Getting Our Groove On

Cruz is 7 weeks old today.  I find that hard to believe!  I think we are about to get in the groove of things as far as eating and sleeping.  The hardest week yet was the three week growth spurt.  He wanted to eat ALL.THE.TIME!  Not only was he wanting to eat a lot, but he was not sleeping much either (nor were we).  So when I read that he was to have another growth spurt around week 6, I started holding my breath and expecting the worse.  Instead, when he turned 6 weeks last Wednesday he slept more that night than he has slept yet.  He had only been going 4-5 hours between feedings at night and that night he went 7 hours! YEAH!  I wondered if we were starting something new and then the following night he ate every three hours. ugh!  Since then he has been going longer and longer and actually went 8 hours between feedings on Monday night.  That made us very happy. 

We don't have him on a "schedule" so to say but he seems to be getting more consistent with his feedings and naps.  On a good day he will eat around 7:00 am, 10:00 am, 1:00 pm, 4:00 pm, 7:00 pm and then once, maybe twice during the night.  He will take a nap between feedings (normally).  We give him a bath around 7:00 pm and then feed him and rock him to sleep (my favorite part of the day).  He usually goes to bed around 8/ 8:30 pm.

I have returned to language school again.  The first week back I had a teacher come to our apartment and teach me, but it was quite distracting trying to study and take care of the baby at the same time.  The following week I tried studying at the school in the afternoons and it is working much better for me.  David goes in the mornings and I go in the afternoons.  He watches the baby while I am away.  That is going well for him too.  I try to feed the baby really good before I leave and he will usually take a nap the whole time I am gone.  The exception to this was the second day I left and the baby did nothing but cry the whole time.  Poor David was rattled by the time I returned home, but thankfully it has only happened one day out of seven.  I will add that having to leave the baby, if only for a few hours a day, has been terribly hard for me! 

Nursing is going very well for me and the baby.  Those first 10 days/ two weeks were brutal and I wondered if we would get the hang of it, but now it seems so natural for us both.  I am thankful for a few mission friends who encouraged me and offered support and advice and now I am glad to say that he has nursed exclusively for seven straight weeks!  Yeah for both of us!

I'm throwing this photo in as proof that not all days are perfect or even smooth, but ALL days have been enjoyable and we haven't taken a single one for granted.  We LOVE parenthood!