Father's Day

Sunday was our first father's day as fathers. We had a lot of fun. After going to church, we went to the Met for brunch. Brennan was even happier than normal -- staying awake for most of lunch and smiling, laughing, cooing. Just hanging out in his carseat and watching us eat.


And then eventually he got tired:


But notice his fingers touching each other while he's napping. When he's awake, he can just sit there and stare at his hands -- putting them together, touching them -- he's very good at entertaining himself.

Not much else is knew. We completely rearranged our third floor to basically turn it into a guestroom, in anticipation of a new bed arriving later this week. So no more air mattresses and couches for our guests!

Other than that, we're just getting ready for our busy upcoming weekend. We'll have four guests for the weekend -- three adults + a 16 month old. So it will be somewhat of a crazy household for a few days.

Back on track

After a handful of rougher nights while Brennan was getting accustomed to sleeping on his tummy, following his new-found skill to roll over from back-to-tummy, the last two nights have been great -- Brennan has slept through the night from around 7 til 6:30 without our help. This is great for Carl, as I like to wake up with Brennan when he gets up between 6 and 7 so I can have some time to hang out with him before going to work. So Carl gets the benefit of no night feedings plus being able to sleep in.

Yesterday, Brennan had his four month checkup. He's 16 lbs 6 oz, and 26". This puts him at a 90th percentile for height and the 75th for weight. I've noticed Brennan getting a little skinnier lately -- must be him getting taller. He also had some shots yesterday -- which made for a fussy rest of the day home with dad (and a fussy visit with papa in the city for lunch). But today, he seems to be happy again, so we're happy too!

Rolling around

So after three nights in a row of sleeping through the night, we were in for a different kind of surprise on Wednesday night. Around 3am, we hear him fussing. No big deal, we figure. We knew he wasn't completely done with night wakings. Carl goes in there to discover him -- on his tummy! Apparently he had rolled over in his sleep. He's rolled over from tummy-to-back plenty of times before, but this was the first back-to-tummy. Carl figures this is why he's fussing, so he just puts him back on his back and goes back to bed. A few minutes later, he's fussing again. I go in there this time, and whatayaknow, he's on his tummy again. This time I pick him up, wrap him back up in his blanket, and put him on his back. I step out of the room and watch him first kick the blanket off himself, and then roll over to his tummy, and then right back over to his back. By this time he's pretty awake and realizing that he's a little hungry. So we give him a little snack, and then he's back to sleep for the night.

Right after feeding him, I went right up to the third floor to consult our favorite what-to-do baby guide, "Baby 411." Turns out we don't need to stand over his crib and return him to his back every time he flips over -- if he's strong enough to flip over to his tummy, we can let him sleep like that. But for Brennan, it's going to take some time to sort out what to do when he ends up on his tummy. In the meantime, he's been a little fussier the last few nights, waking up a couple times a night and needing a little help to get back to a comfy position. He moves around quite a bit in his crib -- sometimes ending up pressed against the rails or in some other uncomfortable position. Of course, it's difficult to balance -- if we run in & help him out each time he gets uncomfortable, then he won't learn to sort things out himself, but at the same time, we need to sleep too, and we don't want him to get stuck, so we have been helping him out a little when he gets uncomfy. But even in these last few days since he's been doing this, he's gotten better at getting himself back in position. Tonight when he went down to sleep, he flipped over to his tummy and found himself not too comfy sort of near the rails, but we gave him a little time to figure it out, and 10 minutes later we went up there to find him in right in the middle of the crib -- still on his tummy, but asleep and nice & comfy. Since this happened for the first time Wednesday night, I think he's ended up on his tummy pretty much every time he's fallen asleep, for a nap or at night.

Taking a snooze on his tummy:



This week the Red Sox hosted the Yankees. Brennan watched the games with me on DVR in the morning:


Posing for a picture during a commercial break:

Four Months Old

No new pictures to post today. On Sunday, though, Brennan turned four months old. He has been developing a lot over the last few weeks -- changing before our eyes. No major developmental milestones really -- he's just becoming ever more alert, and he loves reaching out for and grabbing things. I'll have to get a video of him playing with some of his noisy toys that he grabs and shakes.

We didn't have any gifts for Brennan for turning four months old, but he had a little gift for us. Sunday night, he crashed around 7:15 pm, and slept in until 7:30 am (and even then, he wasn't fussing, just hanging out in his crib when we went in to check on him when we woke up). Then Monday night, he slept through the night again, not making a peep until I came and got him around 6:45 because I was up anyway. Brennan had slept through the night on a few random occasions over the last month or two, but never two nights in a row, so we're hoping this becomes a habit! It's great to walk into his room in the morning with him just hanging out waiting patiently for us, and then greeting us with a big smile when we walk in (as opposed to what he'd do a few weeks ago -- waking up at the first hint of sunlight and crying until we came in and picked him up).

The last few weeks

It's been a while since we posted. Papa went back to work on May 20 during a very busy time at work. There were a lot of late nights at work those first couple weeks back, but things have improved since. Brennan has been going to a family day care the last 2 1/2 weeks, which he enjoys. Only one week more then Daddy will be home to take care of him. The whole family care thing has sort of thrown his schedule for a loop -- he crashes earlier now, and he's gotten on this smaller-but-more meals kick. One of daddy's tasks when we is home from work will be to undo these habits and get Brennan eating some bigger meals. With us both at work these last few weeks, we haven't had much time for pictures. We did get a bunch of pictures a few Fridays ago when Daddy's friends from Brimmer through Brennan a shower:






Opening presents:






And of course, a couple of videos from the last week or two. First, Brennan "standing up":





Some giggling with daddy:



Lounging around:



The next few weeks are going to be a lot of fun. Daddy will be home with Brennan and they are going to take some classes together. Daddy's birthday is next week. We also have our first Father's Day coming up! In three weeks is Brennan's dedication. A bunch of our friends here in Boston will be there to celebrate with us, along with some friends and family who are coming in from out of town. Patrick's parents, Aunt Yvonne, and Uncle Bill are coming as well as Carl's good friends Adrienne, Sarah, Nikki, and Nikki's daughter Ella. Carl and Brennan will also taking the girls to Maine and to Newport, RI when they are in town.