baby news

Only the grandparents will care about this, probably, but I'll share it with the world at large anyway. By the way, I've posted five times in seven days. This is how you know that a). I'm finally finally feeling back to normal, and b). it's been rainy and cool for weeks on end in Alabama. I feel like Taylor, alternately whining at the door and chasing my tail. Let me out already!

But I digress. Asher will be six weeks old on Tuesday. Here's what he's accomplished in the last six weeks (aside from being born, learning to breathe, swallow, and poop, which are understood).

1. He started smiling last week! It's really the best thing I've ever seen.
2. He's eating about five ounces per feeding, and rarely spits up. The amount he's eating per meal is important because he has to take in so many ounces per day, and obviously, the more he eats during daylight hours, the less he needs to eat at night. Which leads us to ...
3. For the past week, he's slept 5-6 hours at night between feedings. This may not sound like a big deal, but there's a monumental difference between having five hours of uninterrupted sleep versus two. He's also gotten the hang of days and nights. For a few weeks he had them confused, so we spent most of the night trying to coax him back to sleep, which meant I was only sleeping for an hour or so at a time. Now, he usually sleeps through his night feedings. Yay for us! (By the way, thank you Kim and Halle for teaching me how to help him figure out nights and days.)
4. Gas pain has gotten much much better. For a while, it was happening 3-4 times a day. Now, thanks to Mylecon and Levisin, he only has it a few times a week.
5. He's beginning to learn how to go to sleep on his own. I debated on how to handle sleep, but because his belly bothered him so much in the beginning, I haven't pushed it at all. I've been holding/ rocking him to sleep each time. Which I really love doing (who doesn't love rocking a baby?), but he was beginning to ONLY sleep on me, which is not good. Suddenly (through no effort on my part whatsoever), he'll squirm himself back to sleep without me. Last night, he never even cried, just drifted off. BEAUTIFUL. I'm really not comfortable letting him cry anything out at this age, so I'm hoping this is a sign that I won't have to.
6. The more he grows, the more he looks like Brian. He's built like Brian, too. His torso and arms are so long; 0-3 month shirts fit just right (which means they'll be too short in a few weeks), but newborn pants are still too big in the waist. His newborn hats are also too small (a fact that we discovered, much to Asher's DISMAY, by trial and error).

For my part - at this point, I L-O-V-E being at home with him. He's growing so fast, I already feel like if I blink I'll miss something. At this stage, I feel really good about our decision.