Silas John - Week 18

We had a pretty "off" week.  We had some short naps, some long naps, some missed naps and even some early morning wake-ups.  His eating has also been sporadic.  Sometimes he acted like he was starving after two hours and other times he didn't want anything.  I went back and read about Amos when he was this age, and saw some of the same things.  When Amos was going through this, I kept trying to blame it on teething, but I've recently came across a book called "The Wonder Weeks" which explains that as babies are learning a "new" thing, they have a very fussy week (or weeks) while they figure it out.  This blog does a great job of explaining it if your interested.  But suffice it to say that Silas is in Wonder Week 19 which actually last from 14-22 weeks.  It may sound crazy to you, but looking back now, Amos went through this phase to a T.  At the end of the phase, they should be much better at grabbing toys, putting then in their mouths and sitting and responding to "Where's Daddy or Mommy."  I'm hoping we'll be coming out the other sound soon.  I'm learning that when everything seems "off" for no reason, its probably a Wonder Week.  We have 6 more to look forward to!

We still had fun despite the frustration.  Luckily, Silas' cranky wake time behavior just involves needing to change positions more often and a little more attention.  He's a pretty laid back dude.  We had Dad home on Tuesday due to some snow.  As I've already mentioned, Silas enjoyed watching the snow festivities from the window.

On Thursday, we had the play group over to our house and Priscilla and Silas spent some time chatting about being babies.  These two will be up and running around before we know it.

On Friday, Grandma and Grandpa and Granny came for a visit.  They couldn't believe how big he was getting.  While they were hear, Silas camped out in our closet in the pack and play.  Luckily he doesn't seem to mind where he's sleeping, as long as he is on his tummy.  We've dropped the swaddle at night now because I think he self-soothes better without it.  Grandma commented that she now knew what I meant when I said "crazy hair."  That's the best way to describe Silas' mop on top.  Grammie and Gramps and Uncle Jason and Aunt Audrey also came for a short visit on Saturday.  Audrey chose to enjoy Silas from afar after he spit up on her a few times.  My boys are spitters.

Silas' favorite thing this week was his hands or anything else he could get to his mouth.  And so it begins.

Here's Amos at the same age.

Silas John - Week 14

We've got some blurry hand action going on, but I couldn't pass up that smile!

We hit the 3 month mark this week, and magically his legs started working.  Silas had shown little, to no, interest in standing on his legs until this week.  Now, he's always pushing up on them.  So I brought out this big guy!

And he loves it!

Night time sleeping has been fantastic this week!  I'm starting to get used to 9 hours of glorious sleep again.  Even with a lingering cough, he hasn't woken in the night.  I normally do a dreamfeed around 9:30 and then he sleeps until almost 8!  However, naps have been a different story.  His first two naps of the day are pretty good ones, but the rest he normally wakes up before transitioning into deeper sleep.  I've been trying to wean him from the swaddle by leaving one arm out, so that might be the culprit.  We tried no swaddle one day and it was bad.  He's not ready to drop it yet.  I still fully swaddle him at night.

He'd been eating faster most of the week until these last two days.  Now he's seems to be slowly eating and wanting more even when were done.  He may be headed for or in a growth spurt.  We'll see.

Other than the exesaucer, he also spent some time in the bumbo and on his tummy.

Finger chewing has also started up.  I wish he would figure out the whole thumb-sucking thing.  He just can't keep them in while sleeping.

When he smiles, I feel like he thinks I'm the greatest person ever!  Pictures don't do it justice, so here is a quick movie clip.

Lastly, after cutting off Amos' hair this week, I think the boys' differences have become more pronounced.  Similar features, completely different layout!

Here's Amos at 14 weeks.  I think this was his chubbiest point.

Silas John - Week 11

And a new look to the blog.  No special reason.  I was just getting a little tired of the old look.

This past week started off with a bang!  Silas decided he needed to eat every 2 hours during the day and a shorter stretch at night.  Can you say GROWTH SPURT?  It was really frustrating me for two reasons.  The first was that it was my birthday week, and I kind of thought it would be nice of him to sleep longer for my birthday.  He decided just to be cute instead.

And secondly, this is the week Amos started sleeping 10 hours at night.  And he never stopped.  My mom reminded me that Silas is chubbier than Amos and may just need a little more food.  Here's to hoping the magic starts this week!

Jason was taking me out on Friday for my birthday so we tried all week to get Silas to take a bottle.  We had VERY little success.  I've now tried 4 different bottles.  Any suggestions?  I'm just going to continue to try once a day in hopes that he finally get it by Saturday because we have a out of town wedding to attend.

At Silas' Dr. appointment, we were told to try hydrocortisone on his cheeks.  It has been amazing.  And his cheeks are finally starting to clear up.  He's put on lots of pounds (5 of them) since birth so no problems with breast-feeding and he's in size 2 diapers now.  We're starting cloth very soon!

We're still swaddling for sleep, but he's getting really close to busting out so we may be ending that soon.  And to be honest, I look forward to it.  I know it helps so much with sleep now, but its pretty annoying to have to swaddle for every nap and night.  He's getting more accurate at hitting his toys in his bouncer and activity gym.  I hope that's a sign that he'll be ready for no swaddle soon!

Speaking of his toys, he loves to play with them.  He's so content anywhere, but he really likes to talk to toys that are hanging within his eye sight.

Amos also likes to play with his toys.  Silas just smiles and smiles at Amos.  He loves his big brother.

He looks at everything these days.  My mom says he's more social that Amos was.  I agree.  I'm getting pretty spoiled with all his smiles.