Liam is 16 Weeks

This week has been a bit crazy.  The past weekend Liam was off his schedule for some reason and had a bit of time taking his naps, we hardly got a minute to relax.  By Monday we were still tired and it felt like we didn’t get a single chance to recharge for the coming week.  Part of the reason he had a rough time was he started to not want to breast feed during the daytime.  He still will at night, but generally he wants a bottle when it’s light out.  This has really only started after I went back to work, so we are thinking he just is used to getting a bottle during the day, and that is what he expects now.  On the bright side, Liam started blowing raspberries this week.  We are still waiting for him to laugh, but he has had a few squeals of delight which has been the closest thing to a laugh so far. Although, he has been smiling A LOT more these days, he will just grin and then if we smile back at him his smiles get bigger, it’s super cute!  It’s really fun when we talk to him and say something and then he smiles as if he knew what we said.  He is holding his head up really well now, not quite 100% yet, but as soon as it is, he will get to hang out in his Johny Jump Up!  We got out an interactive Pooh toy that was given to him as a gift.  It’s a 6+ month toy for learning shapes and such, but we figured he would enjoy watching the lights, and hearing Pooh talk and play music.  Not only does he LOVE this toy, he actually has learned to push the Kanga button, pull Tigger down, and tilt Pooh bear to make the different sounds!  He is growing and changing so much from week to week, we are just so proud to be his parents, and a part of watching him discover this world.

Video: Liam with Hair

Click the link below to watch it:

http://www.vimeo.com/832248

Liam with Hair http://www.vimeo.com/832248 About this video: "Liam is just turning 16 weeks in this video. This week he just started blowing raspberries. Mom was playing with her hair, and put it on Liam's head. So cute!"

Liam is 15 Weeks

This week we bought Liam a mattress for his crib. We haven’t officially moved him to his room yet, but he has been taking some of his naps in there this week. We think he really likes his new room because it’s quieter in there, and it’s darker in there with the blinds closed. His mattress in his crib is much roomier and softer than his bassinet too. It is nice for us too because we don’t have worry about waking him while he naps. We aren’t sure when he’ll go up for good, but for now it’s baby steps. This week Liam has taken more interest in his toys. He is starting to try to grab them, he doesn’t quite grasp them, but he’s getting close. One night he was even snuggling his stuffed bunny, it was really cute! This week he has really taken a liking to splashing up a storm in his tub, so much so we have decided it’s time to move his bath time to the big tub (well, his little tub in the big one). This way he can splash all he wants and we won’t have a huge flood to clean up : ) He also seems to be getting used to our new schedule this week. He even has started to sleep more during the night. He slept through the whole night twice this week!! He is such a fun and sweet baby; we are constantly amazed and grateful that he is ours!

Liam is 14 Weeks

Well this week was a bit rougher than last week.  For one it was probably because I worked the full week, and didn’t take Friday off.  And also because daylight savings started this week, and it just threw our whole schedule off.  Liam woke up at different hours, sometimes waking just an hour before we needed to get up.  I’m hoping this next week will be easier, as we will hopefully get used to the new time.  All the items I purchased to make things a bit easier have really helped too.  The new pump is great, it’s light, easy to use, and I love that it doesn’t need to be plugged in.  There are a couple things I’m not thrilled with, but overall it’s a nice pump.  I was concerned before starting work that I wouldn’t have enough milk, but I do pump plenty while I’m at work for the next day.  The sterilizer works great too, and has been a great time saver.

This week Dr. Karp, who is a pediatrician, was on a radio show that I listen to.  He has written books on kids. You can see his website at www.thehappiestbaby.com  Anyway, he was talking about how to calm your baby, and the basic idea is to recreate being in the womb.  The 5 ‘S’ techniques are 1. Swaddle 2. Side/Stomach Position 3. Shushing  4. Swinging  5. Sucking.  He was saying that being in the womb is louder than a vacuum, and this is why babies aren’t bothered when you vacuum.  This is also why babies like car rides.  This is true of Liam, he isn’t bothered in the least when I vacuum, and he just loves car rides.  He also loves being swaddled. We learned this early on when he kept waking up when his arms flailed about.  We started to swaddle him like they show you in the hospital, and he slept sooo much better since then.  Grandma P. also made him some new blankets that made it easier to swaddle him.

Liam continues to be more aware of things around him, mostly us.  He LOVES to smile at us, and we are just waiting for him to laugh.  We think it’s really close.   He is growing so fast too.  Clothes that looked so big when we first got them, are either too small now or going to be very soon.  He’s already nearly outgrown the 1-2 size diapers?!  (Which go up to 15 lbs.)  15 lbs. is also the maximum weight his bassinet will hold, which means he will need to move up to his bedroom soon, which makes us very sad.  In our new house, the master bedroom is on the main floor, and the rest of the bedrooms are on the second floor…while this will be nice when the kid (s) are teenagers, it REALLY is no fun for babies!  We are looking at getting a video monitor for when he’s up there. Although, even with the monitor, it just won’t be the same.  I imagine sending him up to the second floor will be like sending him off to college, except I don’t think he will approve of us setting up a video monitor in his dorm room, haha!

Liam is 13 Weeks

He also is 3 months old today!  I just finished my first week of work.  It was pretty stressful and tiring, but all in all I think it went OK.  I know there are a few kinks to work out, but I think if we get into a routine, we’ll both get used to it.  This week we got up at 5 am, and we were out the door between 6 and 6:30.  I take him to work with me until business hours, which is around 8am.  Most of the people that work there come in even later, so as long as I’m getting my work done, it shouldn’t be an issue for anyone…hopefully!  That extra time with him in the morning does make working a little easier for me.  I am very grateful that I have a job where I can do that, and that also has flexible hours that I can work around.  I would say I spent the first weeks and probably the 2^nd weeks wages to purchase items that will make working a little easier on me. 

1. The Freestyle Medela breast pump. (Seen here: www.medelafreestyle.com) This pump is brand spankin new in Feb. 08.  It is very small, and weighs less than a pound.  The cool thing about this pump is that it has a rechargeable battery, which means you can pump anywhere!  You don’t have to find a plug. The other cool feature about it is it is hands free, which means it has some weird contraptions to hook to it, so you don’t have to hold it, you can do stuff around the house, like check e-mail, read a book, etc.  This purchase came late in the week, so I’ve only used it a few times at home.  So we will see this next week how well it works.
2. The other big purchase item that I ordered was a large sterilizer.  The first night I came home, I realized just how much stuff needed to be cleaned.  We have a small bottle warmer that also sterilizes things.  It works great when I’m at home and can clean and sterilize right there, but when you have been gone all day, the amount of stuff just piles up.  This item will hopefully be coming early next week.  In the meantime we ended up just boiling it all at once in a large pot.
3. I ended up getting another small bottle warmer/sterilizer to keep at work, so I can sterilize the pumping equipment in between pumping.

 Anyway, as for LT (Liam Thomas), he is such a trooper.  This week hardly fazed him.  He continues to grow, and get more adorable by the minute.  I was able to weigh him on a home scale, and I’m not sure how accurate it is, but he weighed 13.5 pounds!!  He loves to be read to, and is very attentive of the pictures as we read to him. We got him 3 new puzzle books this week, one for the alphabet, one for numbers and one for shapes.  Music is very important to his dad, so I have been playing the Ipod more in the car, and at home.  This week he is starting to follow objects more, another milestone for his age.  By the way, at the start of this week, we were fortunate to have had the opportunity to be invited to our sis-in-laws family’s house where they have all the equipment to take professional pictures.  He was very good, and just hammed it up in front of the camera.  We got some really adorable pictures that you should check out!  We just are constantly amazed at this little person that we made, and we look forward to getting to know him even more.