Rolling, rolling rolling...

Ahem. Yes,  I am still here. It seems I've fallen into the usual condition of bloggers who recently became parents. Because while I do manage to read blogs, I seem to not be able to find the time to comment much or give an update here. I will admit that part of my lack of updating is that it was hard to figure out what to blog about. I mean Seven has been changing all the time, so there was everything to update. But yet in some ways it seemed like nothing to update. I mean, how do you choose what to highlight when it seems like everything is different.

But today was a milestone. It started about 3 weeks ago when I went to check on Seven sleeping and noticed he had rolled from his back to his side. First it was a rare occurrence. And then in the past week he started rolling to his side regularly. We were happy with his progress and E predicted he would roll over all the way in another 2 weeks.

And then today I heard from my sister that my niece who is 5 weeks older than Seven first rolled over a month ago. My competitive juices started flowing. I decided he needed a little coaching. This evening I rolled him over to show him how it was done. Then we let him go at it. E was using the mirror to motivate him to go to his side. He was looking so good rolling over to side again and again that I got out the camera to film him. Even just rolling to his side was cute. I switched to video and then 30 seconds later he rolled all the way over! We were speechless and then cheered. I think Seven got a little overwhelmed about why we were so excited. It was so funny. But we are so proud of our roller!

3 months

Our dear Seven is 3 months old today! It seems like it has been much longer but also such a whirlwind. Yesterday I visited my campus coffeehouse for the first time since coming back to work. I used to visit nearly every day before Seven's birth.  They remembered my order! At first I thought, "wow, it's been over 4 months since I've been here and they still remember-what great service!" And then I remembered, it's only been 3 months. Yeah, I know how old my baby is...

Seven is changing all the time. It is funny because we get so many comments that he is so small. And it is true that he is small for his age and still pretty young. So as babies go, the truth is he is small. But every time I hear someone say that, I think it is strange because he seems so big to me now. His body seems to have grown much more than the mere 3 inches the official length as increased. His legs are almost always extended now and he has a neck now. He is alert for most of the day. Much different from the scrunched up sleeping ball of baby we brought home from the hospital.

Seven definitely knows his mama. And yes, I love it. His smile lights up his whole face and he loves getting kisses. He often has this look on his face like he is trying to say something but it just won't come out. He is quite a smart little baby. He met some older kids who were blowing bubbles and when they put the wand up to his mouth, you could tell he knew what to do but couldn't figure out how to get his mouth to do the right thing.

He likes being outside and seeing the world go by. We try to enjoy the nice weather we are having by eating outside when we can and going for short hikes. He really likes his rattle, although prefers to put it in his mouth rather than shake it. He is slowing starting to like taking a bath. What he loves most of all are funny noises and singing. Nothing calms him down like me singing his name in this certain melody I created. And trust me, my vocals don't exactly wow most crowds. But he loves it.

Daycare update

Sorry for the lengthy time with no update. Now that Seven is alert for most of the day and ready to play, I just don't have the time to blog! He's now had several days at daycare and it is wonderful to have him just a few buildings away, even though I would love to be with him all day long. I was worried about how he has handled the transition. The place is really nice, but he always seemed so subdued when I visited and picked him up at the end of the day. And he wouldn't smile at me when I picked him up. He was having trouble sleeping there so I could rationalize that he was just so tired by the end of the day. But the irrational part of me was worried, like what happened to my happy baby-he is punishing me for using daycare?!

So today I was elated to hear that he took a two hour nap in the afternoon and then he was all smiles when I picked him up. I brought in a swaddle blanket for him and that seemed to do the trick. We only use the swaddle at night when he is at home, but the added security must help him during the day.

The other good news is that he did his first art project today. It is just a bunch of smears of red paint, but it is his smears!

Celebration

Today is a day for celebration!

E from Many, Many Moons finally has her sweet baby daughter. Please go over and wish her new family well. I can't believe that it was only 2 months ago when we were heading home ourselves with our new baby. E is in for an amazing ride!

Growing Boy

Seven had his 2 month check up today and was a champ. He was all smiles for the nurse and was getting a bit bored with the whole thing by the time the doctor came in but still found a smile for her. He is now 10 pounds, 12 ounces and 22 inches long. He is still on the small side, but staying on his growth curve. And then came his first round of shots. We waited quite a long time for the nurse to come back in and he was fussy already when she arrived. He was hungry and sucked down the oral vaccine they had. I held his hands and talked to him through the shots but he cried hard. It was so hard to see him so upset. But then I nursed him and he quieted down pretty quickly. Eventually he fell asleep and has been sleeping for the past hour. Hopefully the rest of the day goes well!

Beautiful weekend

The weather was just about perfect this weekend and we took full advantage of it. After breakfast out on our new patio, we went for a hike. Well, "hike" might be a glorified term for what we did, but it was a nice walk through wooded area. I carried Seven in our front carrier. We faced him forward for the first time and he really enjoyed looking at all the new trees and birds we saw.

Today we had not one, but two, picnics. The first was hosted by our agency with all their current and prospective adoptive families. It was a lot of fun and everyone loved meeting Seven. There was one other couple from our group training there who has a child already and it was great to hear about their story. We hope to set up some playdates soon.

Then we went to our parish picnic. That was another fun time, especially because just this morning in church, Seven was fussy and I had gone to the back to calm him down and he fell asleep. Since this was during communion, I was the last person to go and had a sleeping baby in my arms. Everyone at the picnic kept saying how adorable he was sleeping.

What a perfect weekend!

Sleeping update

Seven's sleeping has continued to go relatively well, although not always consistent. At least he does well enough, and E and I have a system, so that we don't feel too sleep deprived. Basically, we trade off who is responsible for getting up with Seven during the night. One night, I will get up the first time he wakes up and E will get up the second time. So if Seven sleeps all night or only gets up once, one of us could get a full night's sleep.

The problem with that plan is that I am a horrible mother. OK, not really, but I am a heavy sleeper. And it makes me feel horrible that even when I am responsible for getting up with Seven, E has to wake me up when he cries. Yes, I am probably the only mother in the world that sleeps right through her baby crying.

So now I'm trying to put a positive spin on my lack of maternal instincts. Last night, for example, it allowed us to realize that Seven has started putting himself back to sleep. It was my turn to get up with Seven's first waking. E pokes me at about 1:30 saying he his crying. I try to listen to the monitor and don't hear anything. E insists he was crying. I heard a couple of murmurs and waited to see if would lead something more. And it didn't. I went to check on him and he was sleeping. He didn't need attention until after 4am (which was 7 hours of sleep)!