Hudson is 12 weeks today, and he is growing and changing by the minute. Unofficially weighed on my parents' bathroom scale, he's about 12.8 pounds. I feel like every day he is learning something new! Just this past week, he discovered his tongue and sticks it out. He still loves gnawing and sucking on his hands. When he lays on his back, he pulls his knees up and sticks his feet in the air, and a couple times, briefly, he has grabbed his feet. He thinks it is very funny when you stick his feet in his mouth!
He also rolled over from back to front (with just a teeny bit of help) and has done this a few times, although once he gets there he is stuck on his arm and hasn't figured out how to move it out from under himself. This makes him mad! Then, just yesterday, he rolled from his tummy to his back! But after he did it once, he couldn't seem to figure out how to do it again.
He really enjoys looking at items now, and seems more content than before to sit and look at a book while I read it to him. He really likes Jamberry, which is cute because it was one of my sister's favorites, too. He likes to look at the toys dangling from his playmat, and is still interested in lights and ceiling fans.
He still loves water, and just loves being in the shower with someone. The water spraying doesn't seem to scare him at all. He also likes to look at himself in the mirror more now, especially if you stand him on the counter and just let him dance and bounce in front of himself!
This past week we have been in St. Louis visiting our families and the weather has been beautiful. This led us to a new discovery... Hudson LOVES to be outside! All summer it has been so hot that we only go out for a few minutes here and there, but now we have been able to just relax on the deck and rock in the chairs. We also took a trip to the zoo, which is one of our very favorite places in town. He slept through most of it but enjoyed being pushed in his stroller in the sunshine.
This past week was also the first time he started napping for short periods without being swaddled. Mostly this is while being held still, but one time he did nap unswaddled after we laid him down. This was a pretty big deal because he has been addicted to the swaddle from birth! It will be interesting to see how/when he actually outgrows the need for it. He still loves the white noise, and if he is very upset, it is one of the only ways to really get him to calm down. He needs it loud - louder than his wailing!
Despite our efforts to keep him awake longer, Hudson has decided that his bedtime is about 6:00pm. This means, of course, that his wake-up time is about 5:00am! This has been very difficult on Ben and me, since we are night-owls and decidedly NOT morning people. It is hard to discipline ourselves to go to bed before 10:00pm, but if we don't, the mornings are even harder.
Temperament-wise, some days are much better than others. I tried to reintroduce dairy into my diet, and it seemed to be okay in baked goods, but once we got to cheese and icecream, the extreme fussiness returned. Maybe we will try again in a month or so.
I read an article that a friend linked to on Facebook, and I wanted to post it here as well. It was very convicting to me. I have shared how difficult our start with Hudson has been, and I confess I have often found myself bitterly envying friends with seemingly happy, easy babies. I have wished in my heart that Hudson was more like them, or worse, that these people would have some parental difficulties of their own so I didn't feel so alone. That's so wrong, I'm embarrassed to admit it. Hudson is who he is because God determined that he would be so. To covet the attributes of another's child is to deny God's sovereignty in creating Hudson and in making me his mother. Besides that, my worth in Christ is not related to what kind of baby Hudson is, nor my successes or failures as a mother. Anyway, I hope this short article is as helpful to others as it was to me. It will be important for me to remember throughout Hudson's life:
