Screamy McScreamersons

Just in case we may have given folks the wrong idea with all of the adorable pictures we've been posting, I thought I'd correct the record and include a photo here of what our little dude looks like much of the time he's awake :)

OK, so maybe that's a little bit of an exaggeration...but really, there is a lot of crying. As he gets older he's spending more time awake than when he first came home, but that also means that he's crying more. He definitely has some quiet, active awake time, but a lot of his awake time is spent fussing for various reasons (which Joey and I aren't always able to discern). Even with all of the crying, though, we're enjoying getting to know this little man.

In the last couple of weeks we've taken him out and about a bit--he's been to Target, Men's Warehouse (yay, daddy got new suits!), the Produce Station, Busch's, the Breastfeeding Center of Ann Arbor, and a few other places. He tends to do pretty well when we're out. We've been experimenting with having him in the stroller and in a sling on my chest. [NOTE: yes, there was recently a recall of a number of slings that were associated with some infant deaths over the years--scary! Our sling is meant to be worn so that the baby is upright, not laying sideways nestled inside of the sling like those that caused suffocation. Oscar's head is always out of the sling on my shoulder and his upright position means that his chin is not pulled to his chest causing airway restriction.]

We're currently working on nighttime routines. We've been going to bed fairly late--like 1am--and with Joey going back to work soon we're trying to slowly move our bedtime to an earlier hour. We're also trying to transition Oscar over to his cosleeper by our bed since he's been unable to sleep anywhere but with us lately (something I was very much against originally, but when you have a newborn you go into survival mode and do whatever it takes. We're paranoid and so have made sure that our sleeping arrangements are as safe as humanly possible thusfar.)

The little guy tricked us into thinking he had a sleeping routine by spending a few days in a row waking only at around 4am and 7am, which was awesome. Then he scrapped it as soon as my body got used to that pattern and has been spending lots more time awake at night lately. I'm trying to maintain my daytime naps thanks to my loving husband who takes over during this time so that the hours spent up at night are bearable. We just continue to remind ourselves that this is temporary and focus on enjoying this time with him since we know he'll be getting to the next phase before we know it. He's been healthy, is gaining tons of weight (as you can probably tell from the photos), and aside from some bouts of yucky diaper rash has been doing wonderfully.