Jack is 9 weeks old today! I cannot believe how quickly time has gone since he was born! While I do miss him being a snuggly newborn and being able to easily lift him with one hand... I love the stage he's at now! My friends with kids say that I'll love every stage more than the last, even though that seems unbelievable! So far it has proved true. I loved him as a newborn, but he has so much personality now! I can hardly wait to see how much more active he becomes (and mobile) in the next few months.
Here are a couple pictures from today. I'll probably use the second one for his official 9 weeks picture. He was looking at Daddy for the first picture. We were tag teaming it trying to get a picture of him smiling. We have several pictures and videos of him smiling, but I wanted to try to get them on his weekly pictures as well.
This second one was the end of a smile. We called it good enough. He's getting so much stronger. He can hold his head up and turn it from side to side on his own. He can't sit up yet, even when he's propped up against the boppy, but he's still super young for that.
Today I lay him on the floor while I was getting ready. This week he began to learn to play by himself, which is so nice! I was able to get some serious cleaning done around the house, which is good since my in-laws will be coming for the weekend! I propped up his light up, music mirror with his two favorite stuffed animals and he was content for a good 20 minutes. He also likes to look at his hanging animals which came with his pack n play, but we hook onto his sleeper for now. He love love loves the shovels that hang on the wall above his changing table! When we set him there to change him he looks at the shovels and smiles at them! Such a silly baby!
Milestones: On May 24 he not only smiled at his shovels, but he giggled at them as well! It wasn't a hearty laugh yet, but we could tell it was a laugh. His breathing was faster and his smile was bigger! So adorable. Yes, we did get it on film! This week I also started him in his Bumgenius diapers. His Fuzzi Bunz were getting a little tight around his thighs. Truth be told: he has thunder thighs! He is a very healthy baby, but it seems like all his chunk is going straight to his thighs! They are so adorable, though! So we switched over to some bigger diapers for him. We have a few 4.0's (I could only find the Albert print in 4.0's so I bought some and a couple in other colors) but mostly freetimes. So far I'm loving them! They fit him so well! We haven't had any leaks yet and they don't wear on his skin so much. I have been washing them every two days. Since you're supposed to wash the darks separately I'll wash the darks on one day, wait a day in between, and then the lights the next day. It works out super well. Cloth diapers have been much more convenient than I anticipated. Matt doesn't even mind them. I'm thankful we decided to do this. We bought the diapers when we had a surplus on money so it didn't seem like such a big expense from the get go. I hate to think how much money we would've put into disposables otherwise for Jack and his future siblings! Jack has also begun cooing much more this week. He has been making sounds for awhile now, but he will carry on full conversations for upwards of 10 minutes at a time! He has a plethora of noises he uses such as: ah, oo, agoo, wuh, wah, ma, ga, ha. It's so much fun to watch him try to mimc Matt and my facial expressions when we talk to him. A lot of times he'll mimic sounds we make too.
Routine: We've noticed that Jack tends to be fussy around 4-6 pm. Now that we know that it's easy to avoid potential embarrassment by not leaving the house. When I say he's fussy, I mean Jack just wants to be held... and when he's done being held that way he wants to be held a different way... NOW! So he's not too bad, but could be problematic if we went out to eat or went to church in the evening or something. I have begun giving Jack baths every other day in the evenings. He is such a sweaty baby that he breaks out if he doesn't get a bath that often. He had a nice rash on the top of his head and on his bottom from sweat. When I began giving him regular baths it cleared both up right away. I use normal baby lotion on him in the morning when I get him dressed and the nighttime lavender lotion at night when I put him in his sleeper. It does seem to help him calm down and he zonks right out! He's been sleeping in 3 hour intervals at night, which is so nice. I feel much more refreshed with that extra hour in between feedings!
Jack and I went into the office for a bit to talk about a new position I'll be transferring into when I return. He was so smiley at all the new people! It was so much fun to show him off since he was so happy. His little smile won over everyone he encountered. What a little charmer! I'll be so sad to return to the office, but I keep telling myself that it isn't permanent and I'll be able to be a stay-at-home mom sooner than I'll expect. We're planning on me being finished working when Matt leaves for Basic. Not positive when that will be yet.
I began to use our rocker this week. Not sure why I didn't take advantage of it before! It is so comfy and Jack loves it. He loves looking out the window or at me while I'm rocking him. It sure helps to calm him down to sleep! I haven't put him in his crib yet, but I'm sure it will be nice to be able to rock him and put him in his crib when that time comes.
Since we've been home from vacation I've been exclusively nursing him. We finally got into a good groove with nursing where he can finish a meal in 8-15 minutes and it isn't painful for me. They really should warn new moms that it takes a few weeks for your breast and baby to get used to nursing. I think more people wouldn't give up so quickly if they knew it wasn't bliss to begin with. We gave him a bottle a couple days ago and it took him awhile to get used to it then he spit up practically the entire thing. We'll have to give him more bottles in the next three weeks as I prepare to go back to the office. I'm going to try a new brand of bottle that is supposed to help babies feed with both bottle and breast. I'd like to keep nursing him in the evenings and weekends when I return to work.
Other than that, Jack continues to be our bright little ray of sunshine. One of the highest compliments my husband has given me was that he thinks I have more patience with Jack than the average parent with a baby. If you know me then you know patience is not a strong trait of mine. I seriously don't know if Jack is easier than most, or if it just doesn't feel like work to me. There is nothing more rewarding than holding and caring for my baby boy. That makes his fussy moments seem not so bad.
Tomorrow is his 2 month check up. We'll see how big my little chunk actually is!
