Zach’s getting bigger and heavier and more alert everyday. He’s got his one month doctor’s appointment today, so we’ll find out just how much he’s grown. We think he’s starting to recognize faces (at least, he’s acting like he does) and he’s starting to interact with us facially (i.e., through facial expressions). The other day, he would make his typical intense, furrowed brow, “I’m thinking something profound right now” look at me, and then, as if he was playing a game with me, he would crack a big, toothless smile! It was pretty funny!
We had some Texan friends in town this past weekend (more about that in another post), who brought the Dunston Baby Language DVD with them. The DVD itself is quite terrible to watch—it gives you 5 minutes worth of information in about 45 minutes worth of video. However, that 5 min. of information seems quite helpful. The point of the DVD is to distinguish different crying sounds from each other, each of them having a different meaning. After watching the DVD, Barb and I have started to pay attention to Zach’s crying and doing what he’s “telling” us to do. It’s pretty amazing, actually. Once you hear the difference in cries, it’s much easier and faster to diagnose and meet his needs, which has made him (generally) much more content for longer periods of time without us continually hovering over him. This has the added benefit of reducing our stress level quite a bit. (Not that Zach has been an especially stress-inducing baby to begin with.)
Thankfully, Zach has started sleeping for longer stretches at night. Generally, he’ll sleep from 6.00/7.00–10.00/11.00 and then from 11.00/12.00–4.30/5.30. The longest stretch to date was from 11.30–6.00! (But that only happened once.) Of course, this is far from ideal, but it’s much better than the 2 hour stretches he was initially sleeping!
UPDATE: Yesterday Zach weighed in at 10 lbs. 4 oz. and 22 in. That’s a gain of 2 lbs. 9 oz. and 1 in. since birth!
0 Responses to “Zachary’s first month”