The Life and Times of a 10-week old

10 weeks isn’t a long period of time.   Having said that, it’s been a lifetime for that little person in the nursery and the changes have been monumental, especially this past week.

Food and care for the 10-week old

More Mojo is drinking 5 ounces of formula every three hours.  He’ll go to bed at 6:30 p.m. after his bath and evening bottle.  We’ll wake him up for his overnight bottle around 11:00 p.m.  To help him sleep through the night we’ll top that off to 6 ounces.  Thankfully, he is sleeping through the night with either mom or I waking him up around 6:30 a.m.

The laughing

It takes a little bit of creative listening, but when you tickle their chin they may laugh.  I had trouble making out the laugh at first, but my wife pointed it out to me.  It’s kind of like a Rorschach test, you may not see it at first, but once you know what to look for that’s all you can see.

The crying

A couple weeks ago he sounded like a kitten when he cried.  This past week his cries changed to something much more human and he does it when he’s wet, tired or hungry.

The smiling

There is no rhyme or reason as to when your 10-week old baby will smile.  But in the tenth week he has started to smile.  When he does we look around to see what’s catching his attention, but there aren’t any consistent objects.  We’re just thankful for the grin and continue to try and make him do it more often.

Tummytime

In the late afternoon he’s getting about 20 minutes of tummytime on one of those curved pillows.  Most of the time he likes it, but we do have something for him to watch.  Sometimes Toddler Mojo will be playing with his train set, a ball or one of the cats or dogs will be napping in front of him.

More Mojo (10 weeks) and Toddler Mojo are getting along very well, with TM often saying “more baby” many times.  He wants to help out and we encourage doing simple things like putting the empty bottles in the sink.  No jealousy has set in, but occasionally TM will get overzealous and try to pat the baby too hard.

TM dropped his afternoon nap the other month.  More Mojo is napping every three hours.  On those lucky days TM may need a nap we try to schedule it at the same time as More Mojo.   If we see TM falling asleep in the car we’ll do everything that we can to keep him awake so that the two of them can nap at the same time.

Some things relating to the work of a stay-at-home dad require that you need a distraction.  It’s the sonic crying fits, toddler rage or tag team troubles that two children may try to lay down to the parent.    When those periods hit me I imagine the theme song to Benny Hill playing.  It makes anything bearable and slightly more enjoyable.