All About Jack

We've had six weeks to start to get to know Jack. Here's what we know so far:

He is super snuggly. So far this is my favorite trait of his! I love to snuggle & neither of the other two men in my life like to (though the older one sometimes lets me). His favorite place to be is on someone's chest. I like to try to take a nap with him during Elliot's naptime. He cuddles up in the crook of my arm. He also ends up there sometimes during the night, if he's not sleeping well. He does well during the first part of the night, but sometimes around 4-5 he wakes up & won't stay asleep in his pack n play, so I put him in bed with me. I don't want that to last forever (we like our bed to be ours) but I am taking advantage of snuggling with my little newborn for now.

He is pretty vocal. For the first few weeks, that was exhibited in goat-like grunts & crying. If you move him, he'll let you know if he didn't really care for it. Now he makes some cuter cooing noises too. He may end up being our talkative little man.

He doesn't really care for the schedule. I'm pretty structured & Elliot really fell into that quick, eating every 3 hours on the dot, full feedings each time. Jack just isn't predictable. Sometimes he'll go longer than 3 hours, sometimes less, sometimes he just snacks, sometimes he's a leisurely eater. I never know what to expect from him.

He just started smiling last week & they quickly went from small smiles to huge, gummy grins that make his eyes squint. It's adorable! He seems SO happy when he does that.

Since he has had reflux (that we have under control due to my gluten free & dairy free diet) & lots of gas, he spent a lot of his first few weeks pretty uncomfortable. That interrupted his sleep & left him pretty fussy when he was awake. Now that he's feeling better & learning how to get the gas out himself (phew!) he spends more of his awake time content, which is great. I know he'll be much happier when he's a little older & can sit up.

Although he mixes it up often, I'm starting to learn how his day is scheduled. He'll eat sometime around 6:30, then go back to sleep for a bit, then eat 2-3 hours later. He'll be awake for about an hour, then back to sleep. & repeat. If he stays up much longer than an hour, he gets really fussy & it's hard to get him to sleep for a nap. If he doesn't nap well one day, he won't sleep well that night.

I still feel like we're in survival mode, but that we're getting a grasp on things somewhat. I am really exhausted at this point; I suppose the adrenaline leveled off & now I'm just running on broken sleep. I've heard with the second, it take about 3-4 months to feel like you really have things down, so we're about halfway there! Phew. He's a real cutie though & I am looking forward to watching him develop & learning more about his little personality.