First Trip

This past weekend we took our first long distance trip with Alexander, up to Maine so that Alexander could meet his great-grandparents and see some of his other relatives again. The trip went about as well as can be expected with a two month old baby. We left Thursday evening to beat the Memorial Day traffic, and Alexander was somewhat fussy on the way up because I couldn't indulge his usual evening cluster feeding without doubling the length of the trip, couldn't pump more than a half ounce at at time, and the pacifier would only satisfy him for so long. But honestly, he did pretty good - we only had one period of extended fussing, and once we stopped so he could get some cuddle time and nursing in he settled down and fell asleep.

Alexander was an abosulte champ once we got to Maine - he met a TON of new people, ranging from new relatives to neighbors and coworkers of the relatives, and he laughed and smiled and generally made a lot of new friends. Every once in a while it would get to be a bit too much and you could see a bit of panic creep into his face, or an imminent crying fit approaching, but once he looked around and saw that mom or dad was still there, or was held by one of us for a few minutes, he was back to his normal happy self. I do think by Sunday he was missing his swing/play gym/bouncy chair/thing to lay back and look at, but we went outside and laid down under the trees and watched the branches for a while, and that settled him.

He also had no problems with sleeping in a strange place. In fact, out of the 4 nights we were there, he slept at least 7 hours in a row for 3 of them. That makes 5 out of 7 nights last week that he slept through the night. Nice! I'll enjoy it when it comes. :)

This morning we watched Grampy march in the memorial day parade, then drove back. We again managed to avoid getting stuck in any major traffic jams, and again Alexander was very good. We stopped once to change a diaper, feed him and get food for us, and again to get gas and a quick nurse and a diaper change. By the time we were almost home he was getting fussy again, but we were within about a half hour of home by that point, and the pacifier and bottle were able to keep him at least somewhat settled until we got home. He then went into his swing and took a nice long nap - he seemed very happy to be back in familiar surroundings.

Sucking

Alexander is learning how to suck his thumb. Or his fingers. He hasn't decided which he prefers yet, but he's delighting in the discovery that he can suck on each digit independently instead of just shoving the whole fist in his mouth.

This will be a wonderful thing once he figures out how to do it. Unfortunately, learning new things is hard. Normally I can nurse Alexander until he's mostly asleep, and is "sleep nursing" - sucking for comfort, but not really getting anything out of it. If I put him down then, he'll usually start sucking on his tongue until he settles into real sleep. But last night, apparently the tongue was inferior to the fist, and Alexander would start trying to suck on his fingers instead. Trying being the operative word - it's a hard thing do to when you're 2 months old, and his efforts would end up waking him up. So I ended up having to let him use the mommy pacifier until he was dead cold asleep last night. Similarly, when we were nursing when he was waking up in the morning, he kept unlatching and instead of latching back on to the boob, trying to suck his fingers instead. Very fun, very tasty, but not much nutritional value.

Hopefully he'll get the details of finger and thumb sucking down soon!

Independence

My parents visited this past weekend to help my husband put in a new fence. The fence has been successfully completed, and Saturday evening we all went out to dinner, then Alexander stayed home with Grandmom for the evening while Granddad, Dad, and I all went out to see Star Trek together. I was pleased with the movie - it was worth seeing on my one evening away from the little one. It was nice to have an evening out, but also nice to come back to my little one. He and Grandmom had a good time while I was out - he had his first bottle very sucessfully. The only problem she had was getting him to stop drinking long enough to burp him! When I came home he was so sound alseep that I couldn't wake him up to eat, so I ended up having to pump to keep from exploding - aparently he'd partied too hard with Grandmom and was ready to crash for the night. Thank you Grandmom for watching him!

Two Months

Alexander was two months old this past weekend. For someone who's just been on this planet two months, he's doing pretty darn good. (This is a list mainly for my future reference since I haven't had time to write down all his activities in the baby book.)

He's got very good head control, and can even sit up if his back is supported for him, although he doesn't have a sense of balance to try to catch himself if he does start falling. He's very good at tracking objects, and loves watching the world around him, especially bright colors and moving objects and people. He laughs and smiles and coos and gurgles and makes all sorts of interesting baby noises. He's already showing some preteething signs - nice and drooly, and some bumps along his lower gumline.

He can flap his wings and flail his legs around, although he doesn't have much control over where they go, but he can manage to hit the toys in his play gym. He doesn't seem to be targeting the toys yet. He loves watching the baby in the mirror in his play gym. He's getting pretty good at getting his fist to his mouth when he wants something to chew or suck on, although it often still escapes him before too long. He loves his swing and will often hang out there for 10 or 20 minutes at a time if he's awake, and will nap in there occasionally.

He's finally stopped screaming every time he's in the back seat of the car alone, and will ride quietly or fall asleep about half the time. We've had to adjust the carseat to the second set of straps - I think that made it more comfortable. He can hold his head up for short periods of time while laying on his tummy, but it's obviously still hard work - I need to remember to get him tummy time more often. He can somewhat roll from his back onto his side on certain surfaces, but hasn't achieved a full roll either back to front or front to back.

When he's fussy, he likes having Dad carry him around facing outwards. Mom makes a more substitue for carrying - he likes Dad better for that. But he'll let Mom rock him to settle him down more often than he'll let Dad do that. The rule seems to be that Mom rocks, Dad walks. He likes facing out so he can see the world in his moby wrap, or being in the mai tei with his head away from my chest so he can look to the sides. He's only happy having his head against my chest in the carrier if he's sleepy.

Many of these things aren't things that I can put a true date on - for instance, I don't know when he first had a "real" smile or laugh, because it's been a gradual transition from "sleep grins" and smiles of contentment to something he obviously has full control over. But for two months on this planet, he's done a pretty good job of figuring out how to make his body work and how to get mom and dad to cater to his every whim. :)

Love

I continue to fall more in love with Alexander every day. When he was newborn, I loved him of course. But it was more like loving your right hand - he was still so much almost a part of me that it's not quite the same kind of thing as loving another creature. But he's begun exploring his personality, and every time a new aspect of it unfolds, I find something new to fall in love with.

I love his little laugh of delight when he figures out he can do something new. I love the fact that one of his favorite places to play is on the changing table, even if it does make the actual changing part a bit difficult. I love the looks of amazement he gets when watching his mobile while in his baby swing, as if he's watching a miracle unfold. I love his little evil overlord laugh that gets going when he starts crying too hard, and his pouting lower lip when he's just starting to get upset. I love the look of concentration he gets when he's about to fill his diaper, the feel of his arm around my neck when he's settling down and getting sleepy, and the squeals of delight when he's happy.

And I'm blown away when I think about the fact that this is just the begining, that we have months and years ahead of us filled with new developments, new personality quirks, and that with each new unfolding of his personality there will be another reason for me to fall in love with him all over again.

Wieght

Alexander is certainly a big boy. We're about to grow out of the 3-6 month clothes - every day I stretch out the feet on the little jumpers to see if he still has enough room to extend his legs all the way without squishing his toes, and so far he still does, but it's a very close thing. We had a Drs appoitnment last week because he'd been peeing a LOT (as in 22 diapers in 24 hours - made me glad we were using cloth!). The doctor couldn't find anything wrong and he seems to be doing better now, so it may have been a classic case of "crush on the nice doctor lady"itis. But at any rate, he weighed in at 14lbs 12 oz - this was last Wednesday, so that meant from his low weight of just under 8 lbs at his first doctors check in, he's gained about 8 lbs in about 8 weeks. What an impressive growth spurt!

Sleep

Lately I've been reading "Operating Instructions" by Anne Lamott - it's a journal of her son's first year of life. It has been something of a relief to read the confessions of another mom and to realize that I am far from alone in the evil thoughts I have when sleep deprived and woken up again in the middle of the night by a little squirming bundle of need. Fortunately Alexander has always been a pretty good sleeper from day one, so it didn't take me too long to get adjusted to the new baby imposed sleeping schedule. Nowadays it's just a fact of life to be woken up, although there's often a prayer of "please go back to sleep" when he first starts stirring if I just finally got him down and to sleep myself a little while ago. I have upmost sympathy for those moms who have to deal with a colicy baby or a poor sleeper on top of the normal sleep deprivation.

At any rate, as I said from day one Alexander was a pretty good sleeper. *knock wood* The medical definition of sleeping through the night is 5 hours, and he would do that fairly often from the first week. This past Sunday, however, we got real sleeping through the night - he went down after his evening feeding around 10, and slept till 6:30. I fed him, changed him, and we laid back down to cuddle on the bed, and we both slept with just a few stirrings until 10 am. The choirs of angels sang in my head. :) Monday night he managed about 7 hours in a row. Last night we were back to the normal 5 hours. Like all things baby, I expect it will continue to be two steps forward, one step back. But just having one night of solid, uninterupted sleep was such a blessing - both for letting me recharge my batteries (I was truly exhausted Sunday afternoon), and for a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel that some day he might do that on a regular basis. For now though, I'm just thankful that things are as well as they are, and try to enjoy it while it lasts. The four months sleep regression isn't that far away....

Cause and Effect

Alexander has been having a great time discovering that he doesn't have to sit and wait for the world to happen - he can make stuff happen! He's made up a few games to play with Mom and Dad, and loves to see what kinds of crazy things he can make them do. And he's been having a great time playing in his gym - it plays music when he bumps the toys, and he's delighted when he manages to make that happen. He can't quite do it on purpose yet, but when his flailing hits one of the toys he loves to watch them move.

The other day I realized that if I put the bouncy chair into it's more upright position instead of the infant recline position, he can reach the toys on the hanging bar. The first time I did that I put Alexander's hand on the pull toy that plays music to show him he could reach - he managed to grab onto the bar and pull and start the music playing, and had a great smile and laugh of delight of "I did that!" He hasn't manage to do it again, but he can hit the jingle ball toy and make it jingle every once in a while, and he loves that too.

Tears

Watching Alexander cry is so much more heartbreaking now that he has working tear ducts. Before when he would be screaming, it would be frustrating because I knew he was upset and I didn't speak baby well enough to figure out what he wanted. Now, when his little blue eyes start shining with tears my heart melts. And if I've had to leave him crying for a little while and he starts having tear tracks down his face and little puddles in the corners of his eyes, go fetch a mop because I'll have melted into a little puddle on the floor.

Welcome Bridget

Alexander now has a cousin - Bridget joined the world yesterday. Welcome, Bridget, and congrats to the new mom and dad!

Memere and Grampy visited last weekend - Alexander was glad to see them again. He was a bit grumpy during their visit - he hit his six week growth spurt just before they visited, and then there was a major heat wave while they were here, so between the two he was pretty much constantly hungry and thirsty. Which made me a bit grumpy too at times, but we got through it. Going from 40s to 85 in about a day was a but much for all involved! But when the temps went back to something a little more natural for April, we both got a lot happier.

Enjoying sitting on the couch with Dad.

Napping in the swing. He likes the swing well enough for hanging out for a few minutes to let me get food together, but this is the first time he's ever napped in it.

Listening to Daddy read.