In his Own Room

Truman has slept the last two nights in his own room. And, that only involved Mama sleeping in the full bed in his room for about two hours last night. He actually seems to sleep more soundly in the nursery. Maybe it's the firmer mattress than the Pack-and-Play in our room. Maybe it's the air vent that blows cool air very near his bed (he is very hot-natured kid). But whatever it is, I expected this transition to be a lot harder on all of us. Even though I was sad to go to sleep without him in our room, I was surprised at how well I slept relying on just the monitor to hear him. And, I was surprised that he has only waked up to eat, and he didn't even do that the first night.

This weekend, we let go of Truman underwater for the first time in swim lessons and he continued to swim towards us just fine. So, he's not just kicking underwater, he's actually swimming. He's also up to five seconds of holding his breath underwater. We wonder whether the big strides he has made in swim lessons over the last two weeks and the huge developmental strides he has made are more than just a coincidence.

In developmental news, Ben offered Truman a sweet potato puff (kind of like a dissolvable Cheerio) last night and although he used his whole hand to pick it up out of Ben's hand, he used his thumb and forefinger to take it out of his own palm and transfer hands. We also introduced Truman to the toy box concept this weekend, placing a little basket of toys on his blanket on the floor. He crawled/scooted over to it and began taking things out. He's also clearly developing a memory as he seems to remember how the mechanical toys work now and he remembers that removable vent every time he's in our bathroom floor now.

In eating news, Truman has now added butternut squash to his list of favorite foods. He ate four ounces in one setting. We are also moving up to the second foods, which are a little thicker and putting the puffs mentioned above in his mouth to get him used to more consistencies in his food.

One milestone that I'm particularly proud that wasn't mentioned in Truman's one-year post is that I have made it past a year on pumping / breastfeeding. I am now officially an extended breastfeeder. We're still going strong and have no plans of stopping either anytime soon. Breastfeeding is important for all babies, but it's super important for preemies, so I am going to keep it up as long as it makes sense for us. I hope that means two years adjusted, so 12 months down, 16 to go. Law school was hard, but I think I am almost as proud of pumping and breastfeeding this long as I was of graduating law school.