talking baby

In the early morning when I am up getting ready for work, I can’t help but pause for a few minutes and stare at him. If he’s asleep on the bed, he’s usually spread out like a dead frog on his back. His limbs are completely limp and hanging to his sides. His hands are spread out, not clenched into fists anymore. His fingers are so fine and delicate. His face is totally calm and his absolute beauty just shines through. It’s hard for me to resist squeezing and kissing him. His skin is so soft and warm to the touch. When I pick him up, he arches his back and stretches and makes the stretch face. I nurse him while he’s sleeping right before I leave and I just wish I didn’t have to go.

I love the way he sometimes looks when he’s sitting up. Kind of like a mad professor inspecting his laboratory table. His eyes look a little beady and he has a slight scowl to his face, like me. It’s not that he’s in a bad mood, that’s just the way he looks sometimes. I love it; it’s one of those expressive faces that could mean anything and its fun to imagine what he’s thinking.

Waylon is 3 months and 1 week old and I can tell he is getting close to rolling over. The other day he was lying on his back and I was dangling his chain toy in front of him and since he couldn’t quite get his arms in front of him, he leaned his whole body at an angle so that he could reach his toy. A little more lean and it’s a rollover, baby.

His neck control is getting better, and he sits/stands if you hold him up. He does like to keep his legs straightened a lot which is a pain. He turns his head to look at things and towards noises. He’s just beginning to really notice his hands and feet and will grab his foot. He smiles big when I kiss his hand or blow raspberries on the bottoms of his feet. I just love his big gummy smile.

Waylon babbles a lot. He can enunciate pretty well already. His vocabulary consists of:

Uhm uhm MMM Mmuuuummmaawwwmm

AaawwoooooOO

Mmaaaaaa

Uhh UHH uuuhh

Ehhh eh eh

Beh baaa beeehhh uhmbubub

Sometimes he combines all his noises into a sentence – uh uhhh uummmuum aawwmm awwoooo blagh. It’s so cute to see his little lips pucker to make these sounds. He looks as if he’s totally explaining something to you. He sounds like a baby caveman with his grunting.

laughing

Last week I was changing Waylon out of his onesie and usually he hates it and fusses. This time, as I was pulling his onesie off his head he began to chuckle and giggle, with a big toothless grin on his face. It took me a second to realize that he was ticklish under his chin. Ever since then I can usually get a giggle out of him when I tickle below his chin now.

For the past couple of weeks, Waylon has been drooling a lot more. He makes spit bubbles, too. It’s cute. He likes to slobber on his fists. Sometimes he just looks around, drooling.

Waylon also enjoys naked baby time after his dirty diapers are taken off. I try to let him air out and he really likes it. Sometimes he will have an erection, which is funny.

In the past week or so, Waylon’s awareness has increased noticeably. He looks around much more, focuses on things like my face, his toys, the dog, etc. He reaches out for his colorful chain toy and bats at it, and sometimes grabs a hold of it. He also hangs on to my shirt when he nurses, or holds my finger. Sometimes he will grab a fistful of hair and hang on like a little monkey. He really enjoys cartoons and will be content for a while watching them.

When Waylon fusses I can’t help but adore his cuteness. His face contorts in so many expressive ways. I can tell by the look on his face just how pissed off he is – from minor annoyance to extremely mad. He will gulp air to scream louder, which is funny. He gets hot and sweaty and then I nurse him and he calms down. He really does have a temper, that little one.

I love breastfeeding him so much. The way he nurses just melts my heart. I love that the most comforting thing in the world to him comes from me. He loves his boobies. When he’s mad, he sucks angrily. When he’s fussy he doesn’t latch well and that’s when I try other things to soothe him. Sometimes I think he’s really uncomfortable in my arms by the way he squirms. Usually he settles down and I can see his eyes getting heavy with sleep. Sometimes he fights to stay awake and looks intently into my face. He will bat at my breast and sometimes squeeze his fingers and pinch my skin with his strong little hands and sharp nails. When his sucks get weaker, he’s just comforting himself. Sometimes he will crack a big smile. Sometimes he just wants to talk to me with his mouth full and make uh-uh-uh noises. Sometimes he passes out with a heavy sigh and begins to snore softly. I absolutely love nursing my baby boy. I just wish I had an endless supply of milk.

bad bath

Stories I don’t want to forget about Waylon.

Ball Scalding incident – A few weeks ago one night I wanted to give Waylon a bath and usually Chris helps me with getting him ready for the bath while I sit in the tub. This time Chris and I were in bad moods and Waylon was fussy. Before I got a chance to get in the tub, Chris got impatient and began to put Waylon in the tub, but Waylon had his legs curled up and before I could stop Chris, he dunked poor baby in the water balls first. Of course, the water was a little too hot and Waylon screamed his head off. I was so mad at Chris for being impatient, on top of being in a bad mood. It was such a horrific incident that we don’t make mistakes like that again and I am always in the tub first and transition Waylon into the water as smoothly as possible.

he's a big boy!

Sometimes I just can’t believe how much you have grown, even though it’s only been 10 weeks since you were born. I just can’t help myself from kissing you; you are so soft and squishy and warm. I love your little feet and hands. This morning I kissed each of your little toes before I left for work. I love it when you pat my boob while you nurse, it’s so sweet and it must be comforting to you. I even think your pouty lip is extremely cute. You know who else is head over heels for you? Your papa kisses you like crazy, too. He always talks about how much you mean to him and how you are the best thing to ever happen to him and all the ways he’s going to raise you to be happy, healthy and loved.

Lately you’ve been waking up screaming and it just kills us to see you like that. I suspect you have some reflux even though your papa is stubborn and won’t listen to me. But the last couple days we have been extra attentive to you and now you are spoiled and like to fall asleep on papa’s chest in the rocking chair. I’ve been used to feeding you in bed and letting you sleep with us but I don’t think we can do that anymore because you’re getting bigger, the bed is getting smaller and it won’t help with the reflux to feed you and keep you laying flat. But you seem to be content with your rock n play as long as I put some extra cushioning in there. Can you tell how spoiled you’re getting?

Mama has been working full time and pumping milk for you at work. Sometimes I get really worried about you and have little panic attacks but then I talk to your papa and he always tells me everything is OK which makes me feel better. I hate being so worried and paranoid about you all the time, I have to learn to relax. All I can do is look at pictures of you and it makes me smile. I wish I could be at home with you all day but papa is doing a good job taking care of you and I need to bring home the bacon.

Your grandma and grandpa Harmon sent you a beautiful brand new crib that papa set up in our room. We have yet to really use it because we need to wash the crib sheets and we don’t have a washer or dryer. There aren’t any decent Laundromats around here either. We are going to buy a washer and dryer off craigslist real soon. We still don’t have any furniture but mama got some scrap wood from work and papa is going to build a dining table for us.