Ethan - Week 11

This has been a fairly quiet week in the Strain household. On Sunday Ethan and I went to dinner at my friend Tracy and her husband Andy's house. They have two adorable little girls, Eve and Hayden, and it was great to get to spend time with them again. (Patrick had a softball game so he missed out!) Patrick and I went to meet Hayden in the hospital when she was born and now she is almost two...it's crazy how fast time has flown by. These are two of the sweetest young ladies ever and it was nice to be able to bring Ethan to meet my little buddies. Eve showed off her princess tiara and Hayden is a girl after my own heart - she loves shoes and purses. It is so nice to have friends with little girls so I can do girly things (like play dress up, watch dance recitals, etc.) I am so in love with my little boy, but it is nice to be a girl sometimes. Tracy is a wonderful friend from my old bible study group and for the longest time we were the only two working outside the home so we could totally relate. I am so glad to have a friend like Tracy and even though we can't meet for lunch as frequently these days (she took a new job uptown which makes it a little more difficult to meet) we still try to get together as much as possible. Ethan has already been uptown for lunch once to meet my friend Alli, so he is ready to join the ranks of the young business professionals and grab lunch with Tracy admist the hustle and bustle of the crowds.

Hayden kept wanting to hold Ethan...it was so cute! She carried two of her babies around all evening so I think she is getting in lots of practice to be a superstar babysitter one day!

Ethan has learned a new trick this week...he now knows how to arch his back and get stiff as a board when he doesn't want to do something. Wow, at 2 months he is already learning how to be defiant (haha!) He is particularly fond of using his new trick while nursing. He used to be so easy, but now after about 5-7 minutes he is done (even though I'm not!) I guess this means he is full and I'm not going to force him to eat if he's not hungry (and he is definitely a healthy, growing boy so I figure if he's hungry he'll let me know!) but it is going to take a few days for me to adjust to his new feeding routine. He is down to 6 feedings a day which takes up much less time than feeding him during the first month (when he consistently ate 9 times a day!) but I'm still trying to figure out his new routine. I had it down to a science, but I've heard that as soon as you have your baby figured out they go and change it up again. He is keeping me on my toes, for sure!

Hanging out at home with his mommy who insists on taking millions of pictures all the time!

Ethan has officially discovered his hands. He has always loved his hands and even in the hospital right after he was born he would put them on his face to soothe himself but this week brought a whole new fascination with his hands. He will stare at them, move them all around, and then of course put them in his mouth. It is pretty cute to watch. Could you imagine being so completely fascinated by something as simple as your own hands?!

Ethan's sleep patterns continue to be pretty erratic at night. There are some nights where he will go 6 hours in between feedings, but then the next night he'll return to every 3 hours. I'm hoping that he'll settle into a predictable pattern sometime soon, but for the time being I just kind of have to respond as necessary to his middle of the night demands. On the bright side he wakes up happy as can be and doesn't cry much. I've tried giving him a pacifier to see if he'll just go back to sleep, but he gives me definite hunger cues so I guess he's just not ready to sleep through the night yet. Sigh! His pediatrician doesn't see anything abnormal with his current patterns though, so I'm going to try to be patient and just hope that one day soon he will want to enjoy full nights of uniterrupted sleep. It does get tiring though, and when I think about the fact that it's been at least 5 months since I slept through the night (with one beautiful night that was an exception while I was still pregnant...it was so wonderful I think I even wrote about it here!) I wonder if it will ever happen again. I have to keep reminding myself that he is only 2 months old, but I am surrounded by super babies who all seem to have figured this one out so I am anxious for Ethan to do it too!!

Ethan's honorary godmother, his Aunt Jen, brought us the most wonderful gift when the Tenney family came to visit...it's a shirt that says "Mommy's answered prayers." When I opened this gift it brought tears to my eyes because Jen knows just how long and how much I have wanted to be a mother and she knows the struggles and obstacles that we have overcome in order to finally have this precious little boy in our lives. I thought that a shirt this meaningful deserved a mini photo shoot so here are a few of my favorites. (And I am including some of these in my next picture order for Jennifer...I am woefully behind in sending her pictures of Ethan and my house is full of fabulous pics she has sent to us of Morgan so I am working this week on catching up on ordering pictures for friends and family members.)