Marcus is Two Months

This update is already a week old and I'm still in disbelief that I'm writing it.  How have two whole months gone by in such a flash; I seriously cannot remember how life was without this little guy, and he has been such a great addition to our family.  He is the best little brother already, and sometimes I feel bad for him cause he takes his big brother's shenanigans in stride and he definitely has to put up with a lot hehe. 

Sleep has had its good days and bad days, which is to be expected this early in the game.  Right now Marcus either has two cat naps in the morning about 20 to 30 minutes long, or a long one if we are out and about; a longer nap in the afternoon, which lately I have been taking with him, since it coincides with Lucas' nap, and then a short catnap in the evening or else he falls asleep on his nighttime bottle.  At night we have occasionally gotten a good 5-6 hour stretch, which means he only gets one bottle in the middle of the night, or when he has a shorter stretch he is up for a little top up at 3am.  His sleeping patterns during the day especially are so different from his brother who at this time already stayed up longer stretches, so he had already dropped his early morning, and late evening cat naps.  However, Marcus tends to falls asleep with much more ease than big brother did which in itself is such a blessing, and tends to help a little when he has nights that he wakes often.  He gets his before bed bottle at 8 and is in bed by 9pm without fail every night, I feel that because we had him fall into his brother's bedtime routine from the moment we got home it has really contributed to him having a set bedtime already. 

Feeding this little guy this month has given me so much anxiety, its so hard to put into words the equal amounts of frustration and concern it causes.  He is so his own little person and I was prepared to have him eat like his big brother did; however Marcus is definitely not as greedy of an eater his brother was, and instead he prefers to eat more often and less ounces at a time.  So instead of being able to get him on a 3 to 4 hour feeding schedule I find myself feeding him every 2 hours like a newborn, and worse sometimes I make him wait at least 3 hours to try and get him to have a better bottle and no dice.  The only saving grace to my sanity is that he is clearly happy when he finishes eating as much as he wants and isn't screaming until I put another bottle in him.  Also he clearly is putting on weight no problem, weighing in at a healthy 13.8 pounds at his check up!  The doctor has stated that most likely he eats so fast the first 2-2 1/2 ounces of his bottle that he feels full before really being full and hence not wanting to eat more.  Hopefully we can turn a corner soon because the poor feeding tends to affect his sleep at night.

Marcus is such a strong little man already, excelling at tummy time, and lifting his cute little head to see the world.  He already bears his weight on his legs if we hold him, and I can't wait to introduce the exersaucer to him next month as we did with Lucas who was also a huge a fan.  He is already reaching for a few hanging toys when they are in front of him but can't quite grasp them fully yet.

I love seeing his personality starting to shine through.  He is a pretty mellow and easy going baby, with smiles for days already.  He coos and blows bubbles already like its no one's business, and I love sitting with him when we get one on one time cause he never stops "talking" the whole time. 

The smile and the way his eyes light up when his brother comes to him in the morning is perhaps the best feeling a mother can have.  Lucas tends to give him the most attention right in the morning when he wakes up, climbing into bed to talk to him, and give a fierce pat on the head or tummy.  No matter how rough Lucas can get with him Marcus just grins and bears it, but I think he is secretly biding his time until he can rough it back at him.

Everyday, even those where I fall into bed in pure exhaustion, are filled with so much love and feeling blessed that we had this little guy join our family.