Noah is five weeks old now. I feel as if time is passing in some sort of weird time warp. It feels as if the last five weeks have flown by, but at the same time, so much has happened that I can hardly believe it’s only been five weeks. Noah grows and changes so much in a 24-hour period that a single day feels as if it should constitute an entire week sometimes, but on the other hand, I can’t believe how quickly these last five weeks have flown by.
Since Noah’s one-month birthday, we’ve gone to our second storytime at the library, visited the park, had a sleepover with our “cousins,” and embarked on our first mommy-and-me playdate. He’s getting much better at holding his head up, seems determined to crawl away already, learned how to kick the toys dangling from his play gym, and figured out how to pass a toy from one side to the other. He’s still full of gas, spits up way too much, and goes through three or more outfits per day.
Noah officially graduated from newborn clothes to 0-3 month clothes. I suppose I should be grateful that he stayed “so tiny” for “so long.” He wore his newborn clothes for five weeks, and if I really wanted, I could probably squeeze a few more days out of them, but since most of them just went through the wash, I’ve decided to retire them. The stale somewhat musty smell of breastmilk seems to be almost impossible to completely eradicate from the laundry even with my science-experiment-level-concoction of Tide, Oxi Clean, baking soda, Liquid Fabric Softener, and 3 Snuggle sheets in the dryer, so I tossed the “clean” clothes in the wash once-more before packing them up.
As I pack up his newborn clothes, I’m flooded with memories of the last five weeks. The Tigger onesie was a favorite; it was the first outfit that I put on him in the hospital, but my memories of this onesie go back almost ten years as it was lovingly handed down from his cousins. He didn’t wear the plaid button-down from his first day of “school” too many times, but it was oh-so-adorable on him. I’m sad to part with the baby blue jeans, and I think I’ll get another pair in the 0-3 size because I loved them so much. Somehow, we still have all of our baby socks. I was certain that the sock monster would steal all of them. They’re just so tiny! We don’t need to retire these yet though as they’re supposedly for 0 to 12 months. It seems like a big range to me.
While it probably doesn’t make sense to hold onto ALL of these clothes, I’m not ready to give them away. I understand why so many moms have attics full of children’s clothing that will never fit their kids again. As I put the newborn clothes away, I console myself by remembering that some babies are born this size. I got to enjoy the “super tiny baby” phase for quite awhile!
It seems as if the newborn phase came and went way too fast, and yet, we’ve done so much in that time.
Noah still loves tummy time. He holds his head high looking forward rather than to the side, he’s great at “baby push-ups,” and he’s perfected the “crawl” pose now. He hasn’t quite figured out how to propel himself forward in an official crawl yet; he tries to push with his toes rather than his knees, and he hasn’t figured out how to alternate “sides.” With that said, he has quite the tolerance for frustration (and perhaps a stubborn streak), and he can “commando-crawl” across his tummy time mat if given enough time.
He’s figured out how to aim and kick his toys when he’s on his back. He’s able to “pick” which foot he kicks now rather than kicking them both. The toys must make an adequate amount of noise for him to enjoy them, but this activity not only entertains him but helps “get the gas out.”
He can pass a toy from one side of himself to the other. The toy doesn’t make it into the other hand, but he does frequently pass a toy “over his tummy.”
At this point, I’m certain that Noah will be left-handed as he definitely prefers picking toys up with his left hand, removes his pacifier from his mouth with his left hand, has a stronger kick with his left foot, and almost always looks to his left.
Our second storytime at the library was quite fun. He stayed awake this time(mostly!). He enjoyed singing a familiar favorite, The Five Little Ducks Song. Now that we know Mama Duck eventually finds her babies, it’s not quite as sad. He also quite enjoyed most of the stories. I thought that, perhaps, it was the pictures from the Eric Carle books that he didn’t like, but there’s no way he could see the pictures from where we were sitting. Yet, Eric Carle’s “From Head To Toe” still made Noah very unhappy!
Our air-conditioning broke,contractors do not have floo powder to magically appear in an instant, and our house was way-too-hot, so we embarked on our first slumber party with cousins Hunter and Logan. They were excited to have baby Noah for the night, and Noah was even more excited to watch them. They argued over who would get to hold Noah first, tried to figure out why Noah’s milk didn’t come out of the refrigerator like theirs did, and wondered how they could get Noah to stop kicking them.
They also thought it was quite fun to play with his “eye-tracking” ability; they energetically bobbed from one side to the other to see how well Noah could follow them. I was also pleasantly surprised that Noah slept soundly in this strange place as he’ll be spending quite a bit of time here in the fall when classes resume.
Our house was still way-too-hot the next morning, so we took a field trip to the splash park at Colonial Park. It seemed like a perfect way for both of us to cool off. I didn’t anticipate taking him swimming so young – and so small, so his bathing suit was a little big (6 months), and I guess most newborn-sized babies don’t go to the pool either because the smallest size swim diaper that we could find was also 6 months.
He still looked quite cute, and it met the requirements for entering the splash park. He didn’t like the water elements that sprayed from overhead, but he did quite enjoy the little bubblers. We cooled off for a bit before going on a stroll around the park and relaxing under a nice shady tree.
On Sunday, we went on our first Mommy-and-Me playdate at the park. I met two other SMBC and their kids – 6 months and 15 months old – at Dorbrook Park. Although the playground itself was quite nice, I don’t think we’ll visit this park again in the future. The playground is in full-sun. A few benches are sometimes in the shade, but we had to chase the shade as the sun moved, and the playground itself is VERY sunny. Plus, this playground was only equipped with porter potties which meant I was stuck changing his diaper (and clothes, twice) on the hot park bench. We agreed to try a different park next time.
To conclude week 5, Theo finally figured out that Noah is here to stay. After avoiding Noah at all costs since our homecoming, he finally joined us for morning cuddles this week.
Week one of month two has been quite an adventure. In the remainder of the month, we hope to meet up with the SMBC Mommy-and-Me group a few more times, visit storytime at the library at least once a week, give Mommy-and-Me music a try, check out the Holistic Moms Networking Group in Princeton, find some new toys to play with,