Athan's Second Month

8 weeks old official picture

8 weeks- relaxing at the Youth Lake Party

6 weeks- lifting up his head

Three key words sum up Athan's second month in my mind: smiles, sleep, and sounds.

Smiles. This is one of the greatest milestones a baby achieves. Being the first real milestone in the first year, it's the first indication that things are going okay. For me, it also serves as the first glimpse into his little self and personality. I saw Athan's first responsive smile in his fourth week as I stroked his head. His little smile let me know that he liked that. We then saw what I consider his first social smile a few weeks later. Daddy got those first grins given in his direction during Athan's seventh week.

Sleep. Oh boy, this has been our issue! During baby's first weeks, eating seems to be the top priority. Nothing else is as important as making sure they are gaining weight and receiving adequate nourishment (which, by the way, is not a problem for this little guy!). Once that was established for us, we turned our attention to the issue of sleep. We've gone back and forth on different approaches and have just ended the month recognizing we're no more sure of how to put Athan to sleep than we were at the start of the month. Still, I can at least say he did sleep about 14 hours a day this month with a solid night of sleep and 4 naps a day. He has his nights well established and mostly wakes only to eat. It just takes a great deal of effort to get him there.

Sounds. The sweet, sweet coos have started. Although life is busy, I try to stop while Athan is happily awake and enjoy these conversations with him. His happiest times are after a good rest, early in the morning and usually after a long afternoon nap. One of his favorite places to be for a good time of talking is his changing pad. Funny, but Hudson also enjoyed that.

Other hi-lights include weekly visits from Gigi and an extended visit with Susu. Grandmothers have helped keep us going! I am so grateful for their help. We also started to get out a little more this month and attempted to make it to church for our regular services.

And, as I said, Athan has been growing like a champ! At his two month check up, he weighed 12 lbs., 10 oz. Way to go, little man.

Our Daily Routine

Here is a little about a life in the day of the Felkers, family 0f 4. One of my favorite things to look back at in Hudson's baby book is the part where I described what our days were like. It's incredible how much change there is within the first year and how quickly you forgot those days. It can seem monotonous at the time (how many times am I going to put this baby to sleep??), but it does change almost without our realizing it.

Right now (now being the key word) this is what we're doing:

Athan usually wakes up twice in the night, around 1 and 5, to eat. It has become like clockwork. His morning wake up time varies, depending on how long it took him to fall back asleep after the second feeding. He sleeps until around 7-9 in the morning. I try to get up before he does to start getting ready. On a good day, Hudson will sleep until 7:30 and get in bed with us if someone is still in bed. Jay gets Hudson ready for the day and feeds him breakfast if he can(thank goodness for flexible hours and a small town without a long commute!!). After Jay goes to work, it's playtime and naptime for the boys. It seems as though I spend a good portion of my day trying to get Athan to sleep. He naps about 4 times a day. We've attempted a 3 hours schedule of eat/wake/sleep, but we've really just made our own version. More on that later. He eats for a total of 7 times a day. That is fairly standard.

While I'm working with Athan, Hudson is great at entertaining himself. His imaginiative spirit has continued to grow as I've been forced to spend less time with him recently. I love overhearing him talk and describe his play. He has gotten interested in the Cars movie/story, so he enjoys acting those scenes out with his cars. It's wonderful. He does have some of the actual characters, but mostly he just plays pretend with regular matchbox cars. I love it and really would rather he do that than have the real ones. As good as he is at playing by himself, Hudson still gets bored and wants my attention. We've increased our TV watching for that reason. I normally try to keep that to 1 hour a day, but it's a little more right now. I'm okay with that. Hudson also loves to play outside, but he really wants someone else to play with him. Sometimes he'll just put himself in his swing and wait for me to come out there to push him. That always looks so pitiful when he's waiting on me.

Back to Athan. He can stay awake for about 1 hour happily, and then he's ready to start working toward a nap. During his awake time, we walk around, lay on a blanket, run errands, or go on a walk. When it's time for a nap, it can take up to 1 hour for him to get to sleep. Can you see why Hudson gets bored?? We're working on that and have seen some recent improvements with Athan. Jay comes home for lunch when he can to help me juggle that time period of fixing lunch/cleaning up/going down for a nap for Hudson. It always seems that Athan needs to get to sleep during that time as well, so an extra hand is much appreciated. It also still allows me to make that time with Hudson enjoyable. The afternoons are slower as Athan usually takes a longer nap at some point, and Hudson rests as well. I try to get some quality time with whoever wakes up first. They're both usually happy then. Jay comes home a little after 5, and we just trade off boys for the evening as we cook, eat dinner, clean-up, play, bathe and then put them to bed. Hudson goes to bed around 8:30 and take forever to fall asleep!! Another point we're working on. Athan usually falls asleep around 9-10. This, of course, looks different on nights when we're out of the house.

I've had a lot of strong feelings about trying to put Athan on a schedule/routine since he was born. I really felt that would be best for us now that we have two children, but as I have gotten in to the reality of bringing home a unique baby with his own temperament and preferences, I have found myself becoming more upset trying to put him on a schedule instead of just enjoying this sweet, fleeting time. I've taken what knowledge I can from other "experts" and tried to incorporate what works into our family. I want to enjoy my children, and this is working for us right now.

One thing I did take from a baby wise mom "professional"...a daily cleaning task. I have enjoyed putting myself on a schedule and accomplishing one tangible thing each day other than just laundry. Jay said to me recently that he doesn't know how I can keep the house so clean. I told him I think that's part of what keeps me sane. I know that my job is to care for our boys, and that is the most important thing I do each day. Still, I enjoy seeing some fruits of my labor and that often comes in looking at a clean house. Strange, isn't it?? :)

Athan's First Month

My blogging void from the last month is directly related to today's topic...Athan's first month!

I decided to be realistic and let Jay handle all the posting of pictures and telling the story of Athan's birth and just focus and recovering and caring for our newborn. It was great to see how fast he did post pictures and stories about Athan. I loved seeing his excitement.

Now one full month has passed and so I want to record a few details here before they are erased from my mind. I think two things surprised us the most about Athan in the early weeks with him. (1) This baby can sleep! We were shocked at how much he slept and how he didn't really want to wake for feedings. We had to wake him to eat. I even set an alarm a few times at night because he wasn't old enough to go the 7 hours that he once went on his own without eating. Of course, we knew this was change as he grew older and reached more of his full term age (he was over 2.5 weeks early). (2) And, oh boy, is he loud!! These aren't so much cries that I'm talking about as just regular noises. He grunts in his sleep and makes all types of sounds. His digestive noises are even loud. Jay and I have gotten many laughs in the middle of the night just listening to him.

Our biggest event of the first month was a trip to Colorado for David and Lauren's wedding. He was just amazing on our trip. He slept so much of the time and adjusted so well. The only time he cried in public was at the end of the reception. He did have a few meltdowns in the hotel or car. The most memorable was our last night in the hotel as we were trying to get the boys to sleep. Jay was holding a screaming Athan, and I was consuling a hysterical Hudson after he ran into a dresser (he was in serious need of sleep). Another great moment was at a gas station near the Kansas border when he shot poop out all over me and the car (thanks for letting us borrow your car, Gigi!). I yelled at Jay to come help and before we could finish cleaning him up, he had peed all over me again. You have to laugh in these moments!

Hudson has done great. He has adjusted well to being a big brother and has the sweetest "little" voice when he talks to Athan. He loves to talk about how he is going to teach Athan about sounds and how to do all kinds of things. We've had to work on being gentle, not squeezing Athan when he gets the urge or trying to pick him up. Every once in awhile he does get tired of Athan being around or being in my arms and just asks for me to put him to bed or lay down on the couch. I'm really proud of him though.

We've had a good first month. We're grateful for all the help we've had from wonderful family and friends. Extra helping hands and a warm meal have meant so much to us. We're adjusting to our new sleep schedule and trying to be realistc about what we can expect from Athan. It's sometimes hard to remember how much work it takes to get a little one to sleep. We can remember Hudson doing well, but we may forget how much effort it took on our part and how he has to get a little older before he can do more on his own.

I'm thankful for this time and for Athan's great health. God has heard our prayers.

Potty Training, Fun?

Knowing it could potentially be the great struggle of Hudson's third year of life, I have researched potty training almost since Hudson was born. From all of my reading and question asking I decided it would be best to present potty training when Hudson first showed interest and then wait for him to show signs of readiness. That sounds quite simple, but it's not so easy. How do you really know when your child's ready? He's been fascinated with the toilet since he was a year old.

We've had a few attempts at potty training before, but this month he really seemed ready. Still, it's felt that most of the month I've gone back and forth on thinking he was ready. Our first attempt ended after about 3 days. There were only 4 stickers on his paper (meaning times he actually used his potty), and about 20 accidents with dirty pants for me to clean. I couldn't do it anymore. I thought I would just give up for awhile, but he's stayed interested and wanted to use his potty at different times throughout the day. So, I reluctantly decided I better not be missing my opportunity and should go with it again. This week has gone so much better with much more success, meaning many more stickers and fewer accidents. We'll see.

My favorite part of all this has been listening to Hudson talk about the subject. When he feels the need to go, he'll say, "it's coming! it's coming" and then take off down the hall exclaiming, "it's like a race!" We've talked about how we're proud of him, and he can feel proud, too. That has turned into a very sweet returned compliment. If we tell him we're proud of him, he'll tell us that he is proud of us, too. Love it! Then there was also the time that he brought me the little bucket from his potty to show me he had gone on his own. I couldn't believe it...he just ran through the house with a bucket of pee and thankfully it didn't spill!!!

On another note, the pregnancy is going well. Baby brother is growing and growing, and I've got a nice round belly to prove it. Poor Hudson still insists on trying to find a spot on my lap to sit even though there's really not room. We're still working on a name, and Hudson has given good input. He's taken to a baby we borrowed from a friend and calls it baby brother. Sometimes he'll offer a snack to my belly for the baby. He seems to be excited about the baby, but we know it will be a challenge for him. We're praying for a smooth transition and much love to abound.

I wonder which will happen first...potty training complete or baby brother arriving??

Like Music to My Ears

Hudson surprised me recently when he started singing this song on his own. I've been singing this to him at night before bed for awhile. I'm not sure how this became a bedtime lullaby, but he loves it. He always listens, and I guess was learning the words. I think this was the most beautiful rendition of Away in a Manger I have EVER heard!


Along the same lines, Hudson has recently started offering, or really insisiting, to pray before meals. This is the standard: "Father, thank you for this day, time to play outside. Thank you for Jesus. Amen." LOVE it!

LOVE this kid!

In celebration of Mother's Day, I thought it would be appropriate to blog about Hudson a bit. What I love most about my blog is getting to talk about our family as much as I want without worrying if I ramble too much, or say too many times how much I adore them. Also, I am a sporadic blogger, leaving me with several little things about Hudson I've been intending to record for awhile.

So here it is...my Mother's Day blog with some of my favorite Hudson-isms since I last blogged just about him. I really do love this kid!

The addition of the word "actually" to his vocabulary- as in, "that's actually a wheeled excavator, not a track excavator."

Good morning kisses! Our little one is often an early riser (a negative by-product of moving to a toddler bed), so the routine is that he climbs in bed with us until we're ready to get up. He knows wake up time has finally arrived when we announce it's time for good morning kisses. He likes to say "good morning kiss" and then offer a sweet kiss to start the day.

How he talks about the new baby. Talk about funny conversation. On his own he told me we should name the baby "Jesus." When I told Hudson that there was only one Jesus, he offered that we could call the baby "little Jesus" (if only you could hear the way he emphasized "little"). He also talks about baby brother being in his belly. Put these two together and you get this from Hudson- little baby Jesus is kicking in his stomach. Oh my, not even sure how to address that one! More recently, he has started kissing baby brother through my round belly.

His creative imagination and inquisitive nature. He has gone through a phase of choosing a different name that he wants to be called. I love seeing his imagination blossom. Some of his favorite names have been Bertie (the bus on Thomas) and Herman (from a great song about a worm). As for inquisitive, his questions never stop. When we're in a store, he will often ask loudly "what's her name?" about someone near us. He's always wanting more information about people and things around him.

Hudson singing! He comes home from the church nursery full of new songs that he credits Ms. Mary for teaching him. Favorites are My God is So Big, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, ABCs, and Jesus Loves the Little Children. He also has come to love me singing to him Away in a Manger at bedtime. And then, of course, learning Herman the Worm. Love, love, love hearing H sing this one with Daddy.

And, finally, a new accomplishment in the area of grammer. I've been proud to hear him begin to learn the proper use of pronouns, correctly substituting "you" for "me." For the longest time he'd ask me to hold him by saying "hold you, Mama." Now he's started to unravel the great mystery that is personal pronouns. Who needs potty training? To me, this is a great milestone, indeed!

Hudson Can Ski!!

We were so proud of Hudson. He loved skiing, especially the conveyer lift and the helmet!