Month: November 2018

Last night, Jack wasn’t tired.  Usually, he falls asleep a little before 8pm, or sometime between 8 and 9, and then he sleeps around 5 hours.  Last night, he wouldn’t sleep.  He was alert, he was looking around (even while nursing), and he just wouldn’t quit.  He was pretty happy, too, not particularly fussy.  He didn’t go to sleep until after 11, and WE were exhausted.  We don’t usually stay up that late.  So he was asleep around 11:20, and we were asleep before midnight, and you know when we woke up?  Around 6:50.  You know what we woke up to?  I’ll give you a hint: it wasn’t a crying baby.  No, we woke up to adorable baby sounds.  When we checked the monitor, we could see him rolling his legs back and forth, waving his feet in the air, cooing to himself, eyes open.  IT WAS SO CUTE.  And SO much nicer to wake up to then wailing.  He stayed happy through his diaper change, all smiles and cute noises, even though he MUST have been hungry after over 7 hours of sleep.

I hope I hope I hope this is a magical new phase now that he’s two months old and not just a fluke.

Success!  I am wearing the baby and he is SLEEPING.  I had to get a baby k’tan in the next size up (they say it’s sized for you, but I don’t think they’re taking giant mutant babies into account), and the first time we tried it even in that size, he started screaming.  This morning I gave it a try after he’d been sleeping on my shoulder for about 15 minutes, and after a little fussing, he settled back down.  The only thing I can’t get him to do, though, is turn his head to the side.  He’s in the hug position, so he’s centered in front of me, facing me, with his head in the middle of my chest.  And since he won’t turn his head, he basically has his nose smashed into my sternum.  Not the greatest for sleeping, but he’s managing it.  Hopefully one successful nap will get him used to the feeling and we’ll be able to use it more often, sleeping and awake.  So far, I’ve been able to pour myself coffee, get the creamer out of and back into the fridge, and sit down at the table with my laptop.  I did have to get help from John to get a mug – the shoulders of this thing are pinning my arms to my sides a bit, and I can’t reach above my head.  Still, having both hands available is pretty great.

On the other hand, it’s kind of like being pregnant again, except the baby weighs twice as much and he has a tendency to cry.

Jack was five weeks old on Halloween, and we were still exhausted (we are still exhausted) so we dropped the ball on dressing him up in a costume.  He’ll probably forgive us, but to make it up to you fine folks, here’s Jack doing his impression of a Dr. Seuss character.

Pictures from the last couple of weeks:

My giant mutant child is gaining about a pound a week, which pretty much means he’s eating all the time.  When he’s not eating, he’s usually sleeping, and we’re (I’m) still having trouble putting him down to sleep during the day (he’ll usually wake up crying if he’s sleeping or just start crying if he was quiet and happy), meaning I don’t have my hands free to type.  Or do anything, really, but typing is my goal right now.  Actually, that’s not where I was going with this.  He’s eating all the time, right?  And he has been from the start, but since…Wednesday, I think (which was only yesterday somehow?), he started cluster feeding again, and except for overnight, I fed him nearly every half hour for most of the day because APPARENTLY he’s going through a growth spurt.  Yeah, you read that right.  My giant mutant baby, who already weighs as much as a 6-month-old, is going through a growth spurt.

He got his first round of vaccinations last Friday, so he slept a TON over the weekend (this would be the perfect spot to insert an anti-vaxxer conspiracy theory about the human growth hormones that were probably included in the vaccinations – thanks, Greg, for the idea) and got really clingy.  It’s adorable, but clingy = in my arms = I can’t do anything useful around the house.  And he looks so SAD.  It’s hard to see.  Speaking of crying because the baby is upset, he’s a little bit congested, so last night John was trying to get some snot out of his nose and Jack HATED it.  I’m pretty sure we weren’t hurting him, but the tone of Jack’s crying set me off.  We stopped (and John was more successful this morning).

This morning, Jack and I drove to CVS to get a package of diapers (he has outgrown size 1, and the packages of size 2s we ordered won’t arrive until tomorrow – we’re running dangerously low) and to DD to get coffee.  He fell asleep in the car seat, and he STAYED asleep when I brought the car seat inside (usually he wakes up when we stop moving), so I left him in it and I have stolen this time to transfer pictures from phone to laptop and to write THIS.

Hello.

He’s been asleep for almost an hour and a half.  I don’t know when he’ll wake up, but I expect him to wake up screaming and hungry (he’s done that a couple of times over the past day or two) because he hasn’t eaten in more than three hours.  We shall see.  In the meantime, I was able to eat my bagel and drink my coffee and write this in peace WITH BOTH HANDS.  If he stays asleep a while longer, maybe I’ll conquer the world.  Or finish making our thank you note list.  Same thing, really.