Dear XYZ,

Y just crossed his one month a couple of days ago. There were a couple of things I wanted to jot down because I didn’t come across them during my pre-parent readings (which admittedly I didn’t do a whole lot of).

1. Dry hands

I’m washing things (bottles, clothing, etc) much more frequently as I did before. I observed that my hands are now much drier and my cuticles are cracking more often. Moisturize!

2. Baby smiles

I’m not sure if this is a particularity of Y, but I noticed that Y first smiled in his sleep. More recently, he’s smiling when he’s awake. This is pretty interesting and somewhat surprising to me. It’s not that he isn’t able to smile necessarily but that doing it while conscious is somehow different. It’s super cute when he smiles, but when he does it awake there’s definitely some bonus joy (because secretly I think maybe it’s something I did).

3. Active sleep

When Y sleeps, the early part of his sleep could happen with his eyes half or fully open. It would dart around, kind of like REM sleep but his eyelids would be wide open. Babies have active sleep typically until about 3-5 months.

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Needless to say there are times when Y cries when we are completely clueless why. I guess as young parents you kinda just cycle through the things until you find something that soothes them — bouncing, changing diapers, feeding, burping, etc.

Going back to work officially tomorrow, hoping that the transition will be ok for everyone. This shouldn’t be the big one since my mom will still be around.

I’m still waking up with C during sleep hours when Y wakes up for feeds, which is about 2-3 times a night. Hopefully that can continue without me feeling too tired for work the next morning.

Things are going pretty well overall for now, and I’m thankful.

xoxo,
K