Merrick at Two Months

It has been a full and busy month! Since Merrick turned one month old, we flew to Oregon for our niece Kinsey's wedding, celebrated two birthdays (Kaylee's and mine), I prepared for returning to work (writing lesson plans and grading), we celebrated Easter, and then I returned to teaching the day after Easter. Mark has done an exceptional job caring for the kids all day and we have gotten into a pretty good routine, although I must say that I am exhausted! It has been a long two weeks back at work, and I don't think it is necessarily Merrick's schedule that is wearing me out...there is just so much to do and with three kids under four years old, I can't count on getting anything done at home in the evening (or very much on the weekends, for that matter!)

Now that I have returned to work, I cherish each moment like this even more.

Merrick usually only wakes up once in the middle of the night to eat before I get up around 5 to get ready for work and nurse him again. So far it has worked out pretty well. He generally sleeps for three to five hours at a time at night, but will occasionally wake up after 2 hours or go as long as 6 hours. I think he is doing a great job sleeping, but I wouldn't complain if he started sleeping through the night, either!

Merrick had his 8 week checkup on Wednesday and he has grown a lot since his 2 week appointment. He now weighs 11 pounds, 12 ounces (56th percentile) and is 23 inches long (58th percentile). He also got his first round of shots and handled them really well. Of course, he cried for a few moments immediately afterward, but he didn't have any extra fussiness that night.

Overall, Merrick is a content, mellow little guy. He is happy examining his world and enjoys hanging out in his bouncy chair (can you tell by the pictures?!) and being carried around by Dad in the Baby Björn or Mom in the Ergo baby carrier (which I got as my birthday present to myself and LOVE! I wish I would have had it when the girls were little...) He is smiling more and more every day and making some really cute coos to let us know when he's really happy.

It amazes me that Merrick has only been part of our family for two months. He fits right in and it now seems strange to think of life before he joined us. We were recently eating as a family while Merrick was sleeping upstairs and it felt very odd not to have him around. Five just feels right.