Lenninger Family Blog: Two Weeks Old!

Whoa! We are having a ton of fun lately, how do I know? Time is flying! Our sweet, new addition that seems like yesterday was still kicking me from the inside....is two weeks old! Well, around midnight tonight:) Will you be up to celebrate? We might be...

Here is a small update on life so far...

One of his preferred positions, head propped up on his hands

He is really a good baby. Obviously, he spends most of his time sleeping, eating or crying while getting his diaper changed. Some days he has a lot of awake time and usually he spends the evening looking around and checking us out.

I love this little smirk

Hello

The kids have been holding him more and more, especially Collin. He will go nuts and run over to the chair and grab a blanket or the Boppy and say, "Hold, hold!" If you do not give him Ayden, he gets quite mad.

Which brings me to a really big change for us lately....Collin is throwing much bigger fits than we've seen before. A lot of it is tied to food, he wants what he wants (sweets, treats and pouches) and he throws a fit if you won't let him have it. I don't know if it is just the fact that we have a newborn in the house, but dealing with/picking up an almost two year old when he is mad is SUPER hard. He has also rebelled against going to bed, but he has been sleeping fine, which is a blessing in the night! It is generally true that if you keep something in the bellies of our kids (and Dave and I, frankly!) they will be happy. We had an epic meltdown this morning at breakfast for Collin. He didn't want anything and just screamed. Once he calmed down and ate something, he was a silly, charming little boy who played wonderfully with his toys by himself for a long time. As with anything frustrating with kids, it is a phase, I know it will change. But uff da.

Enjoying snuggle time with everyone these past two weeks...(watching Sleeping Beauty)

Ayden eats well and has since the beginning. Sometimes he will go long periods without eating (almost six hours!) and we've spent two days where I felt I fed him constantly all day long! He generally doesn't fall hard asleep while nursing (unlike Collin) but prefers to curl up on our chest afterwards and sleep. He will also tolerate/take a nap in the swing and that has bought me lots of time, I need that to continue or even improve!

In the swing

He will not sleep in the bassinet. This is my main concern. Almost every time we've put him down in the bassinet in our room, he wakes up immediately or fakes us out and will only sleep 15 minutes or so. ONCE, he took a 2.5 hour nap in there for me, which was wonderful. We will keep trying to get him to sleep in there. I have had him nurse in bed with me and then I move him safely away from anything and he sleeps well that way. He will do a long stint at night already and I am definitely soaking that up. Usually around 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. From 4 a.m. on it is a crapshoot, we either cluster feed until the kids are up or he may sleep on my chest while I sit out on the couch and watch the morning news/cuddle with an early riser (Collin).

In my arms

I do have to say, this is my third child. I have no idea how Kate is already five. I am in no rush to put this newborn down. I know I should. I know he needs to sleep in the bassinet. I will work on it. But we will not get these times back with Ayden. Sleep on, my son, sleep on...

In Daddy's arms

Ayden has taken a bottle! The other two kids never really took a bottle well. Kate kind of took one since she was in daycare while we lived in Iowa but she never drank much. I think she made up for it while at home with me:) Collin struggled mightily with the bottle as well and I had no high hopes for this third babe. But since Ayden would take a paci in the hospital (another thing the others didn't do), Dave was itching to to try a bottle. I held him off until the other night when he promised me he would feed him in the middle of the night and let me sleep:) He took a few ounces from Dave (in an Avent Natural bottle, in case you were wondering) and we called it a mini-victory. Today while I went and picked Kate up from school, Dave tried again and he took a good three ounces very happily. We are thrilled and plan to keep it up so that we have more options as time goes on!

He makes a lot of crazy faces when he is sleeping, I just love it and am always trying to catch them on my phone.

Ayden certainly looks like the other two kids, but I think mostly looks like Dave! He definitely has a Lenninger nose:) This magical time of having us ALL home is soon coming to an end and I think it has gone really well (I'm nervous for next week - Dave goes back to work and he is on call the whole weekend!)