Chasing Three: Week 4... plus some

Yesterday, Little Man was one month old. It's so hard to believe. Time is passing so quickly. I wish I'd been better at taking note of different happenings last week... or at least getting this posted on time, because then I wouldn't be struggling so much to remember what last week was. I claim lack of sleep... or mother of three... or mother of an infant... or any number of things, but it doesn't change the reality. I don't remember last week much. And there aren't many pictures of it either. In fact, I think the above shot of his new diaper (and the others like it) are the only ones of the week! Isn't that terrible. Every other time I had the camera out for pics of the kids, he was in the sling. Oh well! Sometimes life gets in the way of recording itself!


Chasing "Babies"
Dropping my homeschooling plans for this year is the best thing I could have done for us. Life was much less stressed. Reading has become our main activity! And I couldn't be more thrilled. Both children are more interested in reading books and especially being read to. We read, read, read... while I'm nursing, after nursing is done, while Little Man sleeps and any other time they ask and I can say yes. I requested a bunch of random books (random because they don't have anything to do with each other, not because I picked them haphazardly) from the library, and the kids have really enjoyed them. I'll share more about them in our preschool post later in the week.

Hugs are the mainstay of our home these days! Hugs of the baby that is. Both children want to hug and kiss him all the time. I've had to make a rule that there is no hugging while Little Man nurses... it was getting awkward and cumbersome for me! There are times when Tornado interrupts his play 3, 4 or even 5 times (in only 5-10 minutes time) to come over and hug and kiss his baby brother!

We received one more meal from a family at church last week... and have been digging into our freezer stash ever since. That's actually a good thing because we need to make some room in our freezer for the (hopefully) coming deer when hunting season comes. Things need to be rebooted in there anyway!

One evening we took them all to the park! What fun the kids had running around and climbing on everything!


Little Man
Thursday our scale arrived... sigh! We got it all ready to use and weighed him on Friday... then again yesterday for his official 1 month weight. 11 pounds, 2.5 ounces! I'll take it. I read/heard somewhere that you should judge "birth" weight (as far as comparing for growth) based on the lowest weight he reached before starting to gain again, so that's what I'm doing. Though he was 9 pounds 10.6 ounces when he was actually born, I'm counting 9 pounds 2.5 ounces as his starting weight... putting him in the 87th percentile at birth... and the 85th now! Praise the Lord for 2 new pounds this month!

More of his nights are stretching out a little. Some nights he only wakes me once before the morning feeding... and others it's still twice. It is okay with me though. He is still so little and I am content with our current schedule.

I've been holding him just before nap times... more than the other kids. I don't know if I'm more of a push over these days, or if he's just more upset than the others were. When it's time for a nap, sometimes he goes right down, but most of the time he cries for a bit before falling asleep. Other times he just cries and cries. I check on him regularly and am very aware of the crying (I hate it when my babies cry). Occasionally he gets so worked up that he sweats like crazy! His hair is wet through... and it only takes a minute or so to get like that. Those are the times (and a half a dozen others too) that I can't stand it and pick him up... carrying him around while he calms down. Occasionally he never does go to sleep. Other times he gets so sleepy that I'll try to put him back in bed. I sure hope things level out sometime!!

We had our first official "first" this last week too. I put him on a blanket on the floor to snap the above picture and before I could get myself into position with the camera, he'd rolled himself over onto his back. He did this several times in a row. Apparently he didn't want to be on his tummy!


The EC'ing Department
I can officially say that more poops go into the toilet than go into a diaper! And for this I am very thankful! We had our first and only "blow out" this last week too, and I know it was all due to my own laziness. I had just decided (at around 3am if I remember correctly) that I didn't want to get up to give him a chance to poop on the toilet. I was ok with him pooping in his diaper if he was going to. I just wanted to get him back in bed and go back to sleep myself. I had barely finished that very thought when I felt something wet on my hand. I don't even know how it happened, but silently, he pooped all over everything. There was actually more outside the diaper than there was inside the diaper! Suffice it to say I've made it a point to give him opportunities when I thought he needed them... even in the middle of the night.

Pottying is going well too... sometimes I think he responds to my cues (sounds of "sssssss" while holding him over the toilet) and other times I know he doesn't. :) Regardless, it's going well! We even demonstrated for friends who have a 5 month old and I think their sold on the idea!

Labels: As it happens..., Chasing Three, Raising Children

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 2:36 PM