The Grashorn Grounds: endearing edmund at 3 months

Edmund is 3 months old today. We can hardly believe it! Most people would say that time has flown by. For us, it feels like we have had Edmund for forever. We can’t remember not having him. It’s as if that part of our memory is a blur and the here and now of our expanded family has become so much more vivid and real. God has quickly molded us into our new identity as parents and the transition has been easier than we had anticipated.

There is so much we wish we could share about Edmund, but he can’t really be fully described in a blog post. We can’t share all of his coos, smiles, or snuggles, but we will have to try our best to share what we can.

Edmund’s new favorite thing is sucking on his fist. He does it mainly when he is bored or hungry. Sometime it’s quiet and we are surprised to look over and see that he is in his car seat trying to cram his fist in his mouth. Other times, he is so noisy, we can hear him smacking away over the peninsula from the kitchen to the living room. We keep hoping that he doesn’t find his thumb. We would be willing to give him a pacifier if he does. Pacifiers can be taken away, thumbs cannot, and we hear thumb sucking can be a hard habit to break.

Edmund has become much more interactive in his play time with mom and dad. He coos, grunts, and makes all sorts of noises. He swings his arms at everything – the animals in his play gym, objects that we will hold above him, the animals on his bouncy chair, mom’s face when she is feeding him… He also has been doing much better with tummy time now that we do it with the boppy. He likes to have his head up and he isn’t big enough yet to hold up his chest with his arms, so this is a good alternative. When he starts to get grumpy, we sing to him, many of the same songs we sang to him when he was growing inside of me. They often will calm his fussing.

Edmund is a cat nap lover. He takes 20-40 minute naps throughout the day. It sometimes drives mom a bit bonkers because they are usually in her lap and don’t last very long, but he sleeps from 10:30 pm until around 8:00 am, so we have no room to complain. We have tried to move his bedtime earlier, but he wakes back up until it is 10:30 pm again. We have to remind ourselves that he is only three months old and that we will get him to be earlier when he is older.

Sleep arrangements differ from baby to baby. When we first brought Edmund home, we held him on the couch while he slept and used the swing. He didn’t like the pack and play, but we transitioned him to that after a few weeks and has been sleeping in our room in it ever since. We like having him in our room because we can hear him when he wakes up and yawns and calls to us with his laughs or little grunts. He is such a happy baby, sometimes mom will lay there quietly in bed waiting for him to wake up, which happens very close to the same time each day. We hope having kept him in the pack and play will allow us an easier transition to the crib. (Fingers crossed!) We will start moving him over to his crib soon, but we first need to buy a baby monitor so that we can hear him cry from his room.

Edmund has had some fun firsts this month. We took Edmund on his first trip to see Grammy and Grandpa this past month in Indiana. It was fun for him to meet some of his aunts and uncles. He is a very cuddly baby, so he had a great time being passed around to different people’s arms. Edmund is enjoying his first autumn. When we go outside and it is windy, Edmund makes little gasping noises as the cool air surprises him. It also can make him hiccup. We also went to MOPS for the first time, which was a great time for mom to meet other women. He also went to his first corn maze. He was less than impressed and slept through the entire event.

Edmund has a very sweet disposition for a baby. He’s easy going and everyone says he is spoiling us. We think they are right, but we are not going to complain. We just thank God that he has allowed us an easy transition into parenting. We know that it might not be as easy the second time around. Although, he has his challenges, like the fact that he is always hungry. Parenting always looks easier from the outside.

As fall moves on and we move into the holiday season, we are even more excited to have Edmund. This is going to be the most exciting Christmas for our family that we have had yet getting to share it with our son. We are excited to teach him about the birth of Christ, to have a Christmas tree with him, to sing carols together, and celebrate the season with family.

Looking forward to the next month and more milestones with our little boy.

-Anna