7 weeks – the boy smiles

I so wanted this post to be an overwhelmingly positive tale of how Zeke smiled for the first time and my heart melted and everything got better after that. He did smile for the first time, and my heart did melt. But it’s not yet getting much easier.

Some days are really good. Yesterday for example, he slept until 9am – allowing me time to shower, get dressed, and make tea before he even woke up. Then he had a relatively cheery day and went right to sleep at 8pm. Today, he woke up at 7am and fussed on and off for the entire day. It was exhausting.

So the 7 week summary is like this. We’re getting to know each other. We’re finding out that we have a touchy boy on our hands. If we over-stimulate him or push him too far (not hard to do) he falls apart – fussing and fighting and complaining for hours on end. If we handle him carefully – timing things just right – he rewards us with long periods of cooing and grinning that make us forget the hours of frustration and exhaustion. He is unbelievably adorable when he smiles – this stupid, crooked, goofy grin that lights up his whole face. That combined with his deep blue eyes and his little blond crew cut (growing back nicely) really do make the rest of it seem manageable – until evening comes and the fussing starts again.

PS: We have found a way to improve Z’s evening routine to limit the crying some. Around 7pm every night we give Z a bath – which he loves. We put him in pajamas, have some quiet bouncing time in the darkened bedroom, and put him to sleep – generally by 8pm. He still cries for awhile, but it’s much better than it was before. We’re learning. Slowly.