What a Day

Just one of hundreds upon hundreds of “days” I will experience, I am sure. This particular day, it was very clear that Finn was “going through something”, as we like to put it around here. My instinctual guess is that he is beginning to teethe, though he is only 3 months (almost.) Last week, I noticed he had discovered that his hands were an excellent and tasty source of amusement. Since he cannot yet grasp objects for more than 2 seconds on his own, he has nothing else to chow down on but his fists. This is a normal developmental milestone for a baby so, no biggie I figured. He has also been much more vocal lately. Instead of out right crying, he’s learned that he can make these long and verrry loud sighing noises, along with the usual oooh’s and aaah’s. He will now interact with us (and his mobile toys) using these new vocal exercises. He has learned that if he kicks his legs back in forth while he’s in his bouncer, it will make the toys swing back and forth. He loves it and will smile and kick all the more. It is adorable to watch! In general, he seems much more aware of his surroundings and is becoming easily distracted while nursing. We sit on the couch in the living room where there are 6 large photographs of places we have traveled to. Grand Canyon, Arches Nation Park, Colorado, etc. I noticed him gazing at these photos when he was barely a few weeks old. He continues to study them very intently and is now starting to turn his head to look up at them and up and me and wherever else he fancies. I started to get the feeling that something wasn’t quite normal this past Friday when he had a particularly fussy day. Nursing sessions were a long and drawn out ordeal because he would not settle down and stay latched. (Eventually he would buckle down and finish his meal). This pattern of fussiness continued over the weekend and all day today. A few times today I thought he just flat out wasn’t going to get anything to eat at that particular feeding. Over the course of an hour’s time, I doubt he ate for more than 10-15 minutes. This happened for several of his feedings today. All of the usual tricks didn’t seem to work. Milk flow too fast, too slow, needs to burp, needs to toot, needs to poop, nada, nothing. When he would cry/moan/wail he would stretch his bottom lip out in an unusual way, almost the way we would stretch our mouths if we were trying to reveal our bottom teeth. The real kicker was when he stopped in the middle of nursing to suck on his hands. Hello?!?! Combine all this with an obvious increase of drool in the past week AND more frequent coughing and you’ve got what sounds like teething to me. I gave him some ice in a baby sock to chow down on and massaged his gums for as long as he would let me. I couldn’t tell if that really helped him out or not and I can’t tell if I see anything that look like tiny teeth budding. I guess I will find out eventually.

On an unrelated note, we are trying very hard to get Finn on a schedule for naps and bedtime. He sleeps fine at night except his bedtime has been ANYthing but consistent in the past 3 weeks with the holidays and Dave being off work. In order for him to be put to bed at 8pm, he has to start his last feeding of the night at 7:30 which means his 2nd to last feeding of the day should probably be around 6:00 and the feeding before that should be around 4. (The closer he gets to bedtime, the closer together his feedings should be spaced. This is just what I’ve found works for him.) Whenever he falls asleep, he will sleep 7-8 hours, be up for a quick feeding, and then down for another 3 hours or so. His official wake time works out to be sometime between 7am and 8am, Depending on how quickly he falls asleep at night. This week, I am experimenting with a pretty strict regimen, just to see how things shape up. His 6pm and 7:30pm feedings went horribly tonight so it wouldn’t surprise me if he sleeps less than 7 hours. And then my whole plan will be shot. Haha. On the brighter side, Finn has been napping more consistently lately. Not at consistent times, but consistently 2-3 naps each day. Scooooore! As soon as he yawns and exhibits other sleepy signs, I start winding him down for a nap. I’ve been doing this for a few weeks now and his body is starting to adapt to the necessity of day time sleep periods. The next step is giving him specific nap times. Nothing to report on that yet but I have a whole week of experimenting to do.

I’m not sure why I’m choosing to unwind by rehashing the day’s events. Glutton for punishment? At least I made a pretty delicious dinner of spicy mushroom and sausage ragu over cheesy polenta. I even painted my nails this evening for the first time in 3 months. Awww yieah. It’s the little things.