Five Weeks and a Video?

The video is iffy...blogger is telling me that my video is uploading, and will appear when finished, but I have to say that I don't have the best of luck with uploading pictures and/or video...as stated many times before. I don't have a lot of time to trouble shoot either, so...if it doesn't work, well rest assured that it's Luke and he's cute. I took it yesterday, as he was deciding to nap (or not!) and he was just being sweet.

Which is pretty much par for his course. He is so, so, so sweet. He's becoming more and more and more expressive and is awake for longer periods too. I love that! We've been having fun dancing and singing when he's awake...and taking videos and pictures and trying to play with our toys. Still not so coordinated on the toy front, but able to really get into the music and dancing! He's staring more at toys that dangle, but honestly, most of the time just seems to be having all sorts of private conversations in his head.

I know this is going to sound like bragging, and I DON'T mean it to...we are just grateful and I want to be able to remember these days on those nights when this does NOT apply...Luke is a WONDERFUL nighttime sleeper. I feed him, change him, swaddle him, hat him, paci him, cuddle him and then lay him down (on his Angel Care monitor!!!!) and turn his little frog white noise machine on. He lays there pretty alert and just looks all around--kind of like Maggie Simpson. He may make some little billy goat grunt noises, but no crying (if there is a little jag, it's about 15-30 seconds and then he stops) and he puts himself to sleep. Sometimes he'll lay there for 15-30 minutes...no noise, just a few little grunts here or there as he looks around and sucks his paci, and he'll fall asleep. No rocking him to sleep. No nursing him to sleep. No special music. No driving him around the neighborhood. We just put him down, give him lots of kisses and some strokes on his cheeks and head and that's that. I told John last night that he has not had ONE SINGLE NIGHT of crying and not going to sleep at night since he's been born. One or two nights, he was up often, but once he was up, nursed and changed, he'd go right back down. He is simply amazing and such a good, good baby. We are blessed and I told John not all babies are like this...his response, "I know...everyone tells me horror stories. I count my blessings every day!"

Me too.

We are weighing him every day at about the same time to see how growth is going. The first time we weighed him on this scale, he was 6 lbs., 8 oz. Yesterday, he weighed 7 lbs., 3 oz. We first weighed him on January 29, so that basically means that he's gained 11 ounces in 9 days--which exceeds the whole "an ounce a day" parameter and makes me happy, regardless of whether or not he's on a growth curve. (He's not, ha ha!) Those growth curves actually aggravate me a bit, especially considering he was 6 lbs., 2 oz. at birth and two weeks early...there's no accounting for early birth on those charts, and honestly, Luke being that heavy almost 3 weeks earlier than Matthew was (only 4 ounces difference in their birth weights) really makes me think about what a PEANUT Matthew was...that light, that far along gestationally, THAT long (22 inches!)....Holy cow, was he little! Anyway...Luke gained almost a pound in 17 days his first month, and seems to be gaining adequately (as opposed to on average) so we are trying an experiment in Baby Food Boot Camp...our sweet cousin Donna in California is a BreastFeeding Guru by profession and has basically told me that Luke is doing fabulously, our family grows babies long and lean (both sides, save the long part on my side--all the boys on my side get it, the girls don't!) and that I need to pull back on all that I am doing so we can see what Luke will do on his own--without all the extra pumping, supplementing, etc. Sooooo....I'm pulling back on the pumping...gradually trying to get to once a day just to have a little extra to supplement if I feel we need it as well as letting Luke "lead the way" as Donna said...no more waking him up and force feeding him--I'm going to let him wake up and feed as his body dictates and see how things go. If he continues to gain adequately, HOORAY! If not...well, we'll go back to Boot Camp and reevaluate our options. I can say that no matter what, as long as I can make breast milk, that's what he'll have. Well...not as LONG...at least for a year...none of that 5 year old breastfeeding for us (no offense to those who do)...but in any event, even if I exclusively pump (Epping...who knew there was a term?) and supplement with some formula for bulk, fine with me. I just want to make sure he gets breastmilk if at all possible. So far, he is sort of waking up and wanting to eat on his own about every 4 hours or so, and before bed and in the middle of the night feeding, I am still supplementing an extra ounce or so just because I know his tendency is to sleep longer in the night and I want to make sure he's not hungry. That said, we are really only in day one of Operation Pull-Back. We'll see how the next few go...

Bless his little heart...he is a Peanut, but he has SUCH LONG LEGS...long SKINNY legs...which do not work so well with the sweet little newborn sized cloth diapers of which I have a stash. His rise is just so long, comparatively, he seems to leak and soak his clothes every time. I ended up moving into our one-size diapers yesterday--definitely bigger and bulkier on his little body, BUT...they allow for his long rise, and he's not leaked a diaper in almost 24 hours! Hooray! Guess I'll be putting those newborn diapers on eBay! Other than that, cloth diapering is not terrible at all and I think John likes it too. I think secretly, we are both just thrilled to not have the extra expense of disposable diapers, and I do all the 'hard' work of rinsing for John, but we are both pretty glad we went cloth. Plus, Luke just looks so darned cute in them!

Hard to believe today he has been born for 35 days. I still sort of feel like I am in withdrawal from all the 'spotlight' so to speak of being pregnant and all the appointments and focus on getting him here safely. I'm starting to get restless, but in a "I wish I could feel more accomplished" way... I apologize to so, so, so many friends that I need to call/email/catch up with---one sweet one said, "It's ok...you're busy!!!"

I told her that if my house was cleaner, and my taxes were done and my thank you notes were finished and all my shoes were back to organized by color and style, MAYBE I'd feel like I was busy...but they aren't! I don't feel busy, and yet, I just don't have ANY time....this last 15 minutes here to write this seems almost like an eternity!

I wouldn't have it any other way, though...my new perfume is spit-up, my hair is crunchy from it! My time is spent in the cycle of feed Luke, change, cuddle, laundry, eat something quickly and repeat and I am just fine with that. These days are already going by so quickly...I don't want to wish a single second away.

Here's hoping the video works...Blogger is swearing to me it will. We'll see!