So after our trip to Alabama that I blogged about earlier, his sleep schedule got all messed up because we traveled during the day and it took about 8 hrs to get there. He slept the whole way because he loves the car! It made travel really easy but when we got home, his days and nights were all messed up. The other problem was that he loves to have his face covered up. So, he would sleep in his crib but only if a blanket was over his face. I felt okay with that as long as I was awake because I could hear him cry if it bothered him but when I would go to sleep, I would take the blanket out and he would instantly wake up and then not go back to sleep. After about a month of getting him back to a normal day and night schedule (and a few weeks of letting him sleep in our bed), I knitted him a cocoon!
This way, I could put him in his crib, his face could be covered, he would feel secure like he did sleeping in our bed, and he could breathe if it was over his face! He was in baby cocoon heaven!! It did the trick because he started sleeping 11 hrs through the night from night 1 with his cocoon and has been in his room doing the same ever since! I have been SO lucky to have a baby that will sleep through the night around 3 months. It has been such a blessing! The only problem we've had is some days, he naps a lot depending on what we're doing (the more we're out and about, the more he naps) so some nights, he wants to go to sleep at 7pm which is WAY too early for me. I'd rather he go down around 8 or 9pm so we've just kept him up and read to him and played with him until it's that time. Otherwise, he'll be up at the crack of dawn and have one tired, cranky mama!
In the beginning of November, Ash started smiling and laughing like crazy!! And when I say smiling, I mean big, gummy, adorable smiles :)
It's so cute to see him smile, too, because he smiles at certain things. He LOVES attention. If he's in his swing and I walk up to him and say hi, he starts smiling and giggling with excitement. He and I spend a lot of time together set up just like the picture above with him in my lap and he and I make faces and smile at each other forever!
And oh my goodness can that boy chatter! He will tell you a big long story and go on and on in his baby talk. You know he's really concentrating on exactly what he wants to tell you. It is absolutely hysterical!
One of the things that has been the neatest for me to see in his development is that he has preferences on things. I sing songs to him a lot and play with him and it's so cute to see that he likes some songs more than others, likes when I do certain things to his feet more than others, etc. He LOVES "The Wheels on the Bus." I move his feet to the motions (go round&round, the horn goes beep beep beep, the wipers go swish swish swish) and he laughs hysterically! It's soo cute! He also loves when I kiss his feet and pretend to eat them hahaha He squeals with excitement!
He absolutely loves his head being rubbed which is really odd to me lol I swirl my hand on his head over and over and he smiles and giggles like it's the greatest thing since Cheese Whiz!
He is getting really strong these days! Everywhere I've read has said that "tummy time" is really important for their development because it helps them gain strength to start crawling but he hates being put on his stomach on the floor. So I started just laying on my back on the couch and putting him on my chest. He's totally good with this ~ he can sit up on his elbows completely now and hold himself up and look around :) It's great for us to do it this way, also, because he can look up at me and when I smile at him and talk to him while he's practicing, he giggles.
He's starting to reach out for things which has been kind of neat to watch. He still hesitates but my mom sent him a little stuffed reindeer for Christmas and if I put it in front of him, he'll reach out and pet it's fur. It's the cutest thing ever to watch his little hands go :)
He has really started to enjoy being read to, also! He always looks at the pictures and seems to be listening. I've been reading a lot about how it's really important to talk to your baby a lot and to read to them (so they learn words you wouldn't normally say in every day conversation) and how it helps them develop their language skills so we try to read every night. He has been really into different pictures but especially black & whites. Jordan's aunt and uncle sent Ash two books for Christmas and one of them I had for him on his wishlist so it was perfect! He LOVES it!!
It's the cutest book and Ash just loves looking at all the black and white pictures! :)
In general, he is such a happy baby. He really gets bored quickly, though, so every day I come up with an errand or somewhere we should go to get out of the house which he loves. He needs to get out at least once a day or he gets stir-crazy and super cranky. He loves going in the car which is shocking since most babies seem to hate being in their car seats. It has been sooo cold here so far in the last month, so I bundle him all up (which he seems to like) and put him in the car. He looks out the window and sometimes takes a nap. When we get to the store, he looks around at everything. I just keep him in his car seat and then put that in the shopping cart. We just walk around stores and I talk to him and he talks back and looks around. Plus, I think he secretly likes getting out because of all the attention he gets. I'm telling you this kid is a person magnet. It's so cute how people gravitate to him but sometimes it's annoying because it can get hard to get anything done.
The other day, I had Ash in his Peanut Shell (his sling carrier) in Barnes and Noble and this woman stopped me from the other aisle and was gushing over him. Cute. Until she stood there and told me her life story for 15 minutes. The funny thing was that as she was talking she was saying, oh I always hate to stop new moms because I know their time out is limited before the baby gets cranky....and then she proceeded to talk my face off. Other than that, though, it's pretty cute watching other people get a kick out of him and his expressions, too! :)
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