Aaaand...we're back.

This baby is so tricky! After each difficult spell I think that I'll remember that they always end, and that our sweet calm baby will return to us even better than before. New and improved, so to speak. But IT IS SO HARD TO SEE THE END when we're in the midst of a fussy, non-sleeping, extreme sleep deprivation situation.

Of course, the difficulties we were having when I wrote that last post have ended. This is the baby we have as of today:


He started smiling (the much-anticipated real smiles) yesterday but this morning was a virtual laugh riot. We had great fun, and then he was wonderful all day. This is perhaps in part due to something I learned at the pediatrician's office yesterday: babies do not want for sleep. They sleep when they need to sleep, and if they're not sleeping you can't make them sleep. It made me consider that one reason Jupiter can be so crabby is because we have been trying to make him sleep. The average one-month-old still sleeps 16 hours per day. Jupiter averages anywhere between 11-14. He isn't a big sleeper, and he really fusses when we try to put him to sleep when he isn't ready. So it's potentially true that we were causing some of the fussiness (which we thought was due to his being overtired) by trying to put him to sleep. Maybe he just had to burp. Jay's mom was with us for a couple of days and suggested that I burp him longer, so I have been and he seems to be farting less. So maybe he just had bad gas because his mama thought breastfed babies don't need much burping. Perhaps mama was wrong.

Everything, by the way, is a "perhaps" and a "for now" statement. Things will, I'm sure, be radically different next week, just as they have been for each week so far. If there's one thing babies know how to do, it's to keep you guessing. And fretting.

But for now, I have regained my confidence. I took him to the mall today and actually did some shopping! He didn't melt down and I really enjoyed it. Tomorrow I'm taking him to our first La Leche League meeting, and on Thursday we're heading to a nursing mothers support group at Kangaroo Kids. I like getting out of the house. In fact, I need it. I always feel so much better.

As I mentioned earlier, Jupiter had his one-month check-up at the pediatrician's office yesterday and everything looks great. He has gained more than four pounds in four weeks (!!), going from his lowest post-birth weight of 8 pounds 3 ounces to 12 pounds 5 ounces, and he has grown 1.5 inches. Here he is on his one-month birthday, in all his baby glory:


The doc answered most of our questions about his tricky behavior with some variant of, "It's all normal, and it will get easier," which was both reassuring and unsatisfying. We would have preferred some advice but the fact is that every baby is different and there is a tremendous range of normal. But he sent us off with a cheeky command to Jupiter to come back next month having had far more good days than bad days. I hope so. Today was great. Let's hope for a repeat.