Three Months in 15 Minutes

I have 15 minutes until a client arrives to update. I hate the blogs that begin with a long post about not posting for awhile, but I feel it is relevant here: my husband finally graduated architecture school. His hard work during that time made my time in law school look like patty cake with a bully. Unlike the memorization and application of laws and facts and such, art is never done. So basically he was never done. And I wonder if he’ll remember what his  baby was like between 3 and 6 months.

Now that we’re on the other side of it, it’s amazing. Age 3-6 months were the worst. I had this easygoing baby who was suddenly, horribly sensitive and cranky. All. The. Time. Like all the time. 

No really.

All the time. 

And I did most of the constantly entertaining this cranky human by myself. He was teething, he had colds, he had one stressed parent and one who was absent. But the real deal here was that he was frustrated. You could tell by looking at him that he wanted to do so much more than he was physically capable of doing. He would reach, and attempt to manipulate objects, fail, and cry for the better part of 3 months.

Finally, a couple weeks ago, he got it. His fine motor skills have skyrocketed since doing baby-led weaning (self-feeding) stuff. Here, he has an instant reward for the correct use of his fingers, and he can entertain himself by mawing on a carrot stick (and bonus–soothe his gums), and he loves to pick up cheerios. 

And while he can’t crawl per se, he can move. In a series of seemingly random, uncoordinated movements,  he can transport himself from one side of the room to another in  no time flat. I would be worried about the extra burden this poses for me–hiding cords, picking up chokables, etc., but I can’t care past the fact that he’s FINALLY happy. He can move and do and explore, and he’s HAPPY. I cannot tell you what a relief this is. 

On the sleep front it’s been one step forward, two steps back. We went from being able to put him down happy and awake in his crib at 3ish months to, well…not. The disadvantage to a mobile baby is that he’s not  great at staying put in his crib. So at this point, he sleeps swaddled (straight-jacketed) in his swing (buckled into one place where he can’t flip over), and we keep the swing moving because I swear he sleeps longer (9 blessed hours). The plan is to wean him off the swaddle one arm at a time and then transition back to his crib, but I basically don’t even want to think about it. 

Right now it’s enough to help him recover from his third cold in as many months (breastfed babies apparently do get sick, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise), and enjoy his crazy pants mobility, his giggles, and his budding personality. He’s a cool kid.