Blake at 11 Weeks (Renouncing "The Curse of the Blog")

So, I intended all along to use this blog to capture milestones of the little boy, so that, when we have our next child (Lord willing) I will have something to remind me what to expect week by week. Well, a couple factors have hindered this. The first I will call "the curse of the blog." It seems that every time I post some good news and a milestone achieved (particularly related to sleep), the next day it comes woefully undone, which has made me reluctant to post anything! The other factor (somewhat related) is a very unpredictable baby! As soon as I think he "achieves" something, he changes. I have a hard time defining his feeding or eating schedule, because it seems like it changes daily.

That said, I'm going to take a stab, because he really has grown a ton these past few weeks...

Motor Skills:

• Tummy time is paying off some - he can raise his head and look from one side to the other. He tries to push himself up with his arms and might manage to get a little leverage, but not much. We'll keep at it!
• He has found his hands and enjoys sucking them, but it is risky business, as he often comes close to poking out his eyes in the process.
• He LOVES to kick, kick, kick when he is in his bouncy seat or lying flat on his back in his crib.
• He holds our hands, wrapping his little fingers around ours.

Eating:
He continues to breast-feed exclusively, and he is a good eater, never had any trouble (oh, please don't change!). I still have a hard time pumping - I am always fearful that he will wake up and need to eat right after I pumped, and the amount I pump is typically not as much as he would get "his way." He takes a bottle well from anyone but Mommy (I've only tried giving it to him once). We tried a formula that is supposed to help with reflux, but he puked it up, twice. Then we tried adding rice cereal to breast milk, but he puked that up, too. I'm reluctant to try either of these again, but we have some different formula on hand that the doctor recommended, and we might try this the next time we need a bottle. But generally, so far it is just pure mommy-milk for Blake!

Health:
I continue to give him Zantac for his reflux, and I think it really helps. At this point we are giving 0.4 ml/twice a day. I would like to try to let him sleep on his back sometime soon, given the improvement...I hope that transition goes well! Right now Mom is sick with general congestion, cough, sneezing, etc. and Blake might be getting a little congested (it is a blessing he is not sicker sooner, given how Mommy coughs all over him). And Daddy thinks he still has reflux trouble; it didn't go well the one day Mommy forgot to give Blake his night-time dose. All that to say, he will remain sleeping up-right in the infant seat a bit longer. (The doctor says this is no problem.)

Play Time:
He is VERY smiley right now, and we are eating it up!

• He loves sitting in his bouncy seat on the kitchen counter (I know, this is risky) so that he is eye-level with mom and dad, and we talk to him, sing to him, tickle him, etc. He coos, giggles and smiles and generally humors our craziness.
• He also enjoys sitting under his play mat (propped by the Bobby pillow) looking at the various hanging toys, mirror, and face cut-out.
• His swing mobile used to be a hit, but now he would rather look around at the room than look up at the mobile.
• Mom and Dad sometimes put him on a pillow on their lap, facing them, and read a book (might be a baby book, might be a grown up book...Mike is presently reading him "Devils" by Dostoevsky) and Blake looks up at us enthrawled, smiling and cooing.
• He loves "interactive" songs like Patty-Cake and others that Mommy and Daddy sing for him, moving his legs and arms.
• He also enjoys his light-up crib toy. We don't have a mobile - this is a FisherPrice thing that attaches to the side of the crib, plays music, moves, and lights up. He very much enjoys it.

Sleeping:
Here is the great taboo! I hope he doesn't revert once I post this!

• We continue to swaddle him to sleep. I've tried leaving him unswaddled but his is far more interested in exploring his hands than sleeping, so we will keep swaddling a bit more.
• He is still getting up at night to nurse...sometimes every 4 hrs, sometimes every 2.5. It is completely unpredictable, but I would say it is slightly related to how much sleep he got that day (more sleep during the day = sleeps better at night).
• We are trying to put him to sleep around 6:30pm. He might not actually get to sleep until 7 or 7:30pm, but he still seems to need it.
• He wakes up around 6:30am most mornings. Interestingly, he doesn't always seem ready to be awake after he eats then, and sometimes I can put him right back to sleep, and he might sleep until 8am. This is one of the great mysteries to me; I didn't expect this! Other days he seems more alert and we will keep him up for a short "awake time."
• He seems comfortable staying awake most time for about 1hr 15 min and sometimes as much as 1 hr 45 min (including feeding). This surprises me, too. But it seems that when we soothe him to sleep or he falls asleep on his own, it is typically about 1.5 to 1.75 hrs after he woke up.
• I am generally letting him sleep until he wakes up. Most times that still means he is up/fed every 2.5 or 3 hrs, but sometimes in the afternoon he will sleep as long as 2 or 2.5 hrs, which means it is sometimes 4 hrs between those feedings. My basis for this is the Healthy Sleep Habits book that talks about how unhealthy "interrupted" sleep is. I know how terrible I feel when I am awoken from a nap prematurely! Also, it seems he sleeps better at night when he sleeps better (longer) during the day.
• We recently started letting him cry himself to sleep, or putting him down when he is awake and drowsy, but not asleep. It has gone remarkably well! He might fall asleep without a peep, or cry for 15-20 minutes (on and off) and then sleep. Or, he might scream for 20 minutes non-stop, and at that point I go up and soothe him to sleep (and he is typically very cuddly and falls asleep relatively easily for me).
• His "long stretch" of sleep at night is between 7pm and midnight. Oh, how I wish it were between midnight and 5am, but it isn't...God knows!
• The longest he typically sleeps at one time is 5 hrs, more commonly 4.

Schedule:
Pretty unpredictable. He might take a long nap in the afternoon, noon until 2pm (or 11 until 1) but you never know! The doctor says he should have 2 naps a day at this age (I don't understand that - he usually has at least 3, sometimes 4). Healthy Sleep Habits encourages a napt at 9am, noon, and 3pm, but that is still not enough for him (hard to get him to stay up until 9am, which bumps the whole schedule forward, and then gives us trouble in teh afternoon because when he wakes up at 3:45 it is too late for another nap before bed, but there are still more than 2 hrs until it is reasonable to put him to sleep. (Ideas anyone?)

Clothes Sizes:
He is wearing Carters 3M comfortably now, and has some clothes that are for 0-3M that also fit him.

Outtings:
Mommy is still reluctant to take him out, mostly because he doesn't sleep well (usually doesn't sleep in the car) and it messes up his "schedule" for the whole day. Blake has been to church, and he's been out to run errands with us a couple times, but he generally doesn't get out much. I know I need to grow and take him out even if it isn't easy. Once Mommy gets better, then we'll take him out more. Really.

Cute Factor:
10 out of 10

There ya have it! (That's all I can think of worth documenting.)