Airplane rides, polar bears and snowman adventures of a 3 month old

Well, the plane ride to Chicago went pretty smoothly. We had baked a bunch of cookies to hand out as bribes for putting up with a crying baby, but we really didn't need them and when we offered, only one person took the cookies.  Our flight ended up being delayed by one hour, but it turned out ok because we were able to have a nice dinner at the airport without having to rush. I nursed Nathan during take off and landing so the change in air pressure didn't seem to affect him at all. During the flight, the kid did not sleep a wink. He was super alert and looked around and outside the window. When he would start to get fussy, all I had to do was bounce him in my lap and he would calm down.We made the 2 hour and 8 minute flight and arrived in the cold city of Chicago.

We ended up going to bed at midnight and for the first time, Nathan slept until 5 am. Unfortunately, he has yet to do this again. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

The next day we went out and made a snow man. We hope to make a Nathan sized snow man each year and have his picture taken with it. 

In the evening, great grandparents and grand uncles joined the family for Christmas eve dinner. We also opened the first set of presents. Nathan liked looking at all the different colored wrapping paper and interacting with all his newly met family members.

On Christmas Day, we attended church and Nathan almost made it through the whole service without being fussy. I just had to take him out for a few moments to walk around and he was ok.

In the afternoon, Nathan went to meet more great grandparents, grand aunt and uncles and more cousins. He partook in his first white elephant gift exchange and got some hats, scorpion lollipop and lawery's seasoning. At the end of the day, when he was hanging out with his second cousin George, he discovered his toes and was absolutely mesmerized by them as he moved his foot around.

 

As we were about to leave, a bear wanted to play. Nathan was not amused. 

All the online articles say that by 3 months, babies should be sleeping better. Ha! Not this baby. In fact, he has regressed on his night time sleep. Luckily he can still fall asleep on his own and will fall asleep quickly when we turn the lights off at night, but he's not lasting very long before he awakes wanting to be fed. 3 hours has been the max for the past 2 nights. I really hope it's the excitement of the holidays and that he will once again sleep for 3-4 hours at a time. 

Nathan has also found my fingers to be good chew toys. In the past, if my fingers were close to his face, he would find them and suck on them. But recently, he has started to chew. I wonder if this means that he is going to teethe soon. I got him a teething ring, but he seems to not be interested in it for long. 

Car rides are still rough. On our way to the San Antonio airport (yes, we drove from Austin, to San Antonio to catch our flight) he pretty much was fussy the whole way. However, I have found that singing to him helps calm him down. In fact, songs in the low register like "Amazing Grace" and especially the hymn, "I love you, Lord." will not only calm him, but put him to sleep too! I bet my in-laws are sick of hearing me sing in the back of the van, but I'm sure it's better than a wailing baby. 

We still have a few more days here and we are excited to see what other adventures lie ahead of us.