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...
