First, I was changing his diaper and dressing him when he looked up at me and beamed an amazing, gorgeous smile. Then he got distracted and looked away. When I called his name, he turned back, looked me in the eye again and flashed another ear to ear grin. He has been "sleep smiling" for weeks, and giving "sort of" smiles for a few days, but this was his first true, social smile. I made it my quest for the rest of the day to capture a picture of it.
This turned out to be quite the task, as my boy who was previously getting 2-3 hours of naps all day long decided to sleep all morning. in fact, he has slept 5.5 hours of nap already today, and it's only 4pm, and ge's asleep again as I type this.
Not only is the volume of his sleep impressive, but Travis put him down awake in the swing while we made lunch - usually this entertains him while awake. We came to the table to eat and... he had fallen asleep! It was the first time he had ever fallen asleep while not on a person's body or in a moving car. There is hope! I do have photographic evidence of this:
Then later in the afternoon, he yawned, so I experimentally put him back in the swing. And he fell asleep on his own! Again! At this rate, I may get really ambitious and put him down in a crib or pack-n-play while still awake - crazy talk!
Finally, the character of his nursing has completely changed. He gulps and pays much more attention. He comes off after 17-18 minutes instead of lingering for 20... 25... 40... And he's been eating every 3-4 hours all day, not even asking to eat more often. I don't feel like I'm nursing him all day long!
Who knows if any of this will become a pattern or if this is a one-day thing, but it's pretty cool to see the changes. I never did get a pic of the smile, so standby for that. It's coming, don't worry. :o)
I am both dreading and excitedly anticipating sleep tonight to see how that may have changed...
YEAH!!!! I am so impressed with all these changes!!! YEAH MOM!!!! The Doran kids were ALL swing kids and a colicky Ali Jane spent DAYS probably MONTHS in that swing (don't worry... not all at once!)
ReplyDeleteWay to go with the nursing too. I really don't remember what it was like when I first started with Joe, but I know how it ended and how all my others were and they were good eaters but would nurse for 10 minutes and be DONE!!! I couldn't get a full feeding with my pump in 10 minutes but I did in 15-20.
Yeah for all these wonderful changes and CAN'T WAIT until you capture that first smile... (it's not easy I assure you... if there is one thing I have learned, kids do NOT perform when you ask them- I'm still trying to get a video of Sean showing us his nose, bellybutton, toes... etc- maybe when he's 4!) ;-)
Hugs-
L