Operation Naptime

In honor of Ben's three-month birthday (!!!), I had planned on taking him to the pediatrician to have him weighed. However, it is currently eighteen degrees outside (with a "feels like" temperature of three degrees), and I just couldn't bring myself to take him out of the house. So instead, I am making him learn an important big-boy skill: napping.

We totally lucked out on the bedtime front and didn't really have to teach him how to sleep then. I'm not sure if I ever whined about it here, but for the first six weeks of Ben's little life, he had day and night confused. He would sleep alllll day long, and then at night, he would look roughly like this:
Giant blue eyes, open as wide as they could go, not even blinking (as a sidenote -- aren't his eyes beautiful?). And I felt like he was too young to understand "crying it out" until he fell asleep in his crib, so neither he nor I slept much during that period.

Then, suddenly , some switch got flipped in his little brain, and he magically understood that nighttime was for sleeping. Since then, I feed him at bedtime (usually around 9:30-10:30), put him to bed in whatever state he happens to be in (sometimes already sleeping, sometimes awake but sleepy), and he will sleep for the next several hours, probably wake up to eat, and then go right back to sleep until morning.

This is still kind of amazing to me because we never had to do the whole let him cry for longer periods of time each night until he figures it out thing. He just figured it out. Daniel and I got to witness this firsthand last week. We were at my in-laws' house for Thanksgiving, and Ben was sleeping in a pack-and-play in our room, and I watched him wiggle and look around quietly for about 10 minutes and then drift off to sleep. Glorious!

Naptime, however, was a different story last week. I'm pretty sure he only took about two decent naps all week, which is craaaazy for a kid who normally sleeps between every feeding. Before spending a week away from home, I thought he was a good napper, but now I know that's only because I always put him in his swing (the merits of which I have already enumerated here) to nap. So with another, much longer, trip ahead of us in a few weeks, I'm trying to teach Ben to sleep in places other than the swing.

Place-Other-Than-the-Swing #1: The Living Room Floor
I know. It seems kind of cruel, doesn't it? But there are a few legs of our Christmas travel that will not afford us access to a pack-and-play, so I want him to be able to sleep anywhere. Including on a blanket on the floor. I'm not sure why I put the pillows there. It just seemed like the thing to do at the time.

Here's a funnier view from the balcony above the living room:

He fussed for a minute but then decided he was too tired to mess with it. So he slept there for about 45 minutes. Not as long as I was hoping, but I'll take it for now. Good job, baby Ben! And happy birthday!

More than you really wanted to know

We are currently having all new windows installed in our house. This is totally awesome since our old windows were terrible and made our heating bills outrargugeous.

Figuring out how to feed a breastfed baby when you're alone in a house full of strange men: not so awesome.

TWO MONTHS OLD

Today was Ben's two-month check-up, which means, among other things, that my baby is TWO MONTHS OLD! Reaching this milestone is the first time within parenthood that I've felt like time is flying. For me, pregnancy seemed to breeze by, so I was sure I would experience what every other mother tells you to expect -- that you blink and suddenly your baby is all grown up.

However, that was really not my experience at first. I think it was because Ben was so tiny. I would see older babies -- big babies! with skills! -- and think, We'll never get there. Ben will never be big and old and skilled like that. And in my defense, he really was small and fragile for a long time (and as far as the skill thing goes, the pediatrician assures me that his month-early arrival will probably mean he hits developmental milestones a month late). When he was nine days old, we took him to be weighed, and he was at his smallest: 5 pounds, 6 ounces. That's apparently the 4th percentile for nine-day-old babies.

Today was a different story, though. Today, my little runt of a boy weighed TEN POUNDS! He has graduated to the 70th percentile! And he gained three whole pounds in one month, which wouldn't have meant anything to me until I acquired a newborn and learned that they're supposed to gain about one-half to one ounce per day. Three pounds in a month means little Ben made up for lost time by gaining one and a half ounces a day! Go, baby Ben!

Three pounds in a month also means that I now believe he won't be small forever. And while this knowledge makes me feel so very proud of my boy and so very grateful that God has given him a healthy, growing body, it also makes me understand how precious and fleeting my time with him is. A full night of sleep sounds so good, but there are only so many more times I will get to snuggle this sweet baby in the quiet middle of the night. Some day soon, he will be too big for me to fumble through housework one-handed while I hold him with the other arm. And he will be much too big for me to kiss the top of his fuzzy head while I blog with him asleep on my chest. Two months are gone now, and we only get to do this five more times before he is suddenly a full year old. And I can only imagine how quickly the time goes when his life is measured in years.

Being a new mom is a pretty overwhelming job. Some days I get frustrated with myself because lunchtime rolls around and I realize that not only have I not showered, but I haven't even remembered to brush my teeth. It's easy for me to get annoyed that I am tethered to a baby by every-three-hour feedings and that some article of my clothing is constantly wet from one disgusting body fluid or another. But today, I am more thankful than ever that I get to rearrange my existence for Benjamin Eager Wiginton.

I'm not getting paid to endorse these products,

but I would gladly accept free stuff from the companies that make them.

This Fisher Price cradle swing is the only reason anyone in my house has clean clothes to wear. I resisted buying this type of swing because it seemed like it would only be useful for a few months (at best), and I'm too cheap for that. However, I broke down last weekend, and I do not regret it one bit.

My sweet baby boy sleeps a lot during the day, but he really only likes to sleep on me. And while I love, love, LOVE having him sleep on me, it really prohibits me from doing things that are somewhat necessary - like showering. But NO LONGER! I bought this swing for $40 on Craigslist, and it has already been worth every single penny, plus a lot more pennies that I didn't have to spend on it. Ben is snuggled in there all cozy-like, and the swinging and white noise feature totally seal the deal. He sleeps, and I have two hands available to do useful things! Like type this blog!

An added bonus: I couldn't get him to sleep a couple of nights ago, so I put him in the swing and he was out within minutes. Beautiful. If you lived in my house a couple of weeks ago, you would realize how completely revolutionary this is.



And this fancy Baby K'tan baby carrier is my other buyer's remorse-free purchase from this week. It's waaay pricier than what I would normally buy, but another new-mom friend raved about hers, so I caved. And, again, I love it. I had a pouch sling that I liked fairly well, but this sucker is in a whole different league. It is super comfortable to wear, and I don't feel like Ben is going to fall out of it. Don't tell Baby K'tan because they specifically warn you not to do this, but I cooked dinner while wearing Ben in this thing last night. And I've taken a couple of walks while wearing him in it (which is totally kosher).

And since this post was so boring, here's a picture of my baby's cute little face under a cute little hat that his Nana made.

Quick thoughts

There are some things I knew I would love about having a baby. I could imagine how wonderful it would be to nap with a little one napping on my chest, for instance (and that feeling does not disappoint!). And while there are certainly some frustrating aspects of motherhood that I didn't really expect, there are also a million little things I didn't know would be so great. Today I am grateful for:

*my baby's milk breath. I know that's weird, but I think it is the sweetest smell!

*the way my baby looks when I unswaddle him to change his diaper in the middle of the night. It's like opening a little package of pure cuteness.

*the noise my baby makes when he thinks he's going to sneeze but it goes away. His whole body exhales - including his little high-pitched voice.

What's the point of having a baby...

if you can't balance things on his head while he falls asleep?

Not much has happened since the last post.

Except that I had a baby. This one right here:Benjamin Eager Wiginton

born September 2, 2009 at 6:45pm
6 pounds, 1 ounce

Sometime soon, I will try to post the full dramatic story. The abbreviated version is that my water mysteriously broke, I didn't believe it was happening and went to work for a little while, and seven hours after I left work (including a whopping 30 minutes of labor and a surprise!-he's-breech C-section), I was holding my baby. Exactly one month before I expected to be doing that.

The sudden transition from Pregnant Lady to Mom was kind of surreal for me. And words cannot describe the incredible feeling of seeing your child for the first time. I'm getting all teary-eyed thinking about it right now. Absolutely amazing!

Here's a rare glimpse of the little guy with his pretty blue eyes open. He usually only does that around 3am (thanks, buddy!).

My dad joined in for the final installment of our author study of Eric Carle :) My parents are super wonderful. I called them around 3pm their time to say I was having a baby, and they were on a flight here by 5:30ish (did I get those times right, Mom or Dad? I'm estimating). They landed just a couple of hours after Ben was born and spent the next week and a half with us.

And just for kicks, here's one final "belly picture." :)