Hiiiiiiiii
The title of this post is an homage to the late John Hughes, writer and director of
The Breakfast Club, one of my favorite movies. Fun fact: its soundtrack was one of the first CDs I bought back in the day. The title also is apt because I’ve caught myself saying it over and over to Daniel lately. You see, he has discovered his hands! He loves putting a fist in his mouth. He tries to suck his thumb but hasn’t quite managed it consistently yet. He is brilliant at sucking his fist, however. I’ll be holding him and cuddling him and all the sudden this appallingly loud sucking sound will begin, and I know he is going to town on his fist. It’s quite cute 🙂 Of course, I may be prejudiced, but everything he does is cute 🙂
Daniel will be 11 weeks on Tuesday! The peach fuzz I raved about in the last post has become longer and his eyelashes are gorgeously long and dark, which is a relief since right now his eyebrows are light, so he looks like he doesn’t have any (hopefully that will be remedied in time). We are constantly amazed at how much like a little boy he looks. Still a baby, but there is no mistaking his gender.
He has started to laugh a little. It started one early morning when I was rocking him and in addition to his sleepy grins, he let out a high-pitched sound suspiciously like a giggle. He’s done it a few more times since then. And he is quite a mimic. He and J had me in hysterics on night when J frowned at him and Daniel frowned in return several times. It’s great because when he smiles now, it reaches his eyes. He has a smile and then he has a grin. When he’s really amused, he sticks out his tongue while he grins.
Stretchhhhhhhhhhhhh!
He is a LOT more energetic, and that has taken some getting used to. One thing no one warned me about was how sore you can become caring for a baby. For the last few weeks, I have been constantly sore on one side of my body or the other from picking him up, carrying him, playing with him, etc. It’s all in my neck and arms. I knew that I would be exhausted, but I wasn’t prepared for the soreness. There need to be baby weight classes at gyms to prepare your muscles for their new workout. I keep telling myself that picking him up is just as good as working out with my free weights 🙂 J and I both anticipate trips to the chiropractor and massages in our near future. I’m not kidding. I’ve never been this sore before!
Sadly, this is the last full week of my maternity leave. We’ve had a change in the daycare situation in that J’s mother has volunteered to watch Daniel for us. After working out the details, we accepted, and we feel really good about it. We’ve been getting items ready to take to her house. I know Daniel will be fine–great in fact–but this week is hard. I look at him and just want to clasp him to me and hug him hard. It feels weird to be getting ready to re-enter the real world. I feel like so much has changed while I’ve been home. We did make a big change in our vehicle situation. I think I posted several months ago that my car needed repairs and we thought about trading it in. Well, we’re glad we didn’t because thanks to the Cash for Clunkers program, I am the proud owner of a 2010 Honda Pilot!!! It is soooo nice, and I feel very safe in it. Not that I didn’t feel safe in my previous car, but it was 11 years old and had a lot of miles, and it’s just nice to be in a new car. I’ve barely gotten a chance to drive it because I don’t really go anywhere right now.
A little overwhelmed here
But back to Daniel. He is flirting with sleeping through the night. About a week ago, he stunned us by sleeping from 10-5. J was so shocked that he ended up waking me up too because he couldn’t believe that Daniel had slept that long. The next night Daniel slept 6 hours. He’s been doing that off and on since then. I have to admit that we have not been great about setting up a schedule with Daniel. I guess you could put us into the baby-led category (as opposed to parent-led). I’m a little embarrassed because I’m a fairly regimented person and I’ve had 11 (almost 12) weeks to try to figure out a schedule. But Daniel is such a laid back baby that I don’t mind letting him set his own schedule. I’m sure once I return to work, he’ll start getting into more of a set schedule (since I won’t be able to try to sleep late!). He does typically have late-morning and mid-afternoon naps (in theory anyway), and we try to put him down around 8 or 9 for bed. I’ve been researching baby schedules fairly vigorously in the last few weeks but there are so many pros and cons to each type. I’m learning along with him 🙂
It amazes us what a different baby he is from a few weeks ago. I’ve loved each stage he’s gone through and look forward to the next leap.
I have some dear friends going through tough times medically right now (you know who you are). Please keep them in your thoughts. Also, friend K has given birth to her twins a teens bit early, but they are doing well. Congrats to her and please keep them in your thoughts as well!
Family Building With a Twist 