Picture Update

asleep at the park, with socks on his hands to keep them warm

asleep at home

wide awake on the changing table

with his godfather, Skyler

with his godmother, Mary

Jonah has been getting so big so quickly that it's hard to keep up with him. It seems like I'm constantly putting clothes back into the "too small" box. We bought 6-12 month socks last week and he's already outgrown them. How is that possible!? He's not even 7 weeks old.

We took him to the pediatrician to assess a rash he got on his chest. While we were there, we asked to weigh him because Kevin and I had bets going on how much he'd gained. (I thought he was around 12 lb, Kevin thought 15). Jonah is 14lb, 5oz!! I thought Kevin was crazy for thinking a six week old baby could be 15 pounds but he wasn't too far off! We have ourselves a big baby boy. He's cute, though, right? He's so happy most of the time, always cooing and giggling. He can really entertain himself, now, too. It's nice because we can put him on the playmats for a while and make dinner or pick up the living room and he'll just play with his rattles and talk to his stuffed animals. It's very cute (and convenient!) . We took him to visit the nursing home where I had clinicals last semester and I have to agree with a nurse there: "You make good babies. You need to make more."

Jonah is so awesome I can actually contemplate having more babies at some point, although not anytime soon.

Jonah's New Noise

Jonah Laughs

Jonah was a little angel at the play last night. He didn't fuss once, even when he woke up. Today's another good day. Jonah's all smiles and coos and giggles. He's so cute I almost can't stand it.

I spoke too soon yesterday. Jonah had a terrible evening, night, and now day today. He cries constantly unless he's eating, and he can't seem to get enough. We had to give him formula twice today because he emptied me out and still cried for more. He must be going through a growth spurt, but that seems almost impossible since we measured him yesterday and he's already 25 inches long! We looked it up on the growth chart and it's over the 100th percentile, given that he's not even six weeks old. He's too long for his 3 month clothes and we had to go up another size in diapers. He's growing so fast, no wonder he's grumpy. Poor little guy. Last night, his godparents came over but he wouldn't let them hold him. He wouldn't even let Kevin hold him. He insisted that it be me, all evening and all night. It was equal parts endearing and annoying. I felt bad today because I think it started to hurt Kevin's feelings a little bit this morning. I had Kevin give him a bottle earlier and that seemed to help Jonah remember that he has two parents who can comfort him.

The thing about Jonah is that when he won't stop crying, it seems like he can sense when you're getting ready to toss him out the window. Just as my patience is about to run out, he'll flash me this big smile and give me a little giggle and all the hours of crying suddenly don't seem so bad. Which is good, because after that giggle is through, there's always more crying coming up. But he's just so darn cute, even when he's upset, it's hard to get too irritated with him.

Tonight we're going with our neighbors and Mary&Skyler to Shakespeare in the Park. I'm doubly nervous now that Jonah's so fussy, but he's finally asleep so we'll have to keep our fingers crossed that maybe this bad spell has passed.

Kevin worked yesterday and today. A couple of weeks ago, these would have been long, hard days to get through on my own. This week, however, they've been kind of wonderful. First off, the baby is sleeping better and for longer stretches. This makes a huge difference! He still rarely sleeps longer than 3 hours at a stretch, but he does the three hours pretty consistently now and at night he goes right back to sleep after eating. He's also getting better about sleeping in his crib. In fact, he's sleeping there right now. Though when he wakes up and realizes he's alone in his crib, he is NOT a happy camper.

The other thing that makes him so much more fun these days is that he's a lot more interactive. He watches our faces now and sometimes will imitate our facial expressions. He thinks certain songs are funny (especially one about a fly on his nose). He almost always grins when we take his hands to swat at the fly on his nose. Jonah still thinks Kevin is hilarious and he still thinks the wall in the living room is funnier than both of us put together. He doesn't talk to us that much, but he loves to talk to his stuffed Monkey and Duck. You can see in the picture, they're pretty much his best friends.

I've been taking him on more outings. He and I went to Target by ourselves and he was really well behaved. Having the baby sling works wonders. He just sits in it, wide eyed and takes in everything around him. We were at Target for an hour and he didn't cry at all. We also took him out for ice cream with his godparents and he behaved beautifully. He just watched everything and then fell asleep against me while we were eating. What a good baby! Tomorrow we're going to attempt taking him with us to Shakespeare in the Park. It's family friendly and outside, so I don't think anyone will mind us having a baby with us. There's usually a lot of kids there. Hopefully since it will be dark and past his bedtime, he will sleep for most of it, but we're going to arm ourselves with the pacifier and nursing cover, just in case!

What a difference a month makes! The top picture is Jonah a day after we brought him home. The bottom picture is him on his one month birthday in the same outfit.

Jonah is officially one month old! The colic seems to be getting better, although maybe I shouldn't speak too soon - Kevin works again tonight and I don't need any bad luck...

Jonah has started talking, mostly to himself. He's getting better about entertaining himself and will play for 10 or 15 minutes now on his little stack of blankets we've made for him. It's so cute to hear him cooing and gurgling to himself and Monkey while I grab a quick meal or take a bathroom break.

Jonah also now has official godparents! Mary and Skyler agreed to be his godmother/father yesterday, his one month birthday. We were all very happy and will be going out for ice cream to celebrate soon.

Jonah has had a much better day today. He's catching up on all the sleep he missed out on the last two days. Kevin kept him overnight while I slept and he said Jonah slept pretty well. He's been sleeping all day today, too. It's like heaven, having a sleeping baby again. He's probably just storing up again for his next bout of colic, but I don't care - I'll take whatever peace he'll give me.

I'm looking at him and I can't get over how gorgeous his is, colic and all. He holds his head up a lot now and makes all kinds of noises, like he's experimenting to find out what that voice box can do. My favorite are the little cooing noises he makes when he's calm and sometimes in his sleep. I have no idea what he weighs now, but as you can clearly see, he is getting huge! I can't believe my tiny little baby is no longer tiny at all. He'll be four weeks old on Monday and he's outgrown all his newborn clothes and many of the 0-3 month onsies. Thank goodness for hand me downs from his older cousins! Without them we'd be destitute, wrapping our poor baby in grocery bags.

We took a very long walk today, the longest since the baby. We had a big thunderstorm earlier in the day, so the air was nice and cool. We walked through the community garden at my favorite park. The baby slept in the carrier and Kevin and I were able to talk to each other like real people. It was lovely.

It's been a rough couple of days over here. Jonah's colic has hit full force. He has cried around the clock, rarely going more than an hour without fussing. So that means rarely sleeping for more than an hour at a time. It's manageable when Kevin's here to take turns, but he was working the last two nights and then sleeping during the day, which left me alone with the baby for two days and nights. By this afternoon I was pretty sure I was going crazy, maybe hallucinating. But then it turned out that I'd put in a Looney Tunes DVD that had the really early black and white cartoons on it. Do you have any idea how weird those are? Not something you want to watch when you haven't been sleeping. It's terrifying. Probably not something you want to watch when you have been sleeping. Yikes.

I need a nap.

Kevin's at work now, working his first shift since Jonah arrived - a night shift as luck would have it. We dropped him off at 7 and Jonah cried for the first two hours his dad was gone. Nothing soothed him, not even nursing. He's finally asleep now, though, and looking so sweet I think I'll forgive him for his earlier fussy spell.

Jonah's tummy troubles have been getting worse the last couple of days. I just hate that he's so uncomfortable. We're going to try this gripe water that the pediatrician recommended. We bought some yesterday but the seal was broken on the bottle so we're going to exchange it today. Hopefully this will ease some of his discomfort. A couple of days ago he was crying for a long time and big fat tears rolled down his cheek - his first real tears. I thought my heart would break.

Jonah's also smiling more. The pediatrician says he's too young to smile on purpose, but look at that picture! Kevin was playing with him and he kept smiling right at his dad. Could be coincidence I suppose, but I'll go ahead and believe he's just advanced for his age.

Jonah changes so much every day. He is really turning into his own little person instead of a floppy pooping machine. He now moves his arms a lot more and grabs onto everything that comes into reach. Given enough time, he can get out of any swaddle, even the fancy swaddling blankets that velcro shut. He honks like a goose when he eats, bleats like a lamb when he sleeps and squeaks like a mouse when he wants something. I tell Kevin it's like having our own personal little barnyard. He sleeps a lot, but he fights falling asleep tooth and nail. His eyes will start to drop closed and then he'll snap them back open and cry. He just doesn't want to miss out on anything!

Jonah did not take too well to the bottle. There was lots of crying and sputtering, but he did manage to get most of it down. I think it will just take some getting used to. I'm glad we started with the pumping now so we can slowly introduce it to him. Seeing how much he hates eating from a bottle, it would have been kind of terrible to wait until I needed to go back to school and then suddenly spring several bottles a day on him. The good news from all this is that the pump we got works like a dream. I can get five ounces in ten minutes, which is much faster than when Jonah decides to have a meal.

We're still dealing with a touch of colic, which can be kind of heartbreaking. He cries when he nurses, when he's rocked, and even in his sleep. It really seems like his tummy his hurting him and I wish so much that I could make it better. The one thing that seems to calm him down is putting him in his carseat on the floor. I don't know if it's the angle of the seat or what, but he sleeps better there than anywhere else.

Our little boy is getting very big very fast. He had his second pediatrician appointment today and he already weighs 9lb 13oz! Just eleven days ago he was 8lb, 3oz. He'd been looking a lot bigger to me and he does eat every 1-2 hours around the clock so I wasn't terribly surprised. The doctor said it may be a personal record for him though - he'd never seen a kid in his office gain that much weight that quickly! We're going to start doing one bottle a day just so I can get a break and a little sleep. I think the deprivation is starting to catch up with me - I feel a little more like a zombie and a little less like a person every day. The pediatrician said I should be getting at least one four hour stretch of sleep a day. I told him, "I haven't had that since Jonah was born!" He said we should start with a bottle today. I think Kevin and I both are looking forward to his feeding the baby.

Jonah took his first little walk today. It was a very short walk to accommodate his mother, but it was so nice to get out of the house and get a little sunshine. He seemed to really like the Baby Bjorn and Kevin loved toting the baby around in it.

We're still still in full swing parenthood over here. It's nothing like I thought it would be. I assumed I would be overwhelmed most of the time and feel these huge rushes of new love for my baby. Instead, most of the time I feel peaceful about my new role, like this is what I'm supposed to be doing. I feel the same way about Jonah - he doesn't feel new and overwhelming but like someone who's been here all along. The first time Kevin and I were alone with him in the hospital I said, "I can't imagine ever not knowing what he looked like." I felt like I'd known that little face my whole life and that feeling has never really left me.

I think we may have the cutest baby. I'm still working on getting better and may have to make yet another trip to the midwives tomorrow, but it really doesn't seem so bad when Jonah shows off his little dimples.

Things have been very busy around here lately. We got out of the hospital on the 9th, the same day we were supposed to start moving back in to the apartment. Kevin and Mom worked very hard the next couple of days moving everything back in and unpacking boxes while taking care of Jonah and me. I seemed to be getting worse instead of better in terms of recovery and returned to the midwives last Friday to find out I was probably having a bad reaction to my stitches. They wanted me to keep them in over the weekend, though, to facilitate long term healing. It was my decision - they offered to take them out that day if I wanted, but then my healing might now go as smoothly. So I stuck it out for a couple of pretty rough days. Kevin and Mom were both amazing, putting the apartment back together while waiting on me hand and foot since I couldn't get out of bed. This morning, I had most of them out, and am now on pain medicine and antibiotics to hopefully get to feeling better soon. I am feeling better already, I think, or at least I seem to be moving around better. I sat in the rocking chair with Jonah for over an hour with hardly any pain. I am optimistic that the next few days will see me in much better health.

Jonah himself is doing very, very well. He has the most alert little eyes. He just watches you when you talk to him like he understands everything you're saying. He is obviously very, very smart. He's also very cute, but the pictures show you that. He's "flying through his developmental milestones" according to his pediatrician. We were not surprised - he has easily mastered all of his bodily functions. He is an excellent nurser and pooper, sometimes almost too much so (he goes through several outfits a day). We are very proud of our little boy. Kevin is great with him. On our first day in the hospital, Kevin was too afraid to change his diaper by himself, but he's already a pro now. Because I can't change diapers too well from bed, Kevin's learned to do it in record time. He also remains very good at calming Jonah down, just like he was when Jonah was still in my tummy. Jonah just loves to listen to his daddy's voice.