It's All About the Hands

Well, 12 weeks old, and Nikolas has officially discovered his hands. And he spends every waking (and sleeping) moment stuffing his little fists in his mouth. My mom was over today and mentioned how dry his hands were. I had to inform her that no, they are not dry, they are just crusty from him sucking on them all the time!

Sometimes, I am amazed that he can practically fit an entire fist in his little mouth, and he’s usually using the other hand to push it in even further. I don’t know how he doesn’t make himself gag sometimes. I think I’ve figured out that when he starts to suck on his hands/wrists/fingers/thumb, it’s his signal that he’s getting tired. I’m not 100% sure about this, but it’s something I’m starting to clue into.

The nice thing about him being able to get his thumb in his mouth is that it’s comforting to him, which means that he’s learning to self-sooth. Which in turn means that I can now put him down in his bassinette while he’s still awake, and he’ll eventually get to sleep on his own. (A whole other blog post related to sleep training to come)

Nikolas is also starting to explore things with his hands. He’ll swipe at toys and objects, sometimes hitting his target and sometimes he’ll grasp onto something. I usually have to pry open his tight little fists to encourage him to grab onto a toy. I’ve had one moment with him so far where he’s been laying down on the couch and I was leaning over him. He was touching my face and hair and truly seemed interested in checking mommy out. It really melted my heart....one of many tender moments.

He’s also doing this thing where he’ll be laying down, and will stick his arm straight out, with his little hand in a fist. It looks like he’s superman flying through the sky..and he’ll keep his arm in that position for minutes at a time, where I’ll start exclaiming: “Super-baby!!!!” Damn, my boy is cute!