Since very early on, Jackson has been enamored with the dinosaur art hanging above his changing table.  In the beginning, he would instantly stare at the images completely engrossed (which makes diaper changes rather easy!).  Now that he's more interactive, he smiles and babbles with the dinosaurs, as though they're best of friends.  As a matter of fact, he smiles and talks to the dinos more than us!!  It always makes me laugh!

Here's a short video of Jackson "talking" to his dinosaurs :)

1. The super swaddle.  The swaddling blanket we've been using works well for his arms, but his legs still have wriggling / kicking room, so I used a light blanket to swaddle over top of his legs. 
   
2. White noise turned up LOUD.  I read online that babies love the white noise sounds because it reminds them of the womb, but parents often have them turned too low, because the noise in the womb is much louder.  So we turned on the Infant Calm album on the iPod dock, and put it right in the crib next to him.

This was a tough week for us as parents (and probably for Jackson too).  He has started crying more, and unlike his early days, he can often times be inconsolable for any length of time.  He's also a much lighter sleeper now, and often wakes himself up when lying on his back in his pack n play, bassinet, or crib.  He spends most of his days sleeping on me or Josh (either holding him or in the carrier / sling), and at night, he usually sleeps pretty well during the "first shift" in his bassinet (but only if swaddled up tight as though in a straight jacket) until about 3:00 am.  "Second shift" is usually much more fretful, and even if he stays in the bassinet the entire time, he fusses every 10 minutes or so, and will only sleep for about an hour.  Also, the swing and bouncer seat were easy bets in the first weeks with calming him down, and not so much now.  It only takes a few minutes within placing him in the swing before he screams like he's injured, and the bouncer seat is a hit-or-miss with him.  Hopefully this phase won't last too long, and we can get him used to sleeping or even being content to lay on his back...

Any BTDT mom tips?!  We've tried heating up the bassinet / crib before putting him down, a heartbeat / womb sound machine, white noise sounds (vacuum, washer, dryer, etc) by his bed, swaddling, rocking him to various degrees of sleep (drowsy, drifting off, just asleep, snoring-dead asleep).  It feels like we're going backward with the sleeping situation.


Josh taking advantage of Jackson sleep time to catch up on his own

On the other hand, his personality is definitely starting to develop more this week.  He's actually given a few genuine smiles (while awake)!  And he's starting to enjoy some play activities while awake -- like clapping his hands and playing with his lower lip -- those are sure ways to get him making happy faces.  Here's a short video of him playing:



And he still seems to be getting bigger and bigger.  He's too long for a lot of the onesies / sleepers that we started out with...it's looking like it's time to migrate to size 3-6 mos in the standard Gerber onesies!

Here are some pictures from his 3rd week:








Next week will be interesting -- Josh goes back to work, so I will be figuring out a new daytime routine by myself.