Liam is a month old!

Liam turned a month old on the 15th of June! Some days I feel like we just brought him home from the hospital and other days I feel like he's always been a part of our lives. I'm starting to feel a bit more confident in my parenting skills and not afraid I'll break him when I burp him, like I felt at the hospital. "Pat him harder", the nurse would insist.

Liam has already made a long road-trip to his "home state" Texas. He was a little trooper and did so well. He got to meet more family there, unfortunately he couldn't meet his great-grandfather whom he is named after because we were there for his funeral. Liam was quite popular and everybody wanted their turn to hold him. While it was amazing to see how much he was loved, part of me was also sad that he wasn't in my arms. While we were having our afternoon meal and someone was holding Liam, Will's aunt Kathy comes up to me and says "Thank you for letting us hold your baby. I always found that hard with my babies to let someone else hold them because they belonged in my arms. You look calm on the outside but I know it must be very hard on the inside". I managed to nod and smile but I could have burst into tears and hugged her. She had read my mind. Amy, your mother is awesome.

Here's what I've learnt about Liam in the past month:
- He NEEDS three naps a day. Some days he thinks he doesn't need one but if I give in, I'm in for a crying fest in the evening when he's overtired and overstimulated. He usually takes a morning nap from about 9.30-11am, an early afternoon nap for about 30 minutes and a late afternoon nap from about 3-5pm. When he fights his naps I just have to persist and he'll eventually fall asleep. When he's slept enough during the day (like he did yesterday), he's such a calm, happy baby in the evenings and sleeps much better at night!
- I need to burp, burp, burp him or he's going to be fussy. So our routine now is eat, burp and soothe for nap time / bed time. I can't wait for when he's older and we'll also have play time in there!
- Liam loves motion/speed. He hates it when I sit down and rock him. I have to walk (very fast) around the house when swinging him. Better still, jog/run. There's my daily cardio workout! When Will puts him down for the night at around 8pm, it's after he's run up and down the stairs for about 5 minutes and around the living room and kitchen for another 5 minutes. Liam's out like a light! He wakes up a few times during the night to eat and finally wakes up for his breakfast at 8 am.
- There's no trying to put him on schedule or change his schedule. We've found that letting him lead is best. Now that we've learnt to watch for his cues, we've learnt to anticipate his needs before he cries and so he cries less!
- Liam loves to nap in his swing. But his swing isn't fast enough for him, little speed demon. So I have to sit next to the swing and swing it much faster than its motor was designed for and wait till he's in deep slumber so I can go do the dishes, cook dinner and clean the house while the motor takes over. Sometimes he'll stay in deep slumber long enough for me to paint my toenails or blog, other days he'll wake up every 15 minutes and I rock him back to sleep until he cues for food.
- When he's upset, he loves white noise (tune into a non-existing radio station, play the sound of rain) and he loves being laid on the washer when we're doing a load of laundry. He doesn't share my hatred for thunderstorms and thunder hardly startles him.
- There are two 15-minute intervals in the day where he's content to sit on his bouncer and watch me fold laundry as long as I talk loudly to him.
- There are some days (or nights) that he just needs a good cry. There's nothing wrong with him. He's been fed, burped, changed and isn't gassy. All he needs is to be held close and loved till he's done.

A friend of ours remarked that it is crazy how parents figure these things about their babies. Babies don't talk but they do communicate! I've also been told that he's basically trying to recreate his womb experience. Now that I think about it, I did spend a lot of time running up and down stairs while packing up for our upcoming move and I suppose my insides sound like a thunderstorm. (Note to self - next pregnancy, live it up on the couch with a remote and ditch the cardio for some stretches.)