What stands out the MOST this month is....you have discovered the world! You are constantly observing, staring, perceiving things around you...faces, art on walls, paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling, mobiles and toys, windows and ceiling fans, people talking to you. You look and look and look with the most intent gaze.
Sometimes you actually get upset with me for picking you up, because you want to be put down so you can stare at things!
The first toy that got you to follow it with your gaze (you were about five weeks old), was a bell on a stick. I rattled the bell, moving it slowly from side to side, and your eyes followed it, even turning your head slightly. That was just the beginning. From that moment through today, your eyes have discovered looking at new things on a daily basis.
The second thing that stands out, is my favorite....
Your Daddy asked me last night what my favorite time of day is. That was easy.
It's
in the morning, between about eight and nine am, when you and I are
both slowly waking up. Half awake and half asleep, I pull you from your
spot on the bed or co-sleeper, into my arms. You nurse off and on, and we cuddle, as
we slowly greet the morning. The soft morning light shines on your
face, and I stare at your sweet eyelashes, nose, cheeks, and lips.
When
your eyes finally open wide, I silently kiss you, remove your
swaddle,and put you in your co-sleeper. Then I open the windows, and
you stare out the window, cooing and waking up, getting acquainted with
the day.
Usually you are happy there long enough for me to make the
bed, get dressed, and eat a quick breakfast.
Then when you start
coughing (which precedes crying), I pick you up and sing you a morning song. It's a little
ditty I made up with the words something like this,
"Good morning, good morning! Good morning to my Jax.
Good morning, good morning! Good morning to my son.
Good morning, good morning! Good morning Reilly boy.
Good morning, good morning! Good morning little one.
Good morning, good morning! Good morning to you."
You
grin and smile the whole time, and my heart melts.
Then I kiss you on your nose, cheeks, and forehead, and give
you raspberries on your tummy. Then you a clean diaper and fresh
clothes, and we start our day.
You
stay awake for about an hour after you wake up, before you are ready
for your first nap of the day. Your first nursing of the day, which
occurs between clean clothes and first nap, we always have outside on
the porch. It is cool and refreshing this time of day, and it makes me
happy to spend time outside. Once you drift to sleep, we come back
indoors for you take a thirty-minute nap swaddled in your bassinet.
The third thing that stands out is your SMILES! You have been smiling since last month, but now, you smile so many times during the day. You smile when you are looking out windows sometimes, but most of the time, you smile at someone who is talking to you and smiling at you too. I LOVE your smiles! This is how you smile at me when I greet you in the morning.
My newest nickname for you is Mr. Smiles. You smile at me all day
long when I talk to you. You smile most easily when you have nursed
after waking from a nap. You are rested, and your tummy is full. Then
when I talk to you, you smile and smile, grinning at me happily.
I've
almost made you laugh. We play a game where I kiss and tickle your
cheeks, then your nose, your forehead, your ears, your chin, your
fingers and toes. Then at the end, I snuffle your belly, and you smile
and smile, and once you almost giggled.
STATS: 14 lbs 6 oz, 26 inches long. Wearing 6-month size clothes. Some of the larger 3-6 months still fit. Some of the smaller 6-9 months fit. 0-3 months haven't fit since you were three or four weeks old.
NIGHT SLEEP: three to four hour cycles with thirty to sixty minute feeds between cycles. Every once in a while, a five or six-hour stretch (usually the first one of the night). Bed time, between 8pm and 9pm. Morning wake up time, between 7am and 10am. The last two weeks, I've been slowly transitioning you to sleep in your co-sleeper instead of in our bed. At first, you were waking frequently (every 1 - 2 hrs) while you were in it. I tried to figure out HOW did you KNOW you were in there, instead of in our bed? I decided on two major things: our bed is a squishy pillow-top mattress, and our bed has heavy comforters I would pull up to your waist. Otherwise, things were the same: you were swaddled, you were several feet away from me, you laid on your back. So I put an old comforter under your co-sleeper mattress, adding a bit of "give" to it, and I safety pinned a heavy baby blanket to the bumper, so it could come up to your waist but no further. It worked! You have successfully slept almost a week now in it, with your normal sleep cycles! It means I can cuddle with Daddy when I fall asleep now. Except I had severe withdrawal the first few nights, having you TWO whole feet further away from me. I wish I could cuddle with you and Daddy all night long. But then none of us would get any sleep!
DAY SLEEP: two 30 minute naps in crib (it seems difficult for you to stay asleep longer than 30 minutes at a time, unless you are in something moving, like the Ergo or Moby carrier, or a swing). We bought you a cradle swing that has helped you nap as long as two hours, since it soothes you through your 30-minute waking up periods.
DIAPERS: still wearing cloth! Cotton prefolds during the day; hemp fitteds or prefolds at night. You poop only once or twice a day, and have plenty of wet diapers all day long. And you rarely scream through a diaper change now, which is a major bonus.
EATING: usually two to four hours between nursing, then you nurse about fifteen to thirty minutes at a time. You've been through a couple growth spurts where all of a sudden you nurse for fifteen to twenty minutes every hour, and take both sides at night instead of just one side. Also, nursing is now the easiest thing in the world. You can latch yourself on and off as you please, even in complete darkness. We can easily nurse in any position, any place.
THINGS you did this month:
Visit with Nana Rose. She was wonderful. She helped me figure out that you were having gas pains contributing to your fussiness, and with a few natural supplements, we got you settled within two weeks of her visit! While she was here, we did something each day that required 1-2 hours of walking, so you could nap in the Ergo carrier. That was the only place you would nap longer than thirty minutes during that time you were having so much gassiness. We were so happy to have her here, all the way from Florida, to stay with us for a week!
With Nana, we visited the San Antonio Missions, the local farmer's market, the
River Walk, and took a three-mile walk around our neighborhood viewing
the wildflowers and listening to birds.
You spent time in your room, contemplating life.
You hung out (literally) with Daddy.
Your cousins from Houston visited for a week, so we spent time with all five cousins together!
You spend lots of time every day with Mama (me!).
I like to take you on stroller rides in the morning. Sometimes you are awake; other times you nap. You don't like having the sun in your eyes, so you wore a hat. It was way too big (like Papa Bear's chair). So I bought you sunglasses! I'm not sure you like wearing them.
Your Grandmama loves telling you stories when she holds you. It is amazing to me that you stop crying and really LISTEN to her! She is a great story teller. The story she was telling you in this photo was "Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the Gluten Free Oatmeal with Craisins."
Grandmama also showed you how to hold a toy and rattle it. You don't know you're doing it yet, but one day, you will!
This month you learned to like baths! You used to cry through them, but one day you decided it wasn't so bad after all. We put your tub in our kitchen sink where a big window lets in light. You love to look out the window while you float in the warm water.
We visit your Tita several times a month as well. The most recent time, she sang silly songs to you in Spanish and you cooed and made all sorts of sweet sounds, interacting with her!
We had your dedication ceremony at church while your Nana Rose was here. We felt so blessed to
have people stand with us to dedicate you, that have significantly
contributed to you being here in our arms today. Specifically, our parents (for EVERYTHING); my sisters and family (although only one sister could make it); Tita (my grandmother); Cindy/Martha/Kathy for praying with me weekly for nearly a year, getting me emotionally and spiritually free; and Juan and Donna, for years of marital counseling and therapy for Benjamin, so that we are married and thriving today.
You also had your first ride in the boat! Babies can't wear sunblock until they're six months old, so we covered you up thoroughly and put a life vest on you too. The life vest absolutely SWALLOWS you. Your head can barely stick out of it, and since it is three inches thick all the way around, it is incredibly cumbersome to hold you with it on. It would be impossible to nurse, as I can't even get close enough to your face with how thick the vest is! You slept the entire time in the boat in your Daddy's arms. You loved the motion and the humming sound of the motor, and even sharp bumps from wakes didn't seem to bother you. In the second photo, the boat is on shore being loaded up (note the rocks in the background), so we are getting a reprieve from the awkward vest.
Before you start full-out crying, you cough
"Cough, cough, cough..." I get this cute warning before the wails.
Before you start pooping, you grimace a certain way. Then you grunt.
Then I hear baby poop squirting into your diaper.
I have to trim your fingernails every week; they grow so fast.
Remember how when you were in-utero, I used to say you didn't like the hiccups, because when you would have them, you would kick your feet in protest? I am now convinced I was correct in this conclusion, because you still do the same thing. You get the hiccups, and shortly after, you start squirming and kicking, and your little face makes an adorable grimace. You STILL don't like the hiccups.
You are frequently stuck taking short, thirty-minute naps. Babies naturally sleep in 30 to 40 minute cycles, and you apparently have a very hard time sleeping through a cycle, or putting yourself back to sleep after the end of a cycle makes you stir. You will nap longer when you are in the Ergo or Moby carrier on someone's body, because when you hit that bumpy transition between cycles, we can bounce or sway you back to sleep.
Just in the last few days, you have napped longer in a cradle swing we purchased second hand. I went to my friend Melissa's house to take portraits of her daughter, and she had a swing like this. I put you in it while I was shooting photos, and you slept for an hour and a half in it! That's when I knew we needed one, at least for this season, to help you nap longer.
When you don't nap well, you are fussy, and it is hard to keep you happy during the day. Some days I have been at my wits end to make you happy. Other days, it is easy to just change activities or positions, or burp you, and you are sweet-faced once again.
Between when you were three and and seven weeks old, I spent a lot of time crying. I didn't feel like I was being a good mom for you, or I couldn't figure out how to soothe you. Or you weren't napping well, and I was exhausted, and you were exhausted, and we both cried. One day, you'll be a Daddy, and understand. It's both the most amazing and most incredibly challenging thing I've ever done in my life. I'm WAY more busy staying home full time than I was working full time!
In your sixth and seventh weeks I felt discouraged that I couldn't get anything done, barely even getting to feed myself, because you only napped in a carrier, and you didn't want to be put down in a bouncer or swing for longer than ten minutes. I know sometimes babies cry, but if I can do something about your crying, I will. Maybe when you are older, you will need to cry certain things out, but for now, you are too little, and your cries are truly a cry for help and comfort. But suddenly during your eighth and now ninth weeks, you have changed again. You love being put down under hanging toys, you sleep well in the new cradle swing, and you sleep during the night in your co-sleeper. You still like being in my arms, but there's lots of other places you are happy to be, as long as you have something to look at. You can actually be distracted from your cries by a rattling toy now!
Everyone told me how quickly babies change, and they were so right. You are in full-blast discovery mode. Noises make you turn your head to listen, objects draw your gaze, people talking to you elicits a smile. And the photos of you in your first two weeks of life? They hardly look like you anymore.
Oh yes, that might partially be because I trimmed your hair (for the second time) because it was getting uneven. This time I used the clippers on the top of your head as well, and for the record #6 on the buzzer removes all vestiges of infancy and made you look like the six-month old your clothes say you are. I almost cried. I lamented for two days and still haven't quite gotten over it.
You're still adorable; I just miss your sweet baby wisps.
