Max: 3 Weeks!

It was another big week in Max land… I guess when you are only 3 weeks old, every week is a big week? 

A big highlight of the week included Max's first trip to a restaurant! As I'm sure you guys know, Eric and I love to eat out. We realize that having a baby is going to reduce the amount of times we can really do this, but we don't want it to stop entirely. So last Saturday night we took Max to one of our favorite restaurants. He was a complete delight the entire time and I got to have a glass of wine. I'm telling you people, having a newborn is just SO much better than being pregnant. We are going to try bringing him to a different restaurant tonight and then tomorrow we are going to leave him with Eric's mom while we go to a less baby friendly place by ourselves :) 

Since Max is Eric's son he owns more than a normal amount of football attire. He doesn't really fit in 0-3 month clothes yet but I put him in one anyway for the Superbowl. We went over to my parent's house to watch the game and Max slept through most of it. But he was rooting for Seattle, don't you worry. 

But what he really cared about was making himself very comfortable in Caroline's lap. 

Max also had his first play date yesterday with his new friend Maya (my friend's new baby). I totally used this as an excuse to teach Max that both names begin with the letter M. You can take the teacher out of kindergarten, but not the kindergarten out of the teacher :) 

As much as I would like to say that the week has been all flowers and rainbows, there have been a few challenges. Yet again, my health came into the picture and I spent all of Monday and Tuesday dealing with that. I am hesitant to say it's totally over because who knows what could happen, but as of now I feel great and hopefully I will not be back at the hospital anytime soon! Not only is it really not that fun to spend hours away from Max, but it also messes up his schedule especially when I came home from my CT scan on Tuesday and had to pump and dump for 12 hours. I have struggled the past few weeks with whether I want to just feed Max every time he cries (even if it's 3 seconds from the last feeding) or whether I want to establish a schedule. Though I normally would always go for a schedule, I let myself be swayed by the fact that Max was early and little and "maybe I only know 5 year olds and don't know newborns at all." As a result, I ended up with a baby who literally wanted to eat every 5 seconds from 11pm to 5 or 6 am. Woo Hip! But, Monday and Tuesday messed with the "schedule" SO MUCH that by the time my friend came over yesterday, I was ready to discuss how to nicely put a baby on a schedule. I know this could mean many things for many people, but I think people who know me as a teacher would assume I will not let my baby scream bloody murder if he is hungry…promise! 

What the "schedule" means for me is: I picked times that I want to feed him, every 3 hours and I am sticking to those times if at all possible. Honestly, a lot of this is about forcing myself to feed at these times even if I have to wake up from a nap or plan to eat a meal at a later or earlier time. I would like to say goodbye to cluster feeding and my instinct is that when kids (or newborns) know what to expect, it's a lot more calm for both of us. In order to do this without a screaming baby, I am making sure he REALLY eats at every feeding. If he falls asleep, he gets all his clothes taken off, diaper changed, body tickled etc. I also finally conquered the Max vs. swaddle (see sleeping below). He has only been on the "schedule" for 1 day now but last night was by far his best sleeping night thus far, so I have high hopes. I also know every day won't be perfect and I very well may be saying in my next update that the schedule is being thrown out the window! 

To end on a more positive note, Max attended his first birthday party last night on google hangouts for Lisa! He loved saying hi to many of my lovely blog friends. I enjoyed being entertained by them while Max had some ridiculous hour long feeding and then screamed really loud when it was time to be done eating (even though he took himself off… typical). Next time the two of us will be organized enough to actually wear stripes! Seriously, I have to figure out how to wear normal clothes again...

Looks Like: 

Likes: cuddling, stretching, yawning and sneezing :) I think he also loves being cute and when everyone tells him how perfect he is all the time. I can't wait to raise one of those children who loves himself… ha ha. 

Dislikes: when he hears me come into a room but I don't feed him immediately! 

Feeding: Max continues to be super flexible given the time he has had to spend away from me while I deal with health issues. He switches easily between breastfeeding, taking a bottle of breast milk and a few times he has needed to have formula. Now that we are on a schedule (see above), I am hoping he will not need to be as flexible but it's nice to know he can be, just in case! 

Sleeping: This week Max has been more awake during the day, which is actually really fun. I think overall the night sleeping has been better too, but I think the schedule and finally conquering the swaddle is going to make a huge difference going forward. I think last night was the first night so far that Max has not managed to get his hands out of the swaddle… success! 

The next update about Max (I think) will be Monday February 17th, which is Max's 1 month birthday AND Eric's birthday. So much excitement!