- Duvan officially turned a month old on Saturday! WHOA!
- Duvan is now able to really control his head. He gets tired pretty quickly, but is able to keep up his head for a while before letting it fall into your hands or onto your chest. He's able to do a lot more with his body, turning his head side to side during tummy time, or keeping his head stable even while rocked. He also has a surprisingly strong kick!
- He is SO alert! Duvan's senses are a lot more acute now, and he follows things accurately with his eyes. Duvan loves it when Mommy's hair is tied on top of her head, and will go to great lengths to see it bopping around. It is amazing how much he's developed in the last week!
- The results for Duvan's bilirubin test checked out fine. We have a follow-up visit with the pediatrician next week Tuesday, to make sure everything is good. We look forward to another opportunity to find out how much he weighs! It was a little high, but not abnormal for a breastfed baby.
- Duvan's temperament! We are so thankful for his personality. He is so patient, and he exudes such a warmth and joy, always easy to please. We had a rather hectic weekend, but it did not seem to phase him at all, he was all too happy to absorb his surroundings, and hung out with us in everything we did! This weekend really brought about a freedom in us to take him along with us and do a bunch of things.
We are thoroughly enjoying our time with Schalk & Jana visiting. They love Duvan, and hang out with him a lot. It's amazing how much we as parents appreciate love shown to our child!
There are certain times during the day when Duvan seems to be particularly adorable. Anytime late at night, when it's a struggle to keep the atmosphere conducive to sleep. Another time is in the mornings; he's particularly happy early in the morning when waking up, and also after his morning nap. The changing table is another favorite spot, he always radiates with contentment while being changed. It may be the routine and the fact that it is a familiar environment in which he's getting loads of attention, but he's definitely super cute during that time! He might not necessarily be smiling ear to ear, but his eyes and body language are singing of happiness.
At times Duvan looks like has a million things to say and straining with all his might to try and get it out. He'll wave his arms in excitement and groan and do baby-talk, and work himself so deep under your skin that you cannot help but bubble with love for him.
Stretching makes out a big part of his daily routine. He looks just like an Anne Geddes baby (Dad wishes he could capture him like that too) when he stretches. When nursing, he will let Marésa know that he's done by pulling in his legs, pushing out his bum and stretching with a groan and a lot of talking!
Thursday night was really chilly, and Duvan got cold towards the morning and had troubled sleep. We decided that he could hang out with us in bed to warm up for the rest of the morning.
Sleeping has been going extremely well. Putting Duvan down for the evening went from a ~40min affair in the first 2 weeks to 10 minutes in the last two. He's falling asleep on his own now, although he still sometimes require us calming him with our hand on his belly, or just anything that lets him know we're around. We are now able to put him down while wide awake, and can expect him to fall asleep within the next 20 minutes. That is such an amazing blessing!
Here Duvan is spending some time with Jana. All he wanted was sleep, and Jana had the hardest time trying to convince him that mommy needs for him to be awake, since he had just eaten. He won the battle though and got to take a nice quiet nap. :)
Well, we really can't say enough about how alert Duvan is. He's growing so quickly, and literally surprises us on a daily basis with how much he seems to learn of the world he lives in. This morning he figured out that he can make the toys in his play-gym swing around if he swings his arm around in the same general vicinity of the toys. So he would just lie there for a while and every now and then "hit" the toy to watch it swing and hear the rattle. This evening Jan carried him around the house and explained each room a little, and he really loved the guided tour. Here he saw himself in the mirror (although he found the light above the mirror a lot more fascinating).
We've decided to take a monthly picture of Duvan in the same position on the same blanket, so that we can compare month to month to see how he's growing. In a couple of months, we'll let you in on the series, so you can experience the growth! Thank you so much for your comments (and private e-mails) on this site. We love to hear that you've visited, so please keep up the commenting! (If you haven't figured it out yet, there's a link right below this paragraph to the right that will allow you to "Post a Comment". Click on it and fill out the form to contribute to this webpage!).
O, jittetjie, hierdie ouma is darem so, so jaloers dat tannie Jana al met hom kan speel en nie sy nie! Maar toemaar, ons dag sal ook kom. Hy is pragtig julle en ons geniet ook net so baie om na die foto's te kyk. Josephinah is net so beindruk!!
Posted by: Pa & Ma Jacobs | October 30, 2003 12:27 PM
Makes me wanna have my own! :)
Just a suggestion: your page is not the easiest to navigate, maybe you should have a page with a link for each date... It will be easier to catch up on the reading! (this one page you are using is getting miles long!) ;)
Laetitia
Posted by: Laetitia | November 3, 2003 07:43 PM
Jan & Maresa - We just continue to rejoice at his growth and that he is bringing such joy to your lives! What a testimony to the goodness of God!
Posted by: Chris & Dana | November 4, 2003 10:40 AM
Hi everyone! Thanks for the great comments, we love to hear from you!
Leatitia, you have a great idea, we agree that this page is getting a little looong.
We've made a number of changes to facilitate navigation through the webpage. Firstly, we've shortened the front page. We've also added a "Recent Entries" section to the menu - which lists the last five entries. Finally, the entries in the monthly archives are now sorted ascending, so it reads a lot easier.
Hope it all helps! Keep up the commenting!
Posted by: Jan & Marésa | November 4, 2003 11:57 PM
