Well, for the first time since Logan was born I didn’t manage to write my blog last weekend (or start this weekend, I am writing it all on Monday). I guess that tells you a little bit about how things have been. It has been pretty non-stop, but not always in a bad way. I spend a significant amount of my time nursing Logan, playing and going for walks, and trying to get him to sleep, or sometimes spend the whole cycle helping him sleep. When you add grocery shopping, eating, showering, cooking and sleeping to the mix, there isn’t much time left over! However, I am really enjoying it all, even the times when I have to drop everything to rock Logan for 2 hours. I enjoy thinking about Logan and how he has changed and how he will change and myself and how much I’ve changed and will change. It has been a transformative 9 weeks and I think the changes will keep coming fast and furious.
Logan’s favorite things are going for walks outside and playing (well and of course eating). He is very attracted to light, especially natural light and will stare at it forever! Given how cold it is this time of year we take him for walks either in a fleece sleeper and front pack (body warmth adds a lot of heat) or we use his giant fluffy snow-suit and carry him or put him in the stroller. He seems to love being warm and cozy while having the fresh air and maybe the cold on his face. He likes the stroller but won’t fall asleep; he conks out in seconds in the front pack or being carried. His favorite position right now is to be held upgright with his head against our chest, so carrying him in this position makes him happy, whether inside or out.
He is doing all the proper baby things. He looks at us and smiles, he tracks objects, he lifts his head really really well, he rolls over, and now he has started to coo more. He still seems to like to do different things for different people. For Julia, he does amazing tummy time, for me he coos a lot, and for Charles he mimics facial expressions (smiling, opening mouth, etc). It is cute to see him interact differently with different people.
He had his 2 month checkup last week. He was 11 lbs and 9 oz and 23.75 inches long. He is growing really well and the doctor proclaimed him as a perfectly healthy boy. He also got his first shots since the hospital (where they don’t care because of the newborn coma). He was not a giant fan of the process (shock). He screamed really hard for about a minute (well one giant tortuous no breathing scream), and then calmed down. They let me touch his top half while the shot happened and then pick him up immediately after to comfort him. They said he might be fussy or sleepy, and that babies go either way after the shot. In typical overachiever fashion, Logan was both. He was very hard to calm down that evening (in his worst period anyway), but then he finally fell asleep (thanks to milk, boobs, and the 5 s’s). He slept a ton that night be when he woke up periodically, instead of grunting, he would scream, then fall back asleep. It made for a rough night for me as I tried to figure out if he was awake and wanted to eat or needed comfort. Overall it wasn’t too bad, but it seems to have shifted him into a pattern now of going much longer between meals (which he was slightly shifting to before the shots). He has only eaten 6 and 5 times the last 2 days and goes at least 4 hours between feedings instead of the typical 3 before. At night he has going 5.5 to 6 regularly and last night went 7 hours! He correspondingly wants to spend a longer time nursing and his belly gets really full. As his stomach is adjusting, he has had some pretty major spit ups, but the doctor said it is completely normal. Yesterday he only spit up once, so that was a big improvement and shows that he is adjusting.
He is still pretty difficult to console in the evening (5 pm – 9 pm) and sometimes during the day as well, although I think that has more to do with our inability to drop everything for him. During the week, when Julia is here, she is his only focus so she can hold him to sleep or take him for long walks (and he cries less and sleeps more). Charles and I still need to shower, eat, clean, cook, etc. so we can’t hold him non-stop. This leads to us trying things that sometimes don’t work, like transferring him to crib or bouncer after he is asleep. Sometimes this works okay but sometimes it fails badly and leads to hours of crying. I feel bad at times that we can’t prioritize him more, but we really do prioritize him, we just also have a few things to accomplish. I am so grateful that we are financially sound enough to be able to afford a nanny so that she can do this for him. If I was a stay at home mom I am pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to give him the same kind of attention.
We are also thankful for help from Julia and my parents to allow us some sanity. Weekend before last, Julia stayed late so Charles and I could join our friends for dinner. Then my parents came both during the weekend to help me while Charles went out and during the week in the evening so Charles and I could eat dinner and talk to each other for the first time in a few days (and so I could sleep). Then Julia came on Thursday while we took some time to go have breakfast and have a “day of fun,” as we dubbed it. Then my dad came this weekend while Charles and I went grocery shopping together for the first time since Logan was born. Overall, these little bits of time and breaks are really important and we need to keep allowing others to help us to make this happen! However, I miss Logan like crazy and I feel like the world is out to make it harder by having there be small babies wherever I go. I look forward to when Logan is a little more portable and I can bring him with me and share experiences with him. We might try a trip to Whole Foods in a front pack soon, we’ll see.
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