Jared is One Month Old

Here are some highlights from Jared's one-month birthday. I'm writing this down mainly for my own benefit so I'll have a record of what he was doing at this age. :-)



According to our scale & ruler (which are not super accurate), Jared weighs about 9 pounds and is about 21-22 inches long.

He is generally a very happy baby, although usually once a day he has a "fussy time." Unfortunately for us, it normally occurs at night right around the time we are ready to go to bed.


He enjoys being in his bouncer & that generally calms him down pretty well.


He loves bath time. His cord didn't fall off until he was 3 weeks old, and so it was hard to bathe him before that. Now the hardest thing about bath time is having Noelle constantly lean on me so that she can see.

He also enjoys being in his sling, too. When he's fussy, it's a great way to get him to stop crying. I didn't have one with Noelle, and I really like having it this time around! I enjoy having use of both of my hands. :-)


He does not like the baby swing. Hopefully, Jared will change his mind about this soon. Noelle begs me to put him in it, but he cries most of the time. We took these pictures just so that we could compare Jared and Noelle at the same age.


We just upgraded him to size 1 diapers, and he is starting to outgrow some of his smaller newborn clothes.

Jared seems to eat much more than Noelle did at this age. During the day he goes 1.5 to 2.5 hours between feedings, but he'll go for longer stretches at night. (Usually 3 to 5 hours--if we're lucky!)

He spits up a ton. (Much like Noelle did!) For those of you who have given us burp cloths...they've gotten a lot of use already!


We go to sleep between 10 and 11 most nights, and Jared generally wakes up twice between then and 7 am. Occasionally, he'll wake up only once, and some nights it's 3 times. We're hoping that his sleep patterns will start to get a little more regular soon. He also sleeps with a pacifier, and some nights we'll have to put the pacifier back in several times. Not fun. Generally, though, he is pretty easy to put back to sleep after he eats, and we're doing OK on sleep. I'm feeling a little more rested than I did a couple of weeks ago. :-)

Jared and Noelle really are pretty similar at this age, in looks and personality. Here are pictures of them both at one month ol:

Noelle

Jared

Big Sister Update

Noelle still loves being a big sister and is very sweet.

However, if not given enough attention, she finds creative ways to get us to notice her.

You can tell by the look on her face that she's very penitent.

Tonight's Dinner Conversation

Noelle: "Ok, Daddy. I'm ready for my apple sauce."

Daddy: "Try again. You need to ask me nicely please."

***5 second pause***

Noelle: "I'm waiting..."

Daddy: "I'm waiting for you to ask me nicely."

Noelle: "I'm waiting for you to give it to me."

Of course this happens when Sarah isn't home

Before bed tonight, Noelle and I worked on her memory verse for AWANA: "...Jesus came into the world to save sinners..." 1 Timothy 1:15

I asked Noelle if she knew what a sinner was. She didn't, so I explained.

Daddy: Sin is when we do not obey God and so something wrong. You have sinned. Mommy has sinned. I have sinned. We are all sinners.

Noelle: Is Jared a sinner?

Daddy: Yes.

Noelle: How has Jared sinned?

***Long pause while Daddy quickly tries to think of something though nothing comes to mind***

Noelle: Crying is sin.

Daddy: Well, when you throw a fit and cry because you didn't get what you wanted, then yes, crying is sin. It's different when babies cry. That's not really a sin.


Great. I will now be spending all my sleepless moments in the middle of the night trying to figure out how Jared is a sinner. I know that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but I now have to figure out what sins my 3-week-old son has committed. I was definitely not prepared to have a deep, theological conversation with Noelle tonight.

Jealousy

Many of you have asked how Noelle has responded since Jared's arrival. She's 3 weeks into being a big sister and has done a fabulous job. She frequently asks to babysit Jared, meaning she wants to sit next to him and shove a pacifier in his mouth every time it pops out. She loves to give him toys and talks about him a lot. Noelle seems very proud to be a big sister. She really hasn't had any major moments of jealousy. We didn't know what to expect but were hoping that it wouldn't be worse than what Chris did as a 2-year-old. He shattered a glass lamp soon after his baby brother was brought home because of lack of attention.

The only thing that Noelle has done so far was sulk in the corner when she couldn't be held. We can deal with that a lot better than throwing lamps.

Quote of the day & More pics

"Jared has a tongue, but he has none teeth."

~ Noelle