Happy Valentine's Day!

This year I have two loves in my life making Valentine's Day even more special. In truth, I have always thought Valentine's Day was a silly holiday. However, I also think it can be really sweet when it is used as an opportunity to truly celebrate love through doing something that is meaningful to your relationship rather than just the cliche or token dates/gifts. That takes knowing your special someone well. Thus, I am going to celebrate today by sharing what we have learned about our little love's preferences over the past couple of weeks.

Likes:
- Dax loves the fetal position. I know what you're thinking: "Of course he does; all babies do. That was his position for the past nine months." While that may be true, he REALLY loves it. If I put him up on my shoulder to burp or snuggle, his legs immediately sneak up and he turns into a little ball. When we change his diaper, those little legs squeeze up into a frog-like position that is arguably very cute, but makes actually changing the diaper a bit challenging. And anytime we need to put on a sleeper, his feet make their way out of the little footies and are squeezed up into his body before we can even get it snapped or zipped up. He loves to be scrunched!

 

 

 

Our little snuggle bug with Grandma Amy

- Dax likes sleep-eating. This sounds like a special talent or a rare condition, but it is a daily occurrence in our household. Every time he is nursing, he falls asleep! He has become very talented at switching between snoozing and sucking, but always needs some prompting to finish eating. We have learned that if we strip him down to just a diaper before starting to nurse, he will continue to eat long enough to get a good meal. Silly boy!

- Daytime sleep is better than nighttime sleep. All day long (when we have the lights on, television or music noise, talking, etc...) he sleeps "like a baby". He is such a sweet, silent little napper, which makes him so easy to cuddle with and also allows us to put him down once in awhile to get things done. Now we just need to teach him to continue that sleep into the night (when he typically becomes super fussy and restless). 

Dislikes:
- Tummy time is no fun. Dax's pediatrician told us to start giving him some tummy time. She rolled him over on the table in the office and he was so content. The only rule she gave us was that we could not do too much tummy time - babies needs as much as possible to strengthen their necks. We thought it would be great. Well, fast forward to our efforts for tummy time at home and it looks very different. Every once in awhile we can get a few minutes of calm, but for the most part he fusses and/or screams until we pick him back up. Poor little guy. We will continue to try it a couple times a day, but it kills Mommy and Daddy every time he reacts so strongly.

 

 

 

 

He was still this traumatized several minutes after Daddy saved him from the torture of tummy time.

- Dax does not like evening. I don't know if he can feel the transition of bedtime coming or what the reason could be, but he gets really fussy almost every night around dinner time or a little after. We keep trying to remind ourselves that it could be so much worse and that crying is good exercise for our sweet little guy. His crying still breaks our hearts, though, and it is so hard not to know what is bothering him.

Overall, it has been a fantastic two weeks with Dax. We are thrilled to continue getting to know what he likes and dislikes and to see his personality shining through even more.