videos week 17

Dad-less week

Jared's been in Houston since Tuesday and it's been great so far. 

Until today when it is Friday and I realize I haven't gotten a single thing done all week and I probably won't get anything done until Saturday, and Saturday I have to community garden in Detroit until 1pm and then I promised to spend the night with a friend for my first night away from baby.  So basically all I will have left is Sunday.  

Baby has been fun all day today but he has pretty much been making me hold him all day long with zero breaks.  Now I try to settle down to write an email and he starts with the fussing, now it is screaming.  I ended up going downstairs where I am now losing my mind trying to focus but knowing I will not be able to focus on any work at all while he shrieks and screams in his swing.  I had to buckle him into it because I know he is probably writhing and kicking and trying to twist out of it.  I am sure there are tears.  Hopefully this tires him out and he will actually TAKE A NAP for a few hours.  I just need to have 10 minutes to finish writing a professional email to a few people is all I'm asking.

Ok thanks.

17 weeks

at least I think it is 17 weeks, I lost track a few weeks ago

In some ways he is acting like a 4 month old and in other ways he is acting like a 2 1/2 month old which is his adjusted/corrected age due to his prematurity.

He is doing so great with sleeping (knock on wood) and it seems like his playtime/sleep schedule is very predictable now which is more like a 4 monther.  He wakes around 7/8am, takes long nap at 9/10am, and goes to sleep at 7 pm, with little naps in between.  I haven't had much trouble putting him to bed in a week - thankfully his "easy bedtimes" have started to happen during the week Jared was away and I was home alone.  On average it takes about 45 min-60 min to go through his whole bedtime routine from start to finish.  I have no idea if that is a typical amount of time to spend putting a baby to bed or not but that's what I'd guess after some combination of changing/nursing/reading/rocking.

The ways he acts like a 2 1/2 monther are that he cannot lift his head up very long still.  He rolled tummy to back twice in a row but since then of course nothing.  He still spits up frequently so I can tell his digestive system still has developing to do.  According to babycenter he may begin to say some consonants but I highly doubt he will do that this month.  He has become more vocal though.  He rarely cries hard enough to tear anymore and instead he whines, yelps, and coos alot.  Sometimes in the mornings I can tell he's just whining and I'll let him play by himself for a bit and he will squeal and laugh at his mobile that we  hung last week.  So funny!  And he will always smile and laugh when I come into his room to get him up for the day.

election day

brought baby to the polls with me yesterday.  a little more stressful with an infant strapped to you in the lines, but we made it through without a total meltdown on his part.  he fussed himself to sleep eventually.

and just for fun
 

 

4 month videos

Try to ignore my crazy facial expressions.  I'd like to attribute it to mirror distortion but in all honesty I'm sure I really do look that ridiculous on the regular!!

 

4 month sleep

For the past week we have been noticing a trend developing in his sleep routine.  Around 7 pm he starts getting tired and fusses.  I try to nurse him, I rock him, I read him stories, and so on.  This takes about 30-45 minutes.  I try to put him down in his crib and he immediately wakes.  Jared then takes over and bounces/rocks him for another 30-45 minutes.  He will try to put him down several times and finally at about the 3rd or 4th try Elliott will stay asleep.   Or, he will wake up after a short time and we have to rock him again but only for a short time.

Obviously this cannot become a trend so I have decided that Elliott is entitled to a certain amount of "coddling" I call it, but then when we have been spending upwards of 2 hours trying to get him to sleep in a peaceful way, enough is enough and he's on his own. 

Tonight I did my routine for about 40 minutes and he woke as soon as I put him down.  I hadn't even had dinner yet so I shut the door and went downstairs to eat and relax.

10-15 minutes later the crying stopped and I find him passed out, arms splayed out, completely zonked.  We think he has extra energy he needs to get out of his system sometimes, because when we let him cry for a little bit (always just fussy crying not sobbing crying) he usually is much more tired and much easier to put to sleep.  I definitely feel sorry for him when he cries and is upset but when we have already spent an hour coddling him I begin to feel like he is just being silly.

Anyway moral of this story is that I definitely do not want him getting used to mommy and daddy spending multiple hours a night lulling him further and further into a deep sleep so I am going to be putting a cap on the coddling after awhile at bedtime.

We'll see - I know sleep patterns always change for babies but I just don't want him getting used to a 2-hour long bedtime routine when he is already tired from the beginning!

4 months!

He was 4 months on Friday!  

We have been focusing on head control because he has hit that plateau for several weeks now and it's time for him to move forward a little bit.  Other than that nothing new has been going on around here - no sleep regressions that people talk about around this time, but he still consistently wakes up after we put him down for bed.  Essentially we put him down for bed twice each night because of this.  Oh well, it takes an hour or two with the whole bedtime routine and waking himself up once thing but then he sleeps really well.

 Yeah he pretty much has no hair.  Or what little he has is like a "Costanza" type bowl cut goin on.

I might get my hair cut today because he keeps ripping it out, I'm losing alot of it anyway, and it is getting scraggly!