I'm reading a book called "The Baby Whisperer" (yeah, I know), and the author seems to have a very no-nonsense, practical approach to dealing with babies. The problem we've been having with Tucker is that he will not nap unless he's being held. The cause of course is that we've had visitors almost non-stop for the first 9 weeks of his little life who wanted to hold him all the time (not that we don't love you). The result is that when they all leave, I have an infant who needs 24/7 attention, leaving me no time for indulgences like, oh, showers.
So anyhow, I don't have the heart for the Ferber, "Cry It Out" method. Instead, she recommends that you pick them up when they're crying, comfort them, and when they're quiet, put them back down. When they start crying again (as they inevitably will) you repeat the scenario until they're confident that a crib is a safe and OK place to nap.
Since Ryan is out of town for the next 3 days, I thought it would be an ideal time to start weaning Tucker from constant holding. It took 45 minutes of crying and up and down this morning, but he took a short nap in his pack-n-play. Then, because he was so tired from not really getting a nap this morning, he went right down for an afternoon nap in his crib (and has been asleep for nearly 2 hours now). The fact that I'm blogging right now is evidence that this woman knows something about babies. Maybe it's common sense, but I sense that mostly it's about persistence and consistency. I had to be willing to listen to him scream at me for 45 minutes and pick him up and put him down many many times this morning because he wanted to be held. Had I given in and just held him for his nap, it would have made the behavior even harder to extinguish, because he would have learned he could outlast me.
I've read a lot that says you can't spoil a less than 3 month old baby, but that is certainly where it begins. He's just doing what I (and my well meaning family) taught him to do ... nap while being held. As I told a couple people this weekend though, babies should be a wonderful part of your life, not dominate your life. Anyhow, it was nice to take a long hot shower, throw in a couple of loads of laundry and eat a meal with both hands. Now I want him to wake up so we can play! :) Guess I'll let him sleep.
This pretty well sums up our experience with eating rice cereal over the past few days. He's not a big fan. I have to assume it'll get better.
I was downstairs working out last weekend. When I came upstairs this is the site that greeted me. How cute are they? I am so blessed.
Tucker was 4 months old on Friday. At his checkup Monday he weighed 14 pounds, 6.5 ounces. He was 25 inches long. That made him just above the 50th percentile in height and just below the 50th in weight. Yeah! He's caught up! Doc also said that he was right on track developmentally.
On Wednesday, Tucker was 3 months old. He weighs approximately 12.5 pounds. We think he's going to be right handed. This is his beat stuff hand. Currently, he's pounding on his barnyard friends and occasionally his football.
It's gratifying to me to see Tucker getting chubby and round. Take a look at those chubby little arms. It means that we must be doing something right to be making our skinny little boy a fat baby. He has a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, so we'll get the update then on how much he weighs and how long he is. We considered taking him to the post office and weighing him on the postage scale, but decided that the logistics just wouldn't work out, since we'd have to strip him down to his diaper. Oh well, two more days and we'll have the official poundage.
Today was my first Mother's Day. It was a good one. Tucker got me a massage (with a little help from his Daddy). What a thoughtful son I have! Perhaps the better gift was from Ryan, who gave me 2 extra hours of sleep this morning when he took Tucker downstairs after he was awake from 5:30 - 7 am. What a thoughtful husband I have!
I am officially unemployed. Today I turned in my resignation letter to work. It was really nice to see everyone at my office. My boss was disappointed that I was leaving, but not surprised. It's weird to be without job ... and especially without income. Wish us luck!
Sooo big! As of his one month appointment on Tuesday, Tucker is 7 pounds, 6 ounces and 21 and a quarter inches long. If you consider that his lowest was 5 pounds, 2 ounces, that's a pretty impressive weight gain.
I swear he gets cuter each day. Yes, I realize I've become one of those people who talk incessantly about their kids, but to be honest, my days are taken up with him, so there's not a lot else to share right now.
This had to be the cutest thing ever. Tucker is starting to be alert for a lot more of his day. He found his thumb a few days ago.
Here's Tucker ready to come home from the hospital. I kept thinking they'd come running and tell us that they weren't actually going to let us take him home or I would wake up from this crazy dream that he came early. Even though he was over 3 weeks early, he's perfect. Aside from a bit of trouble keeping his body temperature in the first 48 hours, he had no problems.
I realize I may have been a little sneaky when I told Ryan "they do better in pairs" when we got the cats. That being said, we get some of the greatest joy from playing with them and watching them beat each other up. I completely understand the studies that show that people with animals are happier and live longer lives. It's just hard to be in a bad mood watching the animals jump, beat and bite on each other. Watching them run into the wall chasing a laser pointer is pretty funny too. I'm glad they have each other for company since we're gone most of the day.
I'm officially huge. At this point, everything is swollen. The nurse at my doctor's office even pointed out to me that my ankles are swollen (which was very nice of her, I might add). I'll definitely take this stage of pregnancy over the 5 months of puking I did, but dude, I'm ready to have my body back. Next week, I am officially considered a "full term" pregnancy.
