Success?

Jensen is five weeks old as of as of Sunday. It is already hard to clearly remember a time when we weren't thinking about, talking about, or dealing with the baby.

He is now eating and sleeping a little more predictably. I wouldn't really say a schedule yet, but it's easier to tell about when he'll be hungry depending on when he was fed last. We've been putting him to bed around 11, because that's when he seemed most sleepy, but we're learning to manipulate some things. So, we've discovered that:

1. Babies can't tell time. They depend on what happens or how they feel to tell them what needs to happen when....like bedtime. We're working more consistently on actually having a routine and having that routine start and end at around the same time each night.

2. He loves, loves, loves baths. We put him in the whirlpool tub with Michael and a few capfuls of the Johnson's bedtime bath and they have a great time. He likes to float and to be bobbed up and down in the water. It is fantastic to watch.

3. A warm bottle does wonders. Usually during the day I only warm the bottle enough to take the chill off, as I'm sure that at some point we'll be somewhere that I can't make it really warm and I want him to eat anyway. But, at bedtime, I make it nice and warm and try to get him to eat an extra ounce, sometimes two, to tide him over until about 3 am.

4. Blankies retain heat. Conner taught me this one. To avoid the catastrophe of him being pretty passed out, only to have him wake up hysterical 2 cm from his mattress because he can no longer feel my body heat, I've started wrapping him in his blankie before the bottle. Then he can fall asleep from the comfort and when I put him down, he continues to consistently be warm.

Tonight we moved all of these things up by about 45 minutes, and, like magic, he was asleep by 10:15. Here's hoping he's still out until 3 or later.