Chris gave Garrett a bottle in the van while I took Jonathan into Children's Exchange. They didn't have tennis shoes in his size, but they had plenty of coats. Jonathan wasn't interested in sitting still to try them on, though, and when I let go of him to put the first coat back, he took off down the aisle and disappeared around the corner. Of course, with him being only thirty-some inches tall, I'd be hard pressed to find him by just looking, but thankfully I could follow the sound of giggles and little feet hustling nonstop to track him down by some jumperoo toys that caught his attention.
I tried distracting him with a book and reminding him that he needed a coat to play outside when we got home, but those efforts were useless in getting him to stay put. I ended up wrestling the next few coats on, with Jonathan claiming they were "too big" before he even had an arm in a sleeve. I quickly decided on the first one that fit and looked like it would be warm enough.
At least when we got groceries, Jonathan was securely strapped into the cart. That little guy is fast! He'd probably make it to the opposite end of the store in the blink of an eye if he had the chance. And thankfully Garrett doesn't seem to mind the car seat. Jonathan hated the car seat as a baby, so it's quite a change to be able to haul the seat around without worrying about a very unhappy baby inside.
Although he's still sleeping much of the day, Garrett only woke up a couple times to eat last night. Well, technically, I woke him up the second time. And since he didn't need a change of clothes due to spit up or a diaper changing catastrophe, it felt like we all got more sleep. Woo-hoo!
He seems to be eating even better now, too -- staying more attentive longer when nursing and finishing 2.5-ounce bottles with no problem -- and without me pushing for him to finish them. My sister pointed out that babies' stomachs are very small, so he was probably throwing up because he was overeating. Since the last two times he'd thrown up were after I gave him a bottle and had prompted him to eat more than the 1.5 ounces he seemed satisfied with, I figured she's probably right and I just need to ease up ... again. Hopefully we'll see some reasonable weight gain this week.
Although we're not worried about Jonathan's weight, it's still good to see him him have a healthy appetite, which he did when we had soup for lunch today. (I think Jonathan would eat soup for every meal if we'd let him.) One thing that surprised me when I came back home from the hospital was seeing how well he does with a fork and spoon now. He was starting to get the hang of using utensils before I left, and would sometimes manage to get something on his fork or get a spoonful of food to his mouth without spilling, but he still needed help for the most part. Now he can eat a whole bowl of soup by himself with very little mess.
So today he started out with half a can of chicken noodle soup. When he was done with that, he still wanted more, so I warmed up the rest of it. He was looking pretty tired when I brought it to the table, and I asked if he wanted to take a nap instead, but he said he wanted the soup. (He hadn't had a nap yet, as I'm testing whether he'll sleep longer if I wait until early afternoon instead of late morning for his nap.) Once he was settled, I took Garrett to change his diaper. I was hardly gone more than a minute, but when I returned, Jonathan was conked out in his highchair.
Unfortunately, he didn't take the two-hour nap I was hoping for. He actually slept less than the normal hour and a half, which didn't leave me with enough time to nap after feeding Garrett and putting him back down to sleep. Just the same, the day went more smoothly than last week.
I don't like resorting to letting Jonathan watch videos, but have realized it may be the lesser of two evils (the other being having a frustrated toddler who's confused about why he's not my only priority) and went ahead and let him watch Blue's Clues to his heart's content. He didn't just veg out on his little foam Lightning McQueen chair, though. He actually sang along to the songs and performed the gestures for things like "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." And he eventually had his fill and started playing with his toys again.
Hopefully tomorrow will go just as well, but with time for Mom to nap, too.
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