Billy is just over 5 weeks old now and we caught this picture of him just after bath time. He's now reached the 22 inch mark in length, which keeps him in the 50th percentile at about 5.5 weeks of age, although in this photo, its tough to tell since he's snuggled in there pretty good.
As for this week, the little guy is still dealing with some belly button issues, but they still appear minor. No signs of concern we've been told to look for. It still looks like its going through the natural healing process, but just taking forever to do so. Without a doubt it has improved over last week, but still has some healing to do. He won't be back to the doctor for at least a couple more weeks, so we'll keep an eye on it ourselves. His hair may also be falling out now as he's clearly lost his "sideburns" and maybe a little on the sides, which is now just smooth baby skin.
After the last blog update, that very night, Billy had one of the roughest nights since we've had him. He was up constantly for hours at a time, which is very rare for him. He was fussy as can be and his Mother and I couldn't figure out what his issue was. Finally, we came to the conclusion that we may have gotten a little lax with his schedule that we've been trying to keep him on, so we decided to get back to being as proactive with his daily routine as we can be, eliminating any corner cutting we were doing. After getting back into that routine this week, he clearly righted the ship. Most nights he was back to 2-4 hour windows of sleep. A couple times this week, Antoinette only had to feed him twice at night. The schedule consists of 20 minutes of eating, another 30 minutes of awake time (again, essential that it comes before sleep time), and an hour and a half to two hours of nap time. At nighttime, the lights stay down, voices stay down, and he's fed and put immediately back to sleep. The less we break from this routine, the smoother his little cycle is.
Reading time has begun for the little guy. When I get home from work, I get one diaper change a day (mandatory requirement from his Mother), which I don't really mind. He loves his changing table for some reason. If he's not hungry, he'll stop fussing the minute you put him down on it and typically start smiling. He gets a quick change and then I use my little "awake time" window to read to him. Some days are better than others and most of the time he just lays there and watches my mouth move, throwing in own little oohs and aahs and quite a bit of smiling. When he's had enough, he'll start to fuss and then reading time is over. We get through a couple pages a day depending on how much I stop to play with him while I'm reading. Can't help it. When he smiles and giggles, it just washes away all of the stress of your day like it never happened.
On Tuesday, Billy seemed to hit some sort of developmental milestone. We're not really sure what happened, but it didn't seem gradual at all to us. All of a sudden, he seemed to have control over his smiles and laughs and they seemed much more voluntary and responsive than the involuntary smiling the day before. His oohing and aahing came almost as if in response to our own talking back to him, he was much more interactive on is playmat, and as of Tuesday night, he began to sleep a bit longer at night. All seemed to change from Monday to Tuesday, which was worth noting.
I'm not sure how to take this next part, but the child seems to really like Barney. He was fussing one day and Antoinette turned on Barney and he immediately spun his head around like an owl to try and crane his neck to see where that singing was coming from. He just sat there in his swing staring either at the TV or in the general direction of the TV "watching" and listening. Cessation of all hostilities and immediate focus and attention shifting. I hate Barney, but if it keeps the little guy content when he's fussing, whatever...
Billy also seems to be a little better at tracking objects with his eyes. He'll follow you across the room if he's not fussing and turn his head to follow your motion. He seems particularly focused on your eyes, but seems content to look at your mouth when its moving. He still lacks most control of his hands, but still pauses for a second when he feels something touch them. Antoinette has been putting things by his feet lately and he seems to want to touch them instead of involuntarily kicking at them.
This week, the major things to look forward to should be more of the same from last week. A stronger neck, more cooing and vocalization, more laughing and giggling, and more interaction and awareness. We'll also keep practicing his Tummy Time. He gets 3-4 sessions a day of about 3-5 minutes at a pop. If he doesn't want to do it, he makes it perfectly clear by continuously rolling over onto his back (and crying). Point taken, and we take him off the mat. He also gets some interactive time on his playmat from time to time and still loves his swing for daytime naps.
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