Three Months Old!

Ahhh! I can't believe he's three months old! He's just getting so big and I don't like it! I want him to stay small forever. I almost had a melt down when I had to take the infant insert out of his car seat.

On of my favorite moments last week was when I got the larger than life smile from Cohen after I had been gone all day working in the city. Jeff was feeding him and the moment Cohen saw me he got this huge smile and wouldn't eat anymore. It melted my heart!

Cohen at 3 Months
14lb 5oz
24 1/4in

Chatting

One of my favorite parts of the day is going into Cohen's room in the morning and peeking into his crib. He sees me and just starts to smile! Then he proceeds to tell me how his night went. He's just such a little chatter in the morning. I love it! He also loves to chat when I'm chaining him. He just has so much to say at that particular moment.

Fighting....fighting sleep that is

Just before two months hit, Cohen cried (with tears) for the first time since leaving the hospital. We thought it weird, but we were able to calm him down and put him to bed. Well, we discovered a pattern was starting to emerge. At night Cohen would what we call "lose it." He would start to cry and scream. We figured he was just overstimulated or tired so we would hit the lights and rock him to sleep, but he would fight falling asleep. The Doctor G told us that he's probably so fascinated with everything that's going on that he doesn't want to miss out and therefor gets upset when he realizes he's tired. He's quite the little fighter, but to tell you the truth it's kind of fun watching him try to keep himself awake when he's just so tired and he can't keep his eyes open. To avoid the nighttime meltdowns, Jeff and I decided that we should start the going to bed process earlier. We have now found Cohen's sweet-spot....6pm to 7pm.

Sleeping

Yes, we put Cohen to bed at 6pm and he's usually asleep by 6:30pm or 7pm. We wake him up for a little night snack around 10pm, but then he goes right back to sleep and sleeps until 6am or 7am. We occasionally have a pacifier run in the middle of the night, but it only takes a min and he's back out. Let me just say....I LOVE IT!

Staring

Cohen has discovered his right hand/fist and now he stares at it often :) You will see from his pictures that he likes to hold it up right in front of his face. He stares at everything. There are times when we don't even know what's staring at, but he sure seems fascinated.

Standing....kind of

Cohen loves to stand on our laps. He's actually been doing this since around a month and a half, but now he sometimes prefers to be standing. We support him or provide balance and then he just stands and stares around the room. He's starting to last a long time.

Scratching

Of course he scratches his face from time to time, but he's gotten really good at scratching me! It doesn't matter how often I file his little nails they still get me! Ouch!

First Time to Church!

Like I said before, Cohen has been under lockdown for the past three months so we have haven't been taking him to Church. Jeff and I have been taking turns going while the other stays home with Cohen. Today was his first time to church! We got him all dressed up for his church debut!

It was a long day for him. He was OUT by the time we got home.

I'm staying home

For the past six years I have worked for an advertising agency in NYC as a digital data analyst. Basically I worked in the online and mobile world analyzing users usage of websites, social, CRM programs, and apps. I enjoyed my work (well, most days) and the agency I worked for treated me really well.

When I found out I was pregnant I knew a tough decision was ahead of me and I waited until the last possible moment to make it. Many of you asked, "Are you going to continue working or are you going to stay home." My answer was
always, "We are waiting to make that decision when the time comes." Well, the time has come. My maternity leave ended on February 3rd and two weeks ago today I called my boss and told him that I would be staying home with Cohen. Honestly I thought I was going to return to work, but somewhere deep down wanted to stay home with my baby.

For some this may have been a really easy decision. "Of course I will be returning to work...or...I'm totally staying home" For me it's one I really struggled with. My career (like many I imagine) is the kind that if you step away for a minute you become a dinosaur in the field and it's hard to get back into it. I knew that if I was going to stay at home with Cohen for more than a year, it would be very hard to get back into digital analytics since I would be so far behind on the latest and greatest measurement tools. I would basically be walking away from my profession.

Of course there were financial considerations as well. While we could afford for me to stay home now, would we always be able too? If I needed to go back to work, would I be able to find a job (see problem outlined above). I guess no one really knows the answers to these questions when they are making this kind of decision, but they still weighed heavily on me. Jeff and I discussed/dreamed of some part time working from home options, but those jobs are hard to get and we would still end up with having to get child care for Cohen.

Well, despite my concerns and after much prayer, discussions with Jeff and family and friends, I have decided to stay home. I might try to get some freelance work here and there to keep my foot in the door, but we shall see if that becomes a reality. I'm excited to spend more time with Cohen and be with him as he grows and learns, but I'm also nervous at the same time. I feel good about my decision and feel as if a weight has been lifted from my shoulders....I just hope I will always feel this way ;)

Cohen's first walk or NOT!

Last Friday I had big plans to take Cohen for his first walk. We have been stuck in the house for the past 2.5 months and I thought it would be nice to get out and get some nice cold fresh air. I bundled Cohen up and loaded the stroller in the car thinking this would be one amazing trip. Then we got to the park and realized that none of the paths had been cleared from the last snow storm. I was totally bummed. I guess Cohen will have to wait for his first walk, but you won't have to wait for more Cohen pictures!

Cohen really enjoyed the car ride to the park as you can see.

Cohens first time out....the Pour House of course!

I've had Cohen on lockdown for the first couple months of his life. I haven't had many visitors over and I've only taken Cohen out to go to the doctors. I've been getting lip or judging looks from people because of this, but I don't care! The doctor said not to take him to public places (church, mall, restaurants, grocery store) for three months and I'm going with it. Depending on how this flu season progresses I might even extend it. However I did make one exception....

A couple of weeks ago Jeff talked me into taking Cohen out to dinner with him and a friend. I was totally nervous about the idea, but decided to take him anyway. I think it's very fitting that Cohen's first restaurant was the Pour House. This is one of Jeff's favorite local places and we have been more times than I can even remember.

Cohen was a total rockstar! I was nervous because he was having a mini meltdown before we left, but I put him in the car seat, swung it a couple of times and he was out! He was so out that he slept through dinner and woke up just when I had finished my meal. Then I fed him and we went home! It was a total success!