I started reading a book titled Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child (thanks Lauren Bealafeld!) and found that Reed is quite the normal, if not exceptional baby. Dane and I were getting pretty frustrated this past week as it seemed that if Reed wasn't sleeping or eating he was screaming or fussing. We were crediting this to the extreme gas that he seems to have, but as I was reading this book I found that it is completely normal, if not expected, that babies begin to go through a fussy period begining around 2-3 weeks old and lasting until about 6 weeks. It has something to do with their nervous system still developing and causes them to be fussy/screaming most of the time that they are alert and not eating. This fussiness then causes the baby to suck in air, thus resulting in the painful gas. It's a vicious cycle, but the good news is that 6 weeks is just around the corner! This book also told us that we have an "easy" baby when it comes to his sleep habits so far. He has no problem falling asleep in public places or when there are a lot of people and noises around. His longest sleep strech at night is 4-5.5 hours long (most babies at his age average 3) and it's completely normal that now he is taking longer and longer to fall asleep, frustating as it may be, because he is begnining to fight sleep in order to stay awake with us. Needless to say, Dane and I were quite pleased to find out that our little one, although trying at times, is just being an infant (and a good one to boot!).
Dane and I read Reed some stories the other night before putting him to bed. I picked out a favorite of mine, Love You Forever. Now, my mom was not much of a crier. She certainly didn't like to cry in front of people, but there were two things you could always count on to get her to tear up: Love You Forever, and All Is Well. I myself do not like to cry and often try my best to stiffle my tears. Yet, I made it through about 3/4 of the book before I too broke down.
There is a moment in the book (if you've never read it I highly reccomend it, especially parents) where upon hearing that his mother is sick, the son drives across town, picks up his mom and sings to her the same song she sang to him, substituting the word "baby" for "mother"-of course this brought about thoughts of my own mom. To make matters worse, the next page shows the son standing above the crib of his newborn baby as he reaches down to sing the same song to his new little child. I'm tearing up just thinking about it. Dane just looked at me when I reached that page and said..."Well, you almost made it."
Anyway...enough with the sappy stuff. Here are some of my new favorite pics:
Proud Papa with Dakota and Reed
Happy Baby!
So, after our first month all is well. Looking forward to watching Reed grow in the months to come.
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