Monday, June 27, 2011

Getting to Know Henry

Henry and I have been spending a lot of time together lately. Between midnight nursing, random cluster feeding sessions, and diaper changes, I feel like I know my younger son pretty well so far.

I took this picture of Henry yesterday while he was just staring at me. He does that a lot.





































Henry sleeps pretty long stretches at night--up to four hours. This usually means that I only have to wake up once--Greg does the 11 p.m. feeding, I do the one at 3 or 4, and Greg is awake anyway at 7 and feeds Henry before he goes to work. I get to sleep until 8 or 9, thank goodness. At this stage with Nick, he was still waking up every hour or two to feed, and I was a gibberish-spouting zombie. No, really, I once put baby formula in my coffee.

Because Henry lets us sleep at night, we indulge his every wish during the daytime, and he gets snuggled quite a bit. Here's a little video clip of Henry being extra cute.





Things I've learned about Henry so far:

1. He is generally immune to Nick's loudness. I guess he was hearing it regularly in utero, so he just tunes it out. Even when he's sleeping, Nick's screeching seldom disturbs him, unless it's right next to him.

2. He loves having his little feet rubbed. When I pull out the lotion and go to town on his toes, he gets this look of perfect baby bliss on his face. 

3. Henry prefers my right side. Every time I lay him across my stomach, he scoots over to my right side, exactly where he laid when he was inside of me. Strange.

4. He hates being cold and wet. I mean he really hates it. View the evidence below from a spongebath last week:

























5. Henry loves to put his fingers in his mouth. We're trying to get him binky-trained, but he prefers his whole hand right now.

6. He does push ups all the time--he wants to see everyone's faces. Henry has done this since his first night in the hospital, and he's pretty strong. He pushes far enough up that he can peer questioningly into your eyes. Then he just kind of stares.



















7. He already looks up to his big brother. Nick is always showing him his toys and talking to him, and Henry really listens.

8. He likes story time. Henry sits with me and Nick while I read to him, and he sure seems to be paying attention. Perhaps he just likes my voice, but (since I'm a teacher) I am very glad he's already listening to stories at only two weeks old.

9. Henry has very long fingers and toes, and a cute, pointy little chin.

I can't wait to learn more about Henry as he grows. He's already such an interesting little person.

3 comments:

  1. Haha! He looks like a cute baby turtle on his back in the video, spinning his arms and legs like that. He always looks soooo serious. He seems more quiet and contemplative than Nick. Nick is loud and outgoing and boisterous. Henry seems to be thoughtful and serious. Interesting. I learned my kid really hates broccoli cheese soup today. Like you say, I learned he REALLY hates it. He went to bed without supper willingly, rather than have to eat it. He will usually eat about anything if I threaten no dessert, snack, and going to bed. His problem was not just the broccoli, but the cheese! What kid doesn't like cheese? Mine seems to detest it, with pizza as a sometimes exception, but he will occasionally pick it off. Most kids will only eat broccoli with cheese on it. Mine will only eat it raw and plain. Weird.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Could you have given him some raw broccoli instead? I guess only liking raw vegetables isn't too bad. He could refuse to eat them at all!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah...I'm not complaining about that...he's just different. Going to keep shoving these foods at him... No kid of mine is going to be a finicky adult eater!

    ReplyDelete