Jenson: Two months old

Jenson is two months old today. Whenever my parent friends used to say “wow, I can’t believe my kid is…”, I’d think, well of course your kid is gonna age, but it’s crazy how it feels like you’ve just blinked and they’re already two months old. Some days feel like they last forever when he’s screaming the house down and I’m counting down the hours til Luke gets home and other days, when he’s trying to crawl up me when we’re having a cuddle on the sofa, I’m really aware of how quickly he’s developing.

The first month of Jenson’s life was pretty challenging as we learned how to adjust to life with a baby as well as how to look after him. This last month has been more about adapting to his constant developments (how to stimulate him when he’s awake, feeding patterns, etc) and freaking out every time I put an outfit on him for the last time. He’s gonna be in 3-6 month old clothes within the next week, I reckon. I’m trying to photograph him in all of my favourites while I still can.

His smile is my favourite thing on the planet – even at 6am! He wakes up in the morning and starts babbling and you need to avoid eye contact if you want to go back to sleep. Because he has been really colicky lately I like to make the most of his non-screaming, waking moments. And it’s so cute seeing him smile at new things – us, post-sneeze, playing with daddy, paying more attention to his toys, staring at the inside of his pram. Look how adorable!

Things have been pretty hard some days with Luke back at work full-time and Jenson’s colic but I think we’re finally turning a corner, having been on the gripe water for a solid week now. In the last couple of days he has slept well in the afternoon again and has been easier to settle. Of course, it helps that we know what settles him – generally bouncing vigorously! Luke has better upper body strength than me so when he’s home that’s his job. Although he tends to settle as soon as he walks through the door – typical!

I’ve had some issues with the Health Visitor too – I don’t know if any of you have ever had problems when you don’t agree with their advice? A few weeks ago she told me that he was a bit over-fed and I should cut back on his feeds. He had put on nearly a pound in the previous week (growth spurt?) and I needed to cut back his feeds to four ounces every three hours or five ounces every four hours. Within 24 hours he was screaming for milk, so I called to check how this was worked out. Their milk requirements are worked out based on their weight – nothing to do with their age, birth weight or length – until they are six months old. She said to persevere through the crying for a bit as his stomach had to shrink back and that this would avoid health problems in the future. And she said that cutting back on feeds should help with his constipation – it hasn’t. If anything he’s worse lately as he goes every five days. No-one seems overly concerned though as this could just be his cycle (it has gone from two to five days in between in the last few weeks) and all babies are different, yada yada… She also told me not to give him any water between feeds because this can fill him up and he won’t want milk. Bullshit! I’ve since spoken to a GP and two other health visitors who have said to give him an ounce of two of water between feeds if he asks for something extra and to add brown sugar to help him when he gets a bit backed up. It’s annoying how much conflicting advice is out there.

We went for our eight-week check-up yesterday and we’re both doing great. I’ve started having the contraceptive injection to avoid any future babies (yes, I’m still sure I don’t want anymore. And did you know that injection goes in your arse?! That was news to me!) and Jenson had his first round of immunisations, poor bugger. At least an old school friend of mine was his nurse – it was nice to see a friendly face doing it. We’re going back for the next round in a few weeks – on another of Luke’s days at work. It would be nice if his employers were more flexible to allow him to come along to these things. We’re hoping to start swimming classes next week and I just know that he won’t be able to come all that often, as his days off change every week. Hopefully when Jenson is a bit more advanced/I’m more confident we can take him to quieter public swimming sessions so Luke can see him in the water. We wanted this to be something we could do together but at least he’ll have the opportunity to be more involved when we both go part-time when I return to work next year (but it sucks that he has to miss out now!). It’s nice saying ‘next year’ but I’m already a third of the way through my maternity leave! Boo hiss.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VyJmPnUeP4]

The novelty hasn’t worn off at all yet and I’m still constantly photographing when he’s asleep (when does this become creepy) and videoing every little thing in case his first chuckle is about to bubble up.

<I’ve got a video to embed here dreckly but for some reason YouTube has had it ‘pending upload’ for over 24 hours…>

Hopefully this time next month I’ll be able to blog about that eagerly anticipated, magical first laugh. Fingers crossed!