After a night in which William and I both stayed up later than normal, I had a theory that William would wake up less during the night to breastfeed and that he’d sleep in longer. While I was wrong on both counts, both he and I ended up taking long naps in the afternoon today.
I’ve wondered where the phrase “slept like a baby” came from. Contrary to whoever coined it, babies often don’t sleep for long periods of time without waking up, and they get overtired easily and will fuss and cry instead of sleeping as they don’t realize they are so tired and need to sleep. William’s bedtime is technically around 7:30 or so, which gives me time to hang with him a bit then try to convince him to sleep. Tonight, he was convinced he wasn’t going to do so.
When we first brought William home, it was swaddling with the shower running in the background that would help him finally fall asleep at night. He was prone to being overtired, which made it too hard for him to sleep. Most of the time Matt would put him down this way, he rarely seemed to sleep when I tried, yet for the past few weeks he’s let me nurse him to sleep.
In two Mondays, on April 23rd, William will turn 6 months old. This is the halfway point to my goal to give him at least some breast milk each day until his first birthday. There have been days when it seemed like this would be easy and days when it seemed like this would be hard. This photo was taken from January, the month I first returned to work. These bottles each represented numerous times pumping and the one with the Snoopy sticker on it had been thawed overnight from the freezer, the sticker telling Candy to use it first.
One of the great perks of being an Amazon Prime member is the chance to select a free Kindle book to read each month. It introduces members to authors they may never have heard of and this month I choose the book “Wreckage” by Emily Bleeker whose name was unfamiliar to me. I was intrigued by the novel which was billed as the novel of a plane crash survivor and her fellow survivor, both of whom have lied extensively about the truth and whom a reporter is ruthlessly trying to understand and expose. 
Every Monday since October 23rd has been a bit more special now as it’s a time to reflect on William’s birth and how much he is growing and changing. I get a lot of comments on him including how big he’s getting and what a happy baby he is, which he truly is most of the time.
One of the things I love about my church is the many opportunities to volunteer. Even as a busy new mom, I’ve found ways to continue to volunteer. The Outreach committee needed a volunteer today to man the Crop Walk sign up station at the after service social hour. After confirming that I could do so with William with me (as the nursery was closed at that time), I signed up. I’d joked that depending on his needs I might have to use only one hand for part of the time and that’s what happened.
Sometimes William sleeps right through church service in the nursery. Other times he’s very alert and engaged in playing with the staff. When he’s like this Matt and I sometimes refer to him by the nickname Wide Awake Bear.
I had thought perhaps he would sleep this time, yet he didn’t even take a small nap. Instead he happily played with his ball and engaged with the teachers and other boy there.
So the nursery was staffed today by the B set of teachers, ladies who are unable to stay later after service, I had to sneak out of church before the last hymn and pick up William and his things. I was glad I had practiced with the Baby Bjorn at the baby shower the day before. He happily was close to me while we talked to people about signing up for the walk or making an open donation to the charity.
William enjoyed being approached by many people. Since he’s in nursery for most services from beginning to end, he got to hang out with people he has rarely seen, or in some cases hadn’t met.
Even with him there, I was still able to take in three donation checks and get one walker signed up. It would have been easier had I been alone, yet, it was definitely more fun for me and him for him to be there.
~ Danielle
Today Matt, William and I went to the first outdoor baby shower we’d ever been to for our upstairs neighbors, Todd and Yuka. It’s been fun seeing Yuka’s bump grow over the last few months. As the guests knew their baby in utero is a boy, many people wore blue to shower including Matt and I, and even William started out with an outfit with blue stripes in it though we had to change him to another one midway through the party.
William’s Godmother, Kristi, and I chat on Facebook a lot about him. One thing we discussed at length was music and how I to raise our son as someone who enjoys playing an instrument like her son, Tyler does (he plays drums and guitar). I had told her how hard it was to not buy him a drum set as so far I’d only seen ones for older kids. Two days later this Hand Drum Piano arrived from her and Tyler.
Inside were actual two separate toys allowing a child to play on an instrument with drums and piano keys as well as a separate xylophone. As William would readily put any of this in his mouth, we haven’t given him the xylophone or striker.
William was given this toy at Easter. We all discovered how much fun it was having this toy light up and make all sorts of sounds including notes, full songs and animal noises. Someone joked we’d be sorry we put batteries in it and turned it on.
William was able to enjoy it as a quiet toy as well, very quickly figuring out just what he was to do with it.
At daycare he enjoyed playing it and soon the other older boys came over also to see this amazing toy.
The toy can stimulate a child’s imagination for long periods of time. It’s designed for children aged 6 months to 3 years and it (and the xylophone) seems quite durable so they can use them all that time. I look forward to William enjoying and getting even more out of this toy as he gets older and can learn and process more.
Rating – five baby booties out of five
~ Danielle
Every year Matt watches the San Francisco Giants home opener at our place, having a small party often with ballpark type food and guests. Today was that day and William was all set to watch wearing his Giant’s home game jersey.
William looks so much like his dad in this photo. They look great in their matching jerseys and Matt shared his hat with him as well.
Though he has no idea what he’s watching, William intently watched the screen.
Though I had to work, Candy was able to come and watch with them.
William has started trying to give hugs and kisses which is so adorable.
Dad and son look so relaxed for this selfie.
I’m not sure what has his attention in this photo.
It’s obvious William was mesmerized by the game and will be a huge fan of it someday.
This year’s food was hot links. They had enough for the two of them (with William not eating solids yet, of course) and for us to have for dinner as well.
Baseball has no defined time schedule, so one game can go on for many hours and even extra innings. While this game did not, William fell asleep midway through the game.
Even though the Giants lost, it was still a great day for everyone.
~ Danielle
Over 40 First Time Mom 