He finally found his thumb...

...with consistency!

This has made our lives a lot easier, especially when putting him down to sleep. He can't seem to figure out how to keep a pacifier in his mouth, so our go-to when he needs to suck for comfort has unfortunately been our own fingers. When you've got a baby that's overtired and needs to suck to be soothed, bending over his crib with your finger in his mouth for 5 minutes (or longer!) does not a happy Mommy or Daddy make.

He hasn't been able to give up the sucking on our fingers entirely quite yet. When he's really worked up he doesn't seem to think to find his own thumb. But if we can get him to calm down a little (maybe 20 seconds on our finger) he'll usually find his thumb and quiet himself the rest of the way. It's also been a great sign that he's starting to get tired, which is helpful because he seems to have a pretty small window between "I'm not tired enough to nap so I'll throw a fit if you try to put me in my crib" and "I'm too tired now and I'll throw a fit when you put me in my crib".

As you can see from the picture, his way of sucking his thumb is a little funny, with his palm pointed up and all of his fingers around the side of his face, but at least he manages not to poke his eyes, which he had done when he was trying to suck his thumb a couple of months ago. He also does tend to put his other arm up near his face, especially when he's in the crib trying to fall asleep. Sometimes the other arm even goes over his eyes.

Oh, and it's always the left thumb. Another indication he's going to be a lefty?

Uppa Baby saves the day!

I have a very cool cover for Steve's car seat. It's made by Uppa Baby (they call it a "cabana") and it's basically a mesh cover with an additional reflective flap to block the sun. I use it all the time while we're walking, to keep the sun out of Steve's face, and I almost always use it when we go out on errands, partly to keep the sun out of his eyes in the parking lot, and partly just to keep him in his own little zone of quiet. I have had a lot of people comment on how cool the product is.

Anyway, I mostly love the product for its ability to block the sun while, thanks to the mesh, still being breathable. The mesh part was also touted as a bug screen, but I'd never really thought that would be much of an issue. Well, last week it did its job...

Yes, that is a bee mere inches from my sleeping baby's face.

milk drunk

Mom sent me this picture from the California State Fair--little piglets in a milk stupor...

Steve doesn't get milk-drunk so often nowadays, but still does every once in a while when he's missed a nap or had a shorter nap than usual prior to eating. I caught one about a week ago...

I'll only let him stay sleeping on my lap like this if he's really had a rough day and needs the sleep. Otherwise I'll sit him right up to burp and have some activity time. We have managed to separate eating and sleeping rather effectively--maybe too effectively. When he was less than 2 months old he would invariably fall asleep during his last feeding of the day and we would just carry him sleeping to his crib and put him down for the night. Then for a while he would fall asleep during his last feeding and we would sit him up to burp him and he would wake up just a little bit as we did that and carried him to the crib. Now, though, he's so used to having awake time after eating (it's what we do during the daytime of course) that he usually has to be awake for at least a half hour if not an hour before going down for the night. If we try to put him in the crib before he thinks he's ready it becomes quite the ordeal. We're all learning, though. Last night we started doing our bedtime routine (diaper, jammies, singing, story, prayer, bed) around a half-hour after he ate and by the time we were done he went to sleep with a minimum of fussing and no need for us to return to the room. And not to make any other new moms out there too jealous, but the last 4 nights he's slept 11 hours straight! No feedings in the middle of the night. Of course, I usually still wake up at some point during the night, and I often check on him just because I know I'll sleep better if I do, but as this continues hopefully I'll be able to get a full uninterrupted night and be better rested in the morning.