Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Sleep is Still Crazy

Ace weighed in at 14lbs, is 24.5" long and has a head circumference of 17.5" I think that means he has a huge head and below average everything else.
His sleep only got crazier over the past week but today he went down drowsy but awake and slept for a good nap twice. I was amazed because this baby has been seriously crazy when it comes to sleeping lately. Screaming, fighting, twisting his whole body around. Yikes.
The doctor said everything was normal and suggested that we might start some sleep training in the next month or two. I think we are going to wait until we come back from our trip to the inlaws and then move Ace into his own room.
I pray that today means he is past this regression. Supposedly another one comes in two weeks or something like that. Yay.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Four Months

With four months comes something called the four month sleep regression. I read about it on AskMoxie.org, which is an excellent site for parents, in my opinion. I had heard that at four months babies' sleep gets a little crazy and that is definitely what is happening. I don't know if we are putting him down too early or if he is just developing so much that he can't sleep, but he is no longer a baby who wakes only to eat. He wakes up to eat, scream, fuss, smile at me, all of that. And then it takes a while to put him back to sleep. We are going to the doctor tomorrow, so I have a bunch of questions for her. Including, is it ok that Ace still wakes up to eat? I pretty much know that the answer to this is yes, babies sometimes don't sleep through the night until six months, but I have a book that says if your baby isn't sleeping through the night at four months you have a problem, and you caused it.
Four months has also brought rolling over. Ace rolls from his stomach to his back and seems to know when we want him to do it. He rolls over and lands with a smile on his face. Sometimes he gets too tired, however and whines between every attempt, but if he catches our eye, he will smile and try again. Such a sweet little guy (when he's not keeping me awake at 4 am). He rolls to his side from his back, bringing in his knees, but he has not flipped over yet.
Another new skill is grabbing. At first he was just grabbing for things held up for him, but now he focuses in on something that he wants and then starts going for it. The first time I noticed this he was in the sink taking a bath and I turned on the faucet. He stared at the water and then slowly reached his hand out to it, eventually putting his hand into the running water.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Little Charmer

I have fell so much more in love with Ace lately. In the past couple of weeks he has really found his voice and has started laughing at random things. I could listen to his breathy little moaning sounds all day. He makes them when he sees something he likes and just makes them repeatedly for a little while. It is the cutest thing I have ever heard.
He is also into playing peekaboo, but with rules. I have to be popping out from behind a stationery object, no moving a blanket over and then away from my face. He doesn't get that.
He is also becoming a great grabber and can manipulate objects with his hands. I can't wait until he can pick up his pacifier and stick it back into his own mouth.
He is just darling. I just wish that he would stop hating the car seat so much. I don't think it's very safe for me to be driving with my arm back and my hand fishing for the pacifier so I can stick it in his mouth while he screams. I've done this in the fast lane of the 10. Bad mommy.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

3 month update

I can't believe Ace is three months. He is actually two weeks away from being 4 months, but I'm a bit behind. In three months, he has gone from being a baby that did nothing but eat, poop and sleep, to a person who smiles, makes amazing, joyous sounds, almost laughs, can hold his head up and reach for things and grab them. It is truly amazing how fast babies develop. Stages go by in a flash.
In these first three months, Ace gave us a run for our money by not gaining weight initially and by refusing to sleep unless a person was touching him or he was in his swing. After much worry about his weight gain and tons of pumping and even formula supplementing, Ace is now gaining weight slowly but surely and is a very healthy looking little guy, finally developing chunky baby thighs. As for the sleeping, I still hate hearing about three month olds - or any young babies, for that matter - who sleep through the night. My three month old still wakes up every two to three hours to eat during the night. He occasionally sleeps four to five hour stretches, but that's usually if he is in bed with us. He has developed the ability to sleep on his own in the bassinet next to our bed, but that is how he sleeps the worst. There was so much anxiety on my part about how he was sleeping and that I was creating a cosleeping nightmare, but I have since decided not to care. As long as I am getting some sleep, I am sure the baby will learn to sleep by himself eventually.
Ace's favorite thing to do recently is lie under a tree and watch the leaves moving. He loves his mobiles in the home and trees are just large scale mobiles, really. The leaves, the birds flying overhead and even the wind blowing over him, tickle him to no end and he happily lies back, taking it all in and moving his little body around with excitement.
His least favorite thing is riding in the car. He screams for a while and then either falls asleep or just looks out the window. It breaks my heart to hear him scream while I'm driving, but I have to admit that I don't pull over. I am hoping that he just gets over it - very soon!
His favorite toys at this point are little stuffed animals with wooden parts and parts that are filled with that crinkly material that makes that sound that babies love. He can now grab for them and put them in his mouth. Everything is going into his very, very drooly mouth.
Ace flew on an airplane and went into a pool for the first time in this, his third month. The plane travel went very well. He wasn't too sure about the pool, but it produced his first sustained laughing when a friend kept popping up from under the water in front of him. B was crying, he was so enthralled by the sound of Ace laughing.
Ace can hold his head up now and loves looking around a room. He is able to entertain himself a bit more these days and does not always need to be held, as long as he can see me or the other people in the room. It makes it easier to get things done, but I find that I still don't get much done.
I have started thinking about going back to work, but am not sure what job will be available for me with this stinking economy. I don't want to leave Ace yet, even though my mother would be the one watching him. I want to be with him for at least a year, maybe two. I need to find some sort of ideal part time gig that pays tons!