Tantrums, Hands, and Snow...

Week 11 was a pretty good week overall.  I'm sure you have all been tired of me saying that Tyson had a bad week.  So Heath and I came to the conclusion this week that we just have a cranky, colicky, high-maintenance child.  Therefore, we are used to him crying a lot - that is just him.  Since you know what to expect, the crying does not seem so horrible anymore (when anyone else probably would be horrified).  Sometimes it is his "teeth" hurting him, sometimes he has GI upset, but other times, he just wants to be held.  Heath thinks that he is spoiled.  Heath did a test the other night.  Tyson was happy as pie in Heath's arms, walking around, and then Heath went to put him down on his playmat - and on the way down, before Tyson was even on the mat, he started crying.  Just knowing that he would be on the mat by himself was more than he could handle!  And then when he was completely on the mat and alone, he threw a temper tantrum!  He is getting pretty crazy with his temper tantrums.  He has a fit every time I switch sides and burp him while nursing.  He thinks that he is done eating and he just goes berserk.  It is actually amusing, he turns bright red in the face, stands straight up on his feet, and does the holding his breath while screaming thing.  Can you imagine a 3 month old throwing tantrums?  What is he going to be like at 3 years old?  Oh my!  So what do you do with a child like this?  Heath thinks we need to let him cry it out more.  I guess we do, but it is really hard to hear him cry like that!  I think I need to do some more research on Google!

One big thing that happened on Friday, the first day of his 11th week, was that Tyson found his hands.  He was sitting next to me on the couch on his boppy, when he just put his fist in his mouth.  I was like, did this just happen?  He had never done this before.  I actually had my camera there with me and managed to get a picture of the event right when it happened!  For the rest of the week, Ty was desperately trying to suck his thumb.  He would have his thumb out and just could not get the angle right.  I wanted to help him along, because he was just struggling to get it in, but Heath did not want me to.  He said, "I can take the binky away but I can't take the thumb away."  He is right, I must admit.  Poor Ty, he is so cute, he will be sucking the side of his thumb but just can't quite make it!  He did suck on a couple of fingers on Tuesday, but not the elusive thumb!  At first, he seemed to be using mostly his left hand to try to suck his thumb, but then he has been using his right a lot, too.  I am hoping that he will be left-handed, but we will have to see.  But since he has found his hands, he has his hands in his mouth all the time!  It makes it hard to get pictures of his full face now!

"The" moment that he found his hands!

Trying hard to suck his thumb!

"Maybe it will work better if I try both of them at once!"

On Sabbath, we went to Concord Church with Shannon and Sean.  This week Tyson slept through the service again, so I did not need to visit the mother's room (Concord has one).  Shannon and Sean came over for lunch and got some Ty Time.  Then they headed out for a date night at the movies and we decided to go back to Burlington Coat Factory to see if there were any deals left. It was pretty much cleaned out but we did get some clothes for Tyson and Heath.  I managed a sweater for $3.00 for myself!  The best buys were the fancy, church outfits that we found for Ty.  They were $7.50 each!  They are super cute!  I can't wait for him to fit into them!  One of the things that we really needed to get on Saturday night was a crib mattress for Tyson.  We went to Babies 'R Us and thought that we could find one.  Well, we had decided that we wanted a foam mattress for Ty and unfortunately Babies 'R Us had only one and it was terrible.  So we struck out.  We decided we would order one on-line.  Since we had been at Burlington Coat Factory and then were planning to go to our favorite mexican restaurant, I knew that I would need to feed Tyson.  While we were at Babies 'R Us, I saw a sign for a "Mother's Room."  So I decided to give it a go.  It was great!  It had a couch, a glider, and a changing table.  It was the perfect place to nurse and I was so thankful that I did not have to nurse him in the cold car!  It made me think that major stores out there, like Walmart, Target, etc. should have a room for breastfeeding mothers.  I know it is probably asking a lot, but it is a nice thought.  In a perfect world.  I just don't think I have it in me to nurse in public.

Zoning out getting ready to go to church!

Auntie Shannon having Ty time

 More Burlington Coat Factory deals

Ty's naps changed this week.  The only nap that is predictable is the first AM nap.  He eats first thing in the morning (between 6:45 and 7:30) and then goes right back to sleep for about 2 hours.  This week he would only nap for the last 45 minutes to 1 hour before his next meal, but sometimes he wouldn't sleep at all!  Gone are the days of his long afternoon nap of 2 to 2.5 hours.  I miss that nap time!  That is when I would get something accomplished!  But things might keep changing.  His naps overall have been pretty erratic.  After only having 1 afternoon nap of 30 minutes on Monday, I was desperate on Tuesday.  I usually have Tyson get sleepy, either in his bouncer, his swing, or my arms and then I put him down in his pack 'n play to sleep.  Well, on Tuesday afternoon, he was fully asleep in his swing and I decided that I was not going to move him.  Well, wouldn't you know that it had to be the time when my friends, the Jehovah's Witnesses, came to my door!  The dogs went crazy barking, of course, and woke Ty up.  They came in for awhile, but thank goodness I was able to get him back to sleep (with the help of the binky).  I had not seen them for about a month, so it just had to be the day that it was essential that Tyson got an afternoon nap! 

Getting sleepy in his bouncer with Mr. Elephant, look at how tired his eyes are!

Wednesday brought our biggest snow storm to date.  We got a whopping 18 inches!  It was a pretty good storm.  I had to keep shoveling off the front step and a patch for my poor little puppies to go take care of business.  Of course, one of the times that they were dying to go out, Tyson was ready to eat.  So I had whiny dogs that were crying and Tyson was crying because he was hungry.  And it was not an easy task of just opening the door for the dogs to run out and then back.  I had to put on my boots, my jacket, and mittens to shovel and then let them out.  Poor Tyson had to wait about 10 minutes.  But he survived!  Wednesday night, we got the nursery all set up (except for the pictures on the wall).  I was so excited, but it was not finished because we still needed the mattress.  So I did some research and ordered a "Sealy Soybean" foam mattress that night.  It was great because I had looked at that specific mattress a few days before and when I went to order it from Amazon, it had gone on sale and we saved $20! 

Just missing the pictures on the wall!

The dresser does not match the crib/changing table - which bugs us a bit! But it was a great deal!

 We aren't using bumper pads due to suffocation risk, but they are so cute I had to do something with them!

Thursday ended week 11 on a good note.  Tyson had an abnormally happy morning and was content to spend some time by himself in his swing while I finished cleaning the house (I had started while he was napping in the AM).  To get anything done, you have to be intelligent about it and make every second count.  I used to do a thorough cleaning every other week before Tyson was born.  Now with Tyson 11 weeks old, I had done a full cleaning only 2 times.  That is pretty disgusting.  I'm going to try to do better with this.  Thursday night, my parents and us went over to Sean & Shannon's house for the first time for supper.  It is super cute.  It is a log cabin in the middle of nowhere in New Hampshire.  It is so cozy and adorable.  They cooked homemade eggplant parmesan, lasagna, and chocolate chip cookies.  It was fantastic.  It was great to get together.  Tyson did pretty well and slept in Noni's arms for a good portion of the visit.  Tyson got to try out his new snowsuit that he got from Grampy for the first time.  He looks so incredibly cute in it!  And I especially love it because I know that he is definitely warm in it.

Shelby, Shannon & Sean

Sleeping peacefully in Noni's arms

Initially happy in his new snowsuit...

Then he got a little tired

I think that is about all the highlights from week 11.  Stay tuned for week 12, because some major things happen!

Didn't I tell you that he is waking up so happy?

 He does the funniest stretches when he wakes up!

Helping Mommy do the laundry

He loves getting his diaper changed now - he gets so excited!

He loves getting a bath -he coos and kicks in the water!

Isn't he just precious?