Helpless cooing in 3... 2... 1...

He so rarely lets me get the good snuzzle pics!

So you know those moments (hours... evenings...) where your child suddenly decides that all is right with the world, that 6:45 isn't such an unreasonable bedtime, decides to not only cooperate with the evening routine, but actively help you get it done and smile the whole time?  The rare and miraculous once in a blue moon evenings that tell you, yes, there IS a person in there, and yes, he IS learning, and no, he doesn't hate you for making him go to sleep when it's still light out?

We just had one of those.

In fact, the whole day has been incredibly smooth sailing, despite the atrociously early beginning thereof.

Yeah, JJ decided to get going at quarter past 5 today.  *groan*  Of course, it's tough to complain, because he also slept through from bedtime last night (almost 10.5 hours) with only one wake-up, and that was the post-bedtime top-off feed that I don't usually count anyway.  Once I realized that, well, I decided to stop being irritated about the 5am wake-up call.

Because of the early morning, it turned into a two-nap day, falling neatly into the ideal 2 nap day pattern, and baby was up for the afternoon at 2:30 on the dot, already awake when I went to go get him.

Ate his lunch (pureed squash ... but on toast fingers... yeah, I'm back to purées are EBIL, but that's another post)... drank some water...

Took a good half dozen sorta-maybe steps while clinging to my fingers...

Did NOT freak out during his evening play-time with Grandma (read: mommy's sanity-saving baby-free hour).  Normally he lasts about 40 minutes and then starts freaking out because Grandma is nice but she's NOT MOMMY!!!!

Sat (SAT) in his bath and played happily with his toys for fifteen whole minutes without making me constantly re-sit him.

(Here's the big one) REFUSED TO NURSE IN CLUTCH HOLD AND NURSED TO SLEEP IN CRADLE HOLD INSTEAD.  Y'all have no idea.  He is seven, almost eight months old, almost thirty inches long, and until a month ago was still exclusively nursing in clutch hold.  It's taken the last month to introduce it and for him to realize that it WORKS BETTER, so for him to actively refuse clutch is a huge big honkin' deal in the Nolan household!

So... seriously... who is this perfect little angel and what has he done with my child?????

He's sleeping now, and I'm waiting for the "Mooooooooooooooooooom, I'm still hungry!!!!!!!" cries to start, but I'm hoping a smooth day bodes well for a smooth night and it won't take too long to get him back to sleep.

ETA: Okay, so we're coming up on two hours since bedtime here.  At the hour mark I snuck into the bedroom, reeeeaaaaaal quiet-like, because I hadn't heard JJ fuss for his top-off feed yet.  And what do I find?  A peacefully sleeping baby who has flipped over on his tummy and clearly made it through the transition all. on. his. own.

One more bit of ultimate cuteness...

I can melt now, right?  Okay, just checking.  *melt*

FINALLY!!!

For your dose of ultimate cuteness today, I present to you...

BABY GIGGLES!!!

He's been doing this for a month, easy, and I finally got it on camera!

The great outdoors...

So we had our first decent adventure out into the yard today. It's 80 freaking degrees here, and John bundled the baby up in onesie, pants, socks, AND a jacket before he let me take him outside. XD I ditched the jacket and socks pretty much right off. Not that the outfit wasn't adorable, but it was just too warm in the sun.

JJ took one look at that bright sunny yard... and promptly hid his face in my shoulder! We stayed out for maybe 30 minutes (yes, in the shade), and eventually he started looking around. We talked to the neighbor or a bit and said hello to her puppy dogs. I sat down on the ground and laid JJ across my lap so he could pat the grass. He picked up the spine of a dead leaf and stared at it like it was the most fascinating thing in the world. Then I stood him up and let those little feet feel the grass, and you should have seen his face! He stepped, and stepped, and stepped, and looked at me like I had lost my ever-lovin' mind!

Once we came back inside, his attire was promptly reduced to this:

Much happier baby!

So that was our trip outside...JJ wasn't quite sure what to make of the airplane noises and all that breeze and bright sunshine, but he did pretty well, I think.

In other baby news... for the last couple of weeks, JJ has been working VERY HARD at rolling over... the kid hates tummy time with a passion.  Today he managed to kick his way from his tummy onto his back, several times in a row, without any help from Mommy or Daddy!

And at 15 weeks and five days, he's starting to sit up for a few seconds with just something at his back.

Look, Mommy!  No hands!!

And the scale shot of his foot... Getting tougher to convince him to hold still for these... 

But it shows his growth so well!

And hey, one more just for the cuteness...

Check out my little man!!

This is JJ and Mom, signing off... over and out!

I just realized...

I'm being a complete and total wuss.  I have a three month old who slept six hours when he was four days old, progressed swiftly to seven hours, and has reliably slept for eight to ten hours at night for at least a month.

I seriously have no room to whine about his taking short naps during the day.

So this is me... not whining.... 

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Shush.  I do not recall inviting commentary from the peanut gallery.

Now... in the last week or so, the "firsts" have been coming one after another.

First giggle... February 20th.  I was tickling behind his ears and he gave me a real giggle. :)

First grab... February 21st.  It was his pacifier.  I had put him up to burp, brought him back off my shoulder, and found that he had his pacifier in his hand.  Picture me looking around frantically going "Camera, camera, camera ... HAH!"

Four days shy of three months!!

First time re-identifying a parent who has changed their appearance... February 24th.  John came home from work having gotten his hair cut and his mustache shaved. JJ took one look at him and started screaming. It took a good twenty minutes to convince him that yes, it really was Daddy.

First trip to the doc for an identifiable illness (as opposed to first-time mommy nerves)... February 25th.    Turns out he's got a UTI, poor baby.  But lots of nursing and some ointment and good sleep (In the Moby!!!), and today the fever is gone and he's been much happier today.

He is also been trying REALLY HARD to turn over, both back to tummy and tummy to back.  I am diligently shooting video when I see him trying, so hopefully I'll catch it on tape when he pulls it off.

And WOWSERS has he grown.  Over 10 and 1/2 pounds now, and check out his feet!

Twenty Days Old                                          Ten Weeks Old

Today... Three Months and One Day

John is determined the boy is going to take his college football team to state.

I suggest letting him figure put how to walk first.  LOL

World, take notice...

 On Monday, February 20th, 2012... JJ laughed for the first time.

A real laugh.  Complete with giggling sounds.  Two separate times over about 10 minutes.

Cute.  As.  H-E-Double Hockey Sticks.

*coos helplessly*

"WWAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!... Oh. Milk."

Okay, I'm crossing my fingers and hoping little man stays asleep long enough for me to post...

There he is... been down for a whole hour!!!

Nipple confusion, over-supply, under-supply, bottle preference, colic, reflux, all these and more have been bandied about between my husband and I over the last few weeks.  Somewhere around 3 weeks old, little JJ went from the most laid-back baby I've ever seen in all my born days to screeching banshee child.  Every waking moment, if he wasn't inhaling his milk, he was screaming.

We tried everything.   For a solid month.  All the doctors could say was "It's colic, he's fine, he'll grow out of it."   ARGH!!  Not what a mother wants to hear!  My baby was in pain, and the only thing I could do about it was try desperately to get him to either eat or sleep, neither of which he had any interest in doing.  

I've never been so stressed out & miserable.  

About two weeks ago, we discovered that the child who had been fighting and sometimes flat out refusing the breast for two weeks would take his milk just fine from a bottle.  In fact he did better with the bottle than at the breast... didn't swallow nearly as much air, burped easier, and slept better too.

Fantastic.  I'll pump.  I can do that.

Except I couldn't.  My little Medela Harmony is a wonderful tool, as is its heftier cousin, the Medela In Style Advanced.  Neither of them allowed me to express enough milk to keep JJ fed long term.  I kept up with him for the last two weeks, but just barely, and he was steadily gaining ground on me.  My production was coming up, but not fast enough, and the dreaded Formula was looming on the horizon... we even bought a box of Gerber Gentle as backup in case I couldn't get production up far enough.

I felt like the world's worst mother EVER.  

Then suddenly, three days ago, JJ decided he wanted to nurse again.  No warning.  I just woke up Saturday morning to find the little sucker (pun intended) firmly latched onto the milk bar, sound asleep.  I must have helped him, he's not even two months old, but I don't remember doing it, so yay for sleep-nursing!  Since then, all he's wanted to do was nurse.  Nurse nurse nurse nurse nurse.  To the point where he was literally sleeping at the breast.  I spent Saturday and Sunday sitting on our bed watching the first season of Ghost Whisperer (yes, I know it's cheesy, sue me, it's entertaining), and just swapping sides every time I started a new episode.   He's still a bit gassy, but the all-afternoon-&-evening attacks of the screeching banshee child have not yet resumed.  *crosses fingers*

He was bidding fair to do the same today, but finally went down about an hour ago and seems to be taking a decent nap.  If I get two hours of sleep out of him, I'll dance a jig in the living room, I swear.

The title of today's post?  No matter how loud the kid was screaming, if he tasted milk and that's what he was after, he would instantly lock onto whatever was in his mouth, be it tit or bottle, and go to town.  It's amazing how fast silence can descend in a house with a newborn.

Hmm... there has been cute stuff lately I've been meaning to post about....

Oh, right!  

All parents know about baby firsts.  Baby's first smile, birthday, cold, snowfall, etc.  Well, around six weeks we got baby's first "conversation".  He has been cooing and gurgling more and more lately, discovering new sounds almost by the day it seems, and one day when he cooed and I cooed... he cooed BACK!!!  He actually responded!  We went back and forth for almost three minutes that first time, and believe you me I squealed like a school-girl when he was done.  I picked him up and danced his little behind all around the living room.  His daddy thought I had lost my ever-loving mind.

Until last week when he did it for John too.  Then I got to stand there and grin while my husband did goofy things and made silly faces trying to get the baby to "talk" with him some more.

I don't expect I'll be letting John live that down any time soon.

Folks, I tried really hard to get it on video for y'all, truly I have, but little man sees that camera come out and he just stops whatever he's doing.  I did finally get him to smile on camera for me though... 

Whattaya think?  How handsome is my little dude!