My Chunky Monkey

Our Blog Challenge today was to "Animal Time." Since I started my blog to keep myself updated on Liam's progress as a baby, I figured now is as good a time as any to talk about my lil chunky monkey.

First off, everybody lied when they said "newborns sleep most of the day." My child does not believe in sleep, not since day one. The doctor said he would sleep 16-18 hours a day. Not my little man, he thinks he is missing all the fun! In fact, the only time he will sleep for long periods is if the me and daddy lay down with him. If we're in bed with him, he knows he is not missing out on anything! Even now my child hates sleep. If we're lucky he'll take one nap of about an hour during the day. At night, he goes to bed anywhere between 1 and 3 am. On the plus side, he sleeps late in the morning. Sometimes he will even sleep til noon!

The second lie... they told me breast fed babies are smaller than formula fed babies. My darling child is not the chubbiest baby alive, but he has his very own set of fat rolls, and "man boobs" as we like to call them.

Another thing I have learned since being a mom is that I would get very irritated and very annoyed by everyone around me. It started with the pregnancy, "Are you carrying twins, you're huge!" Or the million questions people liked to ask me. I never thought I would get irritated by, "what are you having, when are you due, oh my gosh you're huge." But I did. And the advice! Oh my goodness everyone has something to say, even people who don't have kids. Both of our parents love to tell us we're spoiling this child. Honestly, how do you spoil a baby? Is it wrong to hold your child when he wants to be held? Is it wrong to attend to his needs in a timely manner? P.S. I checked with doctor and he says it's impossible to spoil a baby this young.

Everything from breastfeeding to immunizations everybody has something to say. Especially the breastfeeding... I didn't know this was such a controversial issue. I, personally, do not care whether a mother formula feeds, or breast feeds it is her choice. Unfortunately, no one else agrees with this. A supervisor at work told em breastfeeding would make my boobs sag (seriously, I'm an A cup, they couldn't sag if I stretched them out everyday). An in-law said I was enjoying it too much.... You can tell who has never breastfed before.... there is nothing enjoyable about the intial bleeding nipples and soreness. (I do enjoy the bonding now, but I'm not "enjoying" it in the way she thought). Although, I do hear women can experience the big "O" while bfing, unfortunately I am not one of those women (dude, my kid would be HUGE). I chose to breastfeed for many reasons.... 1. the doc said it was best for the baby 2. have you seen the cost of formula (I would be the woman on the news stealing formula from wal-mart) 3. it is so convenient!

BTW, here's a big thank you to all of the mothers out there. I never fully appreciated the job you do, until I had a child.

Okay back to the little man (the point of this post). I am slowly trying to get my child to sleep in his bassinet (mostly cause I am tired of sleeping above the covers). I am extremely paranoid of SIDS so I bought this sensor that goes under the mattress and sets off an alarm if there is no movement in 20 seconds. It really seems to work, the only time it has gone off is if I forget to turn it off before I get him out of the bassinet. Initially, he hated his bassinet and would scream when I put him in. So, after a couple of hours of a continous repetition of a. nurse him to sleep b. sneak him in the bassinet c. hear him cry and get him out, he would usually win and I would fall asleep bfing and he would be where he wanted to be. Lately, he has been sleeping in his bassinet for a couple of hours at a time, and I don't have to put him in our bed until the early morning (around 7 or so). That has been really nice! Last night I put him in the bassinet, and I heard him fussing after about an hour or so.... I went to the bathroom... I was going to pick him up and nurse him to sleep, and "woot, woot" he had found his thumb (something else he found this week), and fell asleep on his own (very unusual).

At another point I went to check on him, and my lil boy was asleep on his tummy! He hates being on his tummy, so I was in shock! With the sensor under the bassinet, I don't mind if he sleeps on his tummy so I just let him be.

Okay, okay I am sooo sorry for this unbearably long post. Feel free to skim! Also feel free to post "good" advice on what I should or shouldn't be doing. I will read it all, but I may or may not use it! Thanks all you great ladies!

BTW, all of you mothers out there that feel