a little like lethargy

I'm tired today. Kai's sleep has gotten worse again since we moved him out of his bassinet and into his crib. I think the bigness of his crib stresses him out and makes it hard for him to fall into a deep sleep. It sucks, but we're working on it. I've tried putting his nursing pillow (a big, u-shaped pillow) around his head to make him feel a little more closed in and that's seemed to help a little, but he's still not sleeping like he was last week. Oh well. Such is life, I suppose. Needless to say, it's made me pretty tired again. Today I kind of wish I could have a day off. Let someone else look after Kai for a while while I just veg at home. But I think I can settle for a nice long shower when Verge gets home to tide me over.

On the other hand, Kai is getting a lot more interactive and starting to be kind of chatty and full of smiles. Makes the short, sleepless nights really worth it in the end. Here's my most recent video of him being SO CUTE I could just eat him up. Ignore my banal chatter in the background. I've always thought mom or dad talking to the baby in videos like this sounded really silly and I have to say, I sound no different! LOL Ah well, I think that's just how people sound when they talk to someone who can't talk back.

Anyway, enjoy!

seven weeks

I can't believe it's been seven weeks since Kai was born. Truth be told, I can hardly remember being pregnant anymore! Friends of ours at church just had their baby last week Wednesday and when I saw her on Sunday, I thought, she's so much smaller than Kai was. But she's not. She's actually bigger by almost a pound. I don't remember him being that small! Oh, he's growing too fast! He's grown at least two inches and is now almost 10lbs. Can you imagine growing two inches in 7 weeks? Crazy.

On the other hand, it's really cool to see him start to be aware of his world. He looks at us and smiles and can even accidentally roll over!

Isn't that cool? I think it's pretty cool.

What else is new in our world? Well, other than my blogger template, not a whole lot. The routine is going well, Kai's even sleeping longer at night. Now I'm feeding only twice during the night instead of five times, which is a big improvement. I'm looking forward to the day he sleeps through the night, though. That'll be great because I miss sleeping. It's something I've always enjoyed and I miss it a lot.

Oh, and my friend Kayla and her boy Elliot are doing much better. You can read about their most recent adventures at the hospital here. I'm sure she'd still appreciate your prayers that Elliot could stay out of the hospital until his surgery.

And that's all for this week, I think. I'm sure I'll think of something clever that I'd wanted to blog about later today, but trying to entertain a baby who can't entertain himself and trying to concentrate are sort of mutually exclusive I've found! So until next week, I bid you adieu.

E.A.S.Y. does it

I bought my first 'child-rearing' book at the beginning of this week - "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer - How to calm, connect and communicate with your baby". The whole 'whisperer' phenomenon is kind of kitchy and very pop-culture-y, but my friend Kayla, who I mentioned in my last post, used her methods for her baby, Elliot, and raved about them, so I thought to myself, if it works for them, it might just work for me.

The book's a really easy read and her methods really made sense to me. Basically, she advocates getting baby on a structured routine - generally two and a half to three hour spans in which baby eats, has some activity time and sleeps. It's the E, A and S of her 'E.A.S.Y.' method - the Y being you time. It's flexible in that you don't have to adhere to the same times of day every day and you can adjust it to your baby's needs (i.e. growth spurts, illness, etc.). It's goal is just to help baby feel secure in the predictability of his day, help mom and dad figure out what baby is trying to communicate so you don't overfeed, overstimulate or overtire and to give mom and dad some time to themselves throughout the day. I don't know, I just really liked the logic and common sense of it all.

I've had Kai on this routine for the last three or four days and it's going really well. We've started a bedtime routine for him that he seems to really like and it is getting easier to interpret what he wants and needs from us at any given time. Kai still has fussy times during which we're not entirely sure what he wants from us, but we're slowly but surely settling into a pace of life that feels right. I think it was even more important for me to feel like there was some kind of routine to my day that made sense. The baby-in-control-feed-on-demand-carry/comfort-constantly thing kind of stressed me out, to be honest. The Baby Whisperer advocates fostering sensible independence in your child. She's not a 'let them cry it out' kind of person, rather, it's comfort when baby needs comforting, but put them down once they've been comforted. Repeat as necessary, but don't let yourself accidentally teach your child that he needs to be rocked to sleep or he needs to be in your arms 24-7.

So yeah, that's what's new in my world - trying to establish a kind of 'normal' for Kai and I.

But now I must go and feed my babe so we can give him his bath, massage and swaddle so he can go to bed! Here's a couple more pictures of my cutie for your viewing pleasure:

please pray

For those of you who read our blog and are praying people - or even if you can just send some good vibes - if you could please remember my friend Kayla and her baby, Elliot. You can read a little about their story here. Poor little Elliot has spent most of his life in and out of the hospital already and today, he had to go back again. I'm not sure of the details yet, but they were going to visit us today after an appointment they had and had to call and cancel.

So yeah, if you could remember them today, I'm sure they'd really appreciate it.

first week on my own

Well, this is it, I guess. Where the rubber metaphorically meets the road, as it were. After having Vergil at home for two weeks after Kai's birth and then having my parents in town for two weeks after that, this is my first official week all by myself with Kai. I've had a few days on my own here and there, but never a whole week. Kind of daunting if I think about it too hard. If you've been wanting to come for a visit this is probably a good week to book a time, so give me a call or email me (kristamk@mts.net)!

What can I say about the last four, almost five weeks of life with Kai? It's been an adventure. I love every minute of it, but I'll tell you, the novelty of getting up multiple times during the night and not really sleeping for more than an hour and a half at a time is really starting to wear off. I'm tired. Like more tired than I think I've ever been in my life. Feels like I've been at a youth retreat for weeks on end and if you know me at all, that's REALLY tired.

But we're surviving. I admit I get a little irritated with Kai at 4 in the morning when he decides it's a good time to be wide awake and I've just fallen into a half decent sleep. I admit it's a little frustrating trying to entertain a month old baby who can't hold up his own head yet, can't play with toys on his own and needs what feels like almost constant physical contact. But in the same breath, this is the best thing I've ever experienced in my life. It's always funny to me how sometimes the most trying experiences are also the best.

Anyway, I'm still trying not to hurry my boy along through baby-hood because I know in about 6 months I'll be lamenting about how big he's getting and in a year I'll be agonizing over the fact that he wants to be so independent from me. I know how fast life goes and there's really no point in rushing it.

And they say that the sleeping thing will get better. Only i can't help but feel the same way I did when people told me I would feel better in my pregnancy. I really only half believe it. I know they're probably right, but that's just not my reality right now.

Oh well, Vergil closes tomorrow, so he'll take the morning watch and let me sleep a little longer which should help a lot. Then maybe I'll start thinking about keeping this kid awake more during the day or something. Post your advice if you've got it, but I'm not going to obsess about the 'right' method for getting your baby to sleep better at night.

Here's a couple more pictures for your viewing pleasure: