Tuesday, December 7, 2010

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...




Hello everyone! Yes, we know that it has been quite some time since we updated our blog. Much has happened over the past few months and needless to say, we have been very, very busy. Lucas arrived on September 28th, two days before his due date. Everything went fantastic and we were able to come home only 36 hours after he was born! He was 7 pounds 14 oz and 20 and 3/4 inches long at birth. He has been growing at an astonishing rate! At first we were a little concerned, because at his 1 month visit he was only in the 35th percentile. However, at his 2 month visit (he was actually only 7 weeks old), he weight a whopping 11.5 pounds and had moved up into the 65th percentile. Go Lucas! We were super excited about this. In the past few weeks he has really started to make strides developmentally. He now smiles, giggles, and coos at us regularly. He loves to lie on his playmat and stare at the animals that hang above him. A few times, he has been able to grasp one of the animals that has a rattle attached to it. He also can roll from his belly to his back. He has tried on occasion to roll from back to belly, but he still has a little ways to go on this. On a daily basis he does something that amazes us. He and Molly are getting along quite well. At first, Molly was a scared of him, but she is known to be a fraidy cat. I think she's realized that he is harmless and now she enjoys licking his hands and feet and giving him kisses when she gets the chance. I'm not sure if Lucas understands what's going on yet, but I think he's in love with Molly already :) Who couldn't love our fur baby!

Something that we started a few weeks ago with Lucas was the "EASY" method. Thanks to my good friend, Jess, we started reading the book "The Baby Whisperer". Let me just say that this book has given me back my sanity, and this is chiefly due to the regularly nap routine that we have developed. Lucas doesn't necessarily nap at the same time every day, but he does seem to follow the routine: eat, activity, sleep, and then Mommy gets times to herself. We are still working on our nighttime sleep pattern. For a few weeks he was only getting up once per night, but in recent weeks we have gone back to two feedings at night. I'm not sure if this is our fault, or if he's just too young. We're working on reducing this back to one feeding, I'll let you know how that goes.

We are in quite the Christmas spirit here at the Manicke household. Lucas as visited Santa and attended two Christmas parties already (Nick's and Granddaddy's). The Christmas tree and Christmas villages are up and music is often being played that involves Rudolph, snow, and Alvin and the Chipmunks.

I am going to try to be a better blogger. We'll see how this goes...