Best baby EVER

I'm a little superstitious about publishing this post because I don't want to jinx what's been going on in my house :) We find that the best time to put Nicholas to bed is around six... and then he'll usually sleep for five hours before waking up for the next feeding. Yesterday he slept for SEVEN HOURS! Doesn't that count as sleeping through the night? He fed at 1:30 and then went back to sleep (which, thankfully has never been a big problem at night) and didn't wake up again until 8:30!! We went in to check on him twice because we were a little worried, but he was fine...sleeping soundly. Fluke, we thought. It had happened once before when Mando thought he had eaten at 3:00 and so when he woke up at 4:00 to eat, Mando just lulled him back to sleep---what Mando didn't realize was that I fed him at 12:30, not 3:00. oops. Anyway, other than our negligent parent moment, he usually sleeps three-five hours at a time during the night, which is still pretty darn great for a newborn. We weren't expecting him to sleep through the night for another month at least. But last night---he did it AGAIN! Seven hours! If we were putting him to bed at 9:00 we'd be getting a seriously great night's rest! But the problem is that we put him to bed at 6:00 (which is when he naturally gets really really tired), so we're still waking up at 1 or 2 in the morning. We'll see if this is a trend or just a product of a couple of late nights (christmas parties, etc. that keep him awake longer than he normally would be).

Milestones

I already know that some of you are going to read this and think I'm just being an overly attentive first mom and that I'm making things up, but I'm NOT! :) Two things happened last night and this morning that made me freak out because my little boy is growing up WAY too fast!

Last night we were playing with him and he was smiling, as normal, then...he LAUGHED! Not the newborn silent grunt/laugh, but an actual ha ha ha laugh. I kid you not! Mando and I just stared at each other not sure if we heard him right, but I'm positive it was a laugh...maybe it won't be repeated for a while, but my son laughed at 1 month :)

THEN! This morning we were doing "tummy time" when all of a sudden I noticed he was leaning quite far to his right side...almost as if he wanted to AAH! He ROLLED OVER! :) I don't know if it counts that he rolled from his stomach to his back (does it have to be the other way around?), but I thought to myself, "There's no way he just did that...I must have put his arms under him funny and he accidentally flipped trying to move them." So I put him on his tummy again, and sure enough....1, 2, 3, FLIP! Then he smiled and started cooing! It was amazing. I tried to get him to do it again for the camera, but the rule of life is that all the cool things happen just before the camera comes out, right?

But here are before and after pictures...does that count?

More pictures of our adorable little guy...I just can't get enough :)

I know I've posted about a million times in the last few days, but it's my "new hobby" that I do to keep me sane and occupied while I'm at home with Nicholas. It's something small that I can do while he's sitting in his bouncer seat (before he gets bored) that makes me feel like I accomplished something for the day...even though the kitchen is still a mess and I haven't showered ;)

Here's a couple of short videos of Nicholas playing with Mando---it's so cute to watch them interact. Nicholas already recognizes Mando's voice and gets really excited when he hears him come home every afternoon. It's really cute.
The first one is Mando playing "Manitos" where he hits Nitch's hands and waits for him to hit back (which he does...probably involuntarily, but still cute).


This is Mando telling Nicholas that his diapers must be clean because they smell so good...he was smiling and "laughing" (in his newborn way) SO hard before I whipped the camera out. I only caught the last part.

Weird night

The other night Mando and I took a nap in the early evening while I was feeding Nicholas. After Nicholas was done eating, I just let him fall asleep cuddled up next to me. (I know, probably not the safest thing, but we were all so cozy and SO TIRED). When we woke up, it occurred to Mando and I that Nicholas had slept for a LONG time without any grunting or gas pains of any kind--a rarity. So we were debating letting him sleep with us in bed that night to see if it made a difference, and to see if we would get a more peaceful night's rest as well. After a little discussion though, we decided neither of us felt comfortable with a little newborn in a soft, tiny, bed with two exhausted adults. After he ate at 10 o'clock, we both took him into his nursery and put him to bed. Then we went to bed. The next thing I know, it's 2:00 in the morning and I hear Nicholas doing his hungry whine, so I turn over, pull him next to me and start nursing him....wait...I pull him over?? When did he get in bed with us?!? I woke up Mando and asked when he brought Nicholas into bed with us, and Mando was like, "I didn't get him, I didn't even know he was here until you woke me up!"

Somehow, in the middle of the night, me (or Mando) got up, got Nicholas out of him crib, wrapped him in a blanket, and brought him to bed with us. Neither of us has ANY recollection of this. I've been thinking about it for days trying to remember, and I don't even have a foggy dreamlike remembrance of ANYTHING between 10 and 2. A little scary.

Grunts

So, my kid's a grunter. He doesn't cry. He grunts. I have no objections to this when he's happy...it's quite a cute little trait. When he's really excited he grunts and swings his arms and kicks his right leg (just his right leg...his left leg sits there almost completely motionless as the rest of his body goes into excited spasms. I wonder if I should be worried about that?). What kills me is that I have to learn how to distinguish grunts as opposed to cries, and when you're listening over the baby monitor, that's kind of a difficult thing to do. He has a poo grunt, a bored grunt, a gassy grunt, a hungry grunt, and a diaper change grunt. And up until today I thought they were all the SAME grunt...with the exception of his hungry grunt, I could distinguish that one. So I've been freaking out thinking that my son is constantly pooing all day long and he can't get it out!!! And I've been giving him gas remedies to try and help him work it all through.......it finally occurred to me this morning as I listened to him grunting for about 1/2 hour over the baby monitor--silently dying inside because there's nothing I can do to help my poor pooing son--when I finally walked in to get him from his crib in an attempt to do SOMETHING at least, I found him wide-awake and wiggling and grunting EXACTLY as if he were pooing, but when I picked him up and started changing his diaper, he suddenly morphed into "happy baby Nicholas," my favorite persona. He continued to sound very pained and unhappy by this poo that wouldn't come out, but it was obvious on his face that he was not pushing...he was just grunting. I'm so happy that it's not gas all the time, but I'm a little unsettled. Imagine having a baby that cried to show he was happy and content and then used the same cry to tell you he was unhappy and uncomfortable....AAAH! Do you comprehend my frustration?