corresponded with Parker's last week of kindergarten and all the madness that ensues with that. Luckily, Nana & Papa flew out to help and took on Parker duty, laundry duty, and kept us fed (a heaven sent at that tough beginning!). 











photo credit: Olivia Reed

























| MONTH TWO |


At two months, all of a sudden Finn was wearing size 2 diapers and size 3 month clothing! He weighed in at 13 lbs. at his two month appointment and measured 24.5 inches, putting him at the 50th percentile for weight and the 90th for height. Finn started giving us smiles this month which was the best thing ever. Big brother was now out of school for the summer, so our schedule was more free. Some days I felt like a rockstar because we got out of the house and I got dinner on the table, and some days we stayed in pajamas all day because newborn life is just that hard. From the beginning (literally in the hospital) we said that Finn was high maintenance and a screamer... and he continued this at home. He never had a newborn cry and instead went straight to full volume - in fact, the first couple of months when people would ask Parker about baby brother, Parker would just say that Finn was LOUD. Hours and hours were spent pacing the house with Finn screaming (luckily, your brain doesn't commit long term memories very well when you're sleep deprived, so we'll forget all of this, ha ha). Our pictures might suggest otherwise since they're mostly of a happy guy, because really when he's screaming we're pulling out all the stops to get him happy or to sleep and not, you know, documenting the crying. This month brought more business travel for Max, and we just tried to soak up every second of our newborn because the time really does go by so fast.































| MONTH THREE |


And now, here we are. Three months. The end of the fourth trimester. Finn is still in size two diapers and is wearing size 3-6 month clothing. Each day, he is becoming more and more interactive. He loves to watch his big brother. He loves to eat. And yes, he still loves to scream. He's still not the best sleeper, doing a few short catnaps during the day, and a few hours at a time at night (boy loves that Mama milk!). We had two nights of 10 hour stretches (out of the blue - he went from a longest stretch of five hours to ten!) and then back to eating every three hours around the clock (which equals two hour chunks for Mama and Dada, which turned us into zombies again). This month brought visits from Mimi, Uncle Ian and Gigi, Finn's first trip out-of-state (to Tennessee), and yes, more business travel for Max. Here's to the next three months, and hopefully more sleep for all! 





















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