Aiden Sleeps

I am feeling guilty about complaining a bit about Aiden's sleep schedule or lack there of. So thought I'd share a few praises for him to counterbalance my complaints from yesterday's entry. Anyways, he slept last night from 9 pm to 1 am, and then woke again at 4 and at 7:30 am. Which I was thankful for, there is a big difference between him sleeping 2 hours at a time and 3 to 4. And today, he took a few half hour naps this morning and early afternoon, and took a 2 hour nap from 4-6 pm. I really think he was still recouperating from our Wichita trip, and now has gotten back on track. He seems to really enjoy interacting and meeting new people, so a couple day recovery time is worth it for his enjoyment!!! Okay I feel better now sharing this, and hopefully tonight will be another good sleeping night for Aiden, if not though, I will not complain:)

Aiden's first night away from home!!!

Aiden and I went to Wichita Thursday to visit my Aunt Connie and Uncle Rob. Our trip started out with a bit of detour, we had planned on visiting my grandparents in Hutchinson, but were informed by our loving hubby and daddy that I-70 was closed due to flooding, so we turned around and headed to Topeka to get on the turnpike to Wichita. I was determined to go on a roadtrip as we were ready by 8 am as we had planned, and were out the door by 8:10, we would have been right on schedule, but Aiden had a doozy of a diaper!!! Anyways, our car trip went great, Aiden slept until we were about 30 minutes from Wichita and then needed to eat, but man it had been over 3 hours, I usually need a snack by then too. So we pulled over at a Walmart parking lot so I could feed him. Once we arrived to Wichita, my Aunt Connie soaked up time with Aiden, and he was on his best behavior, she was amazed by how alert he was. He was a bit fussy that night because we were not in his nursery for bedtime, but once he fell asleep he slept well, waking only 2 times. We headed home Friday, and he did well on the car ride, but needed Nana to sit back with him once we were about half way home, I think he got bored and wasnt sleepy. All in all it was a successful trip.

Aiden enjoys a catnap in Great Aunt Connie's arms Friday before we hit the road.

Here's Aiden with his Nana (my mom) at Aunt Connie and Uncle Rob's house. Nana rode with us down to visit them, which was great since Aiden slept most of the time, and provided me somene to visit with.

As for the rest of our Memorial Day weekend so far it's been pretty low-key. Although Aiden has decided that he does not need to take naps during the day. As I mentioned in the previous post I wanted to get him on some sort of routine, but thus far I've been unsuccessful. You'd think that if he didnt have much sleep during the day, he'd sleep great at night, right? Not so much, last night he was up every 2 hours. I think he's still going through a growth spurt. Also I was reading in my "Baby's first year week by week" book and it said around 7 weeks babys really need to suck, this has been true with Aiden now, he really has enjoyed his pacifier the last few days, and cries when it falls out when he's sleeping, so Nathen and I have made several trips to his crib to put it back in his mouth. But last night when we both ventured in to assist our little guy with his sucking tool, we were amazed when we saw him put it back in his mouth while he was half asleep. He truely amazes us everyday, even when he's sleeping, and we are half asleep ourselves:) In other Eckstein news...I had my 6 week postpardom (sp?) appointment Wednesday, and it went well, for the first time in a long time the numbers on the scale went down!!! I have about 9 lbs to go before I get back to my pre-pregnancy weight, I'm not really too concerned about it as my clothes fit (of course not the way they once did but they are comfortable). Until next time, take care and have a Happy and Safe Memorial Day!

Mother's Day and More!!

This week has been another of many firsts for our family. We celebrated my first mother's day, and I could not have asked for a better day. We enjoyed the day at my folks and were able to spend time with them and my sister, brother in law and neices. Aiden also had a few firsts this week--yesterday he had his first blow out diaper--I know pretty disgusting, but still a first:) He even caught a total strangers attention Wednesday at lunch---it was pretty funny, mom and I were eating lunch at a pizzeria and there was only one other patron who was sitting across the way, and he commented on Aiden's gas--he let one go that was pretty loud, we shared a laugh about it and were thankful we were not in a 5 star resturaunt, and the other patron was so friendly about it (fortuantely he had finished his lunch by the time Aiden showed off his flatulence) Aiden has also begun to smile at people with meaning, and not gassiness. He smiled at Nathen's dad earlier this week, and I guess it made his day, and yesterday he smiled at Nathen's mom a few times while she watched him so I could go on a walk. Of course Nathen and I are getting a lot of smiles from him. It's been really fun this week as Aiden's personality is blooming. Another first for Aiden was he moved into his crib, he outgrew his cradle--he kept hitting his arms on the side which often woke him. He loves his crib, he looks so tiny in it though.

I think Aiden is going through a growth spurt, he's not sleeping as well as he was. Tuesday night he was up every 30 minutes to hour and ate each time. Fortunately, I'm lucky enough to have family close by and called my mom Wednesday morning to see if she could come up and help with Aiden so I could get some rest. Of course she jumped at the job, she loves being a mommy and a nana. I wonder how people do it who do not have the family support we have. Hopefully we will settle into a routine, and grandparents can just visit and not have to pick up caretaking duties like my mom did Tuesday. But man, it was nice to get a 3 hour block of sleep in while she was here. Aiden did better sleeping last night but is still not back where he was a few weeks ago (sleeping 3-4 hours), he's waking every 2 hours or so. My goal is to have him sleeping at least 4 hours at a time at night before I go back to work. But he will really be in charge of any routine we have:)

We hope you enjoy pictures

Aiden enjoys snuggle time with Grand dad Banker on Mother's Day. Uncle John holds Aiden on Mother's day, you can kind of see a small smile on Aiden's face while he looks at John.

Aiden enjoys some play and snuggle time with Aunt Sheldi and Uncle John on Mother's Day. Aiden's cousins Hannah and Susanna enjoy play time at Nana's and Grand dads on Mother's Day. Mom and dad got some great deals on play equipment at their community garage sale. I cant wait until Aiden gets older and can play with his cousins more.

Monday, Aiden sported his KU onesie (while it still fits:) Sheldi, Hannah, Susanna and my mom visited so they were able to capture a few smiles of Aiden and I.

Monday evening we were visited by Nathen's mom, brother, and nephew Eian. Grandma and Eian enjoy watching Aiden's expressions.

Aiden is 1 month old!!!

I know I know I have not been very good about updating this lately. My goal was to provide updates at least weekly, but man I didn't know how busy I would be. But thought I would update it since Aiden is now a month old. I can not believe how fast the time has flown by. I've not done a very good job of capturing kodak moments but have included a few pics that I took this evening to share with you. I'm hoping that I'll get in the habit of taking pictures at least weekly so I can have them for Aiden's scrapbook (something that I've started, but the last pictures I've put in there is of his sonogram!!!)

Aiden had his 1 month appointment yesterday and he now weighs 9 lbs 2 oz, yes he has gained over 3 lbs since we left the hospital and has grown 3 inches making him now 22 inches long. I was shocked when I saw the scale go up to 9 lbs and then past. We are so lucky that our little guy has taken to nursing so well, and I'm relieved that my milk is getting him what he needs. He is sleeping pretty well at night, getting up only about 2 times per night. A few nights ago he worried me though because he slept for about 4-5 hours before I woke him up to feed him. I asked the Dr how long is too long to let him sleep between feedings and he said he could sleep up to 6 hours, and since he's gained weight so well, I think I'll sleep a bit better if he does sleep past 4 hours, and consider myself very lucky:) I was hoping he would sleep 6 hours last night because he really didn't sleep much during the day (at least it didnt seem like it) but he still woke up about every 3 hours--oh well I figure that is still not too bad, as I'm probably averaging about 6-7 hours of sleep a night which I consider very good with a newborn and what I've heard from other mothers. We are truely blessed with a pretty easy going baby.

About the 2nd week of Aiden's life he began having some gassiness problems causing him to become a bit fussy, but Nathen and I have learned that massaging his belly and rocking him seem to comfort and make him feel better, and Aiden has seemed to learn how to manage it a bit better too, going from screaming and crying about it up to a week ago to just grunting through it. Although there are still times when he'll cry and scream, but he's a baby so that is to be expected, at least we know the cause of his cries and know how to make him feel better. Other than that like I said he's pretty easy going, and enjoys going on outings to the grocery store, out to eat, ect. Below are a few pictures we hope you enjoy them.

Here's Aiden in his cradle that Grandpa Eckstein made for him. We were hoping he would be able to sleep in it for 3-4 months, but as you can see he's starting to already outgrow it. We are thankful to have such a great family heirloom, we are going to inscrib on the bottom of it Aiden's name and DOB along with other children (okay probably just child:)we have. And then be able to pass it down when our children have kids. Grandma Eckstein made curtains for Aiden's room, as we could not find any to match the valance. She did a great job on them, and we had fun picking out the fabric together. Aiden enjoys tummy time with daddy while he has a firm grip on daddy's shirt--Nathen's not going anywhere even if he had a choice:) Nathen and Aiden tell each other about there day. Its so cool to watch their interactions. Aiden is always so alert and appears very interested in what we are saying. I know he probably doesnt understand a word we say, but its neat to see how he responds to our voices. Aiden is sporting a onsie with his name on it that Nana Banker made for him before his arrival.

Next week Aiden will meet a little friend who is only 2 weeks older than him. I'm looking forward to lunch with someone I work with that had a little girl 2 weeks before Aiden. They also live in Wamego so we are hoping to get together once a week. Hopefully I'll get some pictures of the outing to share with you. And will have some pictures of this weekend, as we celebrate Mothers Day at my folks house.

Until next time Happy Mothers Day to all you mommies:)