A day in the park

With all the recent time we've spent at home and thanks to the beautiful Berkeley weather, we were feeling the need to get outdoors the other day so we packed way too much stuff and headed to Tilden park. Laying on a blanket on the grass, under a tree with a warm breeze and our boy (8 days old) laying on our chests was just what we needed.

[Naked time at the park]

[Outside time with mama]

In the last few days Reed seems to be adjusting well to life at home with us. He is a voracious eater, which in turn helps him sleep pretty well (I think). He gets all tanked up with milk and then either has some of our favorite soft-eyed alert time or totally conks out. From the beginning we have wondered how to help him decipher day from night and encourage him to sleep longer at night. So far, we think it's working and he seems to sleep his longest bout of sleep (usually 4 hours between feedings) in the early morning hours. After that he usually sleeps for around 2.5 - 3 hours between feedings and that’s with a fair amount of rocking him in his hammock.

Billy has the swaddle-side-swing-shhh-suck (the 5 S’s) down and is a master soother for our little guy when he is fussy. We are learning to recognize Reed’s cues for being tired, hungry or uncomfortable, and so far, he seems to respond well and can be calmed relatively easily. He is eating faster and more efficiently, which means his feeds are shorter in length but he uses a very strong sucking action to get what he needs. In turn, I am a bit sore at the beginning of each feeding, but don’t mind a little soreness as long as I know that he is getting what he needs.

I have discovered that one of my favorite times with Reed is when he is in the middle of feeding and I take him off to burp. At some point during the burping he lets out a big sigh of content which melts my heart. This moment is such a peaceful time between he and I and I completely treasure it.

Our families have been visiting and soaking up as much Reed time as they can, as well as helping with meals. We are grateful for their help.

[Cousin Hannah with Reed]

In other news…we woke up this morning to see that he had lost his umbilical cord and he is trying his best to hold his head up for a second or two at a time.
Signing off for now...