Adam: Week 3

Week 3 is a big one for our family. My mom has returned to New Mexico and Matt has returned to work. Matt is actually working from home this week and plans to continue from home until I'm cleared to drive again.

Our first night and full day of just the three of us went fairly smoothly, but even when Adam is not fussing, the schedule of a newborn is exhausting. We didn't have such a smooth time on day and night 2. Adam kept us up from about 2:30a Tuesday morning and was quite fussy in the morning. Matt pushed through work and I tried to keep our son somewhat content, but by afternoon, Mom and Dad were both wiped.

Adam loves to have his hands up by his mouth.
Sometimes, it interferes with feeding. Sometimes,
we just get to see this cuteness.

We still had a rough early morning, not sleeping much after 4a on this third day, but Adam was a darling later in the morning. The cleaning service came by at 9 and they were busy working on all but the nursery and the study while Adam played in his crib then on my lap. He had a little formula then slept while Matt worked, the cleaning service continued in the other rooms and I organized his room.

Adam with his serious, "I'm thinking" pose.

Yesterday, it occurred to me that Adam's fussiness has a lot to do with boredom. We'd been keeping him in the nursery and our bedroom since we brought him home. Mainly, we're trying to keep him away from the filthy cat. Side note: the cleaning lady took me aside and asked, "What in the world does the cat do to get food on the walls?" Even though they said that they don't do windows and they don't scrub walls, she still cleaned the cat food off the kitchen walls. Next week, I'm going to start tipping them.

Our baby son, sleeping, but still thinking.

Back to the topic of Adam's boredom. Once we realized that his fussiness was just his desire to not sit on our laps in the nursery every waking moment, we started walking him from room to room or sitting with him in the living room. Matt likes to walk Adam into each room of the house and point out various things that Adam might see. I like to sit with him on the futon and play baby games with him. Today, I used the rattle Matt got him to help Adam practice motor skills. Gosh, I was going to explain, but I'm too tired.

Ditto.

Adam has done really well with tummy time this week. We place him in his crib on his stomach and tickle the back of his head to encourage him to lift his head and face the opposite direction. He does this twice then gets pretty frustrated so that ends tummy time. We are still impressed at how strong newborns are and how much they can do at just a few weeks old.

Tummy Time!