Have you ever heard of the 4th trimester? It is a reference to the first three months after a baby is born- the newborn stage. Obviously, a pregnancy only has three trimesters, and you can’t have a 4th *trimester*. But as soon as the baby is born, the Mom + baby (and the whole family!) embark on a period of adjustment and bonding. The baby is so new and so reliant on the mother/father that it is almost like they are still attached…just on the outside now. This time is known as “the fourth trimester”.
Orion is closing in on four months old and I have not written a single blog post update about his life, growth and development. With my first kid, I’m pretty sure I wrote weekly updates. With my next few kids I wrote at least monthly updates! Poor Orion will probably just get occasional updates. But what he doesn’t get in blog posts, we make up for by giving him near constant love and attention!
Orion Daniel – 3 months
Weight: 14 pounds
Developments: Orion can now make eye contact, follow movement across a room, talk, screech, smile, laugh, and is very close to being able to roll over back to front. He has just started to grip things with his hands and has also started to put everything in his mouth! He has also slept through the night 2 or 3 times, but not more consistently than that yet.
He has done great with breastfeeding, but we have also give him formula on occasion.
Likes & Dislikes: Orion is the SWEETEST and most laid-back baby, he pretty much likes everything at this point. He loves to be talked to and smiled at, he loves baths, he loves to be put in the carrier, he doesn’t mind his carseat, he will even tolerate tummy time briefly. He is starting to get attached to his family and the more noise, the better. One time Orion was crying and Ezra started to blow this annoying whistle. I was just opening my mouth to tell Ezra to please stop it when I realized that it had made Orion stop crying. Haha. One thing Ori LOVES is music. He loves music playing in the house, he loves the music at church and he seems to be actively listening whenever music is playing.
The Rest of the Family: Everybody adores Orion around here. But there has also been some difficult transition time. I almost think that it is subconscious for my kids, because they don’t seem to show any jealousy or resentment towards the baby, but all three big kids have been struggling with a lot of raw emotions the past two months. It’s always fun to try to navigate the emotions of 6 different people at once 🙂
Having three big kids and a baby is an absolute BLAST, though. There are certain benefits of having kids really close together in age, and then there is a sweet almost magic when having big kids and adding a baby. I was nervous that the age gaps would be detrimental, but so far it is just such a joy watching my big kids interact and actually help with the baby, and watching the baby lock eyes with and ADORE his older siblings.
Mom: This fourth trimester has been good to me. I was so so miserable and sick during my pregnancy that the moment the baby was OUT, I felt like a million bucks. Especially in the first two months I felt like I was on a complete high. Theo told me I was glowing. People would marvel at how well I was looking and acting. Truly, I felt amazing. I have crashed a little bit since then with trying to transition to handling a household with four kids, but overall I just feel so good (especially in comparison to my pregnancy). I did have my placenta encapsulated again, but this time it didn’t work out as well. Because of the makeup of the placenta supplements, I was told that I cannot take it if I have an infection or virus (because the nutrients will feed the virus and just make it worse). Unfortunately, the first two months of Ori’s life was almost constant sickness in our household and even though I wasn’t the one who was sick, I didn’t want to be taking the placenta capsules and then get sick. So I unfortunately didn’t use all the capsules and they “expired” at 12 weeks. I did take about half of them, and I still hold to my original opinion that they work so well to ward off PPD and PPA and to help me stabilize all my hormones.
Besides the few times that he has slept through the night, Ori still wakes up several times a night, so I’m not getting great sleep, but since he is my fourth kid I am perfectly comfortable with nursing while side sleeping, so I’m not missing out on too much sleep.
Two things that I have gotten back to that I missed terribly during my pregnancy are running and cooking! I joined a small group of ladies who run early in the morning and it has been great!! I am also finally feeling back to having the energy to cook in the kitchen and that has been a gift for sure.
1 Month
2 Months
3 Months
We sure do love you, Orion Daniel!