Parenting

Our little William Henry is already 8 weeks old. I feel like I am officially out of the "little baby" time period. He is obviously still a little baby but he is now to an age that I am familiar with. Anything younger than 6 weeks was a fairly big ? to me. Between 6-8 weeks was more familiar, but still not an age I've worked with a ton. Eight weeks and up I feel pretty comfortable with. It's weird that he's already to this stage. It did happen a lot faster than I expected. With how fast the first two months of his life have gone I can certainly see how quickly the rest of this year is going to go.

A little bit about Henry:

He is super determined. He has the most impressive neck strength I've ever seen in a baby, which actually is saying a lot considering how many babies I have worked with. It isn't just me being a proud (and delusional) mother, this kid can hold his head up! And it's because he REALLY wants to! Around 3 weeks old (I'm guessing, I can't actually remember exactly when it started, but it was before one month) he didn't want to ever rest his head when we were holding him, he just wanted it to be up and he wanted to look around at everything. We've had a heck of a time calming him down in our arms because he cries unless he can be upright and looking around.

He is stubborn. He wants to be up looking around even when he is super tired and no longer has the strength to keep his head up. So he just cries and bonks his head against our heads or chests as he struggles to keep his head up. It's actually really very funny.

He's very social. He loves to smile and talk. He has the biggest smile and he loves to show it off. Even in the middle of crying we can get him to smile and then he hops right back into tears. He has long conversations with us. The majority of what he has to say is, "AaaaaOoooo." He's truly insightful.

He is growing fast! He put on 3lbs 5oz in his first month and grew 2 inches. When he was born he was 7lbs 10oz and 21" and by his one month appointment he was 11lbs 1oz and 23". His two month appointment is in 6 days and I can't wait to see how big he is. Though I don't think it's likely that he's put on over 3lbs this month. He was in the 75th percentile for both weight and height at one month. His weight had gone up from the 50th percentile at birth. I can't remember what his height was at birth.

For the past two nights Henry has been a super sleeper! I don't count on it lasting much longer, but I will appreciate it while it lasts. Both nights we did a little routine and then laid him down wide awake, happy and playing, only going to him on occasion to give him his pacifier. The first night he hung out for about an hour and then went to sleep, the second night it took 15 minutes. Both nights he slept from about 10:30pm-5:30am and then went right back down, after eating, until about 9:15am. I couldn't ask for a better night! Now we just need to get nap time figured out...