10 Weeks

We've made it 10 weeks!!!

First real smile I got a picture of even though it is blurry

(first smile was on Christmas day)

Practicing sitting up - falling to the right

Practicing sitting up - falling to the left

Practicing sitting up - falling to the back

Practicing sitting up - falling to the front

"Are you going to help me back up???"

Finally getting the hang of it!

Relaxing after all that hard work :)

Playing at his cousins' grandparents' house because Mommy lost one

set of keys and locked the other set in the van...little bit of a rough morning.

Today was a day of rest for Mommy and Caleb. We have let him eat and sleep when he wanted, which resulted in way less sleep than he needed at about 8-10 hours in a 24 hour period. So we decided to try out a schedule and see if we couldn't get him to sleep a little more. He did pretty good for a couple of days and slept great at night. Last night was not much fun with only 3.5 hours of sleep. So we both slept much of the day today. We went ahead with the bedtime routine and put him to sleep at 8:30 even though he slept most of the day. He is asleep and hopefully will get some good rest tonight.

Since we've been trying out this routine, Caleb gets a bath at night. He cries through the whole bath until it is time to wash his hair. The boy loves to have his hair washed! He comes by it honest though; I pay the money for a salon haircut so that I can enjoy the wash too.

He has been practicing sitting up since he hates to just lay down. In just a week, he has improved a lot and can now sit in the bumbo seat without falling over. We found out this week at the mentoring program that he really enjoys watching people play basketball. As in, he would get a sad look on his face if I turned him around to where he couldn't see but would smile when I turned him back around to see them. His eating schedule has been pretty consistent at 6 times during the day and 1 time at night. I finally don't feel like all I do is feed him anymore. 3 out of 5 nights this week he has slept in his crib which is in his room now. I am sleeping in the bed upstairs to still be somewhat close for those nights he still has trouble sleeping on his own but I'm sure it won't be much longer I'll back downstairs in my bed.

Finally some pictures!

Not quite 7 weeks old yet but already enjoying the jumperoo.
Only about 5 more inches of leg length needed to get rid of the box underneath.

7 weeks old and all dressed up!

8 weeks old and still loving the car seat :)

8 weeks old, sucking on his fist while sleeping on his stomach



MORE PICS TO COME...

2 Months

Some days it feels like Caleb was just born and some days it feels like these past 2 months have lasted forever. I guess it just depends on how much sleep we get on any given night (or day).

We are still making progress in the whole going to sleep and staying asleep thing. Two nights ago, we were able to get him in the crib asleep by 12:30AM which is way better than the 2AM schedule. Then he woke up at 2Am to eat but then slept until 7:15AM. Then last night, he was in the crib asleep by 11PM. He woke up at 5AM this morning, which is why I am awake right now. But he went back to sleep with the wubbanub instead of eating.

Even with getting him to bed earlier, he still likes to have that feeding between 7AM and 9AM sometime and go back to sleep. This doesn't bother me a bit as long as he sleeping at night, especially considering I always want to go back to sleep at that time too! Now that we are officially finished with the growth spurt that seemed to last FOREVER, he is consistently eating about every 3 hours for a total of 6 times during the day with a 7th time sometime during or at the beginning of the night. The doctor said he should be nursing 10-15 minutes per side at each feeding. Not going to happen! He will go anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes on one side and that is it.

2 month stats are in: 10 lbs 10.5 oz and 23 1/4 inches. This took him from the 25% in weight at 3 weeks to the 50% at 2 months and from the 50% in height at 3 weeks to the 75% at 2 months. I guess I don't have to worry about whether he is getting enough to eat even though he isn't nursing near as long as the doctor recommended. He just isn't chunky at all, except for his double chin :)

Still have pictures to post one day...

Sleeping Like a Baby

For several reasons such as traveling and hospital visits, we never established sleeping in the crib as part of the routine for Caleb. 95% of the time he slept with someone either in the bed or the recliner. However, now we are working hard to get him sleeping in the crib so that as he is developing his sleeping habits he isn't dependent on us to fall asleep. Also, working on the whole staying awake during the day and sleeping at night thing (he prefers to sleep 4AM to noon.)

Last night we tackled both of these. After ruling out him being fussy because he was hungry, I finally got him to settle down enough to close his eyes. I put him in the crib at 1AM and he was able to fall asleep...for 20 minutes! At 1:20 I had to pick him up and settle him down but I was able to put him back down after only a few minutes. Then he slept until 2AM, which at that time I had to settle him back down. Next came 3AM, so he slept almost an hour that time. I decided he might be hungry so I fed him, and of course, he fell asleep nursing. So I laid him down immediately and he slept until I woke him up at 8AM to eat.

Now he is taking a nap in the crib and I only had to pick him up once to settle him down. The second time he was able to calm down while staying in the crib. Maybe we are making progress!

I do have pictures to post, but I've got to figure out how to get them on here.

Number 1

Reasons for this blog:
1) Grandparents, other family members, and friends that are interested in watching the current little one and future little ones grow up but aren't able to be here.
2) I'm sure not everyone on facebook is interested in how many times a day the baby eats or whether or not he is sleeping at night, but at some point I know I will want to look back and read about it.
3) Because this is what parents do

With that being said, this first post is at 3AM while the 7 weeker is still wide awake. He is on my sleep schedule so I can't get too frustrated with him. We like to stay up late and sleep late. Unfortunately sometimes mommy has to get up early and the 7 weeker doesn't understand going to bed earlier the night before such mornings. Oh well, we will have to address that at some point.

Today Caleb enjoyed jumping in the jumperoo for a whole 8-10 minutes, but those were the best 8-10 minutes of the day! He is technically still too small for this kind of adventure but he has good head control and likes to stand and jump while being held. So I figured it was worth a try. He loved it and was all smiles, but when he was tired of jumping he let me know.

He has also been rolling over from tummy to back for the past week and a half. I've never known a six week old to roll over until now. Now at almost 8 weeks, he is a pro at it. Everything I've read says that rolling over doesn't begin until 4 to 6 months.

The bumpers are going to have to come out of the crib since he ends up moving around the whole thing during the course of a few hours at night. If he were lifting his head while moving, then it would be considered an army crawl. He has his arms and legs going but keeps his head down even though he can lift it up with no problem. Pretty sure a 7 week old isn't supposed to be crawling.

In other words, it won't be too much longer until we are chasing Caleb around the house trying to keep up with him.