mychouchou.com

I am sure every mom has asked herself those two question at least once: Too much? Not enough? Now that the chou-chou is in Week 10, I find myself asking those questions more.

First, there was the question of feeding too much. But as Brad commented, every kid is different. Chou-chou seems happy and he’s pooping and peeing fine. So, I guess I shouldn’t worry too much about feeding too much at this point.

Then, I start to wonder if he’s sleeping too much, or I think my real question is, am I not doing enough with him? On a typical day, the chou-chou would:

• sleeps/naps: 15-16 hours
• feeds x9 (say, 30 mins each)
• bath x1 (usually 20 mins)
• diaper change x8 (say, average 2 mins each)
• morning wipe – including face, gums, hands and bum (usually 5 mins)
• bedtime story/song/cuddle: 20 mins

That’s already 21 hours gone. The remaining 3 hours would be for play, songs, TV (hockey with daddy), Tummy Time, watch-Mommy-cook. We’ve also recently starting a 10-min storybook time.

According to an article, at Week 10:

if you put the back of a rattle up to your baby’s finger tips, he can probably grasp it and hold on. He may shake the rattle to make noise, and laugh at the result. He might be able to hold his head steady when he is holding it up, instead of it bobbing up and down a bit.

So, Chou-chou is definitely able to hold his head steady. He’s been able to do that since a bit over 1 month. But no matter how hard I try and encourage him to do so during our playtime, he’s still not grasping toys, blanket, towel…the only thing he’ll grasp on to is my fingers. Also, he’s not laughing yet. He smiles and grins a lot and he’s making tons of ohs and ahs sounds. The one thing he does the most is try to stuff his whole fist into his mouth and drool. But he’s just not laughing!

He’s also not rolling. I’ve been trying to roll him back and front during tummy-time. He loves it on his tummy, he’s getting better at pushing himself up; he’s even kicking his legs, trying to crawl. But he’s not rolling by himself, not even from side to back, or back to side.

So…am I not doing enough with him to stimulate his physical and intellectual growth? Or am I expecting too much from him (and reading too much?)

One thing’s good though, Chou-chou stayed over at Grandma’s the other night and though I had a hard time letting go, I got a lot done – I got him shelving units for his clothes and toys. I rearranged and decluttered his room. I scrubbed the entire house. I did 4 loads of laundry. I got 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I packed Jason’s breakfast and lunch. I enjoyed a nice breakfast at McDonald’s. All in the 24 hours he was at Grandma’s.