Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Little Man

Our newborn son, Little Man, seems to be following in his oldest sister's footsteps: he is loud, opinionated, and stubborn!  Fortunately for us, MJ and I agree that he's not quite as loud as CC was at this age.  But he's still a handful, that's for sure.

 
 
One major difference: he loves, and actually insists on, being held.  CC couldn't stand being held closely for any length of time, and Sweet Pea is content either way.  Maybe it's because Little Man was so squished when I was pregnant with him (he was Baby B, crammed high up into my rib cage), but this boy likes to be cuddled! I've often heard that boys tend to be more affectionate than girls, and so far it seems Little Man is proving that to be true.

He is still noticeably smaller than Sweet Pea, although he eats well so I expect he will begin to catch up eventually.  Newborn clothes are still pretty large on him, but not so much that he needs the Preemie size.  He still has that scrawny-newborn look about him. No fat rolls on this guy yet!

Little Man makes a unique, high-pitched squeak when he's starting to get worked up, and it's very recognizeable. People often ask me if I can differentiate between the twins' cries. The answer is "sometimes." If it's Little Man's squeak, then yes!  When he gets really upset, his cry is, "NAAA NAAA NAAA NAAA!" and he sounds a bit like an angry billy goat.

He makes the funniest faces, and we're always laughing at his expressions. Sometimes when he's quiet and awake, I will see him looking around, taking everything in, and I wonder if he'll be more of a careful thinker than our impulsive CC. Time will tell.

His hands are his biggest enemies.  He is always flailing them around, keeping himself awake, hitting himself, and knocking out his pacifier. Unless he is being held, he is generally not calm enough to sleep unless he is swaddled within an inch of his life. Once he is swaddled I can usually give him a pacifier and rig the swaddling blanket to hold the pacifier in place, even if he spits it out.  I feel a little guilty sometimes, but he probably spends about 90% of his time looking like this:


But it's the only way he's happy! And this boy is Houdini when it comes to busting out of a swaddle. I'll wrap him as tightly as I can (and trust me, I can swaddle a baby like nobody's business), but before long Little Man will have wriggled a hand out, ripped out his pacifier, and be wacking himself in the face and wailing away. I will reswaddle him, put the pacifier back in, and he'll calm down ... until the whole cycle begins again.

But he's just starting to make little smiles (I'm not sure whether they're gas or real smiles), and they melt my heart.  Will he be a mama's boy, eager to cuddle with me and give me sweet kisses?  Will he be a rough-and-tumble boy who gives CC a run for her money? I can't wait to see his personality develop.

6 comments:

Carol said...

Nice to get to know you, Little Man. I think you look JUST LIKE your dad in this top photo.

Jessica said...

Wow he really does look like MJ in all of his pictures.

sonya said...

So funny because my Little guy LOVED to be swaddled. We used 'the swaddle' and what i loved so much about it was the velcro didnt let his arms come out. Seldom his feet would come out but as long as his arms werent out, he was happy! I cant get over how sweet your babies are.

Morrisons said...

Sonya, we used swaddle sacks with CC, and use them now with Sweet Pea, but Little Man is too small for them still. I have to use blankets until he gets big enough to really get the swaddle sacks nice and tight.

Morrisons said...

Sorry guys -- I just realized I accidentally used the wrong first pic. I just changed it. The original one was already used in a post last week, plus it was an older pic and Little Man already looks a bit different. Mea Culpa!

Jessica said...

So fun!! They are both adorable! It's so fun to hear about their personalities.