The ins and outs of weeks 5-7

And representing Africa - Liam sporting his very cool Mandela T-shirt from Julie

For a while now he has stopped crying at night and instead I get woken up to a clucking and sucking sound which is him telling me he's hungry. Amazingly enough he has also done a few consecutive nights of sleeping 4.5 to 5 hours for the first chunk (unfortunately we are often awake for the first 2 hours!) and after that can usually do about 3 hours up until around 6 or 7am. There is sometimes I pause in the middle there where he's awake and grunting for while, but all in all I think it's been quite good. The other night he rolled onto his side and continued sleeping in that position!

He has also had a few challenging days this week where it just seemed like he was unhappy or uncomfortable all day long. It was pretty sad to see and I honestly can't wait till all his digestive/colic issues are resolved so he can just be the happy, cheery chap that he tends to be the rest of the time. Even when he's a bit off, he still has the sunniest smile moments that make everything ok. He is also a lot more "chatty" these days - which is very entertaining for us.

He is becoming so much more active and engaging, sometimes reaching and grabbing onto things, and certainly kicking and swatting away with vim and vigor. He loves staring at faces and has enjoyed the time I've spent with him doing a few signs. I'm sure he has no idea how he's supposed to do them now, but I figure he'll pick it up one of these fine days!

He has also done a few more naps under his mobile in his crib. These have only happened once in a day a couple of times, but we are hopeful that we can slowly get him comfortable sleeping in his own bed. I'm sure the transition will be slow, but I think we'll get there!

Cloth diapering is in full swing and we are using them during the day, and using disposables at night just so we don't have to be bleary-eyed and washing out a diaper. It's going pretty well so far, and as long as we are vigilant we are pretty successful preventing leaks.

Liam not sleeping in his real bed (moses basket)

Liam in his big boy bed - this is where he sleeps at night

We Call Him...

So Liam has a funny head of hair...right now anyway. Some people have called it "business in the front and party in the back", others have noticed it's similarity to a comb-over, and James observed it's relationship to the "do's" of Shaolin monks. So for now, our little guy is really our little Shaolin Monk. He'll hate us for this one day...but till then, enjoy!

Recent Stories

Liam is learning to do more and more every day. Today during some tummy time on his sheep blanket he did really well holding his whole upper body off of the ground for quite a bit of time. I call it cobra! He has also been smiling big gummy smiles at us for over two weeks now and they are truly enough to melt our hearts.

Last Tuesday we had his one month doctor's appointment. (Well he was just 2 days short of the one month!) His pediatrician, Dr Bucher, is a friendly guy with a sense of humor and a gentle nature with babies. We were hardly surprised at Liam's healthy weight gain given the clothes he's already outgrown, but the doctor was definitely adequately impressed. He weighed in at 4,930g which is a 700g gain since day 4! He also grew 4.5 cm and is now (or was as of last week) 53.5cm.

We have taken him out a fair amount - and sometimes to louder venues - and he always seems to do fairly well at the time. I think he saves the painful crying sessions for his alone time with mom and dad. But in the meantime he's been to campus on numerous occasions, meeting faculty and students. He attended a school assembly with a loud live band performing, made it through international food night and the mayhem that was, and even came out to cheer on the boys basketball teams at a tournament not too long ago. We're just making sure he can handle all sorts of situations!

Here are some random photos that were just too cute not to post:

This little outfit is from his Aunt Shirin and the rabbit was a gift from two of James' students

This is him in his first non-pajama outfit - how cute is that? One with Mom and one with Dad

Though he's not a huge fan of the moses basket, we have managed to get him to sleep in it here and there!

Vitamin D? Not a Fan

I know this might be a little mean, but James and I can't help laughing when we see the faces Liam makes when we give him his Vitamin D drops every day. We had to video it for posterity - so here's Dan doing the honors of holding Liam while I feed him his medicine.

Bumgenius vs Fuzzibunz

Liam sporting the Fuzzibunz! (3 weeks old)

For those curious about cloth diapering (and those who may have used them in the past and are wondering if it's the same deal these days), we decided that we would make an effort to contribute a bit less to landfills by trying to do cloth diapering at least part time. A week ago I decided it was time to test out our cloth diapers and see if we will be finding it a maintainable system. We bought just 12 to start with - 6 fuzzibunz, 3 bumgenius and 3 bumgenius organic. Now we just have to figure ou. which type will be most successful?

In our small trial run this past weekend we had only 1 diaper leak out of 6 (and that may or may not have been because of a misaligned peeper), so we are encouraged by the stats and will continue to use them. Our plan at this point is to use them in conjunction with the bio disposables so that while we're at home and it's convenient we are cloth diapering, and when we're out and about we aren't carrying a smelly diaper in our bags! So far my vote may just be for the fuzzibunz, but the jury is still out.

Grandma Gail's Visit

We were excited to have our first visitor after Liam's birth just last week. Though it was a short stay, we enjoyed and appreciated having a grandma here. James and I were even able to have a couple of afternoon naps thanks to Mims watching Liam. How luxurious those were!

Of course having a visitor is as good of a reason as any to head downtown for a chocolate densa at Al Porto. We also had our first night out at a restaurant, which proved to be pretty successful. We kept it close to home and stuck with Bellavista just down the road, and we kept Liam in his car seat for as long as he would stay asleep. He did wake up hungry towards the end of the meal, and James had his first chance to feed him! Gratefully, Liam took to the bottle just fine and doesn't seem to have any confusion about his regular food source - so those are all good things.

James giving Liam his first bottle - besides a few dribbles he managed to drink the whole thing!

Mims, Negar and Norbert (visiting from northern Switzerland) at Bellavista

Grandma Gail and Liam having a look at each other

Just a very amusing picture of Liam - this outfit was a gift from one of James' students

The Famous Jungle Mobile

This mobile has made its way into the homes of many of a new baby I know. In fact, it's so popular that Leo was unable to part with his and so Nassim has had to buy a second one for little Lua. Liam has his own, and even Otto has the exact one!

Liam at almost 2 weeks checking out his mobile.

Play Time - The Early Days

Figuring out what one is supposed to do to help develop and amuse a new born is harder than I thought.  I keep feeling like we should be providing more entertainment for the little guy, but most attempts seem to fail!
At just 5 days old it shouldn't have come as a big surprise that when we put Liam on his gorgeous, soft, sheep play mat (an awesome gift from his aunt Nassim), he would choose to fall asleep.

We decided to try again at two weeks old and the improvement was that his eyes stayed open!

Here's Liam at one week "enjoying" his chair!

Amusing to us lately is that when we put him in the chair he will look and swat at the toys for a few minutes and then suddenly he lets out a shriek as though he's been frightened by the animals! Shortly after that moment we remove him or the toys.  

Friends-by-Default Part 2

I just received these photos - courtesy of Kat - from the other day at Charlene's with all three boys - Drake, Otto and Liam.
If you know about the Austin Powers movies then the following title that Kat gave this photo is extremely amusing:

Dr Evil and his Thugs!

Liam, Otto and Drake

It really does appear that these three little chaps are plotting something.  Well perhaps Otto is just the amicable hired muscle and somehow between Drake and Liam the diabolical plans are made!