In a sling

In a sling, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

Ryan's 15 weeks old this week, and at any stage of his life, he changes quite rapidly. Even though it felt like such a long time ago, it was barely 2 months ago when he could barely keep himself awake for more than 30 minute stretches, and his neck muscles were non-existent.

Right now, he sleeps fairly well, at night at least, from about 8pm to 7am the next day, waking up to feed once at 3am till about late last week, when we decided to cut out that feed. It was less traumatic than expected, and he adapted within 3 days, this morning surprising us by not even waking up for the 5am feed.

We've also been training him to fall asleep on his own, instead of us having to rock, jiggle, cuddle, or otherwise actively intervene in his falling asleep. In this picture, is our misguided attempt at getting him to fall asleep in the sling. It works, sure, but unless we were willing to use the sling until he is much older, we needed to teach him how to fall asleep on his own in his own crib, which we would have to do later anyway because he would soon outgrow the sling.

As I was saying, he has no difficulty falling and remaining asleep at night, he resists napping in the day, and wakes up 40-45 minutes into the nap, reliably (sleep cycle is 40-45 minutes in length), and then decides, quite angrily, that enough is enough, somebody better get him out of this silly crib or else... And he fusses and cries, till he is picked up, and then within seconds after he is picked up, he often can be seen smiling or cooing.

Which makes us wonder - is he so active and curious about what's happening around him that he absolutely detests falling asleep? He's so alert and easily bored that in the evenings, he gets fussy unless we bring him out for a stroll. And other parents we meet at the playgroup all remark that he is so alert, responsive and curious, always tracking the strangers and often cooing and seducing the women with his cuteness (men usually don't have the patience to coo to babies, and it would be totally weird for a male stranger to come cooing to a baby, actually).

So, to summarise; he's sleeping well, at night, and we wish he could nap longer, at least once or twice of his 3-4 daily naps. He is still terrified of baths, but that's the subject of another post.

Oh, and of course, enjoy the cute picture.