Kaeden is one month old today. It has been an exciting, exhausting, joyful, trying, new month. Going from one child to two is really a far more difficult transition than zero to one, but we are doing alright. And every time I start to feel discouraged, I just look at these two beautiful faces and remember how incredibly blessed I am. It may not always be easy, but I truly have the best job in the world!
As of yesterday, Kaeden weighed 10 lb with his clothes on. I haven't yet gotten a more accurate one month weight, but I am going to try soon. He is starting to focus on us more and track with his eyes, which is so much fun. It also means that he is more reliably smiling AT us, which is always an amazing feeling.
From the beginning, Kaeden has been less predictable than Ryan was as a newborn, but that isn't much of a surprise since Ryan was definitely not a normal newborn. He sleeps well at night in his crib, but we learned early on that it has to be pitch black in there. He also likes to stay up late and we often find that he is the most wide awake at about 9 pm. I guess he's figured out that he can get Mommy & Daddy's undivided attention after big brother goes to sleep. It's a bit tiring for Mason & I, but he's doing well enough the rest of the night that I don't really mind. Most nights, he'll go one 4-5 hour stretch initially and then 3-4 hours from there, but a couple of nights lately he has gone 6-7 hours, which is amazing! I'm hoping we can start doing that more consistently and maybe I can start catching up on sleep a little bit.
During the day, Kaeden pretty much has to be held or in his swing for naps. He does not like to be put down to sleep, which is funny to me since he sleeps flat on his back all night. He does not like his car seat at all unless it is moving... especially the getting in part. Unlike Ryan, even if he falls asleep in the carrier en route somewhere, he'll often wake up once we get there if we stop moving and then he'll want to be held. He's definitely more fussy in general than Ryan was at this age - he requires a fair amount of holding, bouncing, etc. but no more than an average newborn, I would say. He also loses his mind if his hat happens to fall down over his eyes or if it takes more than 2 minutes to start eating when he wakes up hungry.
Kaeden
loves tummy time. Even if he is being very fussy, he'll often calm down if we stick him down on his tummy. He also likes to be on his back, just looking around as long as he is well fed & rested, although he often gets attacked by his big brother in this position. Despite Ryan's many attempts to "play with" Kaeden, I think Kaeden would much rather his big brother just leave him alone. He seems to recognize that Ryan's face means something unpleasant is about to happen. I just hope that changes in time!
Nursing is going alright, although Kaeden is still convinced that eating his hands is a good idea, especially when I'm trying to get him latched on. We finally gave in & gave him a pacifier on Tuesday to try to soothe some of his evening fussy time and he immediately went to town on it! He's hilarious with it, because he'll usually start sucking fairly calmly and as time goes on, he gets more and more intense, as though he is getting frustrated that nothing is actually coming out of it.
As I alluded to earlier, Ryan is a bit rougher with Kaeden than we would like. He has had an interesting transition so far - the first week, he mostly ignored Kaeden... the 2nd & 3rd weeks, he wanted to pay him attention & love on him periodically and would mostly try to be gentle but sometimes fail... this week, he has started intentionally being rough with him - hitting, throwing things at him, etc. At the same time, though, he still wants Kaeden around all the time and wants to give him hugs & kisses and be sweet to him too. It's so hard to find the balance between letting Ryan bond with him & protecting Kaeden because you never know when the sweet might turn sour. Overall, though, it could be so much worse. And I know that Ryan's world has been turned upside down, so we can only expect so much. But God is definitely teaching us some new lessons in patience!
Well, I will leave you with one more photo of my sweet one-month-old. And I hope to fill in my gaps soon with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and more! If only Kaeden would go to sleep before 10 pm...
