SAMMY

Our little guy is now 3 months old-how is it that 3 months have gone by in the blink of an eye?! To think that almost a year ago, I found out that I was pregnant with our unexpected Christmas miracle baby. Although it's definitely been a challenge, adding another wee one to our family, it has also been such a gift.

First of all, experiencing a full-term pregnancy, birth and baby has been a marvel. I'm so relaxed and laid back about so many things related to Sam, and feel like I can just enjoy him. I love when the girls are napping or playing with B and I have some quality baby time to just snuggle with him, gaze at him while he nurses, make him smile or coo or giggle.

It helps also that Sam is such an easygoing baby. He's been sleeping through the night (7:30-5ish) since he was about 10 weeks old; he was going at least 5-6 hours for a few weeks before that. During the day, he is pretty happy to just hang out with all of us and watch the flurry of activity going on around him, only getting cranky when it's time to eat or sleep. He's easy to settle and easy to put down, which is really priceless because with the girls around, there's no way I could spend the kind of time I used to spend trying to get them to sleep. He found his thumb early on and while I'm sure parents of thumbsuckers will say "be careful what you wish for," I'm pretty psyched because I think it makes it so much easier for him to fall asleep on his own, without me having to stand on my head and go through some long, drawn out routine. I remember with the girls, not only did it take forever and they had to be sound asleep before I could put them down, but the littlest noise would then wake them up and we'd have to start all over again. Sam must just be used to all the chaos because it doesn't seem to phase him when the girls are right in the next room whopping it up while he's sleeping.

So many times as I'm taking care of Sam, I think about how different things are this time around, and how grateful I am to have this experience and to be able to really just be in the moment with it. It's going by way too fast though...and knowing this is the last baby we'll be having makes it especially bittersweet. It's definitely not easy in our house most days, trying to balance the needs of all 3 little ones, but on balance I have to say that I'm so so so happy we have Sam in our lives:)