9 weeks a madre
We hit nine weeks yesterday and two months of life with Mo on Monday. Just last week we hit a major milestone: fun. Mo is more fun than ever.
Part of this fun and general happiness might be attributed to the wonderful weather we have been having this month. The fact that we can spend each day outside in the warm sunshine is definitely a wonderful thing. I was so nervous about having my maternity leave in our PNW winter, figuring we would be stuck inside each day due to the rain and gloom. But have been more than pleasantly surprised by the temps in the 60's and regular/frequent time spent outside.
But back to the kid... He is smiling regularly and so much more engaged with us, still quite serious and very inquisitive (judging) with those eyes. Also, it must be known that the boy loves to have me sing to him, which makes me feel quite special. We are still working on ironing out the right schedule. I know that schedules are important with babies and children. Mike and I really had no schedule and little structure to our lives outside of work before the baby came along. We were quite spontaneous with plans and activities. So along with adjusting to this extra heart beat we are working through what it means to have more of a schedule we can rely on.
Mo consistently sleeps six straight hours at night and after those six hours wakes for a feeding then can be put back down for another three hours. The trouble with this is that due to our lack of a schedule he might fall asleep some nights at 8:00PM and other nights at 11:00PM. When he falls asleep at 8:00PM he is up at 2:00AM for his feeding but when he falls asleep at 11:00PM then he does not wake til 5:00AM which is much more our speed. With the later bedtime he usually takes a nap mid morning for an hour to an hour and a half and then a mid afternoon nap 3:00-6:00PM or so. This then allows for our family activities like visiting with friends, going out to dinner or whatever to happen during the hours that those make sense for all the non babies and then he gets tired out appropriately for bedtime. I am not sure if I can attribute his six hours of sleep to the dreamfeed as we only truly did it maybe five times. I figure that is not enough consistency so I will just say he is a good sleeper on his own.
We submitted Mo's passport application on Monday- his two month mark, and in one month we will be in sunny Mexico with Mike's side of the family. I am now on the hunt for appropriate stuff for our little guy to wear while poolside. I always thought the kids with the full sleeve suit things were a little bizarre. The parents were literally 'over protecting' their kids. But now I am eating my words as we will have a fair skinned three month old sitting poolside who I definitely do not want to have get burnt up. I am taking any and all suggestions on what to get for our little guy to wear while we are down there. Thanks in advance!
Now lets talk clothes. The boy is obviously still a baby. So most frequently he can be seen in sweats: cotton onesies and cotton baggy little leggings. I love how simple and easy it is to dress him in this stuff. It all matches cause it is all solid colors- grey and navy seem to be the go tos. I did however get him into a pair of his jeans from baby gap over the weekend and paired it with his chuck taylor crib shoes which are still a little too big but pretty dang cute! The jeans are not really jeans, much more like cotton sweats with detailing like jeans- pockets, tailoring, etc. I am looking forward to real outfits with the baby boy but while he is still so mini we will stick to the coziness of cotton onesies with snaps and baby steez.
Lastly I am almost halfway through maternity leave. Which is a bizarre feeling. These days don't feel like they have added up to much outside of course nurturing this baby. I have all kinds of feelings about maternity leave. There is stuff that makes me feel great and stuff that makes me feel not so great. I have been thinking about this a lot and will probably go in to more depth about it in a future post, but in short it is an amazing gift to be able to focus on my baby, myself and our family, but I struggle with the lack of accomplishment I feel now compared to what I felt from my tasks and responsibilities in the office.
That's where I am at these days with nine weeks in the rear view.
xx Ly