On A Roll

Ben finally rolled over!  So far, he's done it 4 times... I think!  He always seems to do it when I'm not watching!  So either he can roll over, or the gnomes that live in our house and steal our camera chargers play with him when I leave the room for a minute.

Cute video of Ben in his new monstrosity (otherwise known as an exersaucer):



Nights have been great lately... Down at 8pm no problem, up at midnight and 4am (give or take an hour) to nurse.  Sometimes he wakes up really early -- like 7am -- and is all ready to greet the day, but actually if I just nurse him, I can put him down on his rainforest playmat and he'll be content for up to an hour while I go back to bed for a bit.  I guess his teeth are taking a little break.  Still nothing showing on top!  I can tell they bother him even though they're not out yet.

He's getting really good at grasping things, which of course he just puts in his mouth.  Recently I started reading books to him, and he really loves that!  I was reading to Sophie much earlier, for lack of anything better to do with her.  I don't think it will make a difference, but it illustrates how important it will be for me to make sure Ben is getting the attention he deserves.

Here is Ben watching his sister's antics:



Ben loves SuperWhy!  Something about that show really appeals to my kids.  It's not just the fact that it's TV... Ben will sit there and watch the entire 25-minute show, grinning at the characters.  Then as soon as the show ends, he starts fussing.  I really think Sophie benefited a lot from SuperWhy!, so I don't mind letting Ben watch 2 episodes a day with his sister.  It means I can have dinner ready when John gets home.

Here are some very cute photos of Ben from the past couple of weeks:

Next week should bring more updates.  Ben's Grammy Sue bought him a crib, which I hope we can pick up this weekend -- that should make possible some cute nursery pictures (dresser to follow at some later date).  He also has his 4-month appointment with the pediatrician next week, so I'll report on that as well.

Poor Ben

He's been crying a lot lately.  It's easy to be worried that this is a lasting change in his personality, but the real issues are that he has been sick for the past week, and his incoming teeth are bothering him.  So we'll see if his temperament improves over the next couple of weeks.  Meanwhile, I'm not always able to give him the comfort he needs.  Poor Ben.

I see his personality emerging in leaps and bounds through all this, though.  Not in any specific way.  When I notice these types of changes in my kids, it always scares me a little -- in a healthy way.  Each of these moments appears to me as a tiny burst of independence from me.  It's exciting and frightening to be reminded that these kids are their own people.

Fortunately, I think we finally have a very solid schedule.  Wake up between 7am-8am, sleep from about 10:30am-noon, sleep again from about 2:30pm-4:30pm, then down for the night again at 8pm.  There is still some variation in what happens at night, though.  Two weeks ago, I was exhausted because he would wake up to nurse three or four times during that twelve hours.  Now, it's just twice, but both times can be kind of strange.  Once he woke up at 10:30pm when he normally doesn't wake up until midnight or later.  Unfortunately I had a drink that night, so couldn't nurse him back to sleep right away.  Last night, he woke up at about 4am to nurse, which is what I want him to do.  However, he was hyper and agitated and did not go back to sleep!  So I tried rocking him for a little while, but he only seemed to get more hyper.  Finally, I put him in his swing, which he often sleeps in during the day.  I thought maybe being there would cue him that it was time to sleep.  No such luck... he cried for a half hour straight before finally falling asleep.  I felt terrible.  But all my options seemed to send a bad message: either that it's ok to be awake and playful in the middle of the night, that someone will come if he just cries long enough, or that no one will come no matter how much he cries.

I don't mean to sound too negative.  He's still VERY good-natured and loves to interact with people.  He'll give just about anyone a big smile!  Here are some extra pictures from the past month or two: