7 weeks old

My little Shaw is 7 weeks old. Things are going well. He is still sporadic, however like I have said before I don't know if it is him or me. With your first child you are able to focus solely on that child. With the second one, things just are not the same. I have a 2 year old running around who is also demanding my attention so I don't have as much time to focus on Shaw's behaviors and leading him to a set schedule like I was able to do with Emma.

Mornings he is the most awake--with little to no naps from the time he wakes up (around 630) until noonish. Then he sleeps a lot in the afternoon. He wakes up usually one time through the night. That time ranges from midnight to 2am. With Emma it was pretty much 2 am every night, like clockwork. One thing that is different now is that I work with Corey in Maple Lake (for my dad) and we leave our house at 520 am for work....so if I can slightly tweak his schedule to wake up at 3 then 4 then 430 we will be good. I returned to work on Monday and Monday night was fantastic....Shaw slept thru the night. We put him to bed around 8pm or so and at 4:30 I had to go and wake him up. It was great....and also a fluke. I am writing right now at 4am..and woke up with him around 2:30. It's ok..one step at a time. He is still eating about 5 oz every 3-4 hours. He still loves to be swaddled and loves to be wrapped in blankets. This usually means he is sweating but he doesn't mind.

I think Shaw is looking more and more like Corey. His eyes are a darker blue right now. Corey has hazel eyes ..but Shaw's could always lighten up. I feel like his face structure and features resemble Corey...for sure more than me. A little side story--he also sweats like Corey...so I don't know if anyone else (or their husbands) have this situation but Corey's side of the bed is several shades darker than mine. Yes, it doesn't help that we have white sheets..but anywhere that his skin connects with the sheets is darker. I don't know if it is sweat or just body oils or what. Whenever I wash our sheets (and bleach them) Corey tries to switch the sheets around so he doesn't have the 'dirty' side. I say no way, because then our sheets are going to look dingy everywhere rather than just where his body falls...because my side is still very white. It's an ongoing joke at our house. Well, Shaw has the same thing going on...only since he is clothed/swaddled, the only area that connects with his crib sheets is his neck/head...and where in that spot a dingy circle has formed. It's just kind of funny and I think Corey probably likes to see more of 'him' in our kids...although Emma doesn't look like him..she is sure turning out to have his temper---yippee!

Emma is still fantastic. She recently has learned to give him his nuk and also feed him. She loves him so much and we enjoy watching her interact with him. The downside is when I lay him on the couch or on the floor so I can do laundry/dishes/etc I have to keep an eye on her because even if he is content..or even sleeping..she will still attempt to feed him or shove the nuk in his mouth. She is a very eager helper.

As the end of summer comes around the corner, our racing season is also finishing up. Corey has traveled the last two week-ends to visit new tracks that he has been thinking about. This coming week-end is the Wissota 100 in Huron, but we will not be going. This means the entire week-end is open--its a crazy thing that never happens, literally first time this summer! Next week-end he will only race on Sunday in St. Cloud. The following week-end is the triple header in St. Cloud at the all new Granite City Speedway (formerly Golden Spike). We love it there so we are excited about that. Then we will finish up our season in Alexandria for the Fall Classic the first week-end in October. What is in store for next year? We haven't made the final decision. When Corey came home from Iraq and wanted to start racing we made a 5-year deal saying we would race for 5 years, after that we would re-negotiate if it still fit in our lives or if it would be family time. This year was our 5th year, so we will be negotiating and see how racing fits in to the next chapter of our lives.

I think that is about it. Enjoy these last warm days that we have before the cold comes!