R's Second Week

Health: Baby R seems to have had a little growth spurt! He's grown 2 inches and now weighs 8.4 pounds! Way to go, big guy! On the other hand, he looks so much like a baby now & doesn't seem like a "newborn" anymore & it breaks my little momma heart. According to my app, Baby R is in the 47th percentile for weight and the 90th percentile for height. Makes me think he's going to be tall & thin like the boys on my side of the family. But, who knows?
He's also had some issues with gas this week. My poor guy just cannot get comfortable! I'm still pumping & he's been eating mostly breast milk, so that makes me think that his gas is because of something I'm eating. I've been trying to keep mental notes of anything I eat that isn't bland.
Other than gas, he's very alert! He also seems to be one of those babies that needs human interaction a lot. Don't get me wrong, I love playing with my baby, but once we start on the fourth hour of dancing/cuddling/reading/tummytime/etc I start getting a little worn out & ready for his nap.

Sleep: I don't even know what to say about his sleep. Some days I think he's doing really well, other days (usually when he's fussy) I think he's not getting enough sleep. Overall though, he seems to sleep pretty well at night. I usually start a nighttime routine around 7-8ish & it takes about 20-30 minutes & he's usually asleep by the time I put him in his crib. He's been sleeping a long chunk at the beginning of the night & waking up to eat around 1:30 & again around 4:30. He's been pretty good about falling right back to sleep after his 1:30 feeding, but his 4:30 presents more trouble with going back to sleep. He usually does finally drift off (after an hour-ish of fighting), but he only sleeps for about 30-45 minutes & then he's up & ready for the day! I'm thinking about maybe pushing back his bed time until 8-9 & hoping that he will maybe sleep until 5:30? During the days he fights taking naps. He stays awake in long 3 - 4 hour spans & usually gets one good long (3 hourish) nap. Sometimes that nap is in the morning, sometimes it's in the afternoon.... there's really no telling when he'll get it. The other times I try to get him to nap, he'll usually sleep for about 45 minutes or an hour & then he's fussy or something like that & I just give up on his nap (&mine!) & we play or he spends some time with a grandmother. Part of me is really ok with this cycle because it means that he sleeps pretty well at night. We're also having some trouble with him waking up as soon as we lay him down. I know it's not possible to spoil a baby, but I really don't want to start any habits we'll have to break around the time I go back to work. Right now I love rocking him to sleep, but will I love it as much when I have to be at work at 7:00 am? I wish he could naturally self-soothe, but I guess we'll get there one day. Right now, I've been trying to concentrate on the eat/wake/sleep cycle during the day & establishing some kind of night time routine so he can start associating those activities with bed time. (Right now our night time routine is keeping the house dark, diaper change, a little baby lotion massage, changing into pj's, and then I sing a song & pray while he eats a small bottle & we rock to sleep. Then when he's in his crib I play his seahorse. I've also discovered that warming up his crib with a heating pad helps him transition from being held to sleeping in his bed a little easier, so we do that too.)

(no one believes me when I say he fusses... proof)

Activities: Honestly, I thought babies this age slept all the time, so I was not even close to prepared when he started staying up in long chunks of time. Right now, we play on his floor mat, have a little tummy time, read Baby Einstein's "How Big is Baby" book a million times, dance, sing, walk around outside a little, and cuddle while I talk to him. I'm not going to lie, I had to google "how to play with a newborn" because I felt so unprepared that first day he stayed up for such a long time.

Visitors: Mimsy, Pops, Grammy, Aunt Girli, Rachel, Naomi, Sarah, Samantha, Laura, & we also visited my work & went to Mimsy & Pops' house to watch the football game.

Mom & Dad: I think we are both just learning to adjust. If J is feeling uneasy at all he's being very stoic. He hasn't expressed any sort of frantic emotions. When pressed, he'll say that he's afraid he'll get caught up in a work project at home & forget that baby R is here (somehow I don't think that Baby R will let anyone forget that he's here.) J is seriously a rock star dad! I miss him so much while he's at work. :(
I am doing marginally better. I try to tell myself that what I'm feeling is hormones & not actually real. I haven't actually woken up feeling good or happy or anything like that yet, but there have been less crying fits, so there's that... I still have to deal with daily waves of anxiety that seem to just come out of nowhere and it's definitely a struggle to put on a happy face when people ask how I'm feeling. I think our additional surprise financial problems have something to do with that though. (Surprise! We have to buy a new car + J's getting scheduled less hours + we didn't save up as much as I wanted for maternity leave.) I am still pumping,  but I refuse to let the pump rule my life. Some days I'm able to pump 6 times, some days I'm too busy playing with R & trying to spend time with J so I can only do it 4 times. Knowing that I can walk away from this has helped me to stress less about breast milk. But, on the bright side, I'm below my pre-pregnancy weight (pp=291, current=289.8)! Woop woop!

Thoughts: Once upon a time Saturday mornings were for sleeping off the night before. Now they're all about 5 am feedings, early morning dance parties, & more gas/poop than I care to discuss. But when we snuggle & R peeks up at me & smiles it just melts my heart. Granted, he's only smiling because of gas... but it's still enough to make me not miss the old way for that moment.
Watching J be a dad has made me fall so much more in love with him!!!!
Also, I am looking forward to October & all of the family events we can do now!!