Happy Birthday Jesus and Happy 8 weeks Forest!

Happy birthday Jesus! And also, happy 8 week birthday to Forest. Our 8^th week was a bit of an improvement over the past 2 weeks. His naptime routine is still a struggle, but nighttime sleep is starting to fall into a pattern. Jonathan puts him to bed around 8, I wake him up to eat again at 10, put him right back to bed and he sleeps around 5.5-6.5 hours until around 4, I feed him again and he’ll generally sleep until around 8. It’s not sleeping through the night, and there are definitely some nights where he doesn’t quite cooperate, but it’s nice to have some sort of confidence that a good night’s sleep (i.e. 6-7 hours of disjointed sleep) is ahead of me. 

Moreso it’s the light at the end of the tunnel that makes me think that one day this baby is going to sleep long chunks at night, and each day we are getting closer to that goal. The other night he even slept until 5:15, nearly 7 hours straight! This week we are planning to make the transition to the crib for nighttime sleep, and once we have that down, we will start moving him there for naps as well. Wish us luck! 

Forest continues to astound us with his physical strength. Holding his head up ain’t no thing, and he rocks tummy time. Here he is rolling over:

And holding his head up:

And just chilling: 

 

With our assistance up top, he loves to use his legs to stand. 

When I burp him over my shoulder, he always pushes his legs against my lap so that his head is clearing my shoulder by a few inches. It’s a great angle for projectile vomiting all over our glider (and his momma’s back). He also stands up in his bucket tub during bathtime. 

I predict he will be standing earlier than most of his peers. 

Last night we took him to Jill and Ryan’s for ‘A Mexican Christmas’ where we enjoyed fajitas and game night. 

Forest had a grand time getting passed around and doted over. We took some pictures by the tree, and then Jon took him upstairs to give him a bottle and put him back down. 

He slept like a champ which allowed us to have some adult time together for the first time since he was born. We did run into some difficulty in getting him back to sleep once we got home, and again in the middle of the night. Naptime this morning wasn’t pleasant either, and this afternoon took a bit of defying Babywise and letting him sleep in my arms to get him back on track (I didn’t mind the snuggles). 

But sometimes you gotta break the routine and pay the consequences in order to have some semblance of a life. It was so good for our souls to hang with friends, drink margaritas, and laugh until I peed my pants (partly because I’m still lacking total bladder control after child birth…TMI?).

Christmas at our house was a bit lame. Our BOB stroller is occupying the space where our tree would go, so we skipped the Christmas decorating this year. Also, I’m far too logical of a person to wrap gifts for a human who has no capability of opening them, so Forest didn’t get any traditional gifts from us this year. We bought him a North Face fleece onsie for outdoor excursions and a children’s book about the nativity. 

We plan on going all out next year, I promise. But this year it just sort of snuck up on us and when I finally had the energy to get into the spirit we were 2 days away and it just didn’t seem worth it anymore. Luckily our friends and family have given and sent plenty of gifts for Forest for his first Christmas. 

Next year we are determined to spend the holiday with family. Of our 6 Christmases as a married couple, we’ve spent half of them away from family. The worst was our first Christmas in Midland when Jon was on the rig and I was all by my lonesome. Plus, my DVR broke so I didn’t even have TV to watch. And I was sick. It was the worst!   

Tonight we spent Christmas dinner at our friends Liz and Greg’s house. Forest was not so cooperative tonight so we turned in early. Cross your fingers that his night-time sleep doesn't suffer! His parents are super tired and could use some quality rest. 

I hope you’re spending Christmas surrounded by people you love! Here are Forest’s 8 week photos: 

And some bonus ones from his 8^th week of life: 

FaceTime with Nana and Pops. God Bless technology!

Fist bump with Daddy

He is getting so big and his cheeks are deliciously chunky!

Merry Christmas. I hope it was full of joy and deliciously chubby cheeks. Stay tuned for tales of our Christmas adventure...