In the education system I grew up in report cards came out every six weeks. I think a lot of systems these days go by 9 weeks, but I'm not sure. Point being, it is time for Elijah's report card.
Sleeping
C
The first two and a half weeks he slept like a champ. I thought this parenting stuff was going to be a cake walk. Well maybe a cake walk on a rickety bridge but it appeared the sleeping problem wasn't going to be one we would have too much trouble with. Boy was I wrong. The following week he was a nightmare. He cried and screamed at the top of his lungs for hours on end in the middle of the night. I'm still not sure what was upsetting him. I thought he must have colic, but after a week it stopped and he went back to sleeping. Unfortunately in our attempts to sooth him he got use to sleeping on us. We managed to eventually break that by teaching him to soothe himself with a paci instead of our warm body. This I could live with, but the darn thing wont stay in his mouth. If it falls out before he's been a sleep for a while he'll start fussing until you shove it back in. He often only manages to keep it in for 5 to 10 minutes. We still haven't really fixed this problem, but you can only do so much at this age. The past two nights he's been real fussy from 8 to 12. I haven't been able to figure this one out either. All those books and none of their suggestions seem to work out so great. Hopefully it's just another short phase.
Head Control
A
I'm not entirely sure whats normal for a baby at this age but Elijah seems to be doing great. He can hold his head up for fairly decent lengths of time. I wouldn't leave him in a position where he needed to hold it up himself or anything but I'm pleased with what I see.
Tracking
B+
I almost gave him an A. He does seem to track things pretty well with his eyes a lot of the time, but he doesn't do it every time. Maybe this is because he's no trick pony and he's just not interested in what I'm waiving in front of his face. He does really seem to be into colorful pictures and such so thats good.
Feeding
A
Perhaps Morgan would be the better person to grade him here, but he seems to eat well. He's a good latcher with a good suckle. He's become a little chunk, right now he's working on chin number 3. I'm not sure what his weight is at, probably between 10 and 11 lbs. The only thing keeping him from an A+ is sometimes he unlatches in a rough manner.
I'm trying to think of other subjects but those are the only ones that come to mind. What can I say? You can't expect much out of a newborn. Minus a little fussyness (and what babies aren't fussy at times?) he's a really good kid. I think he's developing pretty well. Morgan will tell you he's starting to develope a social smile, but I haven't really seen it yet. Unfortunately though, the past two nights I've just come home to a Mr. Cranky Pants and the only thing I've really seen is cry baby.
Bruce
Elijah is starting to be much more interactive in activity time.. he smiles back (he especially likes his puppet "Bruce the dragon"), he makes cute noises, makes eye contact and follows toys with his eyes. He likes reading books (well staring at the pictures)..especially the opening cover of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. He's starting to grab at toys..mostly unsuccessfully because he has no control over his hands yet. He can entertain himself for a while just staring at some toys..or even at a blank wall. We have so much fun playing together. Bruce hates going to work and coming home to only an hour or so of play time before
Elijah has to start his bedtime routine. But we'll be going home next week for 2 solid weeks of visiting with family and friends...Bruce is looking forward to spending so much time with Elijah. We cant wait for our families to see how much he's grown and spend some time getting to know our beautiful son. More updates to come soon!!
