Week 5 - on our own!

This is the face I make right before I turn into Mr. Crankypants.

Wow, Austin turned 5 weeks old on Saturday!  Grandma Ellen was still here for the first part of the week, which was great.  We settled into a nice routine so that we could both shower and eat breakfast and lunch while watching the little guy.  This week Austin seemed a bit fussier than he had been, but I think its because he is much more alert and awake in between feedings and we weren't used to reading his cues that he was sleepy or bored. We thought we needed to entertain him when he was awake, but it turns out that we should have been helping him sleep/nap.  Oops!  After some frustration, and re-reading "The Happiest Baby on the Block" we came up with a few things that seem to soothe him.  He definitely likes being held on his side, he finally seems to like the Avent pacifiers, jiggling and swaying and shhhhing all seem to calm him down.  A few times we resorted to adding the swaddle into the mix when he was really upset and after a few minutes we seem to be able to calm him down usually.  We did work on doing some tighter swaddling at night this week to really pin his arms down - thank goodness for the Miracle Swaddle Blanket - its the only swaddle blanket that we have that he can't really bust out of to easily.  Miraculously, or coincidentally, he slept 5.5 hrs the first night he was tightly swaddled.  The next night 5 hrs, and the following night 6.5hrs!!  We were very happy that he has started to break the habit of feeding every 3-4 hrs at night!

We were treated to more facial expressions this week.  Austin has started to show us his smile, its not quite there yet, but its pretty darn cute!!

Love my playmat!

He also started tracking objects much better and moving his head back and forth.  Mike's mom was telling us that red/black/white objects are the best at this stage, and we didn't really have any good basic toys so this week I bought the Whoozit which is a ridiculous looking dangly toy thats mostly all black/white/red.  Austin seemed to love it immediately - he will track it for quite a few minutes at a time. 

 He even grabbed one of the toys on the playmat and held on to it - not purposeful, I'm sure, but he's stretching his fingers more now should soon start to grasp things on purpose!

Wow, I grabbed the dangling toy and held on!

In non-playtime news, something clicked with Austin this week and breastfeeding has gotten alot easier.  It always has been somewhat easy compared to stories that I've heard from friends, but he really doesn't seem to need much help latching on anymore.  I can now feed him at night in the dark and he can find his way to the milk.  On the downside, he's started spitting up a bit - not sure if he's drinking too fast or too much, but its made for a few messes!  Since my thrush infection seems to have cleared up, I also started pumping in the morning for the past 3 days.  I've gotten anywhere from 3-6oz each time, which seems pretty normal.  We tried giving him his first bottle yesterday....but didn't have much success.  The poor guy was definitely confused since he was sitting in a very different position and the milk was just dripping out into his mouth.  Our main mistake was likely that we tried it at an actual feeding time when he was hungry - we later read that we should try when he's calm and not hungry and just let him 'explore the bottle nipple'.  I'm sure it'll take a few tries.  But, at least pumping seems to work and I can start building up a supply for the freezer...eventually he'll figure out the bottle thing! (we hope!).

The next challenge - getting him to nap without laying in our arms.  He's so snuggly but it prevents me from getting much done during the day.