Today Henri turns 12 weeks old.  I’ve only caught up until his 8th week…and I can’t remember how I used to do it with Jakob.  I think it was easier because I had the computer in our spare bedroom at the time, so I’d lie him down (when he was still a non-rolling infant) on the bed next to me and do my computer/blog stuff, and if he fussed I could play with him then get back to my own stuff.  Whereas now my computer is downstairs in the basement, and there is no where in my office for Henri to play, so I tend to only run down and check my emails quickly when he’s napping.  I should really bring a bouncer chair down here and solve my problem that easily…

In any case, I’m trying to bulk catch up here so hopefully as of tomorrow I can start posting in real-time.  Plus I have 2 finished objects and 2 wips to share!

 Mommy with Henri at 9 weeks old.

In Henri’s 9th week I took some “me” time and went out a whole 2(!) times in one week.  I took my mom to see a show at a local performance center with some of the moms from Jakob’s old playgroup, then later that week I went out for a late dinner with some other friends.  It was nice to get out but not so much fun to get home to a hysterical Henri and an exhausted Yannick.  To Yannick’s credit, he didn’t lose his cool and even listened to me and didn’t give Henri a bottle within 30 minutes of my expected return time so that I could give him a proper feed when I got home (hence the hysteria).

 Truth in advertising?

His 9th week also brought some further feeding hardships.  Now that he was finally feeding well(ish) he began refusing to feed on one side.  Not an outright refusal (which could cause other worries) but he would go purple and rigid and scream his head off.  The only way to get him to even do 2 minutes would be to rock and jiggle and shush him the entire time before I would give up.

Probably related to the fact that he wants to eat all the time, he had quite a big jump in percentiles when measured at the doctor’s office for his second month appointment.  Henri had been in the 50th percentile for height and weight at his 2 week checkup, and now that he was 2 months old he was in the 75th-to-90th percentile.  At 2 months Jakob had been 22″ long and 11 lbs.  At 2 months Henri is 23″ long and 13 lbs 6 oz.  According to his pediatrician, Henri’s voracious appetite and growth spurt will last another 2 months and will then even out.  I hope so!  No one can believe that Henri really is as young as he is, because he looks like he’s over 3 months old already.

Finally, his 9th week also brought a new knitting project.  I am still working on Kayla’s cardigan but it is a lace pattern and not very easy to pick up/put down at the whims of a crying child.  I needed a plain stockinette stitch pattern that I could carry around for quick knitting opportunities.  As luck would have it, my mom had just given me some Red Heart sock yarn.  I know!  It’s actually the same makeup as Regia and the like, so it actually has wool content, and it even has aloe in it.  It’s amusingly called “Heart & Sole” and it quite nice to work with.  The colorway I have is called Toasted Almond and I decided to cast on for a carry-around plain sock.  See all that yarn unravelled above?  The small balls as well as the amounts rewound around the balls?  I had pulled ALL of that from each ball, and had yet to find a place where both balls (with matching dyelots and all) matched up.  It’s possible one ball was wound inside out, but after that much work I decided to be ok with fraternal socks instead of identical.  I cast on for a toe-up pair and have been carrying them around in my diaper bag for random knitting moments that come up (like when someone else drives- nice!).

 Mommy with Henri at 10 weeks old.

In Henri’s 10th week the feeding issues didn’t get any better.  He would go absolutely ballistic when I would even lie him down to feed on that one particular side.  I kept persisiting though, because I wasn’t willing to get into a routine of pumping one side for the next many months or however long.  Even letting the milk dry up on one side and only feeding on the other would be a last resort.

In the 10th week we hosted Henri’s playgroup at our house, and had fun with all of our new friends over.  We had the best nights’ sleep since Henri’s birth, as we had 3 nights with over 7 straight hours of sleep.  Henri’s smile began coming much more frequently, and all-in-all, everything (except the feeding) seemed easier. 

 We went to one of Jakob’s friend’s birthday parties at a local kids’ play center.  I love this photo of my boys together!

Yannick would lift Jakob up to the top of the slide and let him fly down on his own.  He would laugh and want “more, peas!’ and it was the cutest thing ever.

 Finally, we have last week.

 Mommy with Jakob at 22 months and Henri at 11 weeks old.

In the 11th week we had some ups and some downs.  After sticking to it and repeatedly giving Henri the side he would try to avoid, he finally started taking it again.  Not every feed, and not always well, but most often he would take it and drink as normal, at least for 5 minutes.  Considering my boys do a typical feed of gulping non-stop for 5-10 minutes on each side, 5 minutes of leisurely drinking was a godsend after the screaming jags of the last 2 weeks.   That’s the ups.  The downs are that his sleeping has decreased.  All week he would only do a 3-4 hour night before starting his 2 hour cycles.  If I were really lucky then he would sleep for 4 hours, feed, and then do another 3 hour sleep before starting his every-2 hour-days.

As a thank-you for some help with his car, my brother and his girlfriend took Yannick and I to the movies.  Thankfully Henri slept the whole time we were out, and we had a nice night.  We saw I Love You, Man and it was quite funny.  Paul Rudd is adorable and we had some good laughs. 

We also took Henri to the movies again and he was an angel and slept through Duplicity with Maaike, her son, Robyn, her son, my mom and my aunt. 

I leave you now with this photo and a dare to not smile.  🙂