Levi: Week 22 Summary

This is a recap of Levi's 22nd week of sweet life. Just a couple of days late, but things have been a little busy around here. I'll cut to the chase...

FEEDING
Levi was one distracted boy this week when it came to nursing! He just wanted to play. All. The. Time. He would eat for about 15-20 minutes and then just stop, look up at me with his big brown eyes and give me a huge grin. Seriously, every time I fed him. It was adorable, but frustrating! I felt like I had to force him to eat. Finally, toward the end of the week, if he had eaten for at least 30 minutes, I wouldn't force him to eat anymore. And he didn't need to eat any sooner than 3 hours later, so I assume he was getting enough!

One new development this week related to feeding was Levi's hatred for my nursing cover. He never seemed to mind it or notice it until this week. There were a handful of times when we were out this past week and I needed to use my cover and Levi threw such a fit. He would throw his arms up and down so that the cover, well, wouldn't cover. It was such a pain. I made sure to bring a bottle with me wherever we went just in case! I'm hoping he gets over that...real soon.

We officially decided this past week that Levi seems ready for solids. His motor skills are greatly improving to where he can hold things now, which is needed for baby led weaning. He is also seeming a bit disinterested in milk and more curious about the food that we are eating--so I think its time! I'm nervous about constipation issues, but I know there is no avoiding that, regardless of his age. New food means new digestive issues. I'll write about how it goes in next week's post.

NAPS
Ahh...last week finally started improving in the nap area. It wasn't fantastic, but I was satisfied with how he slept. After a reminder of watching for his optimal wake time from my friend Anna's sister, I started putting him down 15 minutes earlier than I usually do. I had been pushing him to the 1.5 hour mark for every wake time, with the hope that he would then sleep for 1.5 hours. This week, I dropped his first wake time down to about 1 hour and the rest of the day's wake times to 1 hour and  15 minutes. That seemed to really help! Towards the end of the week, he was going down with little crying/talking and if he woke at the 45 minute mark, it was only for a minute or so with some light whining. I was slightly sad about reducing his wake time, just because he already eats for 45 minutes at a time, so that doesn't leave much time afterwards for playing--but I see now that it is for the better.

I also dropped his swaddle for naps later in the week. He did surprisingly well and didn't seem phased by it at all. I handed him his blanket, so that he still had it in his crib to hold and rub against his face (he likes that). Levi also started sucking his thumb A LOT this week. Two weeks ago (week 21), it seemed as if he had just discovered it. And this past week, he put that thing to use! He definitely uses thumb-sucking to soothe himself to sleep.

WAKE TIME 
Not too much in the area of wake time this past week, besides the reduction in it that I mentioned earlier. Levi did discover himself in the mirror connected to his floor gym, which was so cute! He just stared at himself and smiled the whole time. I'm pretty sure he has looked into it before, but I could tell this time, he knew he was looking at himself. He is slowly but surely figuring out how to roll from back to tummy now. I'm just trying to give him tummy time everyday to reinforce that.

NIGHTTIME
Levi slept so wonderful through the night this past week! He only woke before 6 AM (from whatever time I put him to bed) two times all week and those were both due to him (1) rolling over in his sleep or (2) getting his leg stuck in the slat of his crib! Both scared him, poor guy! I ended up feeding him for 10-15 minutes both times, since I was up anyway and to calm him down, but he didn't really seem hungry to begin with. I'm so proud of his progress. His average is to wake between 6:30 and 7 every morning--which I am totally fine with since he goes to bed between 8 and 9 PM on any given night. He definitely is a baby to rise with the sun! As soon as the light pokes through his window, he is awake :)

PERSONALITY
Have I mentioned how much Levi loves Brian? Yea, its true. And he definitely showed it more and more this past week. They have this amazingly cute "buddy" bond. Levi almost always laughs when Brian tickles him or blows on his belly--he usually just smiles for me. It's so fun to watch the two of them play together!

Besides the whole nursing cover development, Levi really is such a relaxed boy. He is content with just laying on his back or sitting in his Bumbo chewing on Sophie. He has a really happy disposition! Of course, he does have his stubborn moments too :)

OUTINGS/EVENTS
We planted a garden this week with my friend Anna! I'm looking forward to seeing if we can actually grow any veggies from it...

Some of our Tampa friends--Briana, Julia, Dan and Albert--also came to visit us this week, which was a lot of fun! They were in Nashville for the week and made the two hour trip north to come visit us! We hung out at our apartment for a bit, went to Quills for coffee, walked around the art gallery at the 21C Hotel in Downtown Louisville, and then got some pizza at the New Albanian Brewing Company Pizzeria. Julia, Dan, and Albert (we just met Albert for the first time that day!) got to meet Levi for the first time and seemed to really enjoy spending a few hours with him.

That's all for this week!