The Changes of Sleep Patterns

WARNING!!! This is not going to be the most exciting post. This post is mainly for documentation purposes and personal reflection. Thank You.

I remember when Pax was a newborn we would try anything to get him to sleep. One day my dad discovered the best way to get him to sleep was to hold him chest to chest and walk around with him. We did this for several minutes, several times a day, for several weeks. During this time Pax was sleeping in our room, on the floor, right beside my side of the bed, in his car seat after failed attempts of putting him to bed on his back in an inclined sleeping positioner in our bed and failed attempts of laying him down on his back in the bassinet in our room. He would, however, always sleep in my arms and I almost always welcomed that, but there were just some nights that I really needed to get some sleep.

At five and a half weeks, we tried for the first time to put him in his crib to sleep. Would you believe he slept the entire night (9-10 hours) being so far away from mommy and daddy? At that time we were still walking him to sleep but at this stage he liked to be cradled while sucking on a pacifier. We would wrap him all up in a blanket and walk all over the house, holding him close as he eventually fell asleep in our arms and then into the crib he went. I loved that so much!

As the days progressed, Pax began to become more aware and curious of his surroundings and we had to place a burp cloth or a light blanket over his head so he could relax and know it was okay to sleep; otherwise we would stare at everything at sight and not sleep. This became the pattern for the next several months. Eventually we were able to sit down, feed him his bottle and before we knew it he was out like a light. At this point we were still putting him to bed asleep.

Now as we are approaching 6 months, there is no more putting him to bed asleep, no more covering his face, no more holding him in the cradle position after feeding him the bottle, no more pacifiers, no more walking him to sleep. Now, we simply feed him his last bottle of the day, hold him against our chest to burp him while he sucks his right thumb then off to bed he goes. Tonight was the first night in a while that he fell asleep against my chest, in my arms, in a long time (at least it feels like a long time). I savored every minute until I eventually dozed off for what seemed to be an entire night, but in reality was only a few minutes. My baby boy is growing and I am enjoying every single second of his life and ours.

Rolling All Over the Place

Pax has been able to roll from his stomach to his back for a while now, but this entire week he has been rolling from his back to his stomach. This video caught the tail end of it.

First Food

We decided to try to give Pax solids based on his curiosity in our food, his bottomless belly, the doctor's recommendation and the fact that he is right around the corner from sitting up on his own. To be honest, I wanted to wait a little while before introducing "pre grown-up food" because I think I am trying to escape the reality that our baby is growing up so quickly. He is such a little man now with quite an appetite. All of the books I read say to start introducing food anywhere between four to six months; so we are right on track. We gave him rice milk to start with and he was really unsure of the texture and didn't know what to do with the spoon. We were trying to find out if he didn't like the texture or the taste. Here is a video of Pax trying his first peas. My mom bought him baby food for Christmas that expires this month, but after that I plan to make my own food for him. I'm actually really excited about it.

Paxton and Lillian

This is Paxton's friend Lillian. They are only a few days apart in age. Aren't they cute!!!

Somebody Found His Tongue