Boys night in

Last night was momma's night out, and the boys' night in! And by "night out" I mean I went to book club and was home by 9 pm. This was, however, a pretty big deal for our G family. It was the longest I've been away from Henry since he was born--a whopping 4 hours. We've been struggling to get Henry to take a bottle off-and-on for weeks now, with very inconsistent positive results. So feeding was a little of an anticipated issue. Plus, Henry's more cranky in the evening than during any other time, and Brian had never put Henry to bed before. A recipe for disaster? One might think so (including me), but in Brian's capable hands all went more smoothly than we could have expected. When I arrived home at 8:55 (5 minutes before curfew), Henry was fast asleep in his father's arms. I picked up the sleepy little babe, did the transfer to the car seat (yup, we're still stalled at that stage in the bedtime changes) and we were good for the night until 5:15 this morning. As I told Brian, this means that I can go out all the time now! Ha ha ha, funny momma.

Our success last night capped off a very nice weekend. On Saturday we spent time with both sides of the family, visiting the McGurin/Gemborys crew early in the day, and then having my brother and his girlfriend over for a visit later in the afternoon. Sunday found us up with the sun and ready to spend some quality time outdoors. We went for a lovely walk on the rail trail in West Boylston and enjoyed a picnic and some time reading in the shade afterwards.

And oh yes, today is Henry's three month birthday! Because this is often regarded as the "fourth trimester," many pediatricians and parenting experts advise that one should basically give the infant what he or she wants when they want it. I found this to be a daunting proposition, but it makes sense. In many ways the baby still has the expectations of being in-utero--never being hungry, cold, or otherwise uncomfortable. And so, Henry's every wish has been my command. Which is actually okay, as long as I know how to properly identify the wish. Hungry? Tired? Over-stimulated? Under-stimulated? Three months into this parenting gig, I feel like I have a decent handle on what Henry is trying to communicate with his various sounds, movements, and facial expressions. Of course there are still moments when I find the little guy to be baffling, but overall, we've gotten to be pretty good partners as far as making needs known and then meeting them appropriately.

For me, this begs the question of how long Henry and I continue on this merry path together? Do I continue to feed him on demand all day and night, or enforce some sort of schedule? Should I concede and bounce him to dreamland when I know he's sleepy, or enforce "sleep training" and making him put himself to sleep? Like I've mentioned before, I have a hard time rocking the boat when things are going smoothly. And right now, I pretty much know what works. But, I don't want to be bouncing him to sleep a year from now. And I'd like him to be able to fend off hunger for just a little bit, or be able to self-soothe instead of me nursing him. Like all things parenting so far, I guess these are works-in-progress. Beyond, being works-in-progress, these are also questions I'm quite thankful to be posing to myself. To me, it reflects the fact that Brian, Henry and I have survived the first three months together, learned a lot, and continue to grow and evolve as the g-unit.

Here's a picture of the little sport, wearing an outfit given to us by my cousin, Jen.