I decided not to write about week seven as we were gone for most of it 🙁
When we got off the plane in Valdosta I was DYING to run in the door and see my precious boy! Mom was so thoughtful and put balloons on our mailbox, a welcome home sign on the door, and even got Kye a little “All American Boy” outfit to wear! It has never felt so good to be home and I couldn’t believe how big Kye had gotten!!! I noticed right away that he was bigger, his face was fuller and that he’s lost more hair on the top of his head!
I knew Mom would take great care of him and I was never worried once while we were over there, but I didn’t fully appreciate what a great job she did until I saw how great he was and how many achievements he hit this week!
Happy Baby
I was already a big Babywise fan, but now I’m a true believer. We have the happiest baby! He wakes up happy and never cries during his awake time (unless he is tired and it’s time to go to sleep!) Even when he cries during naps if you walk in there he will smile at you. He smiles even with the paci in (which makes it fall out!). And the last thing he does RIGHT before he falls to sleep? Yup, he smiles! Even when he throws up he’s smiling away! I love that he is so happy and so content. It makes the hard times with him easier because I know he will smile up at me at any second. I’ve seen a big change in his amount of smiling and how he will smile in response to other people smiling or talking. I have to keep a serious face during naptime because if I smile he’s sure to get more energy b/c he wants to smile back at me!
Mommy’s Boy
This scares me as I’ve REALLY noticed how much he loves Mommy this week. He will BAWL his head off but as soon as he sees me he stops (and smiles). Even if he’s in his bouncer he will get a little fussy and if I go over there BAM he’s happy. He’s staring at me a TON more too. So much so that I feel like I look so rough and I want to put some makeup on and fix my hair b/c I don’t want my kid thinking I’m ugly haha. It is precious that he loves me so much, but it worries me as well. I really, really, really want an independent child and with me being home I know it’ll be easy for him to depend on me too much. I plan to incorporate more solo-time for him in his bouncer or swing so he isn’t with me SO much.
I am pretty proud of myself for not wanting him to need me and only want me. I can see how easy it is for Mom’s to get “addicted” to feeling needed by their children. Right now he adores me, I can do no wrong, and he needs me for everything! If I let it, that could become a need for me! I could need to be needed by him and I want to keep the bigger picture in mind at all times. Sure, he needs me now and it feels so great to be needed so much but someday he will be a MAN and won’t need me at all! How will I feel then if I’ve put all my stock in him needing me? He’s my baby for only 13-18 years (depending on the attitude when a teenager haha) then he will be his own person and eventually be taken care of by his wife. It’s how it should be and I want to make sure he learns how to take care of himself and not need me for every little thing.
Found that Hand
He’s been a sucker from day one but, as Mom noticed while she was watching him, he’s really discovered his hands and how perfectly they fit into his mouth. Of course I don’t want him to be a thumb sucker but since he’s alway swaddled to sleep he can’t get to them haha aren’t we mean?
Sleep Through the Night
I know, it sounds like it’s impossible for an 8 week old breastfed baby to already be sleeping through the night but he is!!!!!!! I’m so so so so proud about it! I’m proud of myself for sticking to such a schedule so he’d be able to reach this HUGE milestone, I’m proud of Kye for being such a good boy, and I’m proud of Mom…so proud of her! When Zach and I woke up Monday morning at about 5:50 and realized that Kye never woke up for his late night feeding my first thought was, “wow, Mom really stuck to his schedule for us..she did awesome!” I felt guilty for having that as my first though though when Zach said his first thought out loud, “do you think he’s ok?” Opps…I guess I should have been worried too huh? But Zach checked and he was sleeping so soundly! I ended up staying awake (too happy to sleep) and pumped some because going 7 hours straight without feeding made me pretty uncomfortable in the boob region!
This is SUCH a big deal and again a true testament to how incredible Babywise is! We wake him up to feed him at 11:30 then he sleeps until about 6:50…right on time for that 7 am morning feeding! I can’t believe he actually slept through the night at 8 weeks as that’s the earliest Babywise says they will start STTN and I didn’t start Babywise right away AND he has reflux so it says it should take him longer..like up to 13 weeks to do it. I guess me being so hardcore has helped? 🙂
The other night my alarm didn’t go off and we didn’t wake up for the 11:30 feeding on accident and guess what…he slept all the way to 7 again! So he went to bed at 9:30 and didn’t wake up until 7! So awesome but we plan to continue to wake him for the next couple of weeks for that 11:30 feeding because my breasts couldn’t handle going that long and we don’t want to risk him waking up in the middle of the night hungry. It’s too much on him to drop two feedings at once! But I know he’ll adjust fine when that time comes 🙂
Sneezing
He really is starting to get so much more personality. One “Kye thing” is that he always sneezes three times in a row! I don’t know if he’ll always do this but it’s super cute right now!
Naps
While he’s done amazing at night, he sleeps like pure crap during the day! I am so fed up with his naptime. He has the whole eat…awake…sleep routine down and I do all the Babywise things about putting him to bed at the first sign of sleepiness (for him it’s a yawn). He will usually go to sleep fine initially but then he ALWAYS ALWAYS wakes up about 45-60 min into the nap and pretty much stays awake for the next hour until it’s time to eat. I honestly think he is just a very curious baby because when I go in there he’s looking at the mobile or at the dots on his bumper with wide eyes. I also think he just loves to see me because he’ll be bawling then I walk in and he’s happy then I walk out and he cries. I also read that it could be because he’s trying to master a new skill (rolling over!) so when he wakes up he wants to practice haha. Who knows the reason but it’s sooo annoying. I’ve tried giving him Mylicon because I’ve noticed he often wakes up farting and Mylicon is supposed to help relieve gas. I can’t tell if it’s helping or not! It is super annoying about naptime as it doesn’t give me much of a break during the day but I’m not complaining too much because he’s great at night and he even naps great in public places! So I can deal with the mess at home…maybe I’ll get lucky and things will be better during week 9!
Rolling Over
Again, I owe Mom for this one! She mentioned to me that she could tell he was getting ready to start rolling over and when I got home and had his first play time together on Friday morning I laid him on his stomach for tummy time and he immediatly rolled over to his back! I wrote Mom saying that I didn’t believe her that he hadn’t already done it before! He was a little pro at it! She assured me he didn’t and it’s so fun having a skill to practice together. Since Friday he’s done it about 8 times now which is pretty good I think. He maxes out typicallly at one time a day…I think it wears him out. He can only roll from his belly over his right side to his back so far but I think that’s normal. Sometimes he will roll onto his side then take a few minutes to roll the rest of the way haha But I love that he enjoys tummy time so much now!
Even when he’s not on his tummy he is CONSTANTLY moving. I can’t believe it takes babies so long to crawl…the way he moves his legs and arms all the time you’d think they’d be able to crawl now! I got lucky and was able to capture him rolling over on tape! I promise I didn’t help and neither did Levi!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92cJjNCCiBo
It’s been such a fun week and it makes me so excited to see how he will grow and change in the coming weeks!
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He is so handsome! Happy babies are so much easier to deal with. The problem is when he gets a little older and laughs at you and smiles while he is being bad. It is much harder to discipline a kid who is so happy. That is my problem with Damian. Damian does something bad, but it is so hard to get mad when he is being so sweet about it.
Stevie was an awesome night time sleeper too, but took horrible naps. It is tough, because they are so unpredictable with naps that you really can’t plan a whole lot. I remember actually thinking, “I think I would rather Stevie still wake up at least one time at night but take consistent naps”. She, of course, is very consistent now with her naps (everyday 1-3:30), but before it was hard because she wasn’t that tired, she slept so good at night that she really didn’t need too much sleep during the day. Maybe Neela will be like Alina was a good nap taker but still woke up for a while during the night and can tell you which is easier (they probably both have their ups and downs)! I REALLY miss you guys, let’s PLEASE hang out this week!! ANY night is good for us this week, this is a rare occasion, but actually any night would work, oh I guess but not Wed. night 😉