Eric has slept from 10 to 7 three out of the last five nights. And the other night he ate a nine-ounce meal, by far his largest ever. He ate a five ounce bottle, so I made him a two-ounce topper, and he ate that, and then I made him another two-ounce topper, and he ate almost all of it. We were astonished. And he rolled over from his stomach to his back the other night on the floor, though I'm not quite sure it counts because when I put him down on his stomach he put his arms out so he started out propped--he hasn't managed to hoist himself up and roll over when he's started out completely flat on his stomach.
Yesterday he was the Perfect Baby at worship (except that we were late b/c he decided it was time to eat just as we were heading out the door). He slept through worship, woke up at rise of meeting, and consented to be passed from hand to hand all through the potluck, flashing his goony smile at everyone who would smile at him. He also rode around on Erick Williams' shoulders. Erick has bushy, curly hair, and my Eric enjoyed grabbing big handfulls of it and also chewing on it.
All this past week I have been inexplicably exhausted. Hormones? PMS? Brain chemical imbalance? Allergies? Reaction to tapering off the steroids? Who can say. But despite Eric sleeping better and better, I've been dragging through my days in zombie mode. Today may be better; I woke up cheerful and felt refreshed, but some days the tiredness hits me later, so I'm trying not to overdo it this morning.
I have a busy week. Tonight is orientation for writing faculty, tomorrow afternoon is college-wide orientation for all new faculty (and Eric's first time with a non-family babysitter...only his second time without at least one of his parents. I'm sure he'll be fine, less sure about me). And Thursday night is Mothers and More, that "sequencing women" group. And next week I start teaching, plus my sign language class two nights a week.
I broke out the "3-to-6 month old" clothes the other evening. We have more clothes in this size range than I can conceive of using, almost all of it hand-me-downs. Some of it, though, went right into the "outgrown baby stuff" box. It is clear, for instance, that one family from whom we receive baby clothes has an appreciation for a segment of the color palette that does not speak to my aesthetic sensibilities ("downright ugly" is another way to put it). Also more patience than I have for baby clothes that are hard to get in and out of. I tried to put Eric in a little two-piecer yesterday, a pullover shirt and leggings, and it took me forever to get him into it, and then I looked at those leggings and thought, "If he needs a diaper change, those damn things are going to have to come all the way off (no snaps) and then I'm going to have to wrestle him back into them again." Fortunately, Eric spit up on the outfit before I had even gotten him off the changing table, so I stripped it off him, ran it through the wash, and retired it.
Some of the clothes are unlikely to get used because they will be out-of-season before he is big enough for them. Especially since we are having a run of damp chilly weather (bliss!) and so are getting good use out of footed long-sleeve playsuits and not much use out of shorts and sleeveless onesies.
Did I mention I finally broke out the video camera? I think so. In addition to my dad's 20 seconds of Tiny Baby Eric, we also now have 60 seconds of the most pathetic footage ever committed to film. Eric was lying on his changing table and would smile at me until I turned the camera on, at which point he turned away and flung his arm over his face. Repeatedly. Oh, well. I figure we'll both get the hang of it eventually.
He also lay on a blanket on the living room run this morning, flipping himself from back to side, side to back, back to side, until I got out the video camera, at which point he lay flat on his back and cried. Sigh.
Got some beautiful pictures back from the developer yesterday, though. I'll have David get a few up on the website soon.
Let's see...Eric is also working on laughing. Very cute.
Posted by Su Penn at August 20, 2003 04:03 PM | TrackBack