Everything Will

It has been far too long since I have posted a Will update (pictures coming later). There is so much going on with the Little Man that this entry could easily get out of hand. I will try to keep it to the most interesting, realizing that to most people, the daily minutae of a five month old is just not as fascinating as it is to me.

I can boil it down to these key areas (in no particular order): Eating, Pooping, Sleeping, and Learning!

Eating

He is a monster eater! We are down to just four breastfeeds a day, which actually makes me a little sad. He has a feed when he first wakes up, one for lunch, a "snack" in the late afternoon, and then his evening feed. But since the introduction of solids, the only really big feeds he has are the morning and evening ones. I sometimes can barely get him to eat anything at the lunch or afternoon one (especially that one, we might be dropping that soon). But it makes sense that he would be eating less breastmilk, because he is eating more than his share of his solids.

For breakfast, he has rice cereal blended with prune juice and a half of banana. For lunch, it's rice cereal, a full dish of carrots (that's five baby carrots) AND a full dish of peas (about an 1/8 of a cup). For dinner (the meal he seems the least interested in actually eating), it's a dish of rice cereal and one of sweet potatoes. We follow every meal with an ounce of pear juice mixed with one ounce of water. This of course, leads nicely into. . .

Pooping!

Yes, I have a section on pooping. If you have every had a constipated baby, then you know precisely why this is an important section. Also, if you read last week's post on floaties, you will understand why I post again on this topic. Thanks to your suggestions, this is currently not a problem. He has gotten quite regular and we are all thankful for that!

Sleeping

Ah, dear readers. . . . for those of you who have been reading from the newborn days (bless you!), you know that this has been the recurrent issue of our early parenting days. I can tell you that Will now sleeps soundly through most nights (knock on wood, turn in circles, spit over left shoulder, toss a shaker of salt over the right). He is usually in bed between 7 and 8 PM, depending on when he woke up from his last nap. We then do not hear a peep from him until between 5 and 7 AM, depending on the day. Usually, if it's before 6, I let him self-soothe back to sleep, which works about half of the time. If he does get up for a feed at before 6 AM, he usually will go back to bed after he's done eating. This all being said, I am waiting for the next round of teething or a cold to throw us off track, but I now feel that we can get back on track a bit faster when the current challenge passes. Fingers crossed, anyway. . .

Learning

He is learning so much these days! You can just see the wheels turning in his little brain. He has learned out to do razzzes with his tongue and lips (and thankfully, hasn't yet tried that one with a mouth full of food) and finds this to be quite entertaining. He call roll from front to back and back to front. If you put him on a blanket and put a toy just out of reach, he will skooch, squirm, and twist his way to it. He has a fun driving toy that his Daddy bought him and he loves to play with that. He has sat unassisted for brief periods of time and for longer periods using the Bop.py or with the afforementioned driving toy between his legs. His laughter is infectious and is starting to be more spontaneous (vs. needing to be coaxed out with a tickle or kiss). He still gives Wisses, which are just the most precious thing ever.

Verbally, he has all sorts of vowel sounds Ba, Da, La, even a Ma here and there. I love it when he strings a bunch of sounds together and it sounds as if he is actually saying something. He LOVES to be read to and that calms him down from most upsets. He laughs at the right parts and follows along with the pages.

So, that about sums it up for Will right now. I mean, not really, as there is so much more to tell you. I can't believe how much he is changing, how fast he is growing, and how much I love him. I sometimes get stuck looking back at the woulda coulda shouldas of life, and I don't want to do that. I want to bask in every moment of light that Will has brought into our lives. I don't want to let infertility rob me of any more time with my babies.

This point was driven home especially last Friday. When I read about sweet Tuesday, I was humbled. To think that I complained about infertility when this family was losing their sweet baby girl. It was after my own sweet boy had gone to bed, but I took a chance and tip-toed into his room. I watched him sleep for twenty minutes, grateful tears and tears of grief mingling on my cheeks as I observed the rise and fall of his tiny chest. I thanked God for this miracle that we have been given and vowed to keep looking forward. I sent my prayers to those that are still waiting and suffering. Mostly, I thanked Him for everything. . . everything Will.