Dream feed magic

For those unfamiliar with babies, the "dream feed" is the middle-of-the-night feed around midnight. It is so named because it is given a few hours after his bedtime in the middle of his night sleep session when he is sleepy and should be dreaming.

As father, I've taken the role of Official Dream Feeder so that mom can pump and tend to other things. Official Dream Feeder is a role I very much enjoy. I get to gently wake baby up, change his diaper and give him his midnight bottle. I then burp baby, clean up any spilt (or spit-up) milk and put him back to sleep.

Handling the dream feed every night gives me quiet time to observe the day-to-day changes in our son's behavior. It's really amazing the changes that you can notice when you're paying attention. Last night, for example, he would wave his little hands around bumping them into the sides of the bottle. Sometime during the day today, though, he figured out how to actually hold the bottle on his own. When I sat him on my lap tonight and lifted the bottle towards his mouth, his tiny hands immediately shot out and securely grabbed both sides of the bottle. A new level unlocked.

No one taught him this and he didn't observe anyone else holding the bottle that way since adults only use one hand to hold a bottle. He figured it out all on his own. I know this is entirely normal and that all babies figure out how to hold their bottles, but it doesn't detract from the feeling of magic and awe that I feel watching my son learn without being taught.