What the Life

Life over here at the Schmidts has really been going, and when I mean going... I mean at full speed!!! We have a little growing chunky monkey over here and we are loving every little pound of him. My little man is already 1 month old!!!

 I cannot believe how fast the past month went by and how much he has grown and started getting a little personality. His little cries are becoming more distinct, and I even noticed that he has a little "fake" cry, that he uses when he just wants to be held.
We went to the doctor today for his 4 week/5 week check up for his second HEP B shot, and to just catch up with the doctor and make sure mommy and baby are doing well!!! He has grown another inch, measuringin at 22 3/4 inches and weighing in at 11 pounds 3 ounces!!!! So, it seems as though he is getting plenty of milk from me. I am not worried anymore that he is not getting enough to eat. I mean the little guy eats whenever he wants, as much as he wants so he was bound to gain some weight. Breastfeeding is still going very good, and he has become acclimated to a bottle, so when we are out and about and I cannot feed him, we bottle feed him (with my breast milk). Right now he is going through what the doctor said might be another growth spurt. He is wanting to eat almost every 2 hours during the day, which makes it hard for this mom to get anything done!!! But, when its time to eat, its definitely time to eat.

He is still sleeping about every 2.5-3 hrs during the day, and every 3-4 hours at night. He does surprise us sometimes at night and gets a good nights sleep of 6 hours, occasionally. We are working right now on getting him to sleep during the day at least for a few hours in the afternoon. It seems as though he just wants to stay up all day and sleep at night, which you think would be great, except he gets very crabby during the middle of the afternoon and it is hard to console him. Usually if I lay down with him, he will fall asleep, but as soon as I get up to put him in his own bed he wakes up for ht count! Again we are working on it, and I hope with time he will be better about sleeping during the day.

No major changes from last week, except he is really starting to notice who we are. I think he recognizes our voices and really watches us when we talk to him. It is so neat to just sit down and talk to him, even though he cant talk back, he stares at us like he really knows what we are saying. He is also doing a great job with his neck movements. He really keeps his head up and moves it around (from side to side and up and down) quite well. I have noticed that he really likes to sit up facing out and when he does he looks like a little man.

Now don't get me wrong, life can be crazy sometimes, especially when I am home by myself. It seems as though I wake up and spend a majority of my day caring for my little man, (which I LOVE) and when things are tough it seems that they are really tough because I am doing it alone. I do get frustrated when it seems as though nothing I do will help my little guy calm down. When he gets in a crying fit, he gets in a crying fit. Sometimes I just have to take a deep breath and look at the little guy and I realize that there is nothing he can do to tell me what he wants, so I just do whatever I can to help him calm down. It makes me sad when he cries, especially those full fledge cries that make his face  turn red. Thank goodness I can kind of tell his cries apart now so I know what he is wanting. The hardest times are when we are out and about and he gets upset and there is nothing I can do to console him. Needless to say those days make for a long car ride home from wherever we are. Even though those tough days are very limited, i know that it is just a part of being a mom and raising a little man. All of these tough times sure have made me learn to be patient and have taught me that this little guy depends on me to stay strong, so I cannot lose it. I have to keep my composure, because babies tend to notice stress in people and that causes them to be stressed and to cry more.

Those tough days alone, really make me realize how lucky I am to have Michael come home to us every night. I am not sure what I would do without him at night for those few hours before little man goes to sleep. Even though I still do all the feedings, it is nice on those tough days and everyday to have him help out with the changings and help console Carter when he is upset.

Above all we have spent the past month learning alot about ourselves, each other, and Carter. With that we have done a pretty good job of making things work. We look forward to the many months of learning alongside our little man, and all of the firsts that we will all experience as a family.