We Appear to Be Through the Hardest Part of the Infant Stage
Obviously we’ll still have to deal with the defiance and boundary testing that comes with early language and free movement, but for now we appear to be through the toughest part of the newborn phase. Addison is on a mostly regular daily schedule now, is sleeping in predictable 3 hour spurts, sometimes stretching that into 4 or even 5 hours. Her crying can usually be quickly diagnosed as hunger, diaper change, sleepy, or wanting attention.
She now has a regular 10 PM bedtime, and we’re on our way to pulling that back into the 9 PM hour.
We’ve ventured out to a few restaurants and downtown activities this last month, with Addison being most cooperative each time. Addison and Mommy even came for lunch one day with Daddy at the Fluor office.
We are getting closer and closer to being able to go out and do things. They require a bit more planning than before, a bit more time, and you’re able to devote less of your attention to the outing / friends / surroundings, but it is at least nice to be out experiencing a bit of the world.
When she doesn’t want something, Addison can often be found on her shaggy blanket on top of her Boppy, doing this…
… or on her play mat. I love the face she makes at 9 seconds into this video.
On the actual night of my 34th birthday, the family went out to White Duck Taco… I’m still working on getting the owners to make a White Duck onesie.
And two nights later, with a little assistance from Nanny & Papa Lyle, Amanda and I got out for our first sushi night in years.
Addison prefers sleeping with her hands above her head.
When she does sleep in our arms she’s more and more often grabbing hold of either our fingers or clothing.
… and this is a perfect demonstration of the position she most prefers and is most likely to fall asleep in. If I try to hold her close to my chest she will get fussy most of the time, but nothing calms her down and lets her relax and close her eyes like this position, which leaves her head and back supported and her limbs dangling in the air.
We’ve also had some good bath times lately. We’ve moved her baby bath into the guest bath tub, heat the room with a space heater beforehand, and have gotten smarter about staging all her clothes and towels for quick transfer after getting her out of the bath.
Her eyes seem to be lightening up a bit, there is blue in there, but at different times we also see hints of lavender and grey. She is smiling more and more, but we’ve not captured it on camera much. We’ll work on that some before our next post.
Addison’s hair right after bath time.
Addison has had about a 50% weight gain in the last 6 weeks. We’ll put together some comparison shots soon.
Most importantly, Addison continues to favor Tigers to Elephants.
Addison has shown steady weight increase over the past 4 weeks. Her pediatrician is very pleased with her growth.
Addison also got to make her first trip to the luxury box at Fluor Field recently. She was the main attraction of the day as all the client’s wives were fawning over her. She was very well behaved and slept most of the game.
And earlier this weekend the whole family got out to falls park and enjoyed a shady spot near the waterfalls. We think Addison likes the sound of the water.