A Few of My Favorite Things...

...about Matthew.

1. He's a content baby. It's impossible to be in a bad mood when you're around him.
2. His smile.
3. His big blue eyes.
4. His belly laugh when you tickle his sides.
5. He's a snuggly baby.
6. His chunky thighs
7. He figured out how to sleep through the night at 2 mos. (He's not as consistent anymore because he's learned that being awake is more fun, but the first few months were pretty awesome.)
8. He looks like his sister. I still can't figure out who Isabella looks like, but Matthew looks like her and I love that.
9. He wakes me up every morning by blowing raspberries over the baby monitor. 
10. He surprises me. 

When Matthew was 3 weeks old, he flipped himself from his stomach to his back for the first time. I was at my friend Karly's house and she watched him do it as I was heating a bottle for him in her kitchen. "Uh, Katie," she said in an alarmingly casual voice, "Matthew just rolled over." I placed him back on his stomach and watched him do it again. Smiling, Karly said, "He's gonna surprise you." She couldn't have made a truer statement.

Another wonderful experience I wasn't expecting has been nursing Matthew. When we left the hospital he was eating only from the Haberman bottle. A few weeks after being home, however, I decided to try and incorporate a session or two of nursing into his feeding schedule. Nursing is more difficult than bottle feeding and very good for babies with Down syndrome because it builds the muscles of the mouth and jaw, which is better for later speech development. Matthew had difficulty settling into nursing because it was tiring. At his 2 mo. check up his doctor told me it would probably be difficult to break him of his bottle habit because he'd developed a preference for it. Still, he scheduled an appointment for me to meet with a lactation consultant to see if she could help. Best thing I ever did. The lactation nurse quickly observed that Matthew was actually very good at nursing, he was just fussy. She reassured me that he was getting nourishment and encouraged me to nurse him more often. Over the next few weeks and months Matthew and I worked at it; it took real effort for him and it was difficult for me to learn to trust his cues, but we did it! By the time he was 4 mos. old, he had become an excellent, efficient nurser (and became terrible with the bottle!). I have loved the bonding time with him, and I like to think this experience speaks to his ability to learn--and his determination.

A few of my favorite pictures over the past 6 months. Caution: Serious cuteness ahead.

Matthew at 3 mos.

Matthew at 4 mos.

Matthew at 5 mos.

Easter Sunday Matthew - 6 mos.