Aug
Squeezing an update in while Gwyn is (finally) asleep!
The past few weeks have seen us busy, busy, busy doing the parenting equivalent of treading water. Gwyn is doing so much learning and growing! He can:
- Bounce and bounce and bounce. He’ll try to bounce while being held in someone’s arms. He loves the Jump-Jump (is it actually called a Jumparoo?) that we’re borrowing from Cousin Soren.
- Pull himself up while holding hands. This is actually the optimal position for bouncing. He has yet to pull himself up on any furniture, though. Probably this is because we try to keep him in wide open spaces, because he can…
- Rock on hands and knees! While he’s been doing this on and off for a little while now, he’s become quite proficient at it. It’s led to a tendancy to…
- Lunge for objects that are close to within reach while rocking on hands and knees. Typically, this particular action results in a bonk on the head. We think a few bonks are a major part of childhood and figuring out Newton’s apple-inspired theories, but we want to make sure those bonks are happening on a softer surface than tile. Our thick wool carpet in the living room has been perfect for it, but it means that someone needs to be within reach at all times - no more sitting him in the Boppy and making dinner! Last time this was attempted, I looked over from the kitchen to see Gwyn trying desperately to…
- Love on the kitties. Oh, does he love the kitties. He hasn’t figured out gentle petting very well on his own yet, so we hold hands so that he can stroke the kitties in a way that both he and our feline companions find enjoyable. Kinski tries to steer clear, but Mikka is so desperate for love these days - he really misses sleeping in our bed, which he can’t do since Gwyn is there - that he’ll try to get it from any source. He actually will come and rub his head on Gwyn’s hand sometimes.
- Say “mamama,” and a few other sounds at varying volumes. He’ll whisper while he’s nursing, and is doing more vocalizing at “normal” volumes than shrieks. He’s still a fan of what I call the “groar” - something between a grunt and a roar.
- Actually play with toys - and by “actually play with,” I mostly mean “chew on.” Since everything goes in his mouth, we did some research and found a few safe natural toys for him to “nom on.” Teeth may make an appearance at some point, but premature babies sometimes teethe late, even for their adjusted age. It’s not a problem as long as the teeth are there, which they are, but still under his gums. Since food is still for fun and Gwyn is still pretty much exclusively breast fed, his gums can stay chomper-less for as long as they please.
His sleep patterns are also changing remarkably, with some gentle prodding on our end. When we first brought him home, Gwyn slept easily, like any other newborn. Now there’s playing to do, kitties to love on, and the nursies don’t send him to the Land of Nod so easily anymore. A book we really like points out that he does still need a good chunk of sleep (~ 3 hours, ideally in two 1.5 hour naps) during the day as well as 10 - 11 hours at night, which we realized he wasn’t getting. Overtired babies, funnily enough, have an even harder time going to sleep…so we’re trying to fix that. To make it easier on everyone, we’ve been trying to feel out his natural sleeping habits. It seems like his biological alarm clock is set to go to sleep at 7 in the evening, and then wake up at 6 in the morning. While this isn’t Kevin or my favorite time of day, it’s a perfectly reasonable time for normal human beings, and so more of what needs to be adjusted is our attitude than Gwyn’s sleep patterns.
Seriously, though. Six in the freaking morning. Most of my six a.m. parenting consists of saying, “Mmmhm! Bay-bee! Boy, you’re strong!” and letting him entertain himself while I watch. While I watch sleepily.
Now. Be honest. Have you read any of that, or scrolled immediately down upon seeing that this post was tagged “video?” Yeah, I thought so. I forgive you, because I’m pretty excited too. We’ve set up a YouTube account so we can upload and share the short videos that we’ve taken with our small camera. Lights! Cameras! Fu-ture tech-no-lo-gy!