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| Our cute little guy! |
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Our cute little guy!
Thursday, February 23, 2012
11 weeks! And what is Daddy doing??
Happy 11 weeks to my favorite little guy!!
One day this past week, when Ryan was getting fussy (not in full-blown meltdown mode yet), Joe decided to take over and try to soothe him and calm him down. I walked out of the living room to have a break, and I noticed Ryan wasn't crying anymore after a couple of minutes. I walked back into the living room and saw this:
Ryan had been crying and fussing (not really loudly or in full force, but he was well on his way), and I'm not sure what prompted Joe to try this to soothe him, but it worked! Maybe Ryan needed a change of scenery? My attempts at this throughout the week haven't been as effective as Joe's :)
So, over the past week, we've still been trying to get Ryan on some kind of routine/schedule after our pediatrician suggested it. The sleep-eat-play routine has kind of turned into a play-eat-sleep routine and sometimes a sleep-eat-play-eat again routine. We've had a couple of major meltdowns lately because Ryan doesn't like to take naps during the day and he saves all of his fussiness for the evening hours. We've had a couple of successes with taking some really good naps this past week (more failures than successes, but I'm trying to be positive here!), but I think he just has too much fun learning the world around him to sleep. Nevertheless, he's taken some naps, and some as long as two hours. This is progress, my friends. Fingers crossed that we have more good naps and less major evening meltdowns over the next week! The more I can keep him in a consistent routine, the better. On the days that Ryan has taken some decent naps, he hasn't been fussy at all in the evenings (go figure), which means Joe can spend time with a happy baby instead of only trying to soothe him after work.
Ryan is also beginning to learn his voice. We have conversations all day long. He loves making all kinds of gurgling, cooing, ahhing noises, particularly when he sees himself in the mirror or when he gets really excited about something. He really likes to talk in the mornings (we have our morning conversations and he tells me all about his dreams and what he wants to do during the day) and when he's on his playmat. Here's a video of him cooing at himself in the mirror while (somewhat) enjoying tummy time:
Ryan has also discovered his hands. He loves his hands right now. They are always always always in his mouth. Any chance he gets, he shoves them in and starts sucking on them. As soon as I put him down on his belly for tummy time, he immediately begins sucking his hands instead of pulling his head up. I also wake up in the middle of the night to him sucking on his hands. He's not hungry, he just loves his hands. However, this sometimes keeps him up at night because he'd rather suck on his hands than sleep. He also sucks his thumb. It's really cute, but I'm trying not to let him get into that habit. We've been working on his grasping skills a lot this week. He likes to hold onto his rattle and sometimes he'll even shake it. A couple of times, he's batted at some of the objects dangling on his playmat, but he's not very consistent with this. He's also beginning to drool a whole lot and have lots of spit bubbles.
Ryan missed his first snowfall--this past Sunday night, it snowed about an inch. Ryan was asleep for it, and by the time we woke up, there was only a little bit of snow left on the ground. Hopefully we'll get a substantial snowfall at some point this winter so Ryan can go out in it, but with winter beginning to come to a close, I don't think that's going to happen. Oh well, I'd much rather take Ryan out to the park once it's warmer anyway. :) And although we had snow on Sunday night, today we had awesome spring-like weather, so Ryan and I took full advantage of that and went for a long walk. This was probably the first time he's stayed awake for his entire walk, and he cooed and smiled a lot. He definitely likes the outdoors!
And now that I have figured out how to upload pictures myself, there should be more pictures with each update. Yay!
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| Ryan, 11 weeks old! |
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| Ryan, 11 weeks old! |
One day this past week, when Ryan was getting fussy (not in full-blown meltdown mode yet), Joe decided to take over and try to soothe him and calm him down. I walked out of the living room to have a break, and I noticed Ryan wasn't crying anymore after a couple of minutes. I walked back into the living room and saw this:
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| Joe's method of soothing Ryan |
Ryan had been crying and fussing (not really loudly or in full force, but he was well on his way), and I'm not sure what prompted Joe to try this to soothe him, but it worked! Maybe Ryan needed a change of scenery? My attempts at this throughout the week haven't been as effective as Joe's :)
So, over the past week, we've still been trying to get Ryan on some kind of routine/schedule after our pediatrician suggested it. The sleep-eat-play routine has kind of turned into a play-eat-sleep routine and sometimes a sleep-eat-play-eat again routine. We've had a couple of major meltdowns lately because Ryan doesn't like to take naps during the day and he saves all of his fussiness for the evening hours. We've had a couple of successes with taking some really good naps this past week (more failures than successes, but I'm trying to be positive here!), but I think he just has too much fun learning the world around him to sleep. Nevertheless, he's taken some naps, and some as long as two hours. This is progress, my friends. Fingers crossed that we have more good naps and less major evening meltdowns over the next week! The more I can keep him in a consistent routine, the better. On the days that Ryan has taken some decent naps, he hasn't been fussy at all in the evenings (go figure), which means Joe can spend time with a happy baby instead of only trying to soothe him after work.
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| Ryan, gazing at Mr. Monkey during Tummy Time |
Ryan has also discovered his hands. He loves his hands right now. They are always always always in his mouth. Any chance he gets, he shoves them in and starts sucking on them. As soon as I put him down on his belly for tummy time, he immediately begins sucking his hands instead of pulling his head up. I also wake up in the middle of the night to him sucking on his hands. He's not hungry, he just loves his hands. However, this sometimes keeps him up at night because he'd rather suck on his hands than sleep. He also sucks his thumb. It's really cute, but I'm trying not to let him get into that habit. We've been working on his grasping skills a lot this week. He likes to hold onto his rattle and sometimes he'll even shake it. A couple of times, he's batted at some of the objects dangling on his playmat, but he's not very consistent with this. He's also beginning to drool a whole lot and have lots of spit bubbles.
Ryan missed his first snowfall--this past Sunday night, it snowed about an inch. Ryan was asleep for it, and by the time we woke up, there was only a little bit of snow left on the ground. Hopefully we'll get a substantial snowfall at some point this winter so Ryan can go out in it, but with winter beginning to come to a close, I don't think that's going to happen. Oh well, I'd much rather take Ryan out to the park once it's warmer anyway. :) And although we had snow on Sunday night, today we had awesome spring-like weather, so Ryan and I took full advantage of that and went for a long walk. This was probably the first time he's stayed awake for his entire walk, and he cooed and smiled a lot. He definitely likes the outdoors!
And now that I have figured out how to upload pictures myself, there should be more pictures with each update. Yay!
Thursday, February 16, 2012
10 weeks! And a BIG milestone!
Our little boy is 10 weeks old today! Here's a picture of our big boy!
It's not the best picture because it was taken on my phone. Still waiting for many pictures to be uploaded...
So the biggest news from this past week is that Ryan has started rolling over all by himself!! He rolled over one time the day before he turned 2 months old, but then didn't do it again. But now, he's rolling over a lot!! I think it's a strategy to avoid tummy time. He rolled over when Joe was at the gym Monday afternoon and I was so bummed because Joe had missed the only other time Ryan had rolled over as well. So, when Joe got home, we tried it again. Ryan immediately rolled over. We decided to record any additional attempts, so here is one video of our wonderful, extraordinary, strong, and smart Ryan rolling over at 9 and a half weeks old:
I've made sure every day that Ryan can still roll over, and sure enough, he has the skills!
In other tummy time news, Ryan can obviously now hold himself up at a 45 degree angle all by himself for an extended period of time. All of that tummy time that I've forced him to do is paying off! He's beginning to try to reach for things too and if I put an object, like a rattle or something, in front of him, he'll kind of reach out and bat at it. He's also becoming very skilled in grabbing on to objects. It's a great distraction during tummy time, for sure. He's also not as fussy during tummy time--probably because his face isn't smashed into the floor anymore because he can hold his head up now!
So at our 2 month appointment, I told our doctor that Ryan is not fond of napping. He'll take these cat naps periodically throughout the day--10 minutes here, sometimes 20 or 30 if we're lucky--but he doesn't really take a longer nap. The doctor suggested that I try to put Ryan on some kind of schedule or develop some kind of routine for him to encourage napping. Since the doctor's appointment, we've been trying the sleep-eat-play routine, where Ryan will sleep (sometimes), wake up and eat, and then play for a little bit, before I try to force him to take another nap. The first two days, it worked! Ryan woke up in the morning, I fed him, we played for about 2 hours, and then I forced him to take a nap--and he actually slept for about an hour! So we repeated the sequence and sure enough, those first two days went so smoothly! And then on Sunday, he refused to nap. I pulled all the tricks out--putting him in the swing, walking around the house with him, bouncing on the exercise ball, doing wooshies, etc. and nothing worked. He refused to nap. He still went to sleep at a relatively normal time though and slept decently well overnight. And then on Monday, he again refused to sleep, so during his hour of "sleep" time, he just spent that time swinging back and forth in the swing. The I'm-not-going-to-take-a-nap attitude caught up with him Monday evening. He had a serious serious meltdown. He screamed and cried while Joe tried many many tricks to try to soothe him (I was at the gym during most of this meltdown). Ryan did enjoy having some naked time (as I imagine many boys do), but got really upset after awhile. Eventually after I got home and after many many more attempts, he finally fell asleep, but it took a LOT of effort (and time!) to get him to doze off! So, all in all, I'm not sure if this sleep-eat-play schedule is really working out. I've read online that you shouldn't always nurse a baby to sleep because then they become reliant on nursing in order to fall asleep--and this definitely makes a lot of sense--but that's (of course) the easiest way to get Ryan to sleep. So, we'll keep trying our routine to see how it works. We can't give up after only a few bad days. Things seemed to be somewhat back on schedule (and I say that loosely) on Tuesday. Wednesday he had another meltdown, but not as badly as Monday. And then Wednesday night, he slept "backwards"--he had a 3 hr chunk followed by a 4 hr chunk--very rare for him! Either way, we're still trying out this whole concept of a "routine". Today we're trying napping in the cosleeper. It's all trial and error at this point.
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| Ryan, 10 weeks old |
So the biggest news from this past week is that Ryan has started rolling over all by himself!! He rolled over one time the day before he turned 2 months old, but then didn't do it again. But now, he's rolling over a lot!! I think it's a strategy to avoid tummy time. He rolled over when Joe was at the gym Monday afternoon and I was so bummed because Joe had missed the only other time Ryan had rolled over as well. So, when Joe got home, we tried it again. Ryan immediately rolled over. We decided to record any additional attempts, so here is one video of our wonderful, extraordinary, strong, and smart Ryan rolling over at 9 and a half weeks old:
I've made sure every day that Ryan can still roll over, and sure enough, he has the skills!
In other tummy time news, Ryan can obviously now hold himself up at a 45 degree angle all by himself for an extended period of time. All of that tummy time that I've forced him to do is paying off! He's beginning to try to reach for things too and if I put an object, like a rattle or something, in front of him, he'll kind of reach out and bat at it. He's also becoming very skilled in grabbing on to objects. It's a great distraction during tummy time, for sure. He's also not as fussy during tummy time--probably because his face isn't smashed into the floor anymore because he can hold his head up now!
So at our 2 month appointment, I told our doctor that Ryan is not fond of napping. He'll take these cat naps periodically throughout the day--10 minutes here, sometimes 20 or 30 if we're lucky--but he doesn't really take a longer nap. The doctor suggested that I try to put Ryan on some kind of schedule or develop some kind of routine for him to encourage napping. Since the doctor's appointment, we've been trying the sleep-eat-play routine, where Ryan will sleep (sometimes), wake up and eat, and then play for a little bit, before I try to force him to take another nap. The first two days, it worked! Ryan woke up in the morning, I fed him, we played for about 2 hours, and then I forced him to take a nap--and he actually slept for about an hour! So we repeated the sequence and sure enough, those first two days went so smoothly! And then on Sunday, he refused to nap. I pulled all the tricks out--putting him in the swing, walking around the house with him, bouncing on the exercise ball, doing wooshies, etc. and nothing worked. He refused to nap. He still went to sleep at a relatively normal time though and slept decently well overnight. And then on Monday, he again refused to sleep, so during his hour of "sleep" time, he just spent that time swinging back and forth in the swing. The I'm-not-going-to-take-a-nap attitude caught up with him Monday evening. He had a serious serious meltdown. He screamed and cried while Joe tried many many tricks to try to soothe him (I was at the gym during most of this meltdown). Ryan did enjoy having some naked time (as I imagine many boys do), but got really upset after awhile. Eventually after I got home and after many many more attempts, he finally fell asleep, but it took a LOT of effort (and time!) to get him to doze off! So, all in all, I'm not sure if this sleep-eat-play schedule is really working out. I've read online that you shouldn't always nurse a baby to sleep because then they become reliant on nursing in order to fall asleep--and this definitely makes a lot of sense--but that's (of course) the easiest way to get Ryan to sleep. So, we'll keep trying our routine to see how it works. We can't give up after only a few bad days. Things seemed to be somewhat back on schedule (and I say that loosely) on Tuesday. Wednesday he had another meltdown, but not as badly as Monday. And then Wednesday night, he slept "backwards"--he had a 3 hr chunk followed by a 4 hr chunk--very rare for him! Either way, we're still trying out this whole concept of a "routine". Today we're trying napping in the cosleeper. It's all trial and error at this point.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Two Months! Two Months!
Ryan turned two months old yesterday! And he turned 9 weeks old today! He went to the doctor this morning for his 2 month wellness appointment, so while we were excited to find out how much he's grown, Ryan was not excited about getting his first round of shots. Poor guy! Anyway, here's his update:
--He weighs 12 lbs 2 oz. He is a MONSTER! I was estimating that he was probably about 11lbs, give or take some. I wasn't expecting to be off by a full pound! It's clear he doesn't miss many meals.
--He is 22.2 inches long now. Joe thinks that the nurse possibly measured him incorrectly, due to our very accurate and precise measurement awhile ago. I suppose we'll see how much he's grown at his 4 month appointment and then decide if the nurse measured incorrectly.
--His head circumference is 39.8cm. He has a nice sized head, nice and round.
So overall, he is short, fat, with a normal sized head. Sounds good to me! But we're still questioning the length. He doesn't seem like he's only the 25th percentile for height! He seems like a big baby to me! Nevertheless, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he didn't get my height genes.
So after the doctor checked Ryan out, looked in his ears, felt his belly, answered my gazillion questions, etc, the nurse came in. With a tray full of syringes. And band-aids. And then Ryan was prepped for his vaccines and had his thighs wiped down with alcohol. The first vaccine was an oral dose of something. Ryan didn't like that one at all. It was a huge oral dose of something that apparently tasted like garbage, because Ryan spit a lot of it out. Hopefully he didn't spit so much out that it was a waste of a vaccine. And then, the nurse gave him his three shots. Yes, three. And Ryan cried...and then SCREAMED....and then he was ok :) I was fully prepared to start nursing him immediately afterward, but by the time Joe picked him up, and rocked him back and forth like twice, Ryan wasn't crying anymore. He took them like a champ! The nurse left the room and Joe and I debated whether or not I should nurse him for comfort, but then ultimately decided to come on home, because Ryan was fine! No fussiness yet! No comforting needing! He slept most of the way home from the doctor and is now enjoying a nice long nap (which is RARE for him).
In other news/updates, Ryan rolled over all by himself on Tuesday! We were in the middle of doing tummy time, and we practiced how to roll over once. And then he did it all by himself! It was awesome! My guess it was probably because he hated being on his tummy for tummy time, but this just means he's very determined and stubborn, right? Apparently once was enough because he hasn't done it since, either. There's that stubbornness again.
All in all, it's been a pretty eventful week! I am also never again going to talk about how wonderful Ryan has been doing with sleeping at night, because it seems that every time I do, then he resorts back to his old newborn I'm-only-going-to-sleep-for-2-hours-and-be-really-fussy-in-the-middle-of-the-night-so-nobody-else-can-sleep ways for awhile. That's where we are now. Again.
I'll upload pictures soon (yeah, yeah, I know, I know).
--He weighs 12 lbs 2 oz. He is a MONSTER! I was estimating that he was probably about 11lbs, give or take some. I wasn't expecting to be off by a full pound! It's clear he doesn't miss many meals.
--He is 22.2 inches long now. Joe thinks that the nurse possibly measured him incorrectly, due to our very accurate and precise measurement awhile ago. I suppose we'll see how much he's grown at his 4 month appointment and then decide if the nurse measured incorrectly.
--His head circumference is 39.8cm. He has a nice sized head, nice and round.
So overall, he is short, fat, with a normal sized head. Sounds good to me! But we're still questioning the length. He doesn't seem like he's only the 25th percentile for height! He seems like a big baby to me! Nevertheless, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he didn't get my height genes.
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| Ryan before his shots. See how concerned he looks? |
In other news/updates, Ryan rolled over all by himself on Tuesday! We were in the middle of doing tummy time, and we practiced how to roll over once. And then he did it all by himself! It was awesome! My guess it was probably because he hated being on his tummy for tummy time, but this just means he's very determined and stubborn, right? Apparently once was enough because he hasn't done it since, either. There's that stubbornness again.
All in all, it's been a pretty eventful week! I am also never again going to talk about how wonderful Ryan has been doing with sleeping at night, because it seems that every time I do, then he resorts back to his old newborn I'm-only-going-to-sleep-for-2-hours-and-be-really-fussy-in-the-middle-of-the-night-so-nobody-else-can-sleep ways for awhile. That's where we are now. Again.
I'll upload pictures soon (yeah, yeah, I know, I know).
Sunday, February 5, 2012
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 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:
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!
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.
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.
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| 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:
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| 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!
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| Ryan at the start of Tummy Time on the Boppy. |
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| 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.
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| Ryan's first real bath! He really did enjoy it! |
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| After Ryan's first bath |
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| Ryan looking super cute in his duck towel |
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| Ryan at about 3 weeks |
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| As you can see, it's clearly bedtime! |
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| A great picture of Levi and Ryan |
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| After another bath. This is one of my favorite pictures of Ryan. |
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| Getting ready for bed after bathtime |
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| Joe spending some quality time with Ryan |
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Still slack! But there's been lots of PROGRESS!
I suppose the delay in posting or uploading anything is a true indication as to how much free time you have with a newborn. Ryan is technically only a newborn for ONE MORE WEEK (he really is growing up so quickly!) as he is 7 weeks old today. It's crazy how much bigger he is. Joe and I did some very unofficial (and therefore probably inaccurate) measuring, and we think he's about 23-23.5 inches long now. I'm estimating he's well over 10 pounds, too! He's also well into his 3 month clothing. He's getting so big!
So, here's what's happened since my last post:
Ryan likes to get himself on a schedule and then mess it up a couple of days into it, just when I think "hey, I think he's beginning to get on a schedule!". One of our wonderful wonderful neighbors told us that at 6 weeks, something clicks and things get easier. This was mostly true. Ryan began sleeping between 4-5 hours at night, wake up for a feeding/diaper change, go back to sleep for another 2-3 hours, wake up, get changed/fed, go back to sleep for another 2 hours, etc. This happened right around when he turned 6 weeks old. And he did this for a couple of days in a row. I was so happy! I was so relieved! Finally, a schedule I can work with that doesn't make me feel horrible and crazy from interrupted sleep! Then, he decided to mix it up on me. A couple of nights ago, he had a HORRIBLE night. HORRIBLE. He slept for about 4 hours (woo hoo!), and then...didn't sleep after that. Sometimes when he's sleeping after I JUST put him down, he begins to fuss and grunt and make all kinds of noises. I've tried to figure out what's causing it, because he sounds like he's generally uncomfortable. He doesn't need to be burped (at least, I don't think--the whole burping thing is a different ordeal all together) or changed or fed. And his eyes are shut when he's making all of these noises, so I think he's still asleep. He doesn't cry for the most part, just makes a lot of noise. Anyway, it keeps me up because I think at any minute, he's going to begin wailing. He ONLY does this after I've fed him and put him back down for another nice chunk of sleep. If I pick him back up, no more grunting/fussing. If I lay him on his side on my boppy in front of me, no more grunting/fussing. If I even lay him on my chest, he'll quiet down. He doesn't want to be in the swing, the Rock 'N Play, or in the co-sleeper. He's already manipulating me! ANYWAY, for a couple of nights, we were in a great routine, and then he had a horrible horrible night...and then the next night, he did really well again...followed by another horrible horrible night. Last night was mostly a good night. It seems he only has a pattern of being inconsistent. Overall, compared to where he was a couple of weeks ago, I suppose he's still doing well, even on his bad nights. He's also inconsistent with his sleep during the day--sometimes he naps, sometimes he doesn't, and even when he doesn't nap, that doesn't mean he has a good restful night that night either. As someone who thrives on schedules and structure, this doesn't work well for me. So, he's consistently inconsistent. But, we've gone from only having 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep, to between 3 and 4 hours, and now to between 4 and 5 hours. We've also progressed from sleeping with the bathroom light on and door open and a nightlight and a bedside lamp on to only having the nightlight on. For some reason, Ryan HATED the dark (we discovered that within the first week he was home), which is rather odd, because isn't it dark in the womb? Shouldn't he be used to the dark? Anyway, we've slowly started deleting light sources and now we're down to just the nightlight. It makes it a little difficult to change his diaper at night though. But still, it's PROGRESS!
Ryan is also a champ with head control, making eye contact, and he's started becoming VERY smiley, particularly in the mornings. Seems kind of odd because even when he doesn't get a lot of sleep the night before, he's still pretty smiley in the mornings. I'll upload a picture of his awesome smile soon.
Ryan's still a very popular baby and has lots of visitors. Ryan's Oma comes over a lot with Levi during the day; Ryan's Nana and Dede came to visit one night last weekend; my friends Bonnie and Jenni (we all had babies within 4 months of each other) came to visit another day; Tia Karen came over last Sunday and spent the morning with us. Lots of visitors! Ryan and I ventured out of the house to go to two baby showers and to go to dinner at Uncle Paul & Aunt Jan's house twice. We've also remembered the diaper bag EVERY TIME! Again, PROGRESS! We also took two (very short) trips to Target and one trip to Trader Joe's. We're getting out of the house for short spurts of time and it's doing wonders to my mindset. It's almost like we're beginning to have a life again!
Overall, things have been going well these past two weeks. I can't believe Ryan is already 7 weeks old. Pictures WILL COME SOON!
So, here's what's happened since my last post:
Ryan likes to get himself on a schedule and then mess it up a couple of days into it, just when I think "hey, I think he's beginning to get on a schedule!". One of our wonderful wonderful neighbors told us that at 6 weeks, something clicks and things get easier. This was mostly true. Ryan began sleeping between 4-5 hours at night, wake up for a feeding/diaper change, go back to sleep for another 2-3 hours, wake up, get changed/fed, go back to sleep for another 2 hours, etc. This happened right around when he turned 6 weeks old. And he did this for a couple of days in a row. I was so happy! I was so relieved! Finally, a schedule I can work with that doesn't make me feel horrible and crazy from interrupted sleep! Then, he decided to mix it up on me. A couple of nights ago, he had a HORRIBLE night. HORRIBLE. He slept for about 4 hours (woo hoo!), and then...didn't sleep after that. Sometimes when he's sleeping after I JUST put him down, he begins to fuss and grunt and make all kinds of noises. I've tried to figure out what's causing it, because he sounds like he's generally uncomfortable. He doesn't need to be burped (at least, I don't think--the whole burping thing is a different ordeal all together) or changed or fed. And his eyes are shut when he's making all of these noises, so I think he's still asleep. He doesn't cry for the most part, just makes a lot of noise. Anyway, it keeps me up because I think at any minute, he's going to begin wailing. He ONLY does this after I've fed him and put him back down for another nice chunk of sleep. If I pick him back up, no more grunting/fussing. If I lay him on his side on my boppy in front of me, no more grunting/fussing. If I even lay him on my chest, he'll quiet down. He doesn't want to be in the swing, the Rock 'N Play, or in the co-sleeper. He's already manipulating me! ANYWAY, for a couple of nights, we were in a great routine, and then he had a horrible horrible night...and then the next night, he did really well again...followed by another horrible horrible night. Last night was mostly a good night. It seems he only has a pattern of being inconsistent. Overall, compared to where he was a couple of weeks ago, I suppose he's still doing well, even on his bad nights. He's also inconsistent with his sleep during the day--sometimes he naps, sometimes he doesn't, and even when he doesn't nap, that doesn't mean he has a good restful night that night either. As someone who thrives on schedules and structure, this doesn't work well for me. So, he's consistently inconsistent. But, we've gone from only having 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep, to between 3 and 4 hours, and now to between 4 and 5 hours. We've also progressed from sleeping with the bathroom light on and door open and a nightlight and a bedside lamp on to only having the nightlight on. For some reason, Ryan HATED the dark (we discovered that within the first week he was home), which is rather odd, because isn't it dark in the womb? Shouldn't he be used to the dark? Anyway, we've slowly started deleting light sources and now we're down to just the nightlight. It makes it a little difficult to change his diaper at night though. But still, it's PROGRESS!
Ryan is also a champ with head control, making eye contact, and he's started becoming VERY smiley, particularly in the mornings. Seems kind of odd because even when he doesn't get a lot of sleep the night before, he's still pretty smiley in the mornings. I'll upload a picture of his awesome smile soon.
Ryan's still a very popular baby and has lots of visitors. Ryan's Oma comes over a lot with Levi during the day; Ryan's Nana and Dede came to visit one night last weekend; my friends Bonnie and Jenni (we all had babies within 4 months of each other) came to visit another day; Tia Karen came over last Sunday and spent the morning with us. Lots of visitors! Ryan and I ventured out of the house to go to two baby showers and to go to dinner at Uncle Paul & Aunt Jan's house twice. We've also remembered the diaper bag EVERY TIME! Again, PROGRESS! We also took two (very short) trips to Target and one trip to Trader Joe's. We're getting out of the house for short spurts of time and it's doing wonders to my mindset. It's almost like we're beginning to have a life again!
Overall, things have been going well these past two weeks. I can't believe Ryan is already 7 weeks old. Pictures WILL COME SOON!
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Mommy and Daddy are slack!
I know, I know, it's been a couple of weeks since my last post. Here's what's been going on the past two weeks:
First, Joe and I both feel like the holidays definitely flew by this year! Although we got our Christmas tree and decorations up early this year as compared to when we usually do, it didn't really feel like a real Christmas and we weren't able to savor the holidays. We're guessing it's because we were so overwhelmed with Ryan's arrival and the newness of having a child and adjusting to parenthood. Next year, things will definitely be different :)
Ryan lost his umbilical cord stump on Wednesday, December 28th. I was changing his diaper in the wee hours of the morning and his stump was just hanging out on his chest. I kind of freaked out because I was worried that he had somehow pulled it off himself, but the doctor told us at Ryan's 3 week appointment that apparently, that's not possible. HE'S ALREADY GROWING UP SO QUICKLY! He's also beginning to lose his birth hair and has a nice receding hairline.
Ryan had his 3 week doctor's appointment on Thursday, December 29th. He was already up a pound since his birth weight and had grown an inch. He was 30th percentile in both weight and length but 60th percentile in head circumference. He's going to be a lollipop for awhile :)
We gave Ryan his first "real" bath on Monday, January 2nd. The doctor had told us to wait a couple of days to make sure his belly button has really healed up. We took some really cute pictures of his bath, which he REALLY enjoyed (seriously! I promise!), but I'm still waiting for Joe to upload some pictures from the camera. See, I'm not the only slack one!
And now...we've transitioned Ryan to cloth diapers. Yes, we are those people. So far, so good though! It's more work than disposables, I'm not going to pretend like it's not. After being in disposable diapers for 3 weeks or so, I definitely see the full appeal of disposable diapers. But since switching to cloth diapers, Ryan hasn't had nearly as much diaper rash/ or red butt or anything like that. So, I suppose it's worth it :)
Ryan turned ONE MONTH OLD on Sunday, January 8th. For his birthday, we gave him a bath to celebrate. We even did some kangaroo time afterwards. He decided to celebrate by pooping allllllll over me and his clean towel. So, we continued the celebration by going in for a round two bath.
He's beginning to make lots of eye contact and will hold your gaze for a couple of seconds. He can already turn his head from side to side and can hold it up pretty well on his own. We have tried to get into the routine of giving him tummy time at night before bed (in hopes to wear him out a little more), but he HATES it! He'll cry and wail and wimper and fuss throughout the entire tummy time, but it's working! He seems to have pretty good head and neck control already!
Ryan is beginning to get into a sleeping routine (I think? I hope?). For the past few nights, he'll sleep for about 3-4 hours for the first session, and then wake up in about 2 hours increments after that to feed. I know that might not sound like a lot, but this, my friends, is progress.
I'll upload pictures soon!
First, Joe and I both feel like the holidays definitely flew by this year! Although we got our Christmas tree and decorations up early this year as compared to when we usually do, it didn't really feel like a real Christmas and we weren't able to savor the holidays. We're guessing it's because we were so overwhelmed with Ryan's arrival and the newness of having a child and adjusting to parenthood. Next year, things will definitely be different :)
Ryan lost his umbilical cord stump on Wednesday, December 28th. I was changing his diaper in the wee hours of the morning and his stump was just hanging out on his chest. I kind of freaked out because I was worried that he had somehow pulled it off himself, but the doctor told us at Ryan's 3 week appointment that apparently, that's not possible. HE'S ALREADY GROWING UP SO QUICKLY! He's also beginning to lose his birth hair and has a nice receding hairline.
Ryan had his 3 week doctor's appointment on Thursday, December 29th. He was already up a pound since his birth weight and had grown an inch. He was 30th percentile in both weight and length but 60th percentile in head circumference. He's going to be a lollipop for awhile :)
We gave Ryan his first "real" bath on Monday, January 2nd. The doctor had told us to wait a couple of days to make sure his belly button has really healed up. We took some really cute pictures of his bath, which he REALLY enjoyed (seriously! I promise!), but I'm still waiting for Joe to upload some pictures from the camera. See, I'm not the only slack one!
And now...we've transitioned Ryan to cloth diapers. Yes, we are those people. So far, so good though! It's more work than disposables, I'm not going to pretend like it's not. After being in disposable diapers for 3 weeks or so, I definitely see the full appeal of disposable diapers. But since switching to cloth diapers, Ryan hasn't had nearly as much diaper rash/ or red butt or anything like that. So, I suppose it's worth it :)
Ryan turned ONE MONTH OLD on Sunday, January 8th. For his birthday, we gave him a bath to celebrate. We even did some kangaroo time afterwards. He decided to celebrate by pooping allllllll over me and his clean towel. So, we continued the celebration by going in for a round two bath.
He's beginning to make lots of eye contact and will hold your gaze for a couple of seconds. He can already turn his head from side to side and can hold it up pretty well on his own. We have tried to get into the routine of giving him tummy time at night before bed (in hopes to wear him out a little more), but he HATES it! He'll cry and wail and wimper and fuss throughout the entire tummy time, but it's working! He seems to have pretty good head and neck control already!
Ryan is beginning to get into a sleeping routine (I think? I hope?). For the past few nights, he'll sleep for about 3-4 hours for the first session, and then wake up in about 2 hours increments after that to feed. I know that might not sound like a lot, but this, my friends, is progress.
I'll upload pictures soon!
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