Julien is smiling this week. We saw a few sleep smiles in weeks past, but this week, he’s started to smile as a response to interaction with us. The corners of his mouth start to turn up in a grin when I make faces at him or tickle his chin. He also smiles in deep satisfaction, after having a good meal. It’s very funny and quite reminiscent of his Dad.
He’s had a few nights where he’s slept a bit longer. His longer sleep stretch is usually from around 8pm until after midnight. I try to get as much sleep as possible then, though Vic isn’t usually ready to go to sleep until a bit later, so I lose at least an hour out of Julien’s sleep. After 2am or so, we get into what I’m starting to think of as the ‘hellish zone’. Julien wakes up after a shorter sleep for a top up, then doesn’t quite settle fully back down to sleep. He moves around a lot, grunts, snuffles and otherwise makes a lot of noise. Vic is usuually going through a major dream cycle between 3am and 6am as well, so both boys alternate waking up and needing cuddling or nursing to get re-settled. It’s a busy time for me, and one that often finds me burying my head into the pillows with frustration about having just gotten myself and Julien back to sleep only to get woken up again by a vociferous request for a drink from the pre-schooler.
I took a very long nap today – slept most of the afternoon away, and feel a lot better for it. If we keep having nights that follow that pattern, I may need to take a day off every few days, to take a nap and re-charge or I’m going to be useless at work.
And Julien just brightened up my day by smiling big at me when I turned him around and talked nonsense at him. His neck-strength is getting better and better by the day – he’s really strong and much further along with holding his head up than Vic was at the same age. It surprises me sometimes when I pick him up and he immediately lifts his head up on his own steam and looks -right- at me. I’m going to miss my days spent with him, but hope that Sabs will enjoy mornings bonding with his son before he has to go to work.