We survived the first week!

We've officially been parents for two weeks now-- one in Taiwan and one at home in Tucson. That first week in Taiwan was actually much easier than the week we just stumbled through at home. Quentin is doing pretty well except for bedtime. He is still not really adjusted to the time zone difference so bedtime has been of the 5:00 in the morning variety. Bleary eyed and frustrated, we've struggled all week trying to force him into a more "normal" schedule. We try laying him down at 10:00 or 11:00 at night or as soon as he yawns. This works for all of about 20 minutes and then he wakes up screaming bloody murder. We have tried everything to no avail. After changing diapers, feeding bottles, rocking, swaying, singing, playing music, turning the lights on brighter, turning the lights down lower, turning the mobile on, then turning the mobile off, and even going for a car ride, I have finally come to the conclusion that this is all futile. He will go to sleep when he's good and ready and we are fools to try and force some arbitrary scheduled on him just because it's more convenient for us. Don't get me wrong-- I don't mean to say that he should never be on a schedule. Quite the contrary! But I do think we've been silly to assume that just because we adjusted to the time change in a few days that he should too. This epiphany came one particularly trying night in the middle of last week when, after 2 or 3 hours of straight scream ing and arching his back, I "gave up" and just when downstairs with him and let him play on the floor with his toys. Surprise, surprise. He was quiet and happy and wide awake. And around 5:00 am he started making gestures like he was tired so I dared to put him to bed and like magic, he went to bed with no tears. We've tried a few times since then to see if he'll stay asleep when he firsts starts acting sleepy around 11:00, but if he breaks into a blood-curdling scream, we don't fight him on it much. I've decided that it's better to just stay up late until he's more tired and we can try the schedule thing at a more gradual pace than what we've been doing so far. two nights ago, Brian actually got him down for the night at 1:00 am and last night I was able to lay him down for good at 3:00. Today, he was acting really sleepy around 2:00 so I swayed back and forth with him for about 10-15 minutes and he just about fell asleep in my arms. He has woken 3 or 4 times and fussed for a minute or two since then, but for the most part i think we may have at mild success tonight getting him down at 2:00. We'll see what happens tomorrow! Maybe by next week we'll have him down to midnight. Eventually I'd like to get his bedtime around 8:00 at night but that seems sooooo far off in the future that I'm trying not to stress about it. We'll take the small victories and try to survive one day at a time until then.
Other than the bedtime issues, the rest of the day he is doing so well. He smiles and giggles all day and just lights up when we play with him. He started talking in gibberish this week which is incredibly cute. He'll say "da-da-da-da" and blow spit bubbles and making a razzing sound. And when he giggles you just want to melt! He likes to lay on his tummy with all four limbs extended and rock back and forth laughing hysterically. He looks like a little head banger rock star sometimes because he gets himself going and his head is bobbing up and down as his body shimmies in a circle, all the while he's laughing and grinning from ear to ear. Those moments almost make you forget the 4:00 am screaming marathons. Almost :)
tomorrow we take Quentin to the pediatrician for his first visit. I'll try to post tomorrow night to let everyone know how it goes. And hopefully I can add some more pictures too!!

Well, it's off to bed for me. I should've jumped in bed the second he went to sleep, but I've had this blog on my mind and am glad I took the time to add a few thoughts.