Mountain Mama

Yesterday was Ben’s first “concepti-versary”! January 29, 2007 was the day he was conceived. We know the exact date because we did IVF (read all about it using the IVF Blog link on the right of this page). We were too busy to celebrate though.

The day after I wrote the last post about the new record, Ben set a NEW record of 7.5 hours of straight sleep! His average is still 6 hours though. Not too shabby for a 3.5 month old!

Other new things he is doing include purposely using his hands to gesture at an object he’s looking at (he hasn’t learned to purposely grab things yet, but he holds on to things you put in his hand), arching his back when laid down on his back, and scooting when put down on his belly (he moved 2 feet forward the other day!). My parents gave him an Elmo stuffed animal, which he loves to look at!

I got home from the egg retrieval at about 12:20 and went right to sleep for a couple of hours. I’m still pretty tired and sore. I was out cold for the entire procedure, so I don’t have any details about it. The main thing is…They got 12 eggs!

Last night Ben slept 7 hours STRAIGHT without even needing a binky! He’s starting to get the hang of things…

Last night Ben set a new personal best time: he slept 7 hours in a row! His previous record was 6.5. Around December he started sleeping consistant 4-4.5 hour stretches, and around New Year’s he started sleeping 6 hour stretches sometimes. Lately 6 hour stretches have become the norm. He goes to sleep at about 8:30, wakes up at 2:30, eats, goes back to sleep, wakes up at 4:30, eats, goes back to sleep, then wakes up at 7, eats, then I leave for work. He’s been fairly consistant, which is nice. Last night he slept from 8-3! He cried a little at 2 and I gave him his binky and he went back to sleep for an hour (I do that sometimes so I think it still counts as a 7-hour stretch). When he finally did wake up, it was strange. Instead of wimpering and grunting for a while before fully waking up, he suddenly let out several loud, panicked cries. He was probably hungrier than he’d ever been since that was the longest he had ever gone without eating.

Now we need to get him to take naps consistantly. Sometimes he sleeps for 2 hours in a row during the day, and sometimes he only makes it 15 minutes at the most.

Speaking of sleep, I need to get some now while I have the chance!

Well, I basically haven’t posted since my 2nd day back to work. WORKING FULL TIME WITH A BABY AT HOME IS HARD WORK!

Ben tends to get fussy in the evenings and we think it’s laziness- after taking a bottle all day, he doesn’t want to work at the breast. The first full week back was the worst- he was screaming for a couple hours each night. We took him to the doctor thinking he was teething or something. He’s not- he’s just lazy. The evening fussiness has improved somewhat, so hopeully he’s getting used to everything.

Despite the challenges, Ben is thriving. He loves bath time and his Elmo book (Elmo is red, Ben’s apparent favorite color). We enjoyed the long weekend together!

OK, so this is a little out of order, but here is a picture from Ben’s first visit with Santa…

He had a nice first Christmas, with visits from both sides of the family.

Today Ben is 11 weeks old! It was supposed to be my first day back to work, but Mother Nature had other plans. We’ve gotten about 8 inches of snow (my guestimate- it’s hard to say since it’s been blowing so much) and it’s still falling!

This morning Ann (Tim’s mom) was holding Ben and he was really active- “throwing his weight around.” I suggested this might be a good time for some “tummy time.” We put him down on the floor on his tummy and he lifted his head 90 degrees! He started rocking side to side a little and I said something like, “are you going to roll over, Ben? I think you are!” Ann said “it might be soon too!” RIGHT after that, he rolled over for the first time! Tim, Ann and I all got to see it.