Well, we’ve past the Week 13 mark for Baby Ethan, and I’ve come to a single, undeniable conclusion: I’m incredibly lucky.
First of all, his sleeping habits. Ethan sleeps better than I do! After his late-night bottle, usually between 10-11pm, we change him and put him down (swaddled, as his arms are still very active). He usually falls asleep with minimal complaining… and stays asleep until 6am or 7am! Usually he wakes up at 6am with a yelp, but putting a soother in his mouth knocks him out again for another 60-90 minutes, like a Baby Snooze Button. I am very fortunate here; I honestly haven’t had more than 2-3 nights with Ethan awake between midnight and 5am in nearly two months.
The second is his eating habits. Because of complications during delivery, Ethan is bottle-fed rather than breast-fed. While this has the consequence of VERY high food costs (he uses Nestle’s probiotic formula, typically $30 a can), it means I can do feedings without my wife Mrs. Taylor being involved. This allows for some quality father-son bonding time. And he eats like a CHAMP. Some of our friends still have 3-month-old babies eating every three hours. Ethan however has a breakfast bottle (8am), a lunch bottle (12-1pm), a dinner bottle (5-7pm) and a late night bottle (10-11pm). That’s it: four feedings of a whopping 7oz per feeding. It also has the added benefit of some hilariously potent and forceful belches coming out of the little guy. But his schedule is fairly consistent, which makes him wonderfully predictable. We now know that if we feed him, we have a 3-4 hour window to do any errands.
And finally, we have Ethan’s temperament. He is most agitated when he’s tired or hungry, and slightly upset when his diaper is wet. Other than that, he very rarely cries. We brought him to a family reunion this past weekend, and he was golden. He met (and was passed around by) 25-30 different people, and for nearly four hours he barely made a peep (except when he was hungry). At the end of hour four he started to have enough and became a little cranky, but by that point it was more than understandable. He’s such a happy baby: the first thing he does when he sees my face in the morning is break into a massive grin and start cooing. I’ll tell you, that is THE best way to start the day; you can’t be in a bad mood after having your baby son flash a huge grin simply because he’s aware of your presence.
If this sounds like bragging, it isn’t… much. 
It’s more to share how happy I am with my son, how lucky I am that he’s the way he is, and how much I’m enjoying being a father. And really, that’s the entire reason I started this irregularly-updated blog in the first place!
I should be able to update more than bi-weekly now that work is quieting down. I’m also working on a few sports-related articles to mix things up. Thanks for stopping by!
