Random Notes

Now that I'm feeling a little more human, I have the energy to fill you all in on some of the adventures in Nicholas-land.

So far Nicholas has only had sponge baths, which he despises. However, he absolutely loves the part at the end where instead of being wiped down with a wet washcloth he gets to have water poured over his head to wash his hair. He goes from screaming bloody murder to being wide-eyed and content immediately. This makes me think that once he can start taking real baths (in the next week, once the umbilical cord falls off), he will have a blast.

We have now taken two walks. Luckily my parents saved the Snugli they had when Peter and I were little and mom brought it up when Nicholas was in his insisting to be held to sleep mode (you know, way back in a different time--three days ago). On our walk last night it was already dusk and Nicholas just curled in close to Joe and slept. Today we went out around noon and he looked stunned and confused for most of the time. We stayed in the shade, but even still he was taken aback by the intensity of sunlight, and just in general didn't seem to know quite what to make of this world outside our apartment. And, as an added bonus, not only did I get outside, but in our quest to stay in the shade we walked in the grass around our building rather than out into the subdivisions, discovering gardens we didn't know existed literally in our own backyard.

We realized that with all the time he spends curled up close against someone, Nicholas was getting overheated, so have switched from one-piece sleepers with feet and long sleeves to short-sleeved onesies for daily use. We can then add a hat and either his sleep sack or pants and socks when we set him down to sleep. It is amazing how much older he looks in these outfits. (I have added a couple pictures from today, if you're curious.)

This morning Nicholas had some sustained playtime for the first time in a couple days (with yesterday's fussing and Monday's crazy sleeping he didn't really play) and it is the absolute best thing in the world. Today when we had him on his stomach he kept pulling his knees up into pseudo-crawling position and trying to push off with his knees and feet, only to have them slide out from under him because he wasn't strong enough to push his torso forward without aid from his arms. He was getting so frustrated that I put my hands behind his feet and he pushed off of them, propelling himself forward. It was really cool to watch. (We didn't record the first time, but he did something similar, although with less forward motion, a little later and that video is in the Gallery.) Given that he is still many many many months away from crawling, I'm not quite sure what he was actually trying to do (or more likely, that he was actually intentionally doing anything other than wriggling), but it was fun to have the little glimpse of the older baby. It is so easy to get discouraged when it seems that all we do is feed him and hope desperately for him to sleep, but these moments of playtime are the perfect medicine. Joe keeps trying to remind me that as time goes on they will come more frequently, in effect that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.