Age = 3 months 14 days

Bug has been sleeping “through the night” (which in baby terms is 5 hours) for a while now. He goes to sleep at around 11pm (late I know, but YOU try getting him to sleep earlier!), then I mysteriously wake between 4am and 5am to feed him. I say “mysteriously” because I don’t use an alarm and he doesn’t seem to be awake when I get him to feed him. Perhaps he simply snuffles a little and my motherly senses alert me to it. Who knows.

However last night was the first time that sleeping “through the night” felt like an adult “through the night” – 11pm to 7am! This was quite nice for me. (They say that when this happens you wake up terrified that there’s something wrong with the baby. Call me a bad mother, but I personally woke up well-rested, refreshed, and grateful. )

Since I’m not sure what was waking me at 4am, I’m not sure what didn’t wake me at 4am this morning. I’ll keep an eye on the situation, but if the super-long sleep happens again I might have to consider setting my watch alarm to wake me. While sleeping through the night is nice for me, it’s not actually a good idea in the long run for Linus because of its affect on feeding. Breastfeeding is a supply-and-demand game; my body will supply Linus with what he demands, and I don’t think his small stomach is ready yet to go 8+ hours without a feed, whether his brain realises it or not.

Age = 3 months 12 days

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, so here’s an update on the past couple of weeks with Linus.

Hands

Now he’s mastered chatting and smiling, Bug’s big area of development at the moment is his hands. Over the first two months of his life, his manual development was limited to a reduction in jerky movements. But now he’s starting to figure out that he has (or will have) control over these two appendages in front of his face. He bashes out at his Sesame St play gym, and although the movements seem random, you can see that behind his eyes his brain is whirring away processing the repeated cause-effect chain.

I’ve also started giving him rattles to play with. He sort of reaches for them if I hold them in front of him, but usually I put his hand around the rattle and leave it with him. The rattles are hard plastic, so he probably whacks himself about the head with them a little bit, but hopefully that will accelerate his learning.

He’s showing interest in mouthing things. He’s pretty good at getting at his fingers or thumbs for a suck now, and when he’s holding a rattle he tries to get that to his mouth. Unfortunately none of the rattles really have pieces that he can get his mouth around, so he hasn’t had much sucking fun yet.

Date Night

Bob and I have decided to have a date night once a week. I’m not bothering to express milk for Linus, but I can leave him comfortably for 2-3 hours in the evening without a feed, so now Nana spends every Monday evening home at our place with Linus while Bob and I go out for dinner.

It’s a treat to eat out (anywhere!), especially since I had so much nausea and heartburn during my pregnancy that took most of the pleasure out of eating. It’s obviously lovely and unusual to spend some time with Bob with no TVs, computers, or Playstations around. And it’s nice to get to miss Bug, and grab him for a big cuddle when I get home!

Chatterbox

As I said, Bug has mastered “talking” and social smiling now, which is just delightful! He hasn’t really laughed again… I’m realising now it was probably just a rare coincidence where a smile and a vocalisation happened to meet. Blowing on his face still elicits a big grin though!

One thing I’ve tried a few times now is letting Bug talk to Nana on the phone, and it’s great to watch his face when he hears Nana’s voice. Provided he’s in a good mood, he’ll always give her a smile and very often start babbling to her.

From the “so cute it makes you sick” department, Bug’s also getting great at the coy smile, i.e. looking at me or Daddy, breaking into a huge whole-face smile and turning his head away burrowing into a pillow or my chest.

Perambulations

Before Linus was born, Bob and I started a (very long-term!) mission to walk all the streets of Dunedin. Since becoming parents, this has kind of shifted to the backburner, but this past couple of weeks we have rekindled it. We both need to get the exercise, and it’s yet another way for the two of us to spend quality time together.

Linus comes with us, we’ve discovered that the pram is magic and putting him to sleep, so it’s almost like he’s not there. Our blog of walks is pretty dull (yet another blog that’s more a record for us than of interest to others), but you can see for yourself at http://walkdunedin.guru.net.nz.

Out and About

Bug has been to his first couple of birthday parties lately, one for R at McDonalds and the other for B at his place. We also went out to Brockville Playgroup last week with a friend from LLL, then went around to her place for lunch. The playgroup mums seemed glad to see us (even though our babes are a long time away from “play”) – the group is diminished and set to almost disappear when the last few kids go off to kindergarten soon. We’ll probably go regularly to the playgroup because it’s great to meet other local mums and to have somewhere to go within walking distance.

Blondie

Since he was born with a full head of hair, Bug’s hair has been dark. However we think this is changing. I used to think it was just the light reflecting off his dark hair that made it look a little golden, but this “reflecting light” is happening more and more often. I think there is probably more and more blond hair in amongst the dark, but it’s virtually impossible to see. Bob and I were both very blond as babies and toddlers, so it won’t be a big surprise if Bug goes the same way.

(By the way, this is probably my favourite photo ever of Bug! Makes me melt and feel awe every time I look at it!)

Age = 3 months 1 day

So exciting tonight! Bug’s been very chatty and smiley for a while as I’ve previously mentioned, but tonight at our friends’ place I was chatting to him and I blew on his face and he LAUGHED! Very cute!

Age = 11 weeks 6 days

Age = 12 weeks 4 days

I guess the “honeymoon” is well and truly over – I obviously have no idea what my son’s age is. From next blog entry the age will be in months (he’s three months old tomorrow).

Bug’s first bath was in the hospital, where a midwife taught us how to bathe a baby. When we got home I think we tried a bath in a baby bath once, but Bug wasn’t too keen.

What he does like is having a bath with Mummy or Daddy. I don’t think I’ve bathed with him yet, but Bob has done it a few times now, and Bug enjoys them more and more each time.

Mummy and Daddy are getting braver at getting Bug’s head and face wet, and he hardly cares when we splash him. We haven’t dunked him (i.e. put his head under the water) yet – don’t want to make any bad associations for him – but given how well he handles the water on his head and face, it probably won’t be long before we “accidentally” drop him under.

We’ve also both showered with Bug, and this works well (saves water) but is a bit scarier – a slip while carrying him in the shower would have a far worse outcome than dropping Bug in the bath!

We don’t use soap or shampoo on him – a facecloth and warm water gets rid of his grime perfectly well, so I figure we might as well avoid exposing him to anything else as long as we can.

The sad thing is that while the bath is fun and relaxing for him, when I get him out the cold or the getting dressed or having nappy on or something is bound to get him upset, so the good effects of the bath are soon obliterated.

Age = 12 weeks

Along with the drooling, the last week or so has also seen Bug often “chewing” in his sleep. I have no idea what that’s all about.