Baby Update

Hey guys! It's been a while, I realize since I last updated the blog. L is almost 2 months old (on Wednesday)! Which means, we are officially past the 6 week post partum scariness, which is nice. I have more confidence that I can actually do this whole being a mom thing. That being said, I have had lots of help over the past 8 weeks. My mom was with us for 3 weeks after he was born, J's mom was here the week after and then for a day visit the week after that. My mom came again for a few days the following week, and I was up in PA with my parents 2 weeks ago. Traveling with a baby by myself was way more challenging than I had imagined. Last week was our first full week with just the 3 of us, and we made it through! We finally did get the hang of breastfeeding and I am now exclusively breastfeeding, which is nice. I know we should probably introduce bottles again soon so that he will transition to daycare okay, but I just don't want to because then I have to pump. I actually don't hate pumping, but I would miss nursing time. His latch is getting better as he gets bigger. It still sometimes hurts a lot, but there's a toughening up that happens. He also sometimes reverts to a shallow latch and then gets upset if I try to re-latch him. But, all of this is normal. I have been blessed with a good supply, and he is gaining weight like crazy. He's about 14 pounds at this point, so yea... It's actually getting hard to lift him, especially since he still has a somewhat floppy head. He can lift his head and does okay at tummy time (which isn't a popular activity), but sometimes he just decides he's done with holding his head and will let it droop.

L is a great baby. He has been sleeping through the night (defined as a 6 hour stretch) since about a month old, and he will do 8 hours some nights (which is totally awesome, even though it feels like my boobs might explode by the time he wakes up). I have been focusing this past week on getting him on a schedule, which has been slightly challenging. It sometimes feels like 2 steps forward, one step back. One of our challenges was getting him to nap in the crib. He sleeps in the crib well at night, but he was taking most of his naps in the carseat, carrier, or on me after nursing, which made getting anything done difficult. One of my friends gave me the book, Secrets of the Baby Whisperer, which has been hugely helpful. I also started reading Baby Wise, which I didn't find as helpful. It laid out a similar scheduling plan, but was not flexible at all (after describing how it was flexible). We don't necessarily have a schedule the same time each day, but we are trying to follow the EASY approach she lays out (E-eat, A-activity, S-sleep, Y-you time). The cycle basically repeats itself every 2.5-3 hours during the day. The activity can be varied. For instance, this morning it was watch mommy eat breakfast, storytime from the children's Bible I have, and tummy time. However, this afternoon's activity was mostly trying to get him to calm down since he was trying to work out a poop and had lots of gas after eating. Getting him to nap in the crib was facilitated a lot by swaddling. He keeps punching himself in the face if he isn't swaddled. I've been putting him down to sleep awake, which took a few days to get him okay with that and lots of coming back to reassure him (this is not crying it out). What else? He likes a pacifier, which is great because he was using me as a human pacifier for a while. I've joined a nursing moms Bible Study, which is super nice. I'm also part of a new mom's group which organizes a lot of fun activities. I try to get out of the house pretty frequently, which helps.

L is socially smiling now, which is super awesome. The other morning (at like 4 AM) when J and I were in his room to see why L wasn't sleeping, he just looked up at us and started grinning away. Made the early wake up much less painful. :) I find I am praying much more these days. I think parenting makes you realize how much is totally out of your control. God has blessed us with a wonderful baby. And He has gotten me through some pretty hard days (I don't function well on little sleep). Anyway, that's what's going on in our neck of the woods: eating, burping, diapers, playtime, baths, and sleeping.

And now, a few pictures...