girlfiend

Just a quick update so I don’t forget.

At three months the baby

• Brings hands together and can insert them in his mouth.
• May be teething, as indicated by copious amounts of drool.
• Sleeps like a baby. Long naps, 8-10 hour nights.
• Is finally enjoying toys- playmat, bouncy chair, mobile all provide minutes of entertainment.
• Is delicious. I can’t stop eating his sweet pudgy cheeks and belly and thighs.
• Is extraordinarily good- natured. Doesn’t mind being passed around.
• Takes a bottle without argument.
• Is starting to giggle in addition to his huge, gummy grins.
• Looks enormous to me. Other people keep saying things like, “I forget how small babies are when they’re born.” I can’t stop thinking about how big he’s getting.
• Is sort of terrified of his brother. Probably related to the unrelenting screams in his face occasional squeezes, squishes, tackles and nibbles.
• Still has blue eyes. They are still dark, but getting lighter. I wonder if they’ll stay blue.

The baby is two months old, and yes, he still needs a blog name.

He’s very strong, and can push up on his arms now when he’s on his belly. He also holds his head up straight when we hold him upright. The other day we were at the pool at my dad’s condo and I was holding the baby so that he was looking intently at something over my shoulder. My dad wanted to show him off to a friend and asked me to turn around so she could see his dark blue eyes. As soon as I turned he turned his head back to what he was looking at. I turned again and again he turned his head. My dad’s friend moved to see him better.

We had his two month appointment the other day. Our pediatrician is in the process of moving into a new office/new health care system so we had to see the guy who bought out her previous practice. The office was a mess and the doctor was a douche, but we did learn his height and weight and get him one of five vaccinations. The doctor, who may have been insane, lifted the baby in his arms, holding him up superman style. He sort of flew him back and forth over the exam table. The baby looked confused and a little bit stricken and he was as stiff as a board up there, wide-eyed and flailing his arms. I don’t know what the fuck that was about, but the doctor said, “Good, he passed,” and put him down.

Sleeping is good. I don’t expect it to last forever, but I’m still enjoying it while it does. He naps in a crib by himself when the day allows it and he sleeps by himself in a crib at night. His long stretch of sleep is usually between 10 or 11 and 6 am. He wakes then to nurse and goes back to sleep for another hour or so. If I remember to put him back in his crib instead of leaving him in bed beside me he’ll sleep for even longer. I am surprisingly well rested.

He’s not so great in the car. He was fine for weeks, but for the last several he mostly cries if he can’t fall asleep. It’s one of the only times he screams. Today he didn’t fall asleep in the car and he didn’t scream either. I’m hoping that’s a sign that he’s becoming more tolerant and a ride to the shore won’t be torture on the ears.

He spends more and more time awake each day and though he still spends most of his awake time nursing, the rest of the time he’s alert and aware, examining the world around him. He’s discovered his arms and likes to wave them about. He gurgles and coos and likes when I repeat the sounds. He plays, which means he makes funny faces and flails his arms, and he smiles. The smiles are brilliant- charming and goofy all at the same time. He sometimes winks when he smiles, like we’re sharing an inside joke.

He’s perfect. Really. I am completely smitten.

My baby is one month old. It’s kind of tough to do a monthly update for a month because at one month not much happens. Babies are still so fetal, and my little one-month-old is no exception. But he’s getting so, so big. He’s grown out of some of his diapers already and moved to a more generous snap setting on the diapers that were so huge just a few weeks before. His face is losing that newborn puffiness and starting to look more like the baby he’s going to become. His hair, while still dark, has lightened considerably from black to brown. His eyes are still a dark navy blue, a blue that makes me wonder what color his eyes will become.

He still spends the majority of the day sleeping, but when he’s awake he spends his time looking around with those dark blue eyes. He’s mostly calm and content and very rarely cries for reasons I can’t figure out immediately. He’s a good sleeper and naps on his own for hours at a time in his crib, the pack n play in my bedroom, or on a mat on the floor. At night he wakes to eat twice between 11 and 6 but generally goes back to sleep immediately after nursing for a few minutes. Last night he pleased me by sleeping for a good six-hour stretch. I am grateful.

He nurses quickly and efficiently and doesn’t spend a lot of time just hanging out on the breast, which I really appreciate. The quick and efficient nursing makes him pretty gassy which leads to spectacular spit ups once or twice a day. It’s astounding how much liquid can spew from a newborn’s mouth without them really noticing or caring. The pooping seems to have slowed down, and while there’s still plenty of poop (one of the downsides of parenting) I no longer have to change three diapers in a 30-minute period because of it.

The poor little guy hasn’t had the best health so far. He’s already had a staph infection, a nasty yeast rash (which the other pediatrician in the office told me was not yeast when I brought him in the first time. Two days later she wrote me the prescription for the yeast cream and it promptly went away), and now he’s got a cough. The same cough his brother and I both have. It’s awful to hear his little body coughing, especially since I know how much it hurts. But it hasn’t seemed to affect his mood and it hasn’t affected his sleep.

He’s really pretty strong. He surprised everyone by lifting his head and looking around immediately after his birth and he’s continued to show off his impressive head control since. When he’s on his belly he pushes up on his arms and looks around. He’s also got strong legs. Sometimes when he sleeps he’ll push himself several inches forward. One day he turned a full 90 degrees. I’ve also seen him turn from his back to his side. He’s so advanced. (doesn’t every parent say that about their kid?)

My little baby is growing up. It’s amazing how easily and how immediately we loved him. I’ll miss the newborn stage when it’s over. I love how soft and cuddly he is and how perfectly he fits under my chin. But I can’t wait to see what he’ll be like as he grows.