two week manning

manning might be two weeks old now, but today was the first time that we have ventured outside to just hang out. several neighbors came over to meet him too.  the older kids rode bikes and played while manning and i stuck to the shade.  it was early in the day and not too hot yet - very nice.

i didn't really talk about manning's sleep in my earlier post.  he generally sleeps well.  he is the only one who hasn't come home and started sleeping in the crib right away; we have him in our room.  we did this for two reasons - so that he doesn't bother madelyn with multiple wake ups a night and because we are using madelyn's room as a guest room this month.  right away he has been giving me one 5-6 hour stretch at night.  sometimes he goes right back to sleep after eating and sometimes he wants to stay awake for one to three hours.  i shouldn't say that he 'wants' to stay awake, he just gets some gas or falls asleep before he is truly full.  he doesn't exactly 'nurse to sleep' when he eats.  it is more like he nurses for thirty minutes, stops eating and drifts off.  i try to burp and wake him but he is done.  then 15 minutes later he is crying for more - not always though.  we are still working things out at night a little.  i am still getting way, way more sleep than i was while pregnant.

the other problem with having him in our room is when other kids wake-up at night and come in.  maddux is cutting his molars and becomes unreasonable in the middle of the night with crying fits where he won't stop screaming.  mason did the same thing at this age while cutting his molars - which we had totally forgotten about until maddux started up.  hopefully this will be short lived.

manning also seems to have a little bit of a 'loped' ear.  we thought that it was just folded over from being crammed in so tight - madelyn had a folded up ear at birth too - but it hasn't unfolded and appears to just be that way.  i will be asking the pediatrician about it during our next appointment.

he has most definitely had his two-week growth spurt.  i am so happy that the nursing has eased back up to a more normal pace!  it also seems like he has grown significantly but we will find out in a few weeks how much.

manning is a 'sucker' and almost always has a pacifier or is nursing when he is awake.  madelyn was the same way as an infant so at least i feel comfortable that he isn't hungry.  he also hates - and i mean hates - a dirty diaper.  he won't stop screaming or take a pacifier when his diaper is dirty which has been a real problem when we are driving somewhere and he is just screaming his head off!  thankfully, he doesn't demand a clean one over night (i try not to change diapers at night as a way to get to sleeping through faster - and it has worked with all four).

and we have another 'spiter'.  manning spits up with the abundant frequency madelyn did.  they are what the pediatrician called "happy spitters" meaning that there is nothing wrong, they just spit up. madelyn has even had it get on her face (she got too close right after i finished nursing him).  i had forgotten how messy that can be!  it also creates a lot of wardrobe changes for both of us. 

and that is manning for now.  love.