It's lovely to have the young fellow close to you. He likes it too, his preference for falling asleep is on someones chest or shoulder. He is a snuggler. That is wonderful. He is small, he is cute and most of the time he smells very nice so there is no problem. There has been a bit of difficulty at night getting him to settle in his basket. He does prefer the bed with us. We are working with this and he is spending most of his time in the basket. There are times though, like that random 6am feed and the impending 7am wake up that it is just better to get him to sleep quickly rather than face an hour pacing. He had his first dream feed last night where he stayed asleep through the whole process. Sure he is getting on for six weeks now.
The other manifestation of his snuggliness is his fondness for the sling. We have his and hers slings. Ciara has a sort of long indian sari thing with a DVD of instructions on how to tie it. If you don't have a DVD player a group of scouts come along and tie it for you, they each get a badge for their efforts. Mine is the BabyBjorn sort of rucksacky one. It's fantastic. The little guy sits into it and falls asleep. I carry him around and with both hands free can eat food, drink (a cold drink to avoid scalding) and do some typing like I am doing now. It is warm and comfy. It does have a bit of a drawback though.
My son is an independent soul, he likes to look around, he likes to wriggle, he likes to thrash wildly at a moments notice, lets put it bluntly. The collar of the sling accommodates this by being higher than Max's head. There are two straps at the side that enable the head area to be enlarged or made smaller. He still finds a bit of room to headbutt my chest. It's not that he hurts me, the space is small, he is asleep but it's the suddenness of it that is slightly shocking. I will be walking along minding my own business and bang, a blow to the chest, could be a heart attack or a mugging, or just my little man seeking attention. He doesn't even wake up. The first few times it happened I was desperately concerned, I opened the sling, check his head forensically and thought about MRI scans and x-rays. Now I just snigger (i understand that this is wrong). You are reading this thinking that Max headbutts me on a sort of hourly basis and will be a loon by the time he is two. Far from it. It happens very rarely and is all the more shocking for it.
The other thing about the sling is the lack of eye-contact. Max is now at the stage where he is looking straight at us and smiling and gurgling so it is nice to keep him at eye level. The difficulty with this is it makes looking at things really hard as infants are not known for their transparency. The benefits of having both hands free are out weighed by the lack of vision. Soon he will be able to hold his head up by himself and then he can turn around and face the outside world himself.
The other thing about the sling is the girls. Now let me be very clear. I am happily married, very happily, I am in no need of womanly attention. Nor would I act on any if I got it. It's still nice though, to be collaterally noticed for my son. Girls like babies. They flock, cooing, poking, sort of swooning. I do not like to be sexist, but men do not act in this way, nor do they seem to want to. It's not as if there are sub-groups of men in dark rooms cooing over babies in a clucky way away from the harsh glare of the manly men who's peer pressure keeps them from doing it in public.
Girls like babies and they flock around a man who has one. They especially find it cute if you are being independent and caring for the child yourself. Swinge benefits I guess.
So the next big thing is six weeks. This is a sort of Baby Mecca when all sorts of developmental changes are due to happen. Also a massive feeding frenzy growth spurt! Don't worry, I'll keep you posted!
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