3 weeks

Jackson is 3 weeks old today!

What a joy this little man has been.  We had a few rough growth spurt days, where he was eating all the time, and not sleeping well, but he seems to have settled back into his usual routine... whatever that means, at this point.  I tried to actually keep track of what he did today, just for my own record's sake, although it's probably painfully boring to you so feel free to just skip over.  His schedule today went like this (the night is all a blur so we'll start with when we got out of bed for the day):

7:15am wake and diaper change
7:30 feed- this takes about 45 minutes as we have to stop to burp, diaper change, tend to Ri bug, etc...
8:15- 9:00 awake time in swing, looking in mirror, playing with sister, cuddling with mama, etc...
9-10:30 SLEEP (in swing)
10:30 awake and feed and diaper change
11:30 feed again!  (nursed to sleep)
11:45-1:30 ASLEEP (in bed with me while I napped too!)
1:30 diaper change and feed
2:00-3:30 ASLEEP (on couch)
3:45 diaper change and feed and diaper change
4:45 continue interrupted feed due to Riley getting into mischief...
5:20-7:00 ASLEEP (rocked to sleep then slept in swing while we ate dinner)
7:00 awake and feed and diaper change
8:00 ASLEEP (and still sleeping as I type this at 9:30 pm...)

He's got such a strong little neck, he'll hold his head up for ages when held upright.  During tummy time he lifts his head and turns it from side to side. He's not totally thrilled to lay flat on his back, and prefers to sleep on his side or his tummy.  If he must sleep on his back (like at night), he does so elevated in his rock 'n play, or sleeps in my arms, depending on his mood.

He stares intently at our faces and even flashes some occasional smiles.  He likes looking at the mobile and mirror above his swing, we haven't quite gotten out his little baby gym as Riley sort of just takes it over, so we'll see what happens with that...  His longest stretch of sleep has been 3.5 hours, but usually we only get 2 hour blocks at night. 

He loves the moby wrap, and the car seat, and the swing.  He's making cute little baby cooing noises now.  He is the LOUDEST sleeper- much louder than Riley was, and I thought she was loud! He's starting to get a tiny bit of baby acne, and his skin is peeling a little on his face.  He likes bath time, but prefers to be submerged rather than sit in his little baby bath hammock thing.  He's gone from pooping 15 plus times a day to about half that,, thank goodness!  He's still in all newborn clothes and diapers, and probably will be for a few more weeks.  But he's out of his preemie clothes!!

He loves when I sing to him (or to Riley), and always falls asleep with a little rocking/bouncing and a song.  We introduced him to the bottle a few days ago, and I wasn't sure he'd take it since he's not into the artificial nipples really, but he downed it!  I only pumped about 40 mls for him since I didn't think he'd drink it, but he gulped it all down and demanded more.  I plan on giving him 1-2 bottles of breast milk a week just to keep him used to drinking from a bottle.

He is starting to like his soothie paci a little more, but HATES the MAM ones that Riley loved so much (and still does).  He almost always falls asleep after a feed (milk coma), but I usually wake him by burping or diaper change otherwise he wakes up after only 20-30 minutes and wants to eat more.  If he really wants/needs sleep, he will sleep after I burp/change him anyway, but this way I wake him up, get more milk in him, and then he sleeps longer and goes longer in between feeds, usually,  Not always.  You can see in his schedule today that his wake time varied from 30 minutes to 2 hours... we just go with what he needs!

He had a few days of being very gassy and seeming like he was in pain, but I think that has mostly passed and he's much more settled.  He never ever spits up, and literally just starting a few days ago have I been able to get burps out of him after feeds.  Before that, didn't matter what I did, he wouldn't burp! 

Happy 3 weeks my sweet little bubba!