Catching You Up for the New Year

I haven't done a post since Christmas - that's 2 weeks people! I apologize. I've been having so much fun with Nicky and actually getting out of the house, so I haven't been on the computer as much. Nicky is so interactive now, so I spend lots of his awake time playing with him and trying to keep him entertained. He is smiling at everyone now, not just Scott & me. I just love it! -especially when he wakes up and sees me and then smiles. Its just so cute! I love that he recognizes me like that. He is also able to mimic faces and loves to stick out his tongue at Scott and me. Like I said in my last post, with the start of his social skills at 6 weeks came a decrease in his gassiness/fussiness. He seems better at working out his farts and burps on his own and he also knows how to ask me to help him out by pushing his feet against my hands. He does this to let me know that I should push his little legs back toward his head to help work out the gas. He is also spitting up now, which although unpleasant for Scott & me, seems to help Nicky out when he's eaten too much or is having reflux. He always seems perfectly happy afterward and doesn't seem to mind losing his lunch. Hooray for the developing infant gastrointestinal system! Other developments include Nicky's favorite pastime of blowing bubbles and the drool that goes along with that. Messy but cute. He also enjoys sitting up (with appropriate propping) and stand on our laps. If we hold his hands he can stand there and bounce a bit for a quite awhile and he likes the view. He is also practicing and getting better at head control. During tummy time, he can push up on his hands, although he tires and can't do this for too long, and he also pushes his head up at a 45 degree angle for a few minutes before he poops out and lays it back down. His hand control is getting better as well. He is trying to swat at things sometimes and he is unfolding his hands and desperately trying to figure out how best to put his fingers in his mouth for sucking.

Speaking of sucking. Just a few weeks ago I finally deemed it safe (as instructed by some of my child rearing books) to give Nicky a pacifier. This kid loves to suck for comfort and it helps him get to sleep and calm himself when he gets upset. I had waited until 6 weeks because I didn't want him to have nipple confusion and either reject the breast because the nipple wasn't the same as the pacifier or bottle, or start to suck on the breast the way he does on the nipple or pacifier. While he still enjoys breastfeeding, I can say that I have not exactly enjoyed it myself for the last week or so. Nicky has started to use my nipple like a pacifier instead of opening his mouth wide and taking the whole areola into his mouth. This results in nipple pain for myself. Luckily, he is trainable and I have worked with him to use his wide mouth again when latching on to the breast. Unfortunately, he still often closes his mouth after getting on the breast and sucks mainly on the nipple. This tends to happen at the end of feedings when he is done getting most of his milk. I try to unlatch him and make him get back on the right way, even if that means milk is spurting all over and making a mess of both of us! It is hard to unlatch him and then cap my breast quick enough, especially since he is usually pretty upset with me for pulling him off in the first place. We are working on it though. In the mean time, the pacifiers have been taken away. Just my luck! Here I am so careful and conservative and wait the designated 6 weeks and still the little twerp does this. Frustrating. Other parents give their kids binkies at birth and have no problems with it affecting breastfeeding. Oh well, we'll work through it. Other than the pain, which is of course no fun, this could cause my milk supply to diminish because he is not sucking properly on the breast so I am very invested in correcting it right away. Nicky may be cranky for a while but he'll need to learn to self soothe in another way for now.