Naps...I love them, my child hates them :)

Barely 5 1/2 weeks old and my baby already hates naps. Actually, he just hates sleep in general. He will fight falling asleep until he pretty much passes out. We swaddle him at night and it helps, even though he fights that too (probably knows it will put him to sleep). Unfortunately, he's getting too strong for his swaddle and can easily wriggle his little arms out, so today is the first day I'm trying to help him learn to sleep without it. I'm starting with his daytime naps, figuring that if he learns to sleep in his crib without a swaddle during the day, it won't be such a fight when/if I try it at night. So far, that means he takes a 3 minute power nap, flails himself awake and then I have to help him calm down so he'll fall back asleep.

This might just be karma...apparently I hated sleep as a baby, too. My parents always tell me how I wanted to be awake all the time, afraid I'd miss something. Well, I guess that's hereditary 'cause that's exactly how Colt is. My baby boy is just too curious about the world for naps! :)

One month later...

...and I'm still madly in love with my little man. :)

I can't believe we've had him with us that long already! Time is flying by. My parents left on Sept 21, and then Bryce's parents, brother and sister came on Oct. 2 to visit for a week. The past couple of days have been my first "official" days as a full-time mom. It's challenging and tiring caring for a newborn, but so worth it. He has started smiling in response to my voice, which is the best feeling in the world. He also can lift his head up pretty high and hold it up there for quite some time. He's a very strong little baby! He's also doing pretty good at night. After his last feed at night, he'll sleep for 3.5 - 5 hours at a stretch, which is nice for Mom. :) After that, he'll get up every 2 hours or so. Lately he acts wide awake around 4am, but luckily I've been able to convince him to go back to sleep for a few hours!

I had hoped to update this blog more, but life with a newborn does not allow much time for anything besides the newborn! He prefers to be held all the time while awake (which Mom has no problem with!), but insists that I walk around with him. If I sit down, he fusses. I think he gets bored staring at the wall, couch or Mom's face while we're sitting. The only problem is that he is a big boy and my arms get tired! The plus side is that I'm getting some nice definition in my upper arms. He also likes going up and down the stairs, so at least I'm burning some extra calories! He's been having some problems with gas bubbles, so we got him some Infacol (the UK version of Mylicon). It seems to be helping him a bit (and helping Mom too so I don't get yelled at so much during meals!). I also started infant massage. He liked it at first, but I think I took too long (had to reference the book for some of the strokes) because he got fussy and we cut it short. I'll get better, though, and I think it will be a nice experience for us to share.