Quick Post

We've been seeing a LOT more of this lately: This is John asleep himself for a nap. I cannot emphasize how amazing this is, and how relieved I am that this has finally happened.  He will flip himself over (or I'll just put him down on his tummy if he is really tired) and he will bunch up his sheet protector (to spit and drool all over the sheet instead…) so that he has something by his face and then…passes out. Glorious. We are starting to work on CIO during the nighttime too. Its been easier at Grandma and Grandpa's house because the pack and play is right by the bed…I can snooze while he wails (yes, I can!) in relative warmth and comfort…not sitting by his bed or pacing the cold hallways of our home.  We'll see how this progresses when we get home. I'd really like to drop the feeding that occurs somewhere between 12 and 3 soon…

 Haven't uploaded much from Christmas yet (barely took any pictures) but John got a cute outfit from his great Grandma Betty and rocked it like a cute Santa all day.  Here he is with Auntie Amy and then Grandma Loni. I didn't take these…I was napping. I got 2 naps on Christmas. Merry Christmas to me!

In other topics (still related to John) his eyelashes have really grown. I am excited about this because they were STUBBY when he was born. I was worried. But they are pretty long and thick now.  He is getting more hair back too. After 3 months of taking his sweet time getting into 3mo size clothes, I'm not sure he will be in actual 3 mo size for much longer. His torso is long (like Daddy) so he may be in 6m tops soon.  He still has tiny legs though so I think we can wear our pants a bit longer. One pieces are getting tight really fast though…too fast!!!

John got a V-Tech light up ball for Christmas and LOVES the thing. It has a bunch of light up buttons and rolls around a bit.  He is already rolling around to chase it…great…I see some baby fence purchases in our future!

It was a really fun first Christmas with John (even though he slept through most of presents with his first …da dum…2 hour daytime nap in his bed!)  I will post more pictures when I get them, including his 4 month portraits!

Our kid

We are almost to 4 months, so I will call this our official 4 month post.

John has, for the last 2 days, successfully cried it out into naps in his bed. Wowser! The naps still only last exactly 45 minutes, but the 15 minutes of jabbering or crying plus the nap means an hour of time for me. I've been using that hour to nap, mostly, due to being really sick.  After some naps (he always wakes hungry) he falls back asleep while nursing or burping. I don't know what to do at that point but so far I've just held him so he could get his long afternoon nap.

I had a bit of an epiphany last night when I pumped (boys were at a party) and I only got THREE ounces instead of 6-7. I'm starving my kid at night! No wonder he eats every hour or two in the evening and needs to wake up at 1 and 4 to eat.  Previously a 6 hour night stretch was no problem...until 3 months when we had a few weeks of night wakes, which are gone now except the hunger wake ups. So last night, I nursed him and gave him 2 oz by bottle from our stash and...he slept til 4. Awesome.  I, however, only slept until 2 with this horrible cough.  When he did finally wake, I couldn't get him all the way back asleep (our nighttime routine) before putting him in bed due to all the hacking. So I put him in bed anyhow and I'm hoping the cry it out going works at night too. First he just jabbered a bunch but now he is pretty upset. 10 more minutes and I will go get him. (Yes, drafting this blog at 5am...doesn't everyone blog in the middle of he night?)  **UPDATED** CIO does not work at night. Woke Daddy up though, got hungry again, and by 6 mommy was back in bed and Daddy was doing baby duty

We've started "tickling" Daddy in the mornings (more like a dog digging a hole/scrambling at his arms or whatever is closest) but John seems to think it's somewhat amusing. He is also a pro hair grabber (well, we did teach him to grab stuff dangling in his face...he's just TOO SMART!) and just started this week grabbing at the table stuff while we eat. We are doomed! He doesn't like to play by himself as much as he used to, which is hard. I think he would prefer to sit up and play, but since he can't do that yet. He loves to be on his changing pad (sound familiar, Anna?) and talks a ton while we are there. Then I move him to his mat...over. This morning I moved him to the ground (memory foam mat) so I could go to the bathroom and he seemed to like that. Maybe the changing pad is just really comfy?

Hm...I need to upload some more pictures. Now that Zach's finals are over - I have my husband back!!!  Now if I could just get my health, we'd be on a roll...

John's First Airplane Trip

I'm hosting a gals craft day on Sunday and my house is a DISASTER. So what am I doing now that the baby is asleep? Blogging. Of course. What will I craft? Good question. Right now I have 3 interests: sewing one or more changing pad covers, sewing one or more quiet books (unfortunately, can't find a picture of them online - will post when done) or converting the last 2 years of Christmas Cards into an album or some other sort of collection so I can do the same thing every year.  Oh and of course feed and hold John the entire time if Zach has to study for finals. So I'll for sure get everything done.  I am secretly hoping some non-crafty girls will come and hold babies. :)

So reunion. We flew to Florida. John was pretty much a champ on the plane, except for pooping through his pants twice. (Word of advice: Using a blanket as a nursing cover? Same blanket for wrapping? Same blanket that gets pooped on? Uh-oh.)  He was a bit of a terror only for about 5 minutes twice (once was during boarding) but both times when he was very tired and over stimulated. In both cases we put the swaddle blanket over him and whichever of us was holding him to block out all the people and...sleep in 2 minutes. Awesome. Also, we travelled without any pump or bottles. It freaked me out a little. Next time I will at least travel with a bottle and some formula samples, just for emergencies. I'm a worrier. What if that quick trip to Walgreens became 3 hours because of traffic or an accident? etc. This was John's 3rd big trip but first by plane. I think this is the max age for easy traveling. They don't really need toys, sleep anywhere, etc. Even now in the car, John doesn't sleep if he isn't ready.  Before (early last month) he would just fall asleep every time we got on the road, very nice for 8 hours of driving in a day.  Now, its just screaming. Awesome.

At the reunion, John met his namesake, John Francis Doscher, a wonderful man, husband, father, grandfather, and great grandfather. Also a great story teller, author, has a good sense of humor and a way with words.  At 83, he just quit jogging, running races, and I think toned down his softball team participation. I hope our John is a lot like him.  Poppi (thats what we call him) wrote a poem for John. I'm going to post it here in case I lose our copy.

JD

We will probably never get to know each other,

Too many years apart.

With your loving family around you,

Your life will have a good start.

Stay close to your family, have a good heart.

Invite the Lord into our life, 

He will see you through trouble, sorrow, and strife.

The world could get rough,

So you have to be tough.

Stand up for what's right and don't back down.

Be merciful and kind, a good guy all around.

So John Francis, my namesake you are,

I just know you'll be fine, I know you'll go far.

When you start playing ball and I hope that you do,

Play fair, play hard, just be you.

I'll gaze down from Heaven and I'll hear and I'l see,

Now coming to bat...JD.

By JFD

TEAR! I love it.  I think I will also put a copy in his album and maybe frame the poem and a picture of them for his room.

Poppi and John. John is wearing Yankee apparel (ouch, I know) because Poppi is a fan. (Anyone want a 3m yankee outfit now that this photo op is over?)

On Thanksgiving, Poppi cooked the whole gang his famous invented meal, Eggs and Noodles. Yum.

Everyone getting a well posed picture staring directly at the sun. Oh well.

Dressy John on Thanksgiving with his cousin Brady.

The rest of the reunion was great, our spoiled boy was held, I think, the entire time by someone or another. (NO WONDER WE HAVE SLEEP PROBLEMS!!!!!!!!)

3 months and then some

Finally! I got my pictures uploaded to picasa. My IE is so finicky!  We have a 3 month old now, so here is what we've been up to.

Enjoying our last bits of 0-3m clothing, like this Old Navy Superman outfit. I went online to get the next size up in Batman and they were sold out. Tragic. 

 Once he started staring at things intentionally, I busted out the books. (We did have a black and white thing by the changing pad and we noticed he would stare at that.)  He does seem to enjoy reading.  He initially really liked the Sassy books (still does) for their great patterns and colors. He seems to tolerate the fun Sandra Boynton books more now too (if heavy breathing is any indication) which I realized I have a bunch of from my storybook shower.  I'm greedy though, I already want more. I want them all!

 Every baby needs a bath robe, right? Or that is what I thought 4 months pregnant.  Turns out, not so practical. Good thing it was only $4. But cute, and goes up to 9mo...maybe we'll enjoy it a bit more later.

 I couldn't resist these 2 pc jammies for Christmastime. He looks so grown up! (Also, the pants are huge on him, you just can't tell. I guess we are a 3mo on top and still NB for bottoms. Oh well.)

 Seriously, how cute is this picture? This is Zach "driving" with John. John sits back and Zach makes motor noises and moves John's hands to shift. Its like his own ride at an amusement part, that type that make you puke because the seats move.  Well, obviously John LOVES it. Gales of giggles. So cute.

We travelled to Florida for Thanksgiving, which will be its own separate post. Both because I have travel experience I want to document for future reference and because John met his 83 year old great-Poppi (great grandpa) whom he is named after, and Poppi wrote a poem about it, and...I will save all that for later. For now, I have a baby that went to bed so I will be heading that direction SOON!

Stats: at 3 months - 10lb 13 oz (around 2nd percentile.) Still our tiny little guy. Big tummy, chicken legs, but he loves to stand! Grabbing at toys a lot more too. Drool city. Might become a thumb sucker, not sure yet. The end.

12 week old baby!

After this week...I'm only going to count ages in months. (And probably half months...)  But here are some updated pics. This will be fast because someone (guess who?) is crabby in their bed when they should be sleeping (yes, sort of attempting a bit of sleep training today.)

Kiddo is rolling over and holding his head up high on the play mat! He can roll from tummy to back in either direction.  He usually has to be kind of mad about being on his tummy though.  If there are too many interesting things to look at (the play mat is suddenly fascinating, as are the patterned burp cloths) then he won't bother rolling over.

 Remember this post? The sailor hat fits a LOT better now. Its super cute. I will have to get another pic of him in the entire outfit this week before he outgrows it!

 And lastly...baby hair loss. Zoom in.  This is after only a few nights of sleeping.  Kind of cracks me up and makes me nervous he is going to have a giant bald spot...

This week has gone much better than last week.  We are back to nursing well after last weekend's embarrassing public meltdown, although still spitting up a lot (after he weaned himself off his nipple shield, we've had a lot more spitups and burps. I may [yuck] consider a break from dairy to look for improvement.)  I'll have a weight update at the end of the week, but I'm thinking based on his previous weight gain, he is no more than 10.5 pounds. (A friend has a 1 month old that already weighs more!)

Stuff (picasa not working for pics)

Changes
John John is changing fast. (Yes, he is mostly called John John. I've always wanted kids with a long name that I would shorten for a nickname...John kind of defied that goal and instead of calling him by his actual, short name, I double the length? Oh well.)

New: rolling over, giggles, grabbing his hands, and drool.
Same old: evening screaming, zero sleep schedule

Took the babe on another road trip last weekend. I'm a sucker for punishment. But, he was a champ. Slept in the car the entire time again! And the night sleep was pretty good too. I'm glad we had chances for some if these visits while we still have a good traveller. I'm hoping the trend continues through Christmas.

Going back to work has been tough. Nursing after bottles has been tough. Overthinking milk supply has been tough. Being refused by your infant child feels devastating. But, it's way too soon to quit, so I'm going to keep trying. I've shed a lot of tears lately, and so has John. Luckily, a few hours later we are both smiling at each other again. Just being real...it's not all fun and games over here. I am so thankful for Zach in all of this. I don't know how single parents do it!

10 weeks (2 months!)

If I wait any longer to post, I'm going to have way too many pictures.  I've got to remember what has been happening lately so I can put it in some sort of scrapbook later!

Last week we were in Sacramento for a family baby shower. John was loved and adored and held by all. And my sister and I did some shopping, including finding this costume, which we actually ended up giving to someone else...but I coudln't resist a picture.

Here we are at 2 months on the mat...wearing 0-3m clothes still (although in the 9 days since I took that picture, we've retired that outfit!)

More 2 mo pictures. So smiley! And check out that giant tummy. Odd on a kid who is only 4th percentile.

 Not sure what to think about the pumpkins

Daddy tries to help get some smiles - but not sure what is going on in this pic!

John met a cousin on Sunday - further cementing in my mind that he isn't "small" anymore, because he looks like a giant in this picture! He didn't know what to do in this pic so he just held that pose while his cousin kicked (and screamed) and gave us all sorts of poses.

Road trippin' boy (No these did not stay on for long)

The beginning of a 2 hour nap un-assisted! We have ourselves a sometimes side sleeper. Mostly all other naps that long are being held.  I've given up on sleep training specifically, with the primary goal of 1) Getting my kid over 10 pounds, preferably 12 before trying again and 2) figuring out if there is any pattern to his sleep, when he is able to get it.  We've started putting him down on his side for naps and he can go 45 minutes.  Thats about the best we've gotten so far. (The boppy pillow was better!)

John is also talking a TON - mostly when he is upset - but making a lot of letter noises - G, M, N, D. He can sometimes put a couple letters together like "a-goo" but still mostly when annoyed.  He is very quiet when happy, just huge smiles.

I am back to work this week, yikes, a pumping machine and trying to make a new work/life balance happen. More updates to come on that.  I am exhausted from the travel and infection and who knows what else...oh yeah, only 5 hours of sleep per night.Well, more pictures to come with our actual Halloween costume(s) and anything else new that happens this week...

What to do about sleep training?

John is currently entering hour 3 of a morning nap. Glorious. I couldn't stay awake when he woke to eat this morning but Zach took a nap holding shift before school when I showered (yay!) and got breakfast so I feel like a new person.

I am totally confused on what sleep training is. Is it training your kid to fall asleep in their own? I is it establishing a sleep routine, regardless of how your child falls asleep? I'm thinking that I would prefer to conquer the latter part first, and once we know what schedule John likes, then we can move towards letting cry it out or whatever. Right now we put him down and it never works. We need a baby that is sleeping well to begin with to be successful!!!  So my first plan if action is to try to make sure he gets at least a 90minute morning and afternoon nap.  According to Babywise, he should have more naps, but he doesn't seem to be a Babywise scheduled baby yet (and still sleeps thru the night 6 hours)I honestly thought that ONLY Babywise sleep scheduled babies slept through the night by this age. Big misconception!!!!! Although I thought what I read in the book about schedules and sleep was very useful and I would like to have him scheduled in the future. 

The other thing I can't figure out is when to swaddle. John still swaddles at night and not really for naps. H figs the swaddle unless he is really drowsy so during the day when I try, he just gets too agitated and awake fighting it. So we haven't really been able to test a crb nap with a swaddle. I do try to tuck a blanket tightly around him and he does seem to flail a lot.  The books and Internet don't seem to clear as to what role the swaddle has in either of the above scenarios...obviously I am scared to stop the night swaddle because we are enjoying our sleep. 

Any advice out there???

8 weeks ish

8 weeks have passed!!! Wowser. I need to upload the newer pics from my camera (and/or figure out how to link to instagram.) But since 99% of you readers are also in instagram and/or facebook, I'm just going to get away with this one picture for now.

Last week was a doozy. the 7th week is my new least favorite (2nd in line was 3rd week.) But it is all behind us now, I really cant remember what was wrong now, probably something about eating or sleeping, or not eating or not sleeping. Since those are the only things we do.

I've used google dozens of times since John was born looking up random information. (New Moms- get a tablet for nursing...seriously.) I now know what CIO, STTN, EBF, EP, DS, DD, LO all mean, and probably more. Kinda crazy.

Um, so, 8 week marks so that I have something to look back on for the non-existent baby book...
John is smiley when he wants to be. He opens his mouth really wide when he smiles.  Its very cute. No real sounds yet though. I squish his cheeks while chirping "squish squish squishy face" in a high pitched voice and he loves it (most of the time.)  He also laughs in his sleep, which is more like a wheeze, but with smiles.

He is taking bigger boy baths in the sink now and likes it. I was waiting until he could hold his head up a little better.  He wasn't too sure about submerging his feet then bottom at first (still isn't) but once he is in, he doesn't complain.  The first time I took his hand and splashed a little bit -- a new sound and a new feeling - and he smiled for that. Must have been cool to hear that for the first time!

He likes going outside and looking in the backyard, although we don't do it every day because sometimes it is too hot. I need to do it more though, and go for more walks. He is 9 pounds 6 ounces and 22.5 inches (yes, still smaller than some newborns!)

He is tolerating the swing for up to 10 minutes at a time. Yay!

He usually sleeps from around midnight until around 6:30. Mommy is a fan of this, even though it means getting up to pump for a few minutes at 5:45 just to make sure my supply is OK. (That was one of the problems last week.) He doesn't sleep well during the day (still) unless held and even then its iffy. I am trying sleep training off and on, but since I don't always know if he needs to nap (he doesn't nap after ever feed/wake cycle), I don't know if we are failing because he isn't tired...or because he can't/won't fall asleep on is own.  We've let him CIO (see...there it is! cry it out) a few times but caved after 15 minutes or less. He gets very worked up and sweaty.  I figure when I go back to work at the end of the month, there will be more reason to suck it up and get over it. Until then, I'll take all the snuggles I can get!

7 Weeks

Its a good thing I took that smiley happy baby picture last week because I haven't seen him for a few days!  We had company for the weekend (yay! and he smiled for them...) but in the wake of it, I'm exhausted. Zach and I are also trying to get him to sleep more in his bed, unsure if that means we are immediately making him fall asleep by himself and cry it out (really hasn't worked so far...worked once for 5 minutes) or just managing to put him into bed when he falls asleep on us first.

Last night he slept 1-7a (I went to bed at 11:30 - Zach got the late shift) but after a good sleep, he skipped his next 2 expected naps and didn't go down til nearly 12.  I think I'd rather have the 5am wakeup call! Yesterday he ate at 5, 7:30, 9:30 but conked out immediately after each time.

So I guess the bottom line is, this uber organized, schedule loving mom is going to have to wait a little longer to define her baby by numbers or a clock.  I go back to work in 3 weeks (a very, very busy 3 weeks!) so this makes me a little nervous.  But since every week is different, I'm just trying to survive every day.

And for the baby...he can stick out his tongue when you suggest it (and model it) (in retrospect, perhaps this wasn't the best behavior to teach) and now we are working on making a circle mouth face and trying to clap.  He seems to reach for his playmat toys (more left arm than right) but since he doesn't love playtime every day, its hard to tell if he is trying or just successfully flailing.  Doesn't like tummy time, but can lift his head. Spends the whole time trying to push his butt up in the air and kicking his legs. This morning, though, he practiced a great Superman pose, both arms and both feet off the air - great abs on this guy! His favorite way to be held is UP (don't eve think about holding him in the cradle position in your arms) and likes to go outside.  I think that is all for now...8lbs 13oz last thursday, too.

6 weeks!

My, how time flies. I've been dreading this week - fussy baby and big growth spurt.  The fussiness actually started LAST week until we realized part of it was that our ittby bitty baby boy has grown out of being held "all" the time.  He wanted to lay down and kick on his play mat! Awesome. Of course this doesn't last for ages or anything, but long enough to get to the bathroom and maybe make a lunch.  Often around dinnertime I find that my lunch is still in the microwave and its been nuked 2-3 times then I forget about it or have to feed *someone.*

The growth spurt hit this week with crazy amounts of eating every afternoon. But he slept a lot better every morning for it, so for that I am glad.

Still doesn't sleep well during the daytime in his bed, but yesterday he gave us a blessed hour and I napped to. I resorted to something I said I would never do. "I'm not going to warm up his bottles, unless I have to. I'm not going to get a wipes warmer, unless I have to. I'm not going to put his blanket in the dryer unless I have to."  Well, I've caved on #1 and #3.  The warmer blanket worked yesterday (who knows if that was actually it?) and again this morning...to be fair, it was kind of cold! I just got him asleep again and tried putting him down...6 minutes ago. The fact that he is still asleep is a good sign.  I had to hug him until he was all the way down in his basket (which is on the floor of the living room where he "lives" right now.)  Not an attractive picture, Mommy bending over the basket with her hiney in the air making sure the first couple thrashes that occur when we put him down were soothed.

But it worked, so thats one step closer.

And onto more fun things.

Squirmy Worm for sure here. I was trying to get a picture of how gigantic 3mo pants were on him. The waist was huge! He is doing his favorite activity - kicking. (Practiced that a lot in the womb, too.)

So I got to buy some more clothes since I only had the 1 pair of 3m sized pants. These have little shoes as the feet. So adorable. Of course trying to photograph a kicking baby...not easy. At least he isn't laying in his own spitup for this picture. Victory.

Here is another new development. Sad face / bottom lip. He does this right before he sad-cries.  This is the best I could get, since he only does it once or twice before the full on bawling begins.

This is my second favorite discovery of baby items (after Aden and Anais swaddle blankets.) These are called "Sock Ons" and they...keep socks on. (Or in this case, they keep feet in the footie section of pajamas.  They wouldn't stop a determined baby from taking them off themselves, but the do prevent the common slippage of socks. Big fan. New shower gift for everyone!

S'more Rolls

Ok, if you made it this far, you've got to make these S'more rolls. So easy, a mother of a newborn can do it. 1) Crescent rolls 2) Chocolate chips - 5-10 in each one. 3) Marshmallows - 5-8 minis or a big one  4) Cook per normal directions. (Do not burn!)  These taste a-maz-ing.  They are wonderful right out of the oven but if you can't serve them for a few more hours, they are still fine. And if you were given a bunch for dessert and you put the few that were left in a plastic bag until the next day, they are still perfect for breakfast. TRY IT.

Pics...cuz he changes too fast to wait another day...

5 Weeks: Lessons for Mom

Today is 5 weeks! While Johnny learns new things right and left, it seems like I am the one learning the most lately.  Frequently I have made blanket statements about what he can and cannot do, just to be proven wrong shortly after. For example:

"He can't fall asleep by himself in his bed." Sunday he did this twice (with the aid of Mommy putting the pacifier back in.)

"He doesn't sleep more than 10 minutes in his carseat after we take it out of the car." 75 minutes today. Bam. (I loosened the straps...that helped...then later he fell asleep in it at the doctor.)

"We are both having some trouble with latching." The he latches on right away in the OB office when I'm trying to get a checkup.

In other mommy lessons, I have learned how to:

- Shower while he is napping without other adults present to supervise him

- Re-try things that failed previously because it is possible that now he can handle the particular activity (i.e. the first examples, also he will enjoy his playmat a little longer now.)

- Read my baby development books. Not sure why I didn't do this while pregnant...but every time I read it now, it is 1000% relevant to what I am wondering about baby development at the time. Now if I could just read the "months" a few weeks in advance, I might actually be prepared for something once in a while!

In other news, John is smiling, imitating us (i.e. sticks out his tongue at Daddy), and now weighs 9 pounds. I guess all this eating for an hour each time (up from 20 minutes) is paying off.  Still wearing his NB sized clothes though.  He fit into a 3M outfit but the pants are HUGE on him.  Zach and I were both hypervigilant about not over-buying clothes, and just this week I realized the 3M stuff we have is all summery.  At this growth rate, we will probably be wearing 3M through the end of the year and we had...ONE pair of pants and 1-2 PJ's.  So I hit up our local consignment kids store and got a bunch of pants and PJ's and maybe splurged on a completely useless zip-up hoodie (he's always got a blanket outside anyhow) and one last NB outfit that I couldn't resist. Now our cold snap will probably end and we'll be back in only a onesie all day but...at least we've got warmer clothes when we need it and they didn't cost much!

  I used all my good photos last week and I have some new ones to upload but here is what I have for now.  I kinda wish I got a camera that could upload wirelessly automatically... Anyhow, this is one of the most genius baby shower gifts I have ever seen.  Its a onesie, with a snap sewn on, then I got 4 different bow ties to interchange!  I am going to check the snap size and hopefully sew some snaps onto some bigger onesies too. I am excited!

Photo Shoot #2: Mostly a failure, haha.

So, the first photo shoot we had with the baby was at the 1 week mark and it went swimmingly.  He slept through the whole thing and was completely pliable into whatever position we could get him into.

For this next attempt, I wanted a different background. Here he is laying on his Boppy with a couch coushin in the background.

Fail #1: cut off top of head.

Fail #2 and #3: falling over and couch coushin not properly centered.

Fail #4: Massive spit up.

Fail #5: Not-really-matching fabrics. Not centered in photo. Cute kid though.

Not quite a fail, but not "the picture" - but I love that he has almost his entire fist in his mouth! :)

Probably my favorite pic of the day.  Too bad he wasn't centered on the white blanket and I was so close....still, pretty darn good, I think!

4 weeks

Tuesday marked 4 weeks.  I don't have too many pictures, but some. 

Some observations about this time:

1) Nursing is still really tough! I've been spoiled with the nipple shield.  Real latching on takes full concentration for both of us for the whole feed.

2) Swaddle sacks are our friends.

3) I had more things to say and I forgot what they were. Dangnabit.

We went to a nautical themed baby shower and happened to have this outfit...its a little big still but he rocked it anyway!!!

Chillin in his basket. See how his head is touching the pillow at the top? Thats Baby Crack right there. Once I got over being afraid he would suffocate (and not putting his face near the pillow), he started doubling and tripling the amount of time he would stay sleeping in this basket. Seriously. He's even gone TO sleep a couple times being put in here (when drowsy.)  I'm not claiming he is sleep trained or anything, but constant contact with anything near his head is very soothing.

Pics

Week 3 with John was a real doozy. 4th week got better, but we had company and I tried to sleep and so I didn't get around to uploading my pictures. I'll make up for that now.

around 2 weeks, smiling (I think?) while laying on my shoulder

Trying out the bouncer. He isn't a fan. Started screaming right after this picture.

During week 3, Squirmy Worm wouldn't sleep in his bed (or not longer than 20-50 minutes.) So we rocked the Moby Wrap. A lot. Or took turns holding him. Here he sleeps through some studying with Dad.

We see a fair amount of this...especially if I don't feed him .025 seconds after waking up from a nap. When he is really mad, he grabs his face or hair and pulls. Tthen cries harder because he hurt himself. i'm really considering those hand covers or putting socks on his hands until he has better control.

Spontaneous smile. I LOVE this kid's smile!!

Stares at Daddy a lot...