Dear Jack,

I have to apologize to you.  As is so often the case, the 2nd child tends to get a little less attention spent on things like updates and photos and baby books.  Sorry 🙁  Especially with all of the moving that we’ve been going through, I have to admit that I’ve let your baby updates slide.  Time to work on that!

Jack Tucker – 3 Months Old

General Health

You are such a healthy guy.  After your stay in Starship, you haven’t had so much as a cough or a sniffle.  It’s been great, especially in light of all of the traveling we’ve done.  So many visits with lots of different people, time in airports and on airplanes, and spending the night in various hotels.  I’m really grateful for that.  You have been pretty “regular” just up till recently, when your body has started to more efficiently process breastmilk.  This means fewer messy diapers, which worried me a bit at first but then I remembered that Joe did the same thing.

Sleep

We’ve begun to work a bit on consolidating your day time sleeps.  Now, I try to put you down for an official “nap” at least once during the day, usually in the afternoon.  If I’m lucky and if time allows it, I’ll put you down for a nap in the morning, too.  By “put you down for a nap”, I mean swaddle you up and lay you down in your port-a-crib.  When you sleep in the afternoon, it’s anywhere from 2 – 3 hours.  If you can sleep for 3 hours, then everyone is happy (especially you!).  You’re much more cheerful when you’re well rested, but then that’s true of us all 🙂

Jack – 9 Weeks Old

Nighttime?  Well, we’re working on it.  You usually fall asleep around 10pm and then, like clockwork, you start to grunt and groan and fuss around 3:30 in the morning.  I’ve learned that when you do this, I’m usually able to comfort you back to sleep in your own crib through a combination of shushing, patting you on your bum or on your back (rolling you onto your side – no tummy-time while sleeping), and giving you your pacifier.  I may have to do this 2 or 3 times over the space of 15 minutes, but it works.  And while you may blush to read this later in life, the reason why you’re unsettled at that hour is because you typically have to pass gas.  I apologize if people read this and tease you about it when you’re older.  We all do it!  But once you’ve done that, then you’re happy to go back to bed.

Sleeping in St. Thomas

The last few days, you haven’t woken up till 6 in the morning!  Hooray!  Before that it was around 4:30/5am (more consistently around 5am).  You’ll nurse like a champ, burp a ridiculous number of times (seriously, it’s hilarious and I find myself chuckling which is a nice thing to do when it’s so early in the morning and I might otherwise be grumpy), and then want to be cuddled and shushed back to sleep and go into your crib, where you usually remain for another hour.

Eating

Like I mentioned above, you’re becoming more efficient at absorbing nutrients.  What does that mean?  It means that you’re going a bit longer and longer between having to eat.  You usually eat at 6am, then aren’t hungry for another 2 1/2 – 3 hours, at which point you really only snack and then take a nap.  You’ll wake up and be ready to play for a bit, then nurse, then go to sleep for your afternoon nap anywhere between 1 – 2pm.  This is all pretty flexible at the moment.  Babies, including you, do not follow schedules all that well.  I have learned that it’s not just about adjusting you to a schedule but also adjusting Joe to a slightly different schedule.  He now eats a bit later in the morning, a bit later at lunch, and goes down for his nap a bit later.  It’s all part of the give-and-take and compromise that is so important in a family.

Your favorite time to eat?  Evening!  I’m OK with that.  I figure that if a baby wants to eat and eat and eat, even eating all the way up till midnight, then that’s fine.  Why?  Because it usually means that they’ll sleep for a good chunk of time.  That’s the case with you.  You’ll eat and eat and eat till around 10pm and then you’re out like a light.  It can be stressful at times for me, when I feel like I’m running low but you still need more, but then I see your happy, sweet, content face and it’s all worth it.  Thankfully, your dad is a great support to me.  I couldn’t do it without him.  He and I are a team and he will be a great example to you boys of how to support your spouse.

General Activity

You are getting to be so good at grabbing things!  You hold your head up very steadily and love to sit in your exersaucer.  We do a little bit of tummy time each day and do some “crawling exercises”, which have you dissolving into giggles.  Those are nothing more than lying you on your back and then bringing your left hand and your right foot together to touch above your tummy.  I do 10 on one side and 10 on the other side, talking to you and making faces and giggling right along with you.

You are so good at turning your head and tracking objects.  You will follow your dad and your brother around the room with your eyes.

Speaking of your brother, he loves to do things with you, like hold you or lie next to you.  He frequently asks me “talk to him? talk to him?”  He loves to talk to you.  He’ll also ask “snuggle Baby Jack?” and want to snuggle with you.  I love watching the two of you interact.  If he sees that your pacifier has dropped out of your mouth, he’ll run over and try to help put it back in (you don’t always care for that, but it’s the thought that counts!).

Milestones

You sit up, sleep “through the night” (by that I mean you go from around 10pm – 6am with only one semi-waking session in between), you are trying so hard to sit up and are a champ at lying on your tummy and pushing your chest and upper body up with your arms.

You’ve even rolled over from tummy to back several times, though I suspect that this is entirely accidental on your part 🙂

Jack and Joe

I’ve remarked on this already, but it’s fun to see the two of you interact.

Joe will practically lie on top of you so that he can chat face-to-face, and you’ll smile at him.  You get excited when he comes into the room.  He loves to hold you.  He’ll lie next to you while you do tummy time and he is working on learning how to share his toys with you.

If he sees that you have a blanket (especially in the car when I bundle you into your car seat – you don’t like having your arms free) then he wants a blanket, too!  This is why I have 2 little boys sitting in the car in the middle of summer with blankets on them 🙂

One thing that I was worried about was your pacifier.  Joe used to use a pacifier like you, having it off and on throughout the day or to help him calm down if he was upset.  Now, Joe only uses the pacifier at night, and we’re going to start working on weaning that.  I was concerned that he might not understand why you got to have a paci whenever you needed or wanted it, while he had to wait till sleeping-time.  But I shouldn’t have worried.  Joe knows that it’s “Jack’s paci” and he’ll even help you keep it in your mouth (though like I wrote earlier, this isn’t always something you appreciate!).

Postpartum Fitness and Health

Pppffffbbbt.  That’s the sound I make when I think about how I’ve done with exercising since getting back in the States.  I was doing pretty well for awhile there.  I first started up again when you were 4 weeks old (the day before you went into the hospital, actually).  I exercised fairly frequently while we were in St. Thomas for 2 weeks and did a lot of walking before then.  But since arriving in Williamsburg 4 weeks ago?  Ha!  Nothing.  I have turned into a couch potato.  Or a car potato.  Or both.  We drove around pretty non-stop that first week while looking at houses.  There’s been a fair amount of driving still, though I guess compared to most US households with small children we haven’t driven all that much.  For me, “driving a lot” means taking both you and your brother in the car on an errand more than twice a week.  That’s what happens when you go over 3 years without owning a vehicle!

I began to remedy some of the lack of exercise last week (I wouldn’t call it laziness – I’ve been really busy) by taking you and your brother on a long walk around the resort where we’re staying.  That’s pretty pathetic, in my opinion, but it’s a start.  My next goal is to take you guys on some of the trails round about these parts.  Where we’re currently staying isn’t close to anything like that and I’m often here without a car (your dad needs it to get to work for the time being, but that will change soon), so my options are limited.  Hence the parking lot walks!

Other Odds and Ends

We’re going to visit my parents next week.  This will be the first time that they see you in real life.  You’ll also definitely get to meet your Auntie K, see your cousin O, and meet your Auntie A.  There’s pretty good odds that you’ll meet your Uncle L, Uncle D, Auntie B, Auntie V, and cousin H.  That’s a lot of family, but no one expects you to remember their names, so don’t worry about it 🙂  They’ll love you!

I’m so glad that you’re my little boy.  I’m so glad that I’m your momma.  I’m so glad that I get to see you and your brother interacting with each other.  I pray that you’ll always love each other even if you don’t always get along!