One of the things that Bridget said to me a couple times during her pregnancy was, "I want to be able to tell you 'It's time' and then off to the hospital we go." It didn't seem like it was going to happen though. One way or another the baby was coming on March 6th. When we went to bed on the night of March 3rd it seemed like any other night. I fell asleep pretty much right away while Bridget, 39 weeks pregnant, tried as hard as she could to find some position that was somewhat comfortable.
Then, all of a sudden, at 4AM I hear, "Bryan, wake up. It's time." And it was! Even though we never really discussed a plan, Bridget had thought ahead and had a bag packed just in case. So we hopped into the car leaving Owen with his grandparents and headed off to the hospital. I even scored the best spot in the parking lot, which isn't hard to do at 4:20 in the morning. And then, only three hours later at 7:32AM on March 4, 2013, we were introduced to Jason Matthew.
I'm writing this on Jason's 45th day as he turns 6 1/2 weeks. We're pretty lucky that he's already taken to sleeping in his crib, which is the only reason I have a chance to write this post before I head to bed myself. All told he's been a good baby so far. I think some of that is a result of Bridget and I being a little less stressed this time around as well as having a helping hand from family for the first couple weeks.
One area where Jason is a lot like his brother, Owen, is that during the day he wants to be held. He'll sleep for a few minutes in his swing or on a blanket on the floor, but he is far from mastering the art of the midday nap by himself. Unfortunately for Bridget this means that she is spending yet another maternity leave on the couch as she holds Jason while he sleeps.
If there's anything I've learned from my two sons it's that the time around 6 weeks old is not a fun time to be a baby...and they like to let you know it. Don't get me wrong. Neither of our sons were/are colicky (sp?) so we are lucky. However, they both liked to cry and scream around that age. Jason, according to Bridget, has been a little better during the day but right around when the clock hits 5 in the afternoon until he goes to bed some time around 8, it's game on for being fussy. I chalk it up to the fact that it's an age when they're more alert than when they're only a couple weeks but are not able to control their bodies enough yet to entertain themselves. They can't reach for anything, their hands and feet are still flying all around, and they don't have much control as far as facial movements or sounds are concerned. I don't blame them for being fussy. Again, though, we've been through it before so I like to think we're handling it much better this time around. At least we know that it doesn't last forever. We're hoping that within 2-4 weeks we'll have a much happier, much more content Jason.
It's not all bad news though. Just this week Jason finally smiled for real. That little smile can brighten your whole day. From here on out the ratio of smiles to frowns should start tipping in favor of the smile side.
So far it's been great. We're still adjusting, but we get a little better at it each day.
