Oops, I Forgot

The last few days I have intended to include an interesting fact or two and completely blanked when I had the opportunity in the posts to mention them. So today will mostly be a post to play catch-up about the stuff I forgot.

I think I mentioned that Patrick is developing a new fascination with his hands and is using them much more. He has figured out how to bring his hands together on purpose and hold onto them there. It's so cute when we catch him doing that; he looks so serious clasping his hands together.

Last night we discovered a new talent he can do with his hands. We'd put him in his crib for a little while when he starting crying inconsolably, hoping for at least a break from the fussing and maybe even that he would comfort himself. Sure enough, after a little while he stopped screaming. I thought maybe he'd fallen asleep, but when I snuck into his room to check, this is what I found:

He finally figured out that the crazy appendages waving at the end of his hand were good substitutes to suck on when Mommy wasn't there to hold his pacifier in. Not only is this absolutely adorable, but it also means I don't have to stay within arm's reach of him to put his pacifier in his mouth and hold it in every time he gets fussy. Now he has control of a comfort object. I hope he learns soon that his thumb is always available to him, so pictures like this don't have to happen by accident anymore.

I forgot one complaint about the apnea monitor yesterday too. We discovered the hard way that the monitor means we have to swaddle Patrick every night, no matter what, until the monitor is gone. Swaddling was a great way to help him sleep when he was really young, but at almost five months, he should be old enough to be weaned off it. We've tried several times to swaddle him more loosely or not at all, and each time has been frustrating. He wakes up more easily (usually because his unswaddled arms wave around and smack him in the head) and cries more. When he cries, he squirms, ending up all sorts of crazy places in his crib. Because the crib is raised on one end to help his reflux, gravity pulls him down to the low end when he squirms. I've found him upside down and crammed into a low corner several times. He didn't seem to like that position very much. The bigger problem with leaving him unswaddled, though, is the monitor. He likes holding onto something whenever possible, and one of the best things for him to get his little fingers around is one or both of the leads for the monitor that are stuck on his chest. He obviously gets upset when he pulls at those leads as they pull at the skin on his chest. That can't feel good. Sometimes he even pulls them off altogether (ouch!), setting off the alarm. Then his chest hurts where the leads were torn off, and the ear-piercing shriek from the alarm upsets him. The simple act of swaddling avoids all these problems. I hate that we still have to do it, though. I feel like we're keeping him from growing up and maturing at least in that respect by keeping him swaddled every night. Maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to get rid of the monitor soon, which could let us possibly start weaning him off the swaddle. I think we can find ways to keep him from squirming to the bottom of the crib. It just hasn't been worth giving it much thought when the problem with the monitor was forcing us to keep him swaddled anyway.

By the way, thanks for the many suggestions about the blog title. Several of them were really good. I finally went with one Matt came up with. For those of you who don't know, we often call Patrick "The Boy." When I start to get tired of this title, which will most likely happen, I'll delve back into all the suggestions I received in the last day or so. Thanks again for your help!