Is he a good baby??

Muski is 8 weeks old now.


Eight weeks! Can’t really believe it has been that long… seems like only yesterday that he was born. It just doesn’t seem that long ago that we came home from hospital. Heck, I am still busy patting myself on the back for birthing him!

In a lot of ways it feels like he has been here forever. He has slotted into the family without too much disturbance. We really had no routine before he got here so he hasn’t mucked things up too much. He is lovely and portable so he hasn’t cramped our style at all really. Plus I truly can’t remember whether the girls were this narky before he was born or not, so I can’t blame their behavior entirely on a new brother.

He was weighed and measured today. Last weigh and measure they recorded the wrong weight in our book, so now it all makes a lot more sense. He didn’t seem to be that huge at 4 weeks old, 6.5kgs seemed like an awful lot… and he wasn’t, he was only 5.06kgs! And today he was 5.8kgs. He is long though 64 cms. He’s grown more than ten cms in length since he was born which explains why all the 000 clothes are too short! He is perfect in every way, he didn’t even wee on the nurse!

So eight weeks… and the question of the moment seems to be, “Is he a good baby?”

Huh?
Is he a GOOD baby?? What am I supposed to say to that?
“Well no actually he is nightmare! He’s totally nasty, an annoying and revolting child who pinches me and lives only drive us all insane. He is bad, bad to the bone…”

Of course he is a ‘good baby’. He is a perfect baby, how could he be anything less he is my baby after all! And um, hello… he is only eight weeks old…. I don’t think an eight week old has the capacity to be bad!

So when I was asked this question for the hundredth time today by the very nice lady waiting in line with us at the post office I must have looked more bewildered than usual because she smiled and said “he is obviously being a bit bad and keeping you up all night!”

Aha! Now I understand… she was not asking if he is ‘good’ but if he ‘sleeps!’ Aaaaah!
sleep = good
tired bewildered looking mother = no sleep = bad

Well she was right on one account, I am tired today and neither Muski, nor I, nor Izzy slept well last night. Muski wanted to eat every two hours and took a long time to settle at about 4am this morning, of course just as I got him to go to sleep I hear ‘maaaamaaaa’ from Izzy and have to get up to re-warm her wheat bag and fifteen minutes later to get her a drink. I am ok with all that though.

No really I am!

Sure I would have LOVED to have more sleep last night.. sleep that wasn’t interrupted quite so often not to mention how much I’d have loved to keep my feet in my warm bed instead of running around on the cold floor heating up wheat bags, but I have three kids. I have an eight week old who simply isn’t designed to go for long periods without having a boob stuck in his mouth. I have two three year olds who need their weird requests filled… even at 4am in the morning. That is what having kids is about. I am not complaining because I didn’t ever expect to sleep again after having kids, so really what little sleep I have had in the past four years has been a pleasant surprise.

All things considered I think we do pretty well on the sleep front too. Sure we have our bad patches but on the whole I am really happy with how much everyone sleeps and how we deal with it all. The girls go to sleep without any effort at all these days. It hasn’t always been the case, when they were tiny babies sleep was fairly elusive due to reflux and not having enough food stay in their bellies but we got through it (I am still not sure how exactly, lack of sleep wipes your memory LOL). As they got older they needed help to fall asleep but I have always been happy to give it.. well most of the time! Sure I would have liked that time for myself but I don’t expect miracles from my children, I know it takes time to fall asleep and it takes time to learn ways to do that on your own.

I firmly believe that humans aren’t meant to be left alone to figure out these things… babies need help to go to sleep, whether that is a boob, being rocked or just having someone near by. I am also a lazy parent, I like to take the easy way if I possibly can. For now that means having Muski sleep within arms reach of me, so that when he wants to feed all night I don’t have to get out of bed and freeze my nipples off! When he wants me to pat his bum to help him fall asleep I just have to roll over. During the day it means he sleeps in the hammock, which is where he is now, right behind me as I sit and type, so I can give him a gentle jiggle if he needs soothing.

It might not work for everyone but it certainly works for us… and I have been pretty lucky so far as most nights of late Muski gives me at least one 5 hour stretch to recharge by. (Hopefully I haven’t just jinxed myself!) So it is only the odd day where I look tired and bewildered because of my children, mostly it is from staying up too late playing on the computer!

But back to the question at hand… I am guessing when she asked me if he was a ‘good baby’ this very nice lady was just making pleasant conversation and didn’t really want me to spout forth all of what I have just shared here (I am sure most of you reading didn’t really want me to spout forth here either!), but I am glad I finally have it figured out.

YES! My eight week old sleeps pretty well – as much, if not more, than I expected and I am happy with that. So yes he is a GREAT baby! As if there was ever any doubt.