1 month

Our little man is a whole month old today.

Today I was going to take pictures, but my camera and it's battery (now charged) have been separated and that seems to cause major problems for me every time I've left the house the last couple of days.

I put him on the scale on Monday and he weighed just under 11 lbs.  That's almost 4 lbs in a month.  He still loves to nurse every 2 hours and if I'm lucky he'll give me a 4 hour stretch at night.  I think I've been lucky twice.  After that one 3-4 hour stretch, he's still up every 2 hours, so that explains my lack of posting. Then he guzzles so fast that he swallows air that he doesn't want to stay awake long enough to burp out.  Then he wakes up crying 10 minutes later to be burped. I'm lucky if he's back down and out an hour after he woke up, only for him to wake up an hour later for that like-clockwork feeding.  Honestly?  I wake up with a little energy but am just beat at the end of the day.

It may sound crazy, but I usually get up and put on make up every morning.  It makes me feel put together, somehow, even if I just throw on concealer, mascara, and lip balm.  Yesterday I failed to put on any makeup, but I was just going to my mom's house.  Of course, I saw one of her friends for the first time  since Freddy was born and her comment was, "you really look tired."  That's the first time I've had anyone say anything other than, "you look great!"  But I am tired.  Way much more so than I was with Charlotte.

Charlotte, by the way, is a great big sister and a big help to me, when she's not causing hurricane-like wreckage in another room. She's mostly potty trained (poor girl, that would have received a huge praise post before) but that can be hard as she declares that she needs to "tinkle" as soon as my hands are full of screaming or nursing baby.  Lovely.  I learned the hard way that I can't trust her to take herself to the restroom if I am busy with the baby.  It's been quite the experience!

Frederick has started smiling big grins at just about everyone.  I love those little baby smiles!  He has smiling eyes too; they are precious.  I'm so lucky that both of my babies started smiling early.  It makes it easier to endure the long nights when I wake up to baby smiles.

Freddy already enjoys spending time on his play mat, so long as I can keep MC from climbing on top of him.  Some days he'll be fussy and calm right down once I lay him down and give him some freedom.  I've already caught him staring at a dangling toy as he knocks it with his hand.  His arm movements look so spastic that it's hard to believe it's intentional, except that he hits it again and again as he looks so focused on it.   MC didn't get to that until she was much older. 

For all the lack of sleeping I'm getting, this kid actually likes to sleep during the day.  After a daughter that would rarely nap more than half an hour at a time, a kiddo who take real naps totally makes my day.  I hope it keeps up!

I'll post pictures soon.  For now, I'm off to bed.