Loving the outdoors!
My last post was a bit of a downer, so I figured I should write another to talk about all the great stuff Reed has been up to. Not everything has been tummy issues and unpleasantness — in fact, there’s been a lot of fun stuff going on in Reed’s life. And he’s been an absolute joy to have around. He almost never cries and only gets fussy if he’s starving or needing a nap. Most of the time he’s just a fun, energetic, curious and amazingly social little guy. It blows me away to think about how much he’s accomplished in these short 5 months.
On Thursday, Reed turned 5 months old. The next day, he sat up unsupported for a very brief period of time. On Saturday, he actually sat up for nearly a minute (photographic evidence can be found here). He’s really been into his feet — putting them in the air and grabbing them — which I think helped with the sitting up process. He’s been trying to get his foot into his mouth, but isn’t quite limber or long-legged enough. But I’m sure he’ll get there in time. He is absolutely huge now. He was almost 17 lbs. about 2 weeks ago and he has definitely gone through a growth spurt since then. It amazes me how big and sturdy he is — I was always in the bottom percentiles for height and weight and I don’t think Adam was exactly a giant either. Reed constantly gets taken for a much older child, but part of that may just be his hair and the fact that his head is proportionate to his body (as opposed to having one of those deliciously round pumpkin heads many babies have).
We’re still slowly working on the solid foods thing. His favorite food is definitely sweet potato — even after trying apples and pears, he still prefers it. Cereal has been tough since stopping breastmilk. He loved rice cereal with breastmilk, but hates it (read: will cry if it’s put in his mouth) with formula. We tried to give him a new multigrain cereal with water this morning and he seemed to like it ok. I tried it and it basically just tasted like flour and water. Yum? I may try mixing the cereal with sweet potatoes and water — that would definitely make it more palatable. He’s still not eating enough solids to sleep through the night. In fact, during the night he wants to eat every 3 hours on the dot, which is starting to wear on me and Adam. His teachers at daycare comment that he eats more during the day than a lot of the kids twice his age. He’s not that chunky, so he must have a killer metabolism. So I guess he’s just a really hungry guy and we probably just need to work towards giving him more solid food before bed.
Reed's first swim!
Reed went on a plane trip for the second time in his life. Two weeks ago, he flew to Florida to visit his grammy and grandpa (my parents). He had a good time playing with the million toys grammy bought for him and even went in the pool! It was pretty obvious though that he was happy to come home and get back into his routine (we like routines too!). He got sick while we were traveling and then got us sick. At first I thought he’d gotten sick from daycare, but it turned out that none of the other kids had what he had (parvovirus B19). It made me realize that perhaps air travel may not be a good idea this Fall and Winter with the regular flu and H1N1 going around. With all of his allergies and sensitivities his body is taxed enough. I’d hate to expose him to all those germs on a plane again.
Since getting back from Florida, we’ve been trying to enjoy what’s left of the good autumn weather before we have to hunker down with him at home for the winter months. We’re already getting some pretty chilly days, so much so that I had to bundle him up and put a hat on him when we went to a harvest festival this past Saturday. But today is gorgeous and sunny, so as soon as the little man wakes up from his nap, we’re going to take a nice walk around the block. Being with him and watching him play and grow is such a pleasure.
All bundled up!
It’s been a trying couple of weeks here in the Farkas household. Reed started having diarrhea around 4 weeks ago, which got worse after he got his 4-month vaccinations. About 2 weeks ago, his poop turned a dark green, which any parent knows is not a good sign. He’s been having skin issues (eczema and cradle cap) since he was about 3 months old, which seemed to be getting worse, and his nose had been stuffy for the past 7 weeks. All of this led us to believe that he might have an allergy to cow’s milk. I’d actually suspected this way back when Reed was a few weeks old because of all the tummy discomfort he was having back then and the fact that the only thing I could think of that I ate at the time that might have made him sick was milk (I hadn’t had any of the other big allergy culprits). So we decided to try him on soy formula and I would just freeze my breast milk for a while. That didn’t go well at all. After trying the soy, Reed wouldn’t eat and got very lethargic. In fact, he started crying when he even saw a bottle. Then, four hours after having the formula, he threw up all over Adam. Clearly, that was not the solution.
The diarrhea was starting to make Reed dehydrated and caused terrible diaper rash, so we went to the doctor. The pediatrician we saw (ours was off that day) gave us some hypoallergenic formula and told me to give up anything in my diet from a cow. I decided instead to hold off a few days and freeze my breastmilk until I saw how he did on the formula. Within two days, his skin and scalp were completely clear and the diarrhea was gone. The transformation was so quick and so surprising. Within a week his diaper rash was a lot better. Even though he ended up contracting parvovirus last week, he was in great spirits — our old happy-go-lucky ball of cuteness.
So I gave up everything from a cow and soy. Being a huge milk drinker and cheese, yogurt and ice cream eater, it was really difficult, but I found things I could eat (even some dairy-free soy-free cookies!). I dutifully pumped and dumped for two weeks to keep up my milk supply. Last night, for the first time in 2 weeks, we gave him breastmilk — just for one feeding. And it all went to hell. He got diarrhea again. The diaper rash came back so bad it made him scream when we changed him. He started to get red and crusty in a few of his skin creases. All from 6 ounces of breastmilk that, if it had any dairy or soy in it at that point, it must have been trace amounts. Clearly he is very sensitive and perhaps the allergy is not even to milk and soy at all (or it’s to milk, soy, and other things).
So I am at a crossroads now. Reed has an appointment with an allergist, but not until mid-October. I could continue to pump and dump for all that time and then he will get pricked with needles or get his blood drawn (in which case the results will take longer to get) and we’ll find out what I need to eliminate from my diet. I could just give up eating the big 8 allergens (milk, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, wheat, egg, fish and shellfish), but that would leave me very little to subsist on and I’d still have to wait at least 2 weeks until I could start giving him breastmilk again. Or I could just call it a day with the breastfeeding. He’s doing well on the hypoallergenic formula (which costs an absolute fortune) and at this point, it seems like my milk is doing him more harm than good. I feel like the only reason I would continue trying to give him breastmilk at this point would be for my own ego — so I feel like a good mom. But I don’t feel like I good mom when I feed him something that makes him ill. It just sucks. After all I’ve gone through to try to provide him the best start in life, I still feel like I’ve failed him. No matter what decision I make, I feel like a bad mom.
But on the bright side, at least there exists a food that makes him all better, even if it doesn’t come from me. And before I fed him my milk yesterday he was doing brilliantly.
In other news, Adam and I did not fare quite as well with the parvovirus as Reed did. We both ended up getting it (which means we must not have had it as kids since having it gives you immunity) and we’re now horribly achy and exhausted. My doctor told me to stay home from work until Thursday and I was looking forward to resting while Reed’s at daycare until I remembered that we are getting our roof replaced this week! Crap! So instead of sleeping, we have to be out of the house for the next two days and have to come up with something quiet and relaxing to do (movies? day spa?) so that we can hopefully recover from this as quickly as possible. Will the suckiness ever end?
Reed's first day of daycare
Gosh, where has the time gone? I’ve really meant to write an update for a while, but we’ve been busy with summer, visitors, baby stuff, various and sundry illnesses (just me, not Reed), and getting ready for daycare. Reed started daycare this week and he is doing beautifully! I had a feeling he would do well there since he’s so curious and seems to love everyone he meets, but even I was surprised how nicely he’s done there. The women caring for him have been amazed by how mellow and smiley he is (even when he poops through his clothes, blanket, and bouncy seat — twice!) and the one he seems to spend the most time with says that she enjoys him so much. That’s certainly a good thing! I think daycare is going to be a great thing for him socially since he doesn’t get a lot of exposure to anyone but Adam and me at home.
Reed just turned four months old on Monday, which is hard to believe both because the time has gone so fast and because I feel like I’ve known him forever. Reed is a master now at rolling over 360 degrees. He definitely prefers sleeping on his tummy — side is probably his second favorite, and he occasionally will stay on his back (but it’s getting more and more rare). He’s also starting to move when he’s on his tummy. He does this funny inchworm-style creep where he bunches his knees up and then pushes his body forward. He makes decent progress, but he usually gets frustrated after a while and I have to pick him up. But it blows my mind how strong he is and how early he’s doing all these things!
Another thing Reed started doing early was eating solid foods. At just over three months, his pediatrician told us we could
Sweet potato!
start feeding him solid food. His head control was really advanced, he was demanding A LOT of food each day, and he had started oggling the food we were eating. I’ve vacilated between making my own food and using organic jarred baby food since he hasn’t been too big on the things I’ve made him myself (*sniff, sniff*). The things he has loved most so far are rice cereal and sweet potatoes, and he seemed to enjoy the avocados I made him a bit (he ate them 2 out of 4 days). We’ve been moving slowly with the solid feedings since he started early and we didn’t want to push him. But he’s getting better and better at it and I think we’re going to move tomorrow to feeding him solid food twice a day. It’s messy work, but so much fun to see him EATING!
I don’t know how Adam and I lucked out to have such a healthy, smart, mellow child. He really is amazing! A colleague of mine said that Reed doing so well in daycare was a credit to me for raising him to be confident and independent, but I don’t think I had anything to do with it. Right now, I’m pretty sure anything with his personality is pure temperament. He’s just a good-natured, mellow guy who smiles at everyone he meets. I keep saying that he’s ours to ruin, because I don’t think anything Adam and I could do would make him a better person than he already is. We just have to encourage him to keep being confident and friendly and curious about the world. And there’s nothing more important to me to help him be the best Reed he can be.
Five years ago today you made me the luckiest woman in the world. Thanks Adam for the five very best years of my life so far — and looking forward to many, many more with you and Reed!
The first 3 1/2 weeks with Reed were the worst of my life. Reed literally was not sleeping more than 4 hours total in a 24 hour period. For the rest of the time he did nothing but scream and eat. And he’d usually do a lot of screaming while he ate as well. He had painful gas and breastfeeding was not helping matters. I had overactive let-down which was, for him, like putting his mouth on a fire hose, and was making his gas even worse. It led him to constantly come off my breast or bite my nipples which caused really bad trauma to my nipples. I discovered I had Raynaud’s of the nipple, which causes excruciating pain during and for an hour after feeding, so I was usually in excruciating pain 50-75% of the time. Since Reed constantly came off the breast, the breastfeeding sessions took forever, and he’d spend much of the time screaming and trying to get away from my breast because he was afraid of being sprayed. I think he simply wasn’t eating enough, since once we went to bottle feeding his weight increased so much more quickly and he was so much more satisfied.
It was a disaster. But never once during the first 3 1/2 weeks was I willing to supplement with formula. To “give up” would make me a bad mother. I read the La Leche League forums where women with Raynauds talked about how they endured excruciating pain for the entire year (or more!) that they breastfed and how it was worth it. And then there were the women whose babies seemed miserable for the first two or three months they fed their child when their oversupply issues finally resolved themselves. While the support was helpful, I got the sense that there was never a point at which someone could or would say “maybe you should consider alternatives.” Clearly, motherhood means constant pain and I should endure it for the sake of my child. But not only was I in pain, but it seemed to me that he was as well. And I started to wonder why I should continue doing this if we were both miserable.
At the time, I felt like I couldn’t talk to anyone about it. Every time I did, I got judgment or I felt like I wasn’t being heard. When I went for a postpartum massage, I told my massage therapist (who is also studying to be a childbirth educator) about the issues I’ve been having. She told me I had to stick with it, because it wasn’t good enough to pump breastmilk and made it sound like giving him formula was akin to giving him poison. I talked to my midwife and our pediatrician and both assured me that my son couldn’t possibly be in any pain. But I knew he was; they didn’t hear his screaming throughout the night. I worked with a couple of lactation consultants, all of whom gave me advice that just didn’t work. One showed me a hold that required me to have my 2 week old son (whose body was like a limp noodle back then) sitting up to nurse. I had to somehow hold him straight, support his head, and support my breast, all the while, sitting diagonal to him. WTF?!?!? Another told me that I should use a breast pump for a few minutes before feeding him to decrease the pressure. When I told her at a subsequent visit that he was still panicking at the breast, she told me that I should pump for a few minutes, give him that milk in a bottle to calm him down, and then nurse him at the breast. With that logic, I’d literally be involved in the process of feeding him 24 hours/day. When I suggested just feeding him breastmilk from a bottle or supplementing with formula, she discouraged me from both. She told me that he would not nurse after taking a bottle so early because he’d have nipple confusion (and that was a crock, because after weeks and weeks of not nursing, he did just fine nursing at the ER when I sprained my shoulder and we didn’t have any bottles with us for him — though it wasn’t much fun for me!). Even their rhetoric was judgmental. Not nursing was called “giving up” or “quitting” — certainly not making a proactive choice that’s the best thing for both mother and baby.
By three weeks, I was truly at the end of my rope. I was miserable all the time, yelling at Adam, and wasn’t even feeling all that fond of Reed by then since I’d wait in dread for him to be hungry again. Because of how I felt about nursing him, I felt so guilty, which just made me more depressed and more irritable. I wanted to feel happy about having this beautiful and (mostly) healthy baby, but I didn’t because I felt constantly stressed about feeding him. Finally, I’d had enough and I was willing to listen to my husband who’d been suggesting supplementing with formula from pretty early on. I called Reed’s pediatrician and asked her what she thought. She said that I’d already given him a lot of health benefits from breastfeeding him for 3 1/2 weeks and that if he was still getting some breastmilk, he’d continue to benefit. The key, she said, is “feed the baby, feed the baby, feed the baby.” So we fed him his first formula bottle… and the world didn’t end. In fact, he was suddenly a much happier baby and seemed satisfied after a feeding for the first time ever.
For a little while, Reed got formula at night and I nursed him during the day. But after a little while I realized that I was doing that more to make myself feel like a good mom than for him (and I was still in a lot of pain!). So, since he was six weeks old, I’ve been exclusively pumping and giving him breast milk for about 65% – 100% of the time (depending on how much he eats in a day). The rest of the time he gets formula. And when we moved to exclusively bottle feeding him, the change in him was incredible. He calmed down, slept better, was happy, and became much more curious about the world around him. It was a huge and immediate change. Suddenly, he was the mellow baby we’d dreamed of. And, yes, I was much happier too. I could finally ENJOY my son!
It’s hard enough to make the right choice for yourself and your child without people passing judgment. Whenever I wasn’t nursing Reed during those weeks, I was online reading about other mothers dealing with the same issues. I saw so much smugness online, both from mothers who had an easy time breastfeeding and those who endured lots of pain and suffering to do so (and no, not everyone was like that). While a lot of what I read was supportive, a lot was also really judgmental. People saying that women who don’t breastfeed their infants are lazy and are taking the easy way out. Here are just a few that I found online:
“its much easier to pop and prop a bottle of warmed over formula in the kid in order to get back to your computer screen than it is to nurse a child. you know, after my kid was born, moments after, i realized its about him now, not me.”
“What I do know is that hold my 7th month old breast fed son next to a 7 month old formula baby and you will instantly see some differences. Formula babies often have a waxy skin tone. You would never know it unless you saw it contrasted. Formula babies are not as vivacious as my sons on breastmilk were/are, and formula babies have greater chances of being obese…yes, those critical 12 months in life that you are whining about can make or break it for the rest of your child’s life.”
“If the burden of breast feeding is too great for you, perhaps you have no business having children–after all, everything about the years after infancy is about more and more self-sacrifice.”
While I think breastfeeding is great, I don’t know for sure that it’s this magic bullet people seem to argue it is. A lot of the studies on breast vs. bottle ignore other variables that could explain the benefits. And they often don’t look at whether it’s the physical act of feeding at the breast or the breast milk itself that creates those benefits. People talk about toxins in formula, yet that’s made in a controlled setting, whereas my body is likely full of chemicals that have built up in it over the years. I recently have been reading studies that are looking at whether the rise in breastfeeding exclusively (specifically the lack of vitamin D in breast milk) has led to the rise in autism. I’m not saying breast milk isn’t better, but I don’t necessarily buy all the arguments about what breastfeeding can do for a child. While I found the controversial article “The Case Against Breastfeeding” (which I read in the days before Reed was born) incredibly biased and in some ways ridiculous, I do agree with some of the conclusions she came to. There is pressure on women to breastfeed and so much dubious propaganda about the benefits that women feel like failures if they can’t or don’t do it. And while it’s important to support women who are struggling with breastfeeding and want to continue, it’s equally important to not make people feel like it’s the only option for mothers who love their children.
I know the judgment goes both ways with breast vs. bottle, and there’s a lot of judgment about other things too, like co-sleeping, discipline and circumcision. I just find it ridiculous that we should feel guilty for choosing what we think is best for our family, especially when it bother no one else (vaccinations are another story, because I do feel that puts other kids in harm’s way and it’s probably the thing I’m most nervous about in sending my son to daycare since they don’t require the kids to be vaccinated). If someone chooses to breastfeed for a week, for three years or not at all, they shouldn’t have to feel like other people are judging them for it. It makes me sick that mothers could do that to each other, when what we should be doing is being supportive! Maybe if we stopped attacking each other, we’d have more time and energy to fight for things like affordable daycare, longer maternity leaves, etc.
I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to pump breast milk (maybe it’s the Raynaud’s, but pumping does cause me pain each time I do it), but I’ll do it as long as it feels right for me and him. And if someone wants to call me selfish for stopping so be it. But I’d rather be “selfish” and happy and have a better relationship with my child because of it than be selfless and resent my son for my discomfort. I don’t buy into any culture of martyrdom, because I know that making yourself miserable is bad for your child.
Anyone who uses a Mac and surfs the web is aware of a pretty serious and annoying problem:
Whether you use an ancient iMac or a new MacBook Pro, if you visit sites that use Flash your CPU usage will spike, your fans will spin like a turboprop, and (if using a laptop) your crotch will be set ablaze.
Here is the task manager on my MBP; i’ve got Safari open with one window on a Flash cartoon that’s got simpler animation than Magilla Gorilla.
57%? seriously??
This would not be a huge issue if it only happened on web cartoons or porn sites. The problem is that Flash is ubiquitous — it is even used by many banner ad rotator packages. So just by visiting, say, your local newspaper’s web site, you are loading Flash into memory.
Thus, if you browse many sites and keep several windows open in Safari, the probability that you’ll hit sites with Flash approaches 1. Your shiny new $2500.00 machine suddenly performs worse than a Windows machine that’s 1/10th the cost.
But Why?
This isn’t just some small bug with the latest version of Flash; this problem has existed since Flash has been available on OS X. It simply is inefficient in a way that the Windows version is not.
Why it remains so is a matter of open speculation. Some say Adobe simply doesn’t care about OS X because of its small market share. Others say it is a pissing contest between Adobe and Apple — recall that Apple refuses to allow Flash to run on the iPhone, ostensibly because they want greater control over the apps that run on the device. (In Apple’s defense, I wouldn’t allow Flash on the iPhone either, at least as it is currently implemented; I can only imagine how quickly it would drain the phone’s battery!)
Will this ever be fixed?
This thread about the OS X issue on Adobe’s ticket tracker makes it very clear that:
1) Adobe is aware of the issue
2) They aren’t devoting enough resources to fixing the problem, focusing instead on getting Flash onto cell phones (!)
3) Because this problem impacts all Macs, and Macs are becoming more popular, Adobe is needlessly causing a huge amount of electricity to be wasted.
One person in the thread did a back-of-the-envelope calculation that the amount of electricity that’s turned into waste heat because of Flash’s poor implementation is the equivalent of the output of a small nuclear power plant. Ironic, as Adobe fancies itself a green organization.
A Work-Around: ClickToFlash
If you use Safari, the best thing to do is to install ClickToFlash ASAP — this will prevent Flash from automatically loading on a page. With one click you can then load the blocked Flash app.
This has made a huge difference in my system’s performance and battery life. As a bonus, it also blocked a bunch of annoying ads.
Of course, it doesn’t fix the underlying problem of Flash being a total pig on OS X. We can only hope that Adobe does the right thing and makes OS X a higher priority going forward.
I’ve been a mother now for three months (or 12, if you count the 9 months I carried Reed around), but I don’t think I truly felt like “a mom” until Thursday, July 9th. That was the day of the fall.
Sweet little thumb sucker
Reed, Adam and I had gotten to Chicago a few hours earlier. It was a combo-visit: we got to see Adam’s family and I got to attend ALA (with a very limited schedule so I could be with my little man). We were walking down Lake Shore Drive on the way to Lincoln Park. I had Reed in the Ergo Carrier on my front and I tripped over badly uneven pavement. I tried to regain my balance, but couldn’t with the extra weight on my front. So we fell. All I could think of in that moment was Reed. It was truly the scariest moment of my life. Luckily, I had just enough time to turn my body to the right as I was falling so my arm bore the brunt of the fall. Reed got a tiny bump on his forehead (which was gone within an hour) and got a small scratch on his forehead (which was healed before we even got back to VT). Still, we took him to the hospital and got him x-rayed to make sure everything was hunky dory. And it was.
I didn’t fare quite as well. I ended up with a badly sprained shoulder, a banged up knee and lots of road rash on my arm and leg. More than a week later and I still can’t carry Reed or change his diaper. Thank goodness we already had bottles and a breast pump, since there is no way I can nurse him now. It really sucks — I miss bouncing him and being able to just grab him and take him from place to place. It’s also incredibly inconvenient. Adam has had to pick up a lot of the slack. Thank goodness my parents had been planning a three-week visit that started on Friday (they’re renting a house locally), so Adam doesn’t have to do everything around here. For a few days, Adam even had to do my hair, which made me grateful that we had a son! 
I went to physical therapy on Friday and the exercises they recommended seem to be helping bit by bit. But I still can’t do a lot of motions with my right (dominant) arm and carrying any weight in that hand is impossible.
In spite of the pain I was feeling, all that mattered to me was that Reed was ok, and I couldn’t think about my own injuries until I knew that he was. And I felt so proud of myself for having that mother instinct to put myself into harm’s way to protect him. It was just a few seconds, hardly enough time to think, but I did the right thing for Reed. It made me feel like a real mom (even if I was one before).
Reed and his cousins Maddy and Max
Other than that, the Chicago trip was a lot of fun! Reed met his cousins for the first time, spent time with his grandparents, and met a whole bunch of my librarian friends at ALA. He started rolling from his back onto his side while we were there and has nearly gotten all the way over to his stomach. He is SO determined! While I’d never want to live in a city, I wish we had a wonderful park like Lincoln Park to take Reed to around here. It’s such a great, kid-friendly, beautiful space. Reed did a fantastic job on his first big trip! He behaved really well on the plane and was a perfect gentleman at O’Hare in spite of flight delays. We are amazingly lucky to have such a mellow little guy — he’s a gem!
I’d sprain my shoulder a thousand times over to keep him happy and healthy. It’s an awful injury to have, but he’s worth it.
Sleep Tight...
Reed just had his 3 month birthday, I can’t believe how quickly time is passing. It is a cliche, but I really am having a hard time remembering what life was like before him! (Though that may have something to do with sleep deprivation.)
Meredith and I are lucky; not only is he healthy, but Reed is also an incredibly well-behaved baby. Unlike his father, he communicates his needs with clarity — he only cries when he wants to make a point (Hungry! Tired!), not just for the sake of crying.
He’s also a champ in the car and was even better behaved than his mother and myself when we were stuck at O’Hare for 6 hours the other day.
All told, having him come into our lives has been an incredible experience that’s been pretty much what I had expected. The only real surprise to me is how deeply I love him. Just going away for a couple of days at a time on business trips has been a total killer. I miss seeing his smile and having him pass out in a floppy heap on top of me after feeding.
I hope to cut down on travel for the next several months; I know that he won’t be small forever and I don’t want to miss out on watching him grow.
I realized today that I’m the only person who has seen Reed roll over (Adam doesn’t put Reed on his tummy much). So I grabbed Adam and the Flip camera and we made this movie. He’s definitely gotten better at it over the past two weeks!
Typing with one hand here (story of my life these days…)
Reed turned two months old today! We celebrated with his first hike in the woods, which he mostly slept through in his Ergo carrier. Part of me can’t believe he is already this old while another part feels like I’ve known him forever. The past month has been a whirlwind of visitors, but we have the house to ourselves for the rest of the summer. While it’s nice to have company and help, it’s also be nice when it’s just the three of us. My parents were so crazy about Reed that they’re renting a house nearby for three weeks to spend more time with him.
Reed has been growing like a weed. Two weeks ago, we learned that he was in the 75th percentile for height
Adam circa 1971
– which is impressive when you have two shorties for parents. He’s grown 4 inches since he was born
so is 23 and 1/4 inches now. While he eats like crazy, he’s still a pretty lean guy. I’m sure he’ll fill out
soon, though I was never particularly chubby as a baby. I’ve recently seen pics of Adam at this age and he is a chubby version of Reed; it’s really uncanny!
Tummy time or snack time?
Reed’s accomplished so many things this month. Four weeks ago he cracked his first smile and since then he’s been smiling all the time when he’s in a social mood. He’s been cooing a lot and we’re much more clued in to what his various vocalizations mean. He’s started playing with toys — batting at and clutching toys that dangle over him. He’s a whiz at tummy time and has a very strong neck. On Sunday morning he managed to roll himself from his belly onto his back!!! It was a big weekend of firsts since Saturday he also was able to consistently get his thumb in his mouth. He’s still not quite as crazy about it as the pacifier, but he seems to use it more and more each day. He’d been getting it into his mouth on and off for 2 weeks, but he was never able to consistently repeat the feat until now. Good work Reed!!!
I started back at work last week. I’m only working two days per week until mid-August (when Reed is 4 months old) and Adam will be watching him on days that I’m away. It’s difficult to be away from him, but at
least for now he’s with Adam who is so great with him. They have so much fun together and Adam is a really supportive, hands-on dad (and husband). The idea of sending him to daycare really freaks me out, but there really isn’t another good choice for our family.
Lots more to update, but my buddy here seems to want to play, so play we shall.
