Lets train

My baby boy is 8 weeks old today and this is also my last day being 28 years old. Tomorrow is my big 2-9 and I'm planning on holding steady in my twenties for a few more years after that somehow:) I'm pretty sure having a baby has accelerated the aging process for me and I think I found a few gray hairs already and he's not even a teenager yet. Oy.

So baby Truman is a big boy now and SO mature it's sickening. One night I randomly thought out loud about when it would be appropriate to start using our play yard and Nate thought we should just try it out right then. Sure enough, Truman is OBSESSED with it. Like, he can stay under there for almost a full hour at his best and at least 20 minutes even when he's on the verge of a nap. It's so cute to see him staring up at his new animal friends and at that cute baby in the mirror. I swear this boy is getting happier by the day and I just love it.







Also, this week I noticed that his hair is falling out in very odd spots. Like the top of his head and a strip on the side. I have a feeling we are going to have a bald baby on our hands soon with a few patches of long hair in the back like a mullet. Can't wait for his redneck side to emerge!

Little redneck had his first cold this week and it was much harder on me than him. He was all congested and had red watery eyes and poor baby could barely breathe through his thick boogies lodged in his nose. The doctor's office felt confident that it was just a cold since he didn't have a fever or any other symptoms, so they suggested saline drops in the nose with the booger-sucker. Let me just tell you that Mr. T is mortal enemies with anything shot into his nose. He HATED it but it worked and he's doing much better now. Poor thing--I hated to see him sick, and in fact I even came down with a sympathy cold myself. Fun times, I tell you!

(with the red, watery eyes...poor Truman!)


He's smiling a ton now and I don't have to work quite as hard to produce that gummy grin I love so much. There is nothing like seeing his face light up with a huge smile. It makes my day every time and I can't wait for his giggle to appear next. Oh, what fun days we are in right now....I promise I'm not taking a second for granted and I'm still forcing myself to stop and breathe in the moment before it passes. Being present for each day is allowing my maternity leave to pass by at an acceptable pace instead of vanishing before my eyes and I'm not letting myself think too far ahead to the future when these magical days are done, and I return to work. Nope, not gonna think about that just yet (but it will be on May 21 if you are interested).


As far as sleeping and a routine goes, well it's still all over the place. For every time that he puts himself to sleep without any help from me there is at least one time that I have to pull out the entire bag of tricks just to get the boy some shut-eye. For every awesome 2-3 hour daytime nap there is at least one time where he'll sleep for 10 minutes and wake up totally cranky. For every night when he goes an awesome stretch of 5 hours (5.5 is his record right now), there are the nights when he's up after 2 hours ready to rip. So basically, he's still just 8 weeks old and although we have a few general patterns we are nowhere near a solid routine. And honestly I'm totally fine with that right now and I'm enjoying figuring out what works and doesn't work for little man.



I am considering the dreaded move into his crib, however. I mean, he's going to bed a little earlier than Nate and I lately---around 9 or so---and he's making it for at least 4 hours that first stretch of the night. It would be really nice to plop him into his crib in his room then have the first part of the night with it just being Nate and I before I wake up and feed him. We'll see how this week goes but I'm thinking about trialing it this upcoming weekend for at least the first half of the night. He really despises naps in his crib, though, so I'm worried he won't dig it one bit.



Overall, T-man is still a happy little baby. He used to hate baths and diaper changes but he loves both now. He is content just staring out his favorite window in our family room or looking up at my photo gallery wall above the couch. Lots of times he'll just be talking to himself and smiling up a storm for no reason at all. And this boy likes to cuddle with mom in his Moby or Bjorn during the day so I'm soaking it in as much as I can:) Oh, and of course his favorite hobby is still nursing which continues to go well for us and it's even taking him less time to finish a session compared to his old ways of sucking for seriously an hour total. I'm really liking these 'quick' 30 minute sessions at night now and I'm told it continues to get more efficient and quick. We are very blessed with a relatively calm baby and I hope it all continues to go this well!



Of course, I have a few worries despite how well things are going. For instance, whenever Truman is crying and we can't calm him down with our bag of tricks I always resort to nursing him which ALWAYS works (thank goodness). But I worry that when I return to work he's going to really miss nursing during the day and will be inconsolable. Nate watched T for 2 hours one morning while I visited with friends and I guess T was totally out of sorts and sobbed most of the time, which breaks my heart. Nate pulled out all the stops and nothing worked, not even a nice 3 ounce bottle. I really think T just wanted the comfort of nursing and I wasn't there so he freaked. I hope and pray he is able to hang for a whole day without his favorite boobies or else he might be screaming his head off more than he has in his entire life that first day. I guess only time will tell and maybe by then he will be more independent and perhaps he'll finally take a pacifier at that point, to help with the soothing. We shall see.

(cool new hat from Kim, straight out of South Korea! Our guy is so well traveled and worldly, isn't he?)


(I love this face and his fatness here)


(maybe my new favorite pic, even though it's out of focus. He was laughing at Nate here)



So other than my birthday tomorrow and some dinner plans with hubby the whole week is pretty much wide open, prime for Truman and Mommy time. Just how I like it. Cannot believe he's almost two months old in some ways, and in others it was like a lifetime ago when I had him. What did we do with ourselves before this little dude was here? :)