Holiday Fun

This is mostly a pictures post, since there's not much new to report other than the holidays were fabulous and Jack thoroughly enjoyed himself up in RI with the family. He's been in a pretty great mood all week and though he didn't quite know what to make of the christmas tree and decorations, he did enjoy playing with the wrapping paper and ribbons on the many many presents he was given. 

In other news, we're in Day 2 of complete pacifier weaning. So far, so good....

With Uncle Matt in Brooklyn before heading out

This was the Christmas card photo I wanted. Too bad I didn't get it until after I had ordered the Christmas cards. Ah well...

With Grandma Christmas morning

hanging with Uncle Will

With Papa. both in their Christmas outfits

The newest generation of Farrells to wear the Christmas crown (it's a tradition)

Social Butterfly

A very social weekend filled with friends and babies. Jack and I went to a holiday market with some friends from the building (and their son Ben, 1 day younger than Jack) then met my friend Abby for sort of brunch (and her daughter Calliope, 1 month younger than Jack) then saw my friends from Peace Corps (and their daughter Astrid, one month older than Jack) and then went to Cousin Caolan and Paul's holiday caroling party (many children, all older than Jack)

He was pretty mellow for all of it. I'm glad I got some good time in with him since this is the last (hopefully) of the crazy work weeks and I saw him for a grand total of like 2 hours today, which sucked. But I gotta keep my eye on the prize and just get to Saturday, after which it will be infinitely more mellow. But I realize how good I've had it being able to work from home, since going into the office for 9 hours really was not very delightful. I also find, oddly enough, that I get way more work done at home. I don't know if it's not having the distraction of other people around, or the fact that I'm in my own space, or if I work quicker so I can pop over and see the little man but I'm definitely better from home.

Some pics from the weekend, including one where Caolan tries to read Jack a graphic novel (which he was totally interested in!)

Keeping the Christ in Christmas??

So I just put up my Christmas tree (for the record, the smallest one I have ever gotten - not counting the tabletop tree than Jenn and I smuggled into our college dorm room in a trashbag). Haven't decorated it yet, but it's up. Settling overnight so I can find the best side once the branches have dropped to where they're going to stay... I don't even remember how I know that a tree has to "settle". I suppose my mom or dad told me that once or we did it for our trees or maybe I saw it on television. I don't know. But it got me thinking about Christmas traditions. What my traditions have always been and what they will continue to be with Jack.

Not for the first time (and definitely not for the last time) I'm thinking about religion now that I have this little boy who's a blank slate of faith, completely ignorant of the concepts of god, the Bible, different (opposing) organized religions, heaven/hell, etc... Not this year, and maybe not even next year, but at some point he'll be aware of Christmas and the tree and the decorations and (most important for a kid) the presents. And then I have to figure out what to tell him about Christmas. That it's a time to be with family. That it's when we give (and receive) gifts from our friends and family. That it's a commemoration of the birth of this guy named Jesus who some people think is God, the Creator of All. That last one will likely warrant further explanation for him. I guess it's just once again brought this religion question to the forefront and made me wonder what I'm doing about the whole "god thing". Because while I think I can safely say that Jack will not be raised Catholic like his mom, I don't know that I'm ready to toss all religion out the door. I don't know that I'm truly an atheist, or even an agnostic. I think that's the problem. I still don't know what I believe, and realizing that I need to try and figure it out so I can explain it to this little guy has really made me ponder. I don't really feel like shopping for a new religion (this week: Presbyterianism!!) but I do feel like I need to get my story straight so I can at least present a consistent explanation. Luckily, I've got some time before I'm debating religion with Jack...

Sorry for getting all deep and real. I'm sure this will not be the last blog post on this matter, but enough for now. I'll leave you, as always, with photos of Jack.

Wearing a fabulous puffy coat and owl hat from Aunt Nora. Sadly, I could NOT get him to smile for the camera. 

Working Girl Fail

So as you probably know, I have this nanny (who continues to be great) 3 days a week. We switch up the days based on when I think I'm going to be busy and so far, it had been working out perfectly. On the 2 days she didn't come, I'd check emails and make a couple calls, but it was no big deal. And the came last week. The nanny (who I'm just going to refer to as L from now on) came Mon-Wed and then Thursday came and work was just insane. Constant phone calls and emails and crises that needed my attention and trying to take care of Jack at the same time. It's not that it was a disaster in the sense that he was ever in danger or unsafe, but there was a lot of solo playing, hanging out in his crib, and otherwise entertaining himself while I dealt with my shit. The worst part was that I was on a conference call with some folks from the studio and I could hear him wake up from his nap and (as occasionally happens) start screaming. Now while there are many folks I work with whom I could have said "let me call you back, my baby is yelling", the people I was on the phone with were not some of them. So 6 minutes of screaming child later, I got off the call and went to tend to my child. It was not a good day for the work/life balance. I know logically that he was fine. It's not like he didn't get fed or take his naps. It's not like I didn't hang out with him at all - I did. But I felt like a shitty mother. And that's not a great feeling.

On a happier note, he's actually doing really well. He's gotten to be a really happy baby and I feel like his personality is really starting to come out. He's (sometimes, sort of) responding to his name, which is so cool, and I'm really digging the phase we're in. I've kept up with the no pacifier for night sleeping - Rebecca, to answer your question from my last post: I have absolutely NOTHING against the pacifier, lord knows it's been good to me. My problem was that he was waking 4-8 times a night looking for it, which meant I was waking up 4-8 times a night to stick it back in his mouth. He'd go immediately back to sleep and I'd lay there for 20 minutes, which was not a sleep pattern that was working for me. A lot of people told me that if I could get to the point where he could find it in the crib and put it back in his own mouth I'd be golden, and that would have been awesome, but I just wasn't getting enough sleep to function as a normal person. Hence the pacifier removal. He's consistently sleeping 7-4/4:30 and I'm trying to not feed him until 5am each morning (hoping to start moving that slowly forward to 6am, but we'll see) He's legitimately hungry at 5am, so I have no problem feeding him, but it will be nice in the next month or so to be able to push that back.

Here are some "rejects" from the holiday Christmas card photo shoots I've been doing all week in an attempt to get the perfect picture, only to realize that there's no such thing and no matter which one I choose, the kid's adorable...

Off to get the Christmas tree tomorrow. If anyone reading this has a good suggestion about where to get a cute 1st Christmas ornament, let me know. I'm on the search...

Pacifier Removal, Stage One

So we are more than a week into the first phase of the Great Pacifier Removal Plan, which involves not letting him have it at night. So far, it's been a great success. It's coincided (somewhat inadvertently) with moving him out of my room and into his own, since we began this whole process at my parents house for Thanksgiving where he slept in a crib in his own room so once we got back here it seemed foolish not to continue that way.

Anyway, I basically did our nighttime routine per usual (our "routine" consists of PJs, sleep sack, bottle, singing) and then when I put him in the crib I just said good night and walked out. The first night he started screaming so I went back in after about a minute and shhed and patted, which I think only enraged him more, then I went out in to the hallway and happened to get a work phone call. So I stood in the hallway while my son was screaming in his room and during that 7 minute call, he stopped crying and went to sleep. I'm sure the people I work with who could no doubt hear the screaming child in the background of the phone call think that I'm the worst mother ever, but whatever. After that, it's been relatively painless. A minute or two of grumbling and then he's out. And he seems to be sleeping straight through (most of the time - see below) till about 4-5am, which is earlier than I'd like but we're working on that.

Until last night of course when he was up at 1:45am, shrieking like a banshee. I tried rocking him and shushing him, but to no avail. And I'm fairly certain he wasn't hungry since he had downed EIGHT ounces of formula at 7pm. So I got out the pacifier and stuck it in his mouth and he went immediately back to sleep until 4:45. Bad me. I find myself with so little resolve at 2am faced with a screaming child and a desperate desire to go back to sleep myself. But I'm hoping (praying) that it was an isolated incident and tonight will revert back to "normal" with just the one 5am wakeup. We'll see.

At the same time we (the nanny and I) have been forcing Jack to nap in his crib during the day, which he has NEVER successfully done. He's always been a stroller/carseat/in my arms napper, which is getting to be a problem now that it's getting colder and those 3 hour walks around the neighborhood aren't so pleasant. So all week we've been putting him in the crib and he has not taken more than a 45 minute nap. And let me say that a sleep-deprived Jack is a very, very unpleasant little boy. Finally this afternoon he slept in his crib for an hour and 45 minutes, and the post-nap personality was like night and day. So many more smiles and talking and playing. I don't know what to do - force this issue and keep making him nap in his crib and assume he WILL eventually get it, or do whatever I have to to get him to sleep and get to have a happy baby? Decisions, decisions.

On a lighter note, we went to get Jack's picture taken with Santa at the mall over Thanksgiving and the picture came out great! Jack was a pro and totally turned on the smile for the camera. Of course, he had had a nice nap in his stroller beforehand...

A very sleepy boy :-(

Thanksgiving

Very very happy thanksgiving to everyone!

I'm feeling particularly thankful this year, I've got to admit. It's not hard to feel like life is good when you get to see this little face every day.

Four months

How have 4 months already gone by?? 

All is well in Babyland. Jack is consistently sleeping 7-5:30-ish BUT wakes up for his pacifier still. I'm resolving that we will be quitting cold turkey when we go home to RI on Tuesday, since we'll be there 6 nights and it may be easier to deal with the inevitable screaming when I'm not feeling guilty about waking up the entire apt building. Anyone out there with experience taking away the pacifier and want to share their tips, please do. My current plan is basically There are No Pacifiers after Tuesday at 6pm. 

We'll see. 

In a completely unrelated note, one of my neighbors (can't tell if it's above, below, or next door) has been playing Christmas music for the last 8 hours. Straight. Now no one (literally, no one) loves Christmas more than me, but come on folks, it's not even Thanksgiving! I feel like I'm living in a mall...

I'm thinking of all my roommates over the years and realizing karma really is a bitch. 

Flying Ace

So we took our first plane flight this weekend, to Pittsburgh to visit the grandparents (or great-grandparents, as the case may be). Jack did great on the plane - slept the entire way out there and only minimally fussed before falling to sleep on the way back. The visit itself was great and he was fairly pleasant throughout the weekend.

Now that we're back, I think it's time to move him to his own room. I think he'll sleep better (and I'm hoping I will too). The last real hurdle is this pacifier. He still needs it to fall asleep, spits it out after a little while, then wakes up and starts screaming since he can't get back to sleep without it. This will happen 4-6 times/night (mostly in the hours just after he's fallen asleep, so I'm still awake and just run in and pop it back in) and it's a problem. He's not quite dexterous enough with his hands that he can find it in the crib and get it back into his mouth, so it's on me to get it back in there. Is it too early to break him of it and just say we're done with pacifiers completely? It sucks (no pun intended) because it really does soothe him - I mean, you pop that thing back in and he is back to sleep immediately. But maybe it's tough love time...

Pictures of visiting the great grandparents (and Great Aunt Jackie!)

With Great-Papa and Great-Aunt Jackie

At the airport

With Great-Noni

Happy Halloween!

Some great pics that Mia took of Jack in his 3rd (and last) halloween costume

 

Blah blah blah

So as I write this, someone is cleaning my house. Between her and my nanny, I now employ TWO people to do things that previously I did myself (watch Jack and clean). This is weird for me. I've had someone clean my house exactly one other time, and that's when I was 9 months pregnant and had just had construction done so there was plaster dust everywhere. This is different. This is vacuuming and dusting and basic cleaning that I just haven't had the time to do. As everyone knows, to really clean the house you need a good couple hours and I just don't get that kind of time chunk with Jack. And when I do, I don't want to spend it cleaning the bathroom (let's be honest, did I EVER want to spend my time cleaning the bathroom?) when I could be playing with Jack or sleeping or cooking or ANYTHING else. Hence the cleaning lady. But aside from the new financial burden this places on me, it's also cause for a bit of guilt. Not so much with the cleaning lady (since I have no problem with the fact that I no longer clean my shower) but with the nanny. Having her has allowed me to be a little more...indulgent during the day. I'm working from home mostly, so there's obviously times that I find myself with a spare 15 minutes or so and like every other worker in the world, I browse my random websites and check Facebook. But since I can hear her and Jack in the other room, I feel terribly guilty when I do because I think, oh I should be going in there and hanging out with him when I get a free second. But it's been really nice in a lot of ways and I realized how much I missed the little me-moments, which also includes going to meet friends for lunch and running errands on the days when the nanny is here. Maybe I'm just always going to feel guilty for enjoying things without the baby? Or maybe this is a normal result of being tethered to him for 3 months and now the leash is a little looser and I can actually venture out on my own a bit (literally and figuratively)? But it's also still strange to not have him with me all the time. I was riding the subway the other day (without Jack) and I thought about the last time I was on the subway, which had been when I was 9 months pregnant and people would give me a seat and ask when I was due and I was completely defined by this huge belly and the baby inside it, and now here I was just another person on the train. And I kept thinking to myself, they don't even KNOW that I have a baby at home, I just look like a normal person and not necessarily like Jack's Mom. It's like a weird identity crisis, since I guess I had started thinking of myself in relation to him rather than as my own person, and the idea that others wouldn't necessarily see me that way kind of threw me for a loop.

Well I just re-read that paragraph 2 days later and sorry for that total babblefest. I'll try and reign in my self-analysis and stick with the cute baby stories and pictures! In baby news, we are no longer swaddling (yay!) and have moved on to sleep sacks, which are working well. Also, I've been doing the 'put-the-baby-to-sleep-when-he's-still-awake' method and that is also working out well! Prior to this, I needed to rock him to sleep and then hold him for 20 minutes to make sure he was really asleep before putting him in his crib, so this is a real game-changer. Sometimes he lays there for 15 minutes "talking" to himself before he falls asleep but so far, there hasn't been any real crying it out... we'll see what happens. Now if I can just wean him off this pacifier so I don't get woken up 3-4 times a night to put it back in - he's "sleeping" through the night in that he doesn't eat between 7:30pm-5am, but I'm still getting up to stick that stupid pacifier back in since he spits it out while sleeping and then when he wakes in the night, he can't fall back to sleep without it so I dig around the crib until I find wherever he's spit it, put it back in his mouth and he falls right back to sleep. But it's not the best sleep habit for me...

Here are some more pictures - I think he looks completely different depending on the lighting, the pose, and the outfit. Will post his 3rd Halloween costume later today!

Halloween Costume #2 (it's a hot dog)

You know that he's outgrown pants
when they give him a muffin top! 

 

Three Months

Jack is 3 months old today!

The official end of the "fourth trimester", according to the Happiest Baby on the Block.

He's definitely moved out of the infant phase and onto babyhood proper. Officially less of a pod creature and more of a baby boy. This week he's begun actually grasping at things where he can reach for something and actually get it rather than just gripping something if you put it in his hands. It's pretty fun. You can see him concentrating really hard when you hold something in front of him - he brings both his hands in from the sides really slowly and grabs on to the thing, like it's a complex calibration of movement to bring his hands together, which I guess for him it is.

The work/nanny front continues to go pretty well. I still really like my nanny and going to work still sucks, but working from home has been pretty successful, so hopefully that continues. We had a screening on Monday night so my  mom came down for the day, since I thought it was still a little early to have the nanny put Jack to bed at night and my mom's done it before.

I think I'm ready to move Jack out of his co-sleeper an into his own room. He's still waking up 2x per night (though there are those delightful nights when it's just once) but I don't know how much of that is related to his acid reflux (which continues to plague us even though he's on the medicine now and feeling MUCH better than he did a couple weeks ago). Right now, he goes to bed between 7-8pm and wakes up once at 12-1am and then at 4:30/5, then between 7-8am he's up for the day. I want to cut out that midnight wake up (the early morning one doesn't bother me as much) but I don't know if it's time for the tough love stuff yet or if I should wait a little longer. I know he's capable of sleeping 8-5 since he's done it before, but he really does seem to be hungry when he wakes at midnight, so I don't know if he's ready for it even if I am.

For your viewing pleasure, Halloween Costume #1 (of 3) I couldn't get him to hold the "Cock-a-doodle-do" candy bag, but you get the picture...

Back to Work, Day 1

So this morning, I handed Jack over to a virtual stranger and went off to work. It was horrible. The nanny seems great - I only ended up interviewing 2 in the end, and I really like her and feel great about her. BUT she is still someone I've only known for a couple days and it took all my willpower not to call her every 5 minutes and make sure all was well and Jack was still alive. She came recommended from another family in the neighborhood - she's been their nanny for 2.5 years and now that their daughter's in preschool they don't need a full-time nanny anymore so we are "sharing" this nanny. Which means basically that she's with Jack alone until about 2:30 and then they go and get the other little girl and have both of them until 5:30. I like this because a) it makes me feel better knowing that this other family has known her for years and really likes her, and b) because she's been nannying in the neighborhood for a while, she knows all the good kid spots, where the storytimes are, etc... c) it makes it less likely that she will run away and sell Jack on the Baby Black Market. But it still sucks. It's also pretty damn expensive. I still think I will likely move him into daycare when he's a bit older, maybe when he passes the one-year mark? But who knows. Maybe I'll love this situation so much that I'll take out a second mortgage to keep the nanny.

I don't know what the answer is to the whole work-mom question. Even though it isn't remotely an option for me, I know I couldn't be a stay-at-home-mom. I'd go insane. But I certainly wouldn't say no to a LITTLE more time with him. Especially when I go back to work for real in the new year and I'm on a much more normal work schedule. It's going to be a real bummer seeing him for an hour or two in the morning and then an hour or two in the evening and that's it, 5 days a week.

Oh well. It's not like any of this is new territory. I know mom have been dealing with this for ages and dads even more so. It's just so different to think about in theory when you're pregnant and know that you'll be going back to work. All day today, taking the subway, walking down the street, it's like I kept thinking I'd left something at home and then I realized I had...Jack. After 3 months of literally almost never being more than 10 feet away from him, it's so strange to be a train ride away. All day.

Sorry for the slightly bummer post. At least you don't have to read the rambling paragraph I wrote and then deleted about America and it's bastard policies on work/family/mothers. It was pure drivel.

And as always, a pic of the little man. 12 weeks old today. He's getting more and more hair!

Childcare

So my original plan was to take 6 months off after Jack was born. I had saved some money - not a ton, but enough to not freak out about returning to work right away. But then on Wednesday I got a call from the people I was working for before he was born and they offered me the chance to finish up the project I was working on before. They kind of made it really hard to turn down, since they're cool with me working essentially from home 3 days/week and it will just be til Christmas, which is kind of a great way to transition back into things. So I'm going to do it. Now of course, I have to figure out who will watch the child while I make this work. I had long thought that a nanny would be the most sensible option - both because then she could be at the house with him so if I'm working in my bedroom, I could still come out and see him when it's a slow morning. I could also save a pumping session or two if we were both in the apt at the same time, which is always a bonus. I also figured with my work schedule, where I have certain times where I'm not working conventional hours, that it would be easier to work that out with a nanny rather than figure out each day who could pick him up from daycare. So I figured nanny now, and then when he's a little older, segue into a daycare scenario.

So just for the hell of it, I went to check out one of the in-home daycares in my neighborhood. It was kind of horribly depressing. There was about 5 pack and plays lined up on one wall, the tv was blaring in the corner, and it just seemed rather bleak and miserable. Now I'm sure it wasn't as bad as I think it was, I think I was just kind of shocked at the idea of leaving Jack there for 9 hours a day a week from now. Maybe if he was a little older it wouldn't have seemed so bad? But it only strengthened my resolve to find a nanny, even though it's triple the price of a daycare. I'm interviewing one woman tomorrow and one on Tuesday, both come recommended from moms on the local parents group who've had them taking care of their children for several years each, so I feel good about that. But it's very strange to think about interviewing someone not to work with me at my job, but to work FOR me in my home. Someone that I'm entrusting to take care of Jack all day long. It's going to be strange. How do you know who's a good fit for your kid and how can you guarantee they're not insane and they won't leave him crying on the floor all day while they talk on the phone and watch tv?

I'll let you know how the interviews go...

And I'll leave you with a little series of pictures I took of Jack yesterday in our chair. He is nowhere near being able to sit up on his own, but if you prop him up against something, he can fake it reasonable well. Until he can't...

Doing great.

Starting to falter

Tries to recover

Going down

Fail.

Two months

Jack is 2 months old today. We're off to the pediatrician this afternoon for his first round of shots. I tried to explain to him that is might hurt, but I don't know if he understood me... will let you know how he fares. 

We're settling back into a routine here in Brooklyn. It's been great to get out and meet up with friends. We went for a walk and got a snack with my friend Abby and her baby girl Calliope and yesterday met up with Matt and Rachel for brunch (Jack was displeased with the brunch sopt and decided to cut his nap short to voice his displeasure) and it's been good to be slightly social again...

 He's still sleeping in my room since he wakes up (at least) twice a night, but I've been putting him in his crib in his room to remind him that it exists and he's absolutely fascinated by the mobile above it. It's pretty much the only thing that can get him to stop moving, and it's like he's hypnotized when he watches it. I feel guilty leaving him in there too long, but I think he could watch that thing all day. Tempting...

                                               

Out and about in Brooklyn. Jack is nonplussed by it all. 

Home Alone

Well, Jack and I are back in Brooklyn. My mom drove down with us and left yesterday and we are finally, officially on our own. This provokes a simultaneous "yikes" and "woo-hoo!" from me when I think about it. It feels like I've been at Baby Camp for the summer and I'm kind of now realizing that Baby Camp never ends. It's going to change and morph and mature into different versions of Baby Camp as he gets older, but I'm never going back to normal again. I know this is not any revelation to anyone - I had a baby, of COURSE it's a long-term commitment, but being back in my apartment has definitely driven this point home. He's napping right now, and since his daytime naps (not in the carseat) last pretty much exactly 45 minutes, I realize I have 45 minutes to do whatever I need to do to get ready for the day. This may be the only 45 minutes before noon that he's not awake or I'm not holding him/rocking him/shhing him, etc... So I got dressed, plucked my eyebrows, and am typing this. 21 minutes to go...

My life is comprised of these little cycles. 3 hour chunks of time where he wakes up, eats, plays, and naps and then it starts all over again. And again. And again. Nights are only slightly different, and since he's regressing in his nightly sleep chunks, the nights are feeling sadly similar to the days in terms of the cycles. IT gets to be 3pm and I think "only one more cycle and we can go to bed" because I go to bed between 7-8pm now. There are moments when I'm lying in my bed, halfasleep and I hear him start to stir and I think "please please PLEASE don't wake up" and then I feel awful because why have a kid if you just want him to sleep all the time so you don't have to deal with him? Though to be honest, I don't want him to sleep ALL the time, but a couple more hours at night would really be nice!

And...I hear him rousing himself in the other room. I forgot to take into account the 10 minutes he was asleep in my arms before I put him in his crib, so it was really only 35 minutes from when he was in the crib until wakeup. Crap. Didn't get to run the dishwasher, brush my teeth, make a cup of coffee, or respond to e-mails. Maybe in this afternoon's 45 minute nap...

Pictures to come...!

Family

So as I said in yesterday's sort-of post: busy week! In addition to Nick and Katie and Kellan, my sister Nora and her husbad Noah were also in town for the weekend, which made for a full house. I can't wait till the babies are a little older and can actually PLAY with each other; this time around, even when we placed them smushed up against each other in the hammock, they seriously didn't even acknowledge the other. Didn't even look to see what this warm, mushy thing they were pressed up next to was. But next year at this time, especially if they're both walking, it's going to be a whole other thing. And god help us when they're both 8-, 10- and 15-year olds. The family vacations together will be fun.

It's also inevitable (for me at least) to draw comparisons between babies. Kellan is 6 weeks older than Jack, which at this age feels like an eternity, and it's such a different world where he's at compared to Jack. He's also just a far more mellow baby, which I think is inherent temperament and not necessarily all due to age. I was rereading my last post about how well Jack is doing and it's like I had forgotten that a little over a week ago he was not napping, eating all the time and generally being completely unpredictable. He's so much more together now, and yet compared to a 12-week old, he's still such a Baby. And I'm sure when he gets to the 3 month mark, I'll look at a 6 month old and think the same thing.

Thing I feel guilty about this week: I have so many friends who as their babies have aged have lamented that they'll never be newborns/3-week olds/6-week olds, etc... and mourned the infant stage in a wistful way as something that was so precious and fleeting. Right now, I feel like I'm welcoming the steps forward - I don't really find much to mourn about the last 6 weeks, and can't wait for him to get through the next 6. I don't know if as he gets older and really moves out of his infant hood if I'll change my tune and start to regret not cherishing these weeks more, but I have to admit at this point that I'm far more excited about the future Jack than I was about the earlier Jack. Not that I don't adore him here and now, but it's such a tedious, un-rewarding phase in so many ways, since they can't communicate, can't play, can't really give you anything back (though the smiles are fabulous!) it just starts to feel like a never-ending cycle of feed, hangout, try and get him to nap, repeat. Over and over and over. It's like living in my own personal Groundhog Day. But I don't want to spend his whole life being so anxious for the Next Phase that I don't enjoy him each day as he is. I mean, there's always some great milestone down the road - sitting, walking, talking, reading, etc... and I can be a very impatient person. I guess all you can do is try and be mindful of it and as cliche as it sounds, to live in the moment. No doubt I'll be posting in 10 months about how much I miss my little baby now that he's all grown up...

And my parenting question of the day, concerning (to no one's surprise) Sleep: so Jack has now regularly starting sleeping a 5-hour chunk at night. This is fabulous. The thing is the timing. It seems like he really wants to be going to sleep between 7 and 8pm, which means if I want to take advantage of this largest chunk of sleep, I also go to bed between 7 and 8. I've halfheartedly tried to keep him up until 9 or 10, but it seems to just shorten the chunk so he wakes up around 1 no matter what. And he also has developed a Witching Hour between 5-7pm where no matter where we are in the schedule (just ate, just woke up, whatever) he has about 30 minutes of screaming and crying where almost nothing will help calm him down. This is usually my cue to put him to bed, since he crashes hard after it and if I nurse him to sleep it's usually a fairly easy transition. Any thoughts on how to make this bedtime later? Should I just go with it and say that's his natural bedtime and why mess with it? The bummer is that once he wakes from the first 5-hour chunk, his next 2 sleep cycles (between 1am-6am) are kind of lousy (usually 1-2 hours each), so if I want my good nap, I really do need to grab it when he's doing that long stretch. Also, the last few nights, he's been really restless after the first chunk of night sleeping, mostly (I think) because of gas. My cousin uses the Mylicon drops and think they're really helped. Anyone else had a gassy baby and found any good tips for helping them out? I think his sleeping would really improve if he weren't trying to get all the gas out.

And lastly, here's a pic of Jack in his Labor Day Clambake outfit. I've clearly inherited my mother's penchant for holiday-themed clothing. God help this child, he's going to be in bedazzled Arbor Day tunics until he's old enough to forcibly refuse to wear them...

Just some pictures until tomorrow...

Busy week! My cousin Nick, his wife Katie and their 12-week old baby Kellan are here in RI for Labor Day, so Jack and his cousin have been hanging out. I'll post a more informative post tomorrow but here are some pics of the last few days!

Jack (R) and Kellan on the hammock