Happy New Year!

Welcome 2010!

So many changes and new things are happening in our little one’s world! We’ve celebrated our first Christmas with Nikolas, started a New Year, and we are witnessing new things that he is starting to do on a daily basis.

Matthew has taken some time off work for the holidays and it’s been nice to have him around again during the day to help out. I thought it’d be a great opportunity for me to get a good stretch of sleep at night, as we talked about him taking on the 2:00 am feeding, and I’d do the early morning meal. We tried it once, and it just didn’t work out for any of us. None of us got much sleep, and we both agreed to go back to our regular routine: I get up with Nikolas in the middle of the night, then Matt gets up with him early in the morning, and I sleep in. I must say, being able to sleep until 10:00 or 11:00 has been a treat! I’ve done both feedings as well, to give Matt a chance to use his days off to sleep in. He has two days left, so I hope it gives us each one more day to catch up! I have to admit though; the more sleep I get, the more my body craves it!

We’ve been working on trying to get a solid sleeping routine down, especially during the day, but with all the family visiting, and us going out on an almost daily basis, it’s been a challenge. Things should be settled down now, so we can concentrate our efforts. The big challenge for us right now is day time naps. We have absolutely no schedule and no routine, and every day is different with different commitments and appointments. The only trend that has seemed to emerge is the days where we don’t leave the house at all seem to be the worst! Nikolas is very fussy and in turn, I get very impatient and irritable. There have even been days where he will cry for so long that I’ll put him in his vibrating chair, turn on the radio and head upstairs to get away from it. I have such a hard time with noise that all I’ll crave is just some peace and quiet. I know, I have to learn that it will be a very long time until we have that back again! Another problem with his day time naps, is that we never put him upstairs in his bassinet, where he has no issues sleeping during the night. I don’t know why we put it off for so long, but we are now attempting to put him in it when he starts to get drowsy during the day so he can get a quality nap in. We’ve been fairly successful at putting him down at bedtime while he is still awake (but drowsy) and he’ll take a few minutes to cry and get to sleep. I don’t think he’s cried for more than 10 minutes, and then all is quiet. But during the day, it’s harder. Sometimes it works, other times, not at all. There are days that he is just so tired, but refuses to be put down, so I’ll just hold him so he can get some rest. Otherwise, I know the rest of the day will be a disaster. I guess we’ll just keep trying to put him down until we’re successful at it. I don’t believe in letting him cry it out. I think it’s cruel to let a baby cry for hours on end, and I just feel so terrible. I once tried it, and let him go for 20 minutes. After I finally went in to see him, I discovered he had thrown up and was covered in it; I felt so terrible!

He’s starting to do new things almost daily now. He’s moving from sticking his entire fist in his mouth to figuring out how to get just a couple fingers, and occasionally, just his thumb in there! I don’t mind him sucking his thumb, if it’s a way for him to sooth himself to go to sleep. He’s also now so much more curious about the world around him. He wants a closer look at things and try to touch them. His hand-eye coordination still needs practice, but he is batting at things, or grabbing a hold of his bottle while we feed him. He’s taking alot more interest in toys & rattles and we’re really starting to enjoy play time with him. There are plenty of smiles and coo’s all around with an occasional squeal of delight. I’m confident that any day now, we’ll be hearing a giggle!

I can’t believe how quickly our boy is growing and changing and am amazed each day as I can see him absorbing the world around him. What an awesome responsibility we have as parents to teach him about the world, and his place in it.