12/3/12

A six week progress report

Ralph is six weeks old today, hooray!

So far I've observed that my little boy does NOT like to be swaddled. And darn it! Babies look so cute in swaddles! But no, Ralphie prefers to have his arms free to flail about and wake him suddenly while he's sleeping. You should see how well he can flail those arms when he's angry. Wee!

Guess what else Ralphie prefers: sleeping on his stomach. And darn it again, because there's nothing I worry about more than SIDS. He won't sleep on his back, and I won't let him sleep on his tummy at night, and therefore, our last few weeks have been a little like this: I stay up all night with a semi-sleeping baby on my chest or a crying baby in his bassinet. And during the day, I put the child on his tummy on the couch, and he takes 3 hour marathon naps while I poke him every two minutes to make sure he's still breathing.

I'm not sure where he gets the tummy sleeping preference, as I have always been strictly a back and side sleeper. Ryan thinks Ralph got it from him, but you know I'm the one who sits up all night, and I've observed that Ryan sleeps on his back and breathes big sleepy puffs of cold air at me while I nurse.

Ralph does like his baths, clean diapers, looking at windows, and the soccer ball pacifier from his cousin Lilah. He does not like the hours between 5pm and 8pm. He does, however, like the sound of us shuuushing him back to sleep, so during those witchy evening hours you'll often find one of us pacing the floor, shh shh shh shuushhing, while an exhausted Ralphie bounces along with an open mouth and semi-closed eyes. Last night, in between bouts of some serious crying, Ryan looked at me with wide eyes and whispered, "We're prisoners in our own home." I looked back at him and said, "Yes. We are."

In conclusion, I've never slept less in my life and I'm not totally sure if any of this makes sense. 

But oh man, I don't care, because the past six weeks have been the best of my life. I've got a cute husband and a cute baby and I don't care if I never sleep again as long as I can keep hanging out with them.







4 comments:

  1. Oh boy. I remember those early weeks where I would do anything to get out of the house with my little guy -you sure do feel trapped. but it really does get easier. So much easier in fact that at 10 months post-partum I almost think wanna take the plunge and go for the next one!? Also, I had an extreme fear of SIDS as well, at three months I put my babe to sleep on his stomach at night and while it made me a nervous wreck it also helped us all sleep a bit better. Hey, our parents did it and we survived.

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  2. those first 6 weeks are both amazing and tough!!! For the record, both for my babies have been tummy sleepers from the very start, and I no longer worry about it. Some babies just sleep better on their tummies! If you are super nervous about it, you can get that baby monitor that senses lack of movement. (on Amazon, here: http://www.amazon.com/Angelcare-Baby-Movement-Monitor-White/dp/B0014KUGNQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354634533&sr=8-1&keywords=movement+baby+monitor) Otherwise, don't let it stress your out too much!

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  3. my baby hates being swaddled too she likes to starfish and that swaddle just gets in the way :)

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