Seven Weeks Old

 

Noah is seven weeks old -- I can't believe we've actually made it to this far. I'll be honest and say the newborn phase is not my favorite. The weeks drag by when I'm not sleeping well and the baby doesn't sleep well. But I still love my baby.

Jason has done remarkably well accepting his little brother. He is a little too full of love at times. I feel like a broken record saying "Not so hard" or "SOFT" or "Don't touch his eyes" as I try to remind Jason to be gentle as he pats or snuggles his brother. Jason got the great idea that it would be a fun game to jump over Noah-- we've tried to put an end to that. Luckily no harm has come yet. I love how Jason tries to comfort Noah when he is crying by giving him cars and saying "It's OK Noah," just like I always say when Noah is crying. Jason is also very good at giving Noah his pacifier, sometimes a little too good (like when Noah is sound asleep and not needing one). So far Jason's attempts at comforting are in vain, but I know in the future Noah will be happy receiving such attentions from his big brother.

Our biggest struggle during the first few week has been having TWO crying babies in the middle of the night. Jason would wake up whenever Noah cried the first two nights having Noah home. We solved that problem by buying a box fan that we leave on all night in Jason's room; it drowns out all sounds. Unfortunately, Jason still started waking up in the middle of the night on his own, and he would be wide awake for two hours before falling back asleep (see previous post). This totally wreaked havoc on us as parents. Sleep deprivation is not fun. Thankfully, Jason is back to sleeping through the night, so we are feeling a little more rested, but not a lot.

I feel like it is still too early for me to make judgements on Noah's personality because he is still only four weeks past his due date. The first three weeks he slept all the time, but when we hit his due date, he started waking up. Now he seems a lot like Jason in that he wants to be held both when he is a awake and when he is asleep. When he is awake, he does not stay happy very long if he is not being held, but he is quite sweet when he is being held. Our biggest challenge with Noah, which was the same challenge with Jason, is that he does not transfer well to the crib for naps. He wakes up two minutes after we've laid him down and cries until we pick him up again. I am still struggling with how to handle this, but I might get a nice wrap and just wear him a lot during the day... we'll see.

I am happy to report that breastfeeding has been totally awesome with Noah. No worries there.