Two weeks

Darling Son,

You are now officially two weeks old. Crazy. How can that be already?? I was blessed to have the entire morning and afternoon all to myself with you today, which caused me to reflect on your little life thus far. You had your two-week check-up yesterday, so it's a good time to review!

First off, I'm obsessed with your hair. It's so "man" already! Pretty, dark brown and full. Just like your daddy and your sisters at this age. And you have an adorable built-in part already...you look so mature even at this young age! Haha! A dear friend of mine--the previous Children's Pastor at our church, commented that you have a very Republican look about you. And I couldn't agree more...your hair is ready for politics for sure!!

Your hair looks best when you're straight out of the bath, so most of your photos thus far are just that--right after your bath. The photos in this post are from this very morning. (By the way, so far you've not been a big fan of baths. Today's bath, though, was a little less fussy for you! Maybe you're getting used to it.)
At the doctor, you weighed 7 lbs. 4.5 oz. That's a great gain! You're in the 25th percentile for weight, and the 50th percentile for height. At this point the doctors want you to have regained to at least your birth weight, and you're well past it. You were 6 lbs. 13 oz. when you were born.

You've already actually visited your doctor's office even though most babies don't have to go until age two weeks. You went a couple of days after we came home because your hospital pediatrician was concerned with your eating and that you weren't "getting" it quite yet. So he recommended we have you checked out. But it only took you a couple of days to figure it out. Daddy thinks you finally decided "Hey! I'm hungry!" and decided you were ready to eat!

The first time I held you, you were laying on your tummy on my chest. You immediately held your head up and looked at me--and kept it steady! From that moment, you've been doing that. You're a champ at tummy time!

You really love your pacifier. REALLY love it. Although it seems like you're depending on it less these last couple of days, for the first week or so of your life you couldn't deal without it.

You love to sleep swaddled up, and your daddy's a champion swaddler. The last few days, though, you've busted your arms out of the swaddle, so I'm wondering if you're about done with blankets?

You're settling into a lovely routine, which makes me insanely happy! Today was by far your best day--eating, playing, napping on schedule.


You sleep for 4-5 hour stretches each night. The only really difficult night we've had was your second night at home. You were awake every two hours that night! But generally, you're only up once in the middle of the night sometime between 2-3 AM, and you're awake for breakfast sometime between 5-7 AM.

You're currently eating 3 ounces of formula every 3 hours. But we think you're about ready to be bumped up to 3.5 ounces.

For the last two days, you've been more alert than ever! Yesterday you were really looking around and taking in your surroundings. Today when I talked to you, you'd look directly into my eyes and even give me some facial expressions!

You've smiled for me a lot...even during the first few days of your life! You most often give me a half-smile, but the last few days I've been getting whole smiles, too. (The half-smile is going to kill the ladies when you grow up! It's adorable!)



Daddy has trouble getting you to burp, but for me you're a champ. You almost always burp for me within the first few seconds of being upright! That's such a refreshing change from your sisters, who were almost always impossible to burp.

Only in the last couple of days, you've begun every now and then to grab a little fistful of your hair and pull soooo hard. It makes you cry--hard--but you don't understand how to let go, so it's a cycle. Even Daddy can't get you to let go! Poor baby! You didn't do it today at all, so hopefully that phase is over.

When you cry, Daddy describes it as sounding like a jungle bird.

All the things that are supposed to fall off of you in the first few weeks of your life--one of which is your umbilical cord stump ("umbie", we call it!), the other I'll not mention here on the blog--fell off very early Monday morning, May 18. Again, a refreshing change from your sisters. They held on to their umbies for almost a month!!

You had your first trip to an auto parts store last night.




You are so laid back and rarely get fussy. (I see a pattern here...again, a big change from your sisters...) You sleep in a cradle next to our bed still, and we can take a shower at night, get ready in the mornings, etc., with the bathroom lights flaring, making all our usual noises, etc., without you making a peep. Your sisters were verrrrry light sleepers. We couldn't ever move in our bedroom when your sisters were babies!

You and your sisters are going to have your daddy's runner's legs, I think. Your legs, ankles and feet are really, really skinny!

You began to grip this week!

Your eyes are a very dark blue--a slightly different shade than your sisters--but I'm not convinced they're going to stay that way. I see subtle shades of brown in them, and they seem to have gotten darker and less blue in the last couple of days. It'll be funny if they do turn brown--you and Daddy would have brown eyes, me and the girls would have blue eyes!

You don't mind it when your sisters come and paw all over you. In fact, M loves to hold you, and you let her do it most of the time!

You used to poop during every single bottle, but it's tapered off in the last couple of days to just once or twice a day. I'm happy about it, but then again it's also getting stinkier! :0)

I'm happy to say that you've only peed on me three times so far, and you've "gotten" Daddy several more times than that! The first time was one of the first times I changed your diaper--at home. Second time was while I was changing you in the middle of the night on my side of the bed. It shot over all the way onto your daddy's blanket! We had a good laugh about it. It was quite an impressive trajectory!

Your skin is very "peely" like Rosie's was. It doesn't seem to bother you, thankfully! Your skin is also a pretty, darker olive color like your daddy's is. Your sisters were born the same way, but theirs grew lighter like mine as they grew. I've been thinking the last couple of days that maybe your skin is looking lighter, but maybe it's my imagination. Who knows whether or not you'll retain the physical characteristics of your ethnic background?! I thought your sisters would, but they pretty much turned out looking Swedish like me. :0)

You have long, very slender fingers and toes. M has them too, but Rosie's fingers are shorter. But you all have long monkey toes like your daddy!

You're the only one of our children without the longer middle toe! I think one day the girls are going to be mad that you have the "even" toes and not them! We'll have to remind them that the long middle toe comes from their daddy and not me!

You're wearing newborn sized clothes still, although your onesies are beginning to get a little snug. We'll be moving up to 0-3 months soon!

You're still in a newborn sized diaper.

Unlucky for you, you have blocked tear ducts like Rosie did. So you, too, have to deal with crusty, goopy eyes that get stuck shut sometimes. It makes your mommy sad!

When it's cuddle time for you and me, sometimes I reassure myself by telling you that I understand that one day you won't be mine--your heart will eventually belong to another woman, and I'm okay with that--but for right now you're mine. :0) And I do all I can to memorize what it feels like to wrap my arms around your little, tiny, warm, sweet-smelling body.

Just like M and Rosie, I love you so much it feels like my heart could burst.