The Hankinator

I feel just like Jane when she said, "I didn't think babies were for me, but they are!"  I really didn't think I enjoyed the newborn stage.  But, oh how my sweet Hank has changed me.  I am really loving Hank's baby days.  I've been thinking about why this experience has been different than the others.  Here's what I've come up with:

1.  It's a blessing from God.

2.  More experience with taking care of babies makes the experience of taking care of babies easier.

3.  Hank is more mellow and cries less than my other children did, which makes it less stressful.

4.  Hank sleeps better than my other two.  Sleep makes a HUGE difference!

5.  And finally I came to the realization that Jane and Jack are currently more demanding than my baby is--so by comparison I'm loving taking care of a baby!  I would much rather soothe and swaddle and rock and cuddle and nurse and bounce my baby than listen to whines, referee fights, administer time outs, clean up messes, beg for help with cleaning up those messes, make five hundred meals and snacks on demand, and get yelled at for serving yogurt with "bumps" in it.  Being able to calm a fussy baby is the easiest part of my day!

So, yes, I'm enjoying the baby stage.  And, yes, Hank is a good-natured baby.  But that's not to say my days are easy or not monotonous.  Some days I feel like all I accomplish is feeding people.  It's insane.  Between nursing Hank and feeding everyone else and cleaning up from feeding everyone else I hardly have time to do anything else!   The simple tasks that I used to be able to accomplish in the morning now take me clear until bedtime.  So I do start to feel guilty that I'm not taking time to relax and enjoy my kids.  And I do start to feel overwhelmed that I hardly ever get around to doing things I'd like to do.  And my hip/back have started hurting just like they did after Jack.  And if you remember whatever was causing that back pain then eventually led to a fragmented herniated disc and back surgery.  So I've had to slow down on exercising (but did I really have time for that anyway?) and I'm trying to take better care of my back.

Ok, ok, enough about me.  Here's everything I can think to say about Hank.

*Hank is the SWEETEST baby in the world.

*He's a chunker.  He weighs right about 16 pounds now.

*He is so horribly bad at tummy time.  He barely lifts his head high enough to clear the blanket.

*He is such an observer.  It seems as if he is just taking everything in.
*He likes to give us lots of oooo's and aaaaa's.

*He smiles regularly and has just started to laugh (a few days after turning 3 months).

*He has fun batting his toys that dangle over his baby chair.  Then he gets tired of it but can't stop himself from doing it and cries until I take them down.

*He is so patient with Jane and Jack.  They are always up in his face and poking and prodding him and he rarely complains.

*His barfing has greatly improved.  He still does a huge barf once every one to three days.  Now it's almost always when he gags first.  He has the most sensitive gag reflex.  He'll gag from chewing on this hands, then barf.  If I try to feed him from the second side he'll gag and barf.  He doesn't take a pacifier because guess what happened the couple times I tried to give him one?  Yep, gag and barf.

*Hank has no idea what to do with a bottle.  He just sits there doing nothing.  And you better believe we don't put it very far into his mouth.  Because why?  Say it with me:  gag and barf.

*Hank has irregular nursing habits.  Sometimes he'll go a couple hours between nursing.  Sometimes he'll want to nurse just 45 minutes later.  He's a pretty quick eater.  He's also a snacker.  So he'll nurse for just a few minutes sometimes.  It's usually only 5-10 minutes if he's awake.  But if it's time for a nap or bedtime he'll fall asleep and want to nurse much, much longer.  Now, let's put the last two things about Hank together:  won't take a bottle + nurses anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours apart = I have no life outside of the home.  :)

*He sleeps pretty well at night.  He goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:30.  He wakes up around 2 and then again around 5 or 6.  He doesn't sleep well after 5 or 6 if I put him back in his crib but if I put him in his swing I can get as much sleep as the other kids will let me.
*I'm still waiting for better nap habits to develop.  He only naps about 20-40 minutes at a time.

Well, that's my sweet baby boy in a nutshell.

Dare I even say time is going by too quickly?

Here he is gearing up for a smile:

And here's some pictures that I took: (P.S. the ipad2 camera is indeed as bad as they say it is).

 (all decked out in his cute monkey outfit from our sweet neighbor).

(See how patient he is?  Jane dressed him up).