Life with Ryan: 8 weeks!

It's been a week and a half since the last post, so I figured it's time for another update. This time, WITH PICTURES.

Ryan at 2 and a half weeks old! He's so little here!

Ryan is now 8 weeks old (as of this past Thursday). EIGHT WEEKS. It's amazing how different he is from when he was born (obviously), but it's so cool to see how much he has grown, how much he has accomplished, and all of his new things he's learned in such a short amount of time. I can't believe he's been here for eight weeks--it's definitely been the longest and shortest eight weeks of my life. Very contradictory, I know, but it's so true. I hope anyone with a new baby can attest to that thought and that I'm not the only one who feels this way.

So here are some of the wonderful things that have happened since my last post:

Ryan, asleep at night. He's 1 month old in this picture.

1. I suppose the biggest update is, of course, his sleeping habits because that's what he does the most. Ryan is not a daytime napper. I don't know what happened there. I love to nap. I napped whenever I could when I was pregnant with him. He doesn't seem to get that he can go to sleep for hours during the day, and it's ok! He likes to take small 15 minute naps, right after feedings. Or he'll fall asleep in the carseat after going somewhere. And just when I think "ok, he's definitely out, I'm going to put him in the bassinet/swing/whereever", he wakes up as soon as I move him. So I guess to let him nap, he has to just lay on the Boppy for about an hour with me? Or I just keep driving around (because as soon as I pull into the garage, he wakes up)? Anyway, one day last week, I put Ryan to bed, and I went to sleep. When I woke up five hours later and realized that he hadn't woken me up, I thought "ok, he's going to wake up any minute and want to eat". And I waited....and waited....and waited....for two more hours. And the more time went by, the more panicky I got--why is he still asleep? Why hasn't he woken up? Is he ok? Is he still breathing? Anyway, Ryan ended up sleeping for SEVEN HOURS STRAIGHT. It would have been WONDERFUL to have slept for those seven hours with him. It's so funny to think that when he's not sleeping in big chunks, I plead for him to go back to sleep, just for another 30 minutes. Then when he finally does sleep, I panic and think that something's wrong. Of course, he hasn't slept that long since that one glorious night (even though I pleaded and prayed for a repeat). He has started sleeping about 5-6 hours (closer to 5 though) for his first chunk, but is then up every 1.5-3 hours after that. Hooray for the length of the longer chunk of sleep!

Ryan at the start of Tummy Time on the Boppy.

2. Ryan still really really hates tummy time. See the pictures for evidence of this sentiment. But he has so much control over his head now! He can look all around, side to side, and I don't have to support his head so much when I pick him up now. He's getting so strong! We read online that tummy time also includes the time spent with Ryan when he is lying on our chests. He definitely prefers this method of tummy time to the Boppy on the floor option.

Ryan after about two minutes of Tummy Time. See how happy he is??

3. He also has started to smile allllllll the time. He's such a happy baby, especially in the mornings. He really likes to give lots of morning smiles (it's also usually correlated with his pooping schedule, which he is a pro at doing). When he wakes up in the morning, he starts cooing and moving his arms and legs and just starts smiling smiling smiling. It's awesome! It's definitely a wonderful way to start my day after lots of broken sleep. It's the best.

4. Ryan loves being outside. We take an afternoon walk almost every day, and he loves to look around at the trees. He usually doesn't like it when the sunlight laser-beams down into his face, but other than that, he's very content with being outside. Luckily we've had really great weather lately, so it makes the walk a lot more enjoyable.

So, as promised, here are some pictures to tide you over until I can find the time to post again. I know I've been needing to upload these for a long long time. I also know they are not arranged in a lovely neat manner, but I'm still learning how to use blogspot. Bear with me.