Today's Daily Dylan is extra special because he's 2 months old today and he learned to smile this week, which means there may be a few extra pictures for each day. I can't believe he's already that old--where has the time gone?
January 27 (He likes to furrow his brow like his daddy)
January 28 (Let's notice the unbuttoned pants...)
January 28 (Shortly after the picture above, the shirt was covered in spit-up...so we had two photos shoots)
January 29
January 29 (First smile caught on camera!! Excuse the blurryness...I'm still fine-tuning my quick shot skills)
January 30 (Yep, even a Saturday picture this week. Click here for the story behind this picture...and Dylan's sad face)
February 1
February 1 (Yep, another blurry smile...)
February 2 (The football was added for Shane's benefit)
February 2 (A less blurry smile, but still an awkwardly close picture)
And now, here are two pictures to prove that his cheeks aren't as big as they may seem in most pictures. I always tell Shane how cute he is during tummy time, but I've never taken a picture of him at this angle. He strikes this pose up on my shoulder after every feeding and I LOVE it!
His eyes are turning more blue!
And this one is to prove that our house isn't a dark black hole as it appears in all the pictures I post. I need to turn the flash off because our house is actually quite bright in the daytime.
We love our little boy and can't wait to enjoy many more months with him!!
After propping up the mattress, paying more attention to his tired cues (as taught in Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child), and use of the bouncer on more difficult occasions, I think it's safe to say we have our little boy back. Although he's not sleeping through the night, he is back to his 2 feeding a night routine rather than waking up almost every hour--something both of us appreciate! Last night he even slept from 9:30 pm to 4:45 am and then from 5:30 to 9:15! I think Sundays wear him out...
Part of me believes we were given those days of all night wakings to give us some perspective. Prior to last week, I'll admit I'd get a little frustrated when I woke up for the second feeding of the night. I just couldn't see an end to these nights of fragmented sleep (even though I know it'll come eventually). But after having a few nights of pretty much no sleep, I'll take the 2-3 hours I get at a time, and stop expecting him to sleep longer than he normally does. I know that in time he won't need to eat in the middle of the night and we'll all be able to get more sleep...and that's good enough for me.
Another dose of perspective came from the story of baby Karis through a friend's blog (click here for a little background, and here for the main site). In short, this family discovered that their sweet little girl was sick with Krabbe's disease around 5 months of age...a disease that slowly destroys the brain with a life expectancy of about 13 months.
I can't imagine finding out in a few short months that my sweet baby--the one that we hoped and prayed for and eventually anticipated throughout the pregnancy, one that we already love so much even though we've only known him for 2 months, one that puts us in awe every time we realize that we made him (with lots of divine help)--would only be with us for a short time! How many things would I do differently? I definitely wouldn't be frustrated if he woke every hour at night, I'd cuddle him a little more, let him take a few more naps laying on my chest (even if it does teach him a bad habit), and I'd try even harder to soak up every moment I had with him! I think I needed this dose of reality and perspective to help me understand just how fortunate we are to have a healthy, happy baby, to remember how long we waited for this baby to join our family, and to love every minute of it.
Tom, Shane's brother, recently found a newborn outfit that both he and Shane wore as babies. Somehow the process of getting the outfit from Tom's attic, washing it (it was quite dusty), getting it back from Bart (Shane's other brother who accidentally took it home with him), and finally putting it on Dylan took longer than we all expected and he grew quite a bit. Luckily, we somehow squeezed our little boy into the outfit, and here's the result:
These were the best of the pictures we took... In Dylan's defense, the outfit was made of polyester and was quite rough, and the entire thing was way to small for him--we could barely do up one button on the bottom, the buttons at the back of his neck aren't fastened at all, and the armholes were a little snug and the fabric didn't have any give (Notice his bright red arms?? Yes, we're terrible parents...). Plus, he had just taken a bath (which he loves until he has to get out) and it was almost bedtime so he was already a little fussy.
We took it off as soon as we snapped a few pictures and gave him lots of love. We just couldn't miss the opportunity to pass down the outfit. Maybe someday Dylan will be squeezing his son into the same clothes...but that's really too much to think about right now.
**UPDATE: While scanning pictures for another post, I realized that we have a picture of Shane in this exact same outfit!! Obviously, he was a little smaller when he wore it, but how awesome is it to have this picture??
Our little boy is smiling!! He's been smiling sporadically for over a week and I finally caught it on camera today. I know it's a little blurry, but the camera distracts him so I have to get him to smile and then hurry and take the picture. I'm surprised it turned out as good as it did. These smiles (and the dimples that come with them) make my day:
But I'm afraid this new social awareness has brought with it some sleeping problems... You see, at almost exactly 6 weeks old Dylan magically started having at least one longer sleep period at night (I'm talking 5-7 hours of sleep!!) that usually started around 7 pm and went until 1 or 2. Then he'd eat and go back to sleep until about 5. Then he'd eat and sleep until about 8. It was pretty predictable and I really didn't mind it because I knew that I'd at least get some form of sleep.
Well, on Tuesday night something strange happened. We put him to bed around 8 like we normally do, but longest he slept at any time was 1.5 hours. He'd generally be pretty easy to soothe back to sleep (or he'd go back to sleep once he ate), but there was no long sleep period anymore...and he's never ever woken up that frequently...not even when he was a brand new baby. The next night he did the same thing, but we put him in his bouncer at 11 PM and he actually slept until about 4:30...but when I put him in his crib after feeding him, he only slept for an hour, and then for only 30-minute intervals after that. Last night he did almost the same thing, but the bouncer only held him off until 3:30.
Because it came on so suddenly, I have an appointment with his doctor today to see if maybe he has an ear infection or something that's causing him pain. My other guess is possibly reflux because he spits up A TON and pretty much any time of the day (even 3 hours after eating) and we often find his poor little head surrounded by a spit-up stain after naps. If not, I'm wondering if we taught our little boy that we'll come every time he cries...but most people say he's too young to have developed that habit.
We're almost to the point where we just want to let him cry and see what he does, but does that make us bad parents since he's only 8.5 weeks old?? Do I just let him sleep in his bouncer at all times? That makes me feel like I'm only developing a different kind of sleep problem...
Shane keeps asking me what I think is best and says, "You're the mom," but I have no idea what I'm doing. So, all you seasoned parenting veterans out there...any advice? I'm learning that most moms tend to forget this stage of the parenting process, but any advice is appreciated...
**UPDATE: The pediatrician says he looks pretty healthy aside from a little nasal congestion, which he's had for about a week. But, while we were there, the pediatrician noticed the number of times Dylan had spit-up coming up his throat. He mentioned that he might be a reflux baby. I explained a few other things (the spit-up circles around his head after his naps, that he sleeps better in the bouncer, his back arching sometimes when he eats, etc.) and he gave me a pamphlet on reflux. He said to try and prop up the mattress (good idea, Cath) and see how things go until his 2-month appointment (which is next Monday). I think a combination of reflux and just being a more alert little boy is what's making him wake up so much. We'll try the suggestions and see how things go...
As promised, here's the last week of photos I sent to Shane at work. I'm beginning to think I need to mix up the poses a bit...
January 20
January 21
{Someone at Shane's work requested feet pictures}
January 22
January 22 (the other outfit didn't last long...)
January 25 (Dylan attended a pirate-themed party at Shane's work so he wanted to be sure to dress the part)
January 26 (Dylan hoped that another pirate shirt would mean he got to go visit Dad at work again...)
As you can see, he's still quite healthy. We're still working on regular smiles (we get a few random ones...and he really likes to smile at ceiling fans) so we haven't caught any on camera yet...but hopefully soon! We want to see more of those dimples...
As I mentioned in my post below, I send Shane a picture of Dylan every day at work. For the sake of family and friends that don't get to see Dylan very often, I may begin posting his daily photos as a group... Here are the most recent ones, with their respective dates:
January 14
January 15
January 18
January 19
{Yes, I do realize that in the last two pictures my child is wearing short sleeves and shorts...and yes, I know it's the middle of winter. In my defense, (1) "winter" has recently meant temperatures in the 70s meaning our heater doesn't even have to turn on once during the day and (2) we rarely leave the house...if ever...and the weather is quite pleasant in our little world inside. Plus, he looks so cute in the clothes!}
I just finished packing up Dylan's newborn clothes to make room for 0-3 month old clothes. Thanks to two big bags of brand new baby clothes forgotten by our friends with a 10-month old, we now have a lot of clothing for the boy and since he hasn't worn his newborn clothes for at least a week now, there's no need for them to be in the closet.
This was quite a sad moment for us. Last night, Shane tried to put Dylan in one of his roomier sets of newborn pajamas. Sadly, Dylan refused to go to sleep since they were so tight he really couldn't move much...(once changed, he fell fast asleep). It's hard to believe that he's changed that much from the little tiny baby that we brought home just 6 weeks ago!
Luckily, before she left, Grammie Jen bought Dylan a set of his favorite pajamas (his dinosaur ones seen in the picture below) in 0-3 months size as well! At least we have a little bit of crossover to help us through the transition...
In other ways we're glad our little boy is growing up. He's definitely starting to notice us more. He still hasn't quite mastered smiling (although I think I got one mini smile out of him this morning), but he will occasionally stick his tongue out at us if we show him ours first...that's progress, right?
And best of all, our little boy is figuring out the difference between night and day! That's right, last night after he ate at 10:45 he slept until 5:00 AM!! That's 6 hours of sleeping with no need for parental intervention. Sadly, I woke up at 3:00 on my own to some of his sleep noises and waited for them to turn into crying...and ended up waiting until about 4:30. Needless to say, I didn't get as much sleep as I could have, but at least now I know to ignore him until I hear genuine crying. I realize this has only happened once so I'm not expecting it again tonight, but at least it reminds me that eventually I will get more than 2 continuous hours of sleep...
In other news, Dylan had an awesome weekend with his friends Carly, Natalie, and Lahdan who just left today...but that'll be a post of its own soon.
January 27 (He likes to furrow his brow like his daddy)
January 28 (Let's notice the unbuttoned pants...)
January 28 (Shortly after the picture above, the shirt was covered in spit-up...so we had two photos shoots)
January 29
January 29 (First smile caught on camera!! Excuse the blurryness...I'm still fine-tuning my quick shot skills)
January 30 (Yep, even a Saturday picture this week. Click here for the story behind this picture...and Dylan's sad face)
February 1
February 1 (Yep, another blurry smile...)
February 2 (The football was added for Shane's benefit)
February 2 (A less blurry smile, but still an awkwardly close picture)
His eyes are turning more blue!
And this one is to prove that our house isn't a dark black hole as it appears in all the pictures I post. I need to turn the flash off because our house is actually quite bright in the daytime.
