12 weeks - last week of maternity leave

And here it is, my last week home with Nolan. He is 12 weeks old! 

12 weeker!

and very smiley these days:

Next week he'll turn 3 months!

Nolan is becoming somewhat of a road warrior as we took him on yet another trip this weekend. We spent Fri and Saturday nights at my parent's house in NJ, and spent most of the day Saturday visiting our friends Mike and Katy in NY. Mike and Katy recently had identical boy twins, Joshua and Lucas, a month after Nolan was born. They have an older daughter, Natalie, who is 3.5 years old.

Joe, Mike, and 3 baby boys!

Joe and Mike were friends in high school and roomed together at Penn State as well. Mike was a groomsman in our wedding. How much has changed in the past (almost) 5 years...

Nolan, Joe, Natalie, Joshua, Mike, and Lucas!

We had a really great time, and I have to hand it to Mike and Katy for handling newborn twins and a 3.5 year old so well! They certainly have their hands full, but their kids are adorable.

Our little family at my parent's house

Father and Son

Mother and Son

Nonna and Grand-pup!

We also took Nolan into Joe's work last Thursday. It was fun for me to see where he worked and meet more of his co-workers. Everyone loved Nolan of course - he will be one lucky kid to have a dad that can bring home lots of goldfish crackers for him :)

This week we also started using Nolan's cloth diapers as he is definitely over 10lbs and should fit most of our "one size" adjustable diapers. We started off with a stash of 11 - 3 Bum Genius Elementals, 3 Bum Genius 4.0's, 3 Bum Genius Free Times, 1 Fuzzibunz pocket, and 1 Kawaii pocket. I wanted to see which we like best and order more as we figure it out.

Nolan in his first cloth diaper - Bum Genius 4.0!

This deserves its own post after we've been at it for awhile, but right now my favs are the Bum Genius 4.0's. They fit the most trim on him so far (lots of cloth diapers are really bulky on young babies, but fit better as they get bigger), and offer a choice of absorbancy depending on how many inserts you stuff them with. Right now I just have the smallest infant insert, but if I start seeing leaks (I haven't yet), I can use the bigger inserts or double up. I'm so impressed with how these diapers work in wicking away the moisture from the baby's skin (the liners are made with fleece-like material that will not absorb moisture, but let it pass through). The liners will be perfectly dry, but the inserts will be soaked underneath! Pretty cool stuff. I hope to write another post in a few weeks with more details and how it's going, but for now I'm loving how soft and natural the cloth is, as well as the reduction in trash with disposables (and cost!) I've also not had a leak so far with cloth (and many with disposable!) - so far so good!

Fuzzibunz baby

Some photos from the week:

My boys hanging out - Nolan ALMOST is sitting up in his Bumbo!

What my "board meetings" look like these days...

Funny shots taken at my friend Mike's house against dark carpet

What a face!

Manly lounging in the evenings after Daddy gets home from work

Daytime nap against Mommy

Good Morning!

Inseparable!

Other Notables:

• Nolan had his longest stretch of sleep this week - 8 hours straight! I'm hoping he's catching his groove just in time for mommy to go back to work :)
• He's gone from us having to change poopy diapers every change, to only 1 or so a day! Makes for a smoother transition from disposable to cloth diaper!
• He's showing an interest in rolling over. While on his back he's started swinging his legs from side to side - he just needs to figure out how to get past his shoulder!
• Nolan has officially discovered his hands - they are in his mouth constantly now. They seem to help him self-sooth though, which is a good thing!
• I now get greeted by babbles and a smile when he's up for the morning. Love love love it. So much better than puffy eyes and cranky baby!

Melt my heart smile

It's hard to believe my maternity leave is almost over. I definitely have mixed feelings going back to work. I'm planning on writing a reflection post on my time at home this week. No matter how long or short my time has been, I feel so fortunate to have had this time with my little boy!