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First Year
The blurbs
at the beginning of each section are taken from a group of gifts
Michael's Mother gave us at one of the baby showers. We thought
they were fun enough to share here.
The First Three Months -
Sleep deprived (you, not the baby)
Magical daily changes
That first smile of recognition
3,4, 5 changes a day - more laundry than you can believe for one tiny
person
Holding, cuddling, rocking - it ends too quickly take as much of it as
you can get
Sleeping almost through the night by 6 weeks or so
Personality shows up - a new person
Almost ready for a little solid food at the end
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After 3 weeks, he holds his head up for
short periods of time.
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He just found his thumb on March 9th for
a few seconds.
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His feeding and sleeping schedule is a
bit erratic but it's typically 3-4 hour cycles.
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1 Month old and he's spending more awake
time looking around and making noises to himself.
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He can hold his head up for longer
periods of time, unless he's really tired. But he fights to
stay awake for as long as possible.
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He takes a full 4 ounces more often not
and cluster feeds on a 2 hour schedule in the evenings.
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2 months old and he's almost sleeping
through the night. He takes 6+ ounces between 8-9PM and then
falls asleep until 4am most nights. If we can adjust that
slightly to begin at 10PM, we'll be just fine when Shannon returns
to work.
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He's also begun trying to fit his whole
fist into his mouth. He does it more for entertainment that to sooth
himself. Well, it entertains us anyway.
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9 Weeks old and we started giving him a
couple of ounces of apple juice every few days when he seems more
thirsty than hungry. He seems to like the taste and variety
from milk.
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He has no trouble hold his head up
unless he half asleep and there are periods of the day when he gets
angry unless he's sitting up. He still needs some bracing but
he does a pretty good job. He also seems to have full
conversations with sounds. And Shannon and I swear he says,
"Hi" at times. Sure he doesn't know when to say it but that's
not the point.
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11 Weeks old and he's now sleeping
through the night. The routine is that he carbo-loads in the
evenings taking 8-10 ounces between the time Shannon and I come home
and about 8:30. He then settles down for a nap until we head
up for bed after the news. Between moving him and changing him
for the night he wakes up enough to take another 2-4 ounces and then
he falls right to sleep until 6:30-7:00 the next day.
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3 Months old - He's now 17lbs. and 27"
long. We're beginning to move into the 6-9 month sizes.
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He now grabs items around his body and
puts them in his mouth. You can occasionally get him to reach
out and grab items that draw his interest in front of him.
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He has begun teething already. You
can see him gnawing on his hands or on objects he puts in his mouth.
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He also has alot of fun with his voice.
He'll get into moods where he'll phrase sounds together like they're
words or he'll sing with long, full breath, sounds or shrieks.
Both types of sounds mean he's happy and playfull.
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14 Weeks old and he's teething in a big
way. He had a 24 hour period memorial weekend when he was in
obvious pain. Tylonol seemed to do the trick but it does take
some of his cheerfulness away at times.
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He can now almost roll over. He
gets up on his side and then his arm gets in the way.
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He also has moments, while sitting in
your lap, when he sits up steady. But he also will loose
control at a moments notice so you have to be ready.
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16 weeks old and he rolled over both
ways this week. One morning while Mike was home, he rolled
over from back to front. He laid there for a few minutes and
then cried to be put back. Later in the week with Shannon on
our bed he rolled from front to back.
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We're using the stroller without the car
seat when we go for walks. He likes being able to look around
when we're out and about.
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With the amount and frequency he's
eating, we're confident he'll be put on some solid food after we see
the doctor for his 4 month visit. If the visit was any further
out, we'd make the call ourselves.
Four to Six Months
The schedule begins to settle down - morning naps, afternoon naps - all
parents need them
Rolling over front to back is easy, but back to front takes more time to
figure out
House Rule #1: Never wake a sleeping baby
Getting good a grabbing things - dad’s fingers, rattles, mom’s jewelry
and hair
Likes bath time and makes a huge mess
Screams when hungry and you can’t get it in fast enough
Drooling seems never to end - need more bibs
Teething may be underway
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The weekend before his 4 month doctor's
appointment, we started him on rice cereal. We were
re-enforced in doing so my his doctor, but we figured it was time.
Most nights, we make 1 tablespoon for cereal with formula and feed
him. He has to be in just the right mood and not too hungry to
eat well.
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At 4 months old, he's rolling over from
back to front quite a bit. He usually lays there on his front
for a few minutes and then cries for someone to put him back.
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He reached out and grabs for objects
really well. I've also put 2 objects in front of him and he
can't quite make a decision which one to grab for. When I
remove one choice, he takes the object I left for him.
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At about 4 and a half months, I can
really sense that he likes to be home when it's time to sleep.
When we're out or at his Grandparent's homes, it's a much larger
struggle to get him to sleep.
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At 5 Months, he can almost sit up on his
own. He can sit in some restaurant high chairs and some
shopping carts with some help. We still have to use his
carrier chair if we're at a restaurant for any length of time.
But he'd prefer to be sitting up more.
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25th week and he's now sitting up on his
own for good lengths of time. He has to be put into position
but then he sits stable and can play with objects in front of him.
He can even look behind himself without falling over.
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6 months old and he's now 22lbs. and
28.5" long. He's eating 2-3 solid meals per day and likes
cheerios alot. He can now scoot around the floor by rolling
from side to side and turning his body in different directions.
He grabs for anything that he thinks is in his reach and tried to
put it in his mouth. He popped his first tooth last week and
the drooling has gotten better.
Seven to Nine Months
Greets each morning - no matter mom and dad’s mood - with a huge smile
Can sit in the high chair - thank God for the dog, so much ends up on
the floor
Can reach further than the length of it's arms
Everything goes in the mouth - best way to explore new stuff - can even
get feet to reach in there
So much fun to play with - giggles and hearty laughs
Starting to crawl - are the gates up? Is it safe?
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Crawling at 7.5 months and gates went up
everywhere. He loves to explore.
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He got almost sick of baby food very
early, wanting to feed himself with puffs and baby crackers
Almost a year old
What a surprise when you find a standing baby in the crib
Crawling is well under way and can stand strong and brave holding
furniture edges
You start to say, “No-No” more than anything else - guilt comes with
teaching
Changing from baby to toddler - testing everything
First Christmas - are the toys for me or dad?
Getting brave walking on my own
Have some teeth and now the new ones really hurt coming through
Beginning to like more independence, but need to cuddle when I am tired
or scared
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Walking at 11.5 months. It had
been about 2 weeks in coming.
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He loves any pasta dish but CANNOT
get enough of Mac'n'Cheese. (He is his parent's son)
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He'll cruise the outside of the TV room
getting into DVDs, CDs and chords until one of us gets up to stop
him. He then cruises away as if he wasn't doing anything
wrong.
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