March for Babies 2008

The March of Dimes "March for Babies 2008" was held this morning. After 13 straight days of temperatures above 70° (a record) temps last night dropped to the lower 40's. When we arrived at the Walk the windchill was a frigid 21°. We packed Max tight with blankets, free t-shirts, and sweatshirts and kept his wind guards closed. He was toasty warm, we froze. We quickly made our way to the end of the walk and came home.
Thank you so very much to everyone who sponsored us for this year's walk. We raised $640 -our best year yet!

I've been feeling pretty sick, and we've been so busy lately we decided we'd spend the rest of the day sitting on the couch and watching movies. We've finished all of the Indiana Jones movies, and now we're going to work on the stuff we have from Netflix. What a great day.

On to our next dvd....

Two Month Checkup

I was right! 10 pounds, Zero ounces. He sure is packing on the pounds. He's also up to 21¼" long.

Max's two month checkup was today and things went well. The doctor is pleased with his growth and all of his talents (on a side note, the Doc smiled every time Max farted, so even the "well educated" think that baby farts are funny). He's still a bit behind for his age, but the Dr. explained that technically Max is only 1 month old, and that by 6 months he will have caught up with any 6 month old that was carried to term. We had lots of questions to ask, and the Doc spent a good amount of time answering them. He's a really good guy.

Unfortunately, Mr. Max did have to get his first round of shots today, it was either 4 or 5 total, and he screamed louder than I had ever heard out of him. He's a pretty tough kid-outside of having his blood drawn when he was born I've never heard him scream or cry out of pain. He cried for a few minutes but was remarkably well composed just 2 or 3 minutes after his shots. We were pretty proud of the little guy. He's a trooper.Tonight he gets his bath, and we'll all watch the Pistons. Tomorrow, the Walk!

Growin' like a weed

Damn he grows fast!

Seeing him everyday it's not obvious how fast he's growing. But clothes that fit him on Tuesday, don't fit him on Thursday. He's now outgrown his "Newborn" clothes and is finally up to 0-3 mos stuff. He doesn't fit in the "hammock" part of the baby tub and now has to sit in it like a big boy (one who takes baths in a little blue plastic tub). He's growing an awesome little Buddha Belly.

He's doing pretty good at night, most of the time. He's even had a few nights where he slept for 5 or 6 hours straight. He's awake a lot more during the day, even getting in some "playtime" with Mom before noon. He tends to be fussy right around the time that I get home from work until he goes to bed. He can be tough to feed at these times, but we make it work.

He's becoming more and more aware every day. He's noticing things around him more and more, and his smile is becoming more and more frequent. He likes it when we play with him, and can even hold on to his little baby keys.

Tomorrow Bobbie Jo is bringing him by my work to meet everyone, and on Friday morning we have his 2 month appointment (he was 8 weeks on Monday). I'm thinking he'll weigh in at over 10 lbs, mom thinks he's not quite there yet. We've got a notebok full of questions to ask when we get there. Saturday we'll be taking him on the March of Dimes walk. We've been trying to get him out for a walk every day, so we think he should do fine. He likes his walks as he turns his head from side to side to get in as much as he can.

Tonight the three of us are watching the Pistons. We'll post again after our doctors appointment.

The Many Emotions of Maxwell

Click the video to see Maxwell as his displays his many emotions.
Confusion
Happiness
Boredom
Farting
Pride
Grumpy
Tired
Angry
Hiccuppy
Misery

A few videos

Here are a few videos of Max that I finally got around to putting up.

March 30, 2008 (Sorry for the background noise, Bobbie Jo is putting away dishes upstairs)


April 4, 2008 (Max making faces while he poops-he's going to kill me for this when he's older)

What a difference a week makes

Its been a busy week. Things have been going well, and he's feedings are getting much easier. He's been sleeping three to four hours after his feedings at night, and spends more time awake during the day. Its been a little difficult figuring things out when he's awake, as we're used to a simple "when he's awake he eats" schedule.

We've had a few really exciting developments. He's outgrown his "Newborn" diapers. The diapers that used to go up to his nipples, were now stretched, and crunched under his ever growing belly. Bobbie Jo had him at the doctor this week (she was worried about a cold-he doesn't have one) and he weighed a little over 9 pounds. HOLY COW-NINE POUNDS!!! He's also starting to push the limits of his "Newborn" clothes, we'll probably start him in some of the 0-3 mos clothes in a week or so. On Wednesday we met with the day care people. It looked like a nice place, and the people were very friendly. Bobbie Jo is terrified about leaving him there when she returns to work. I'm not terribly thrilled about it either.

The two most exciting things that happened are his noises and his smile. Less than an hour ago Max smiled at me. We had thought he had been smiling before, but seeing this one it was obvious, this was his first. He shortly followed it up with an encore so his Mommy could see. It was a pretty exciting Sunday morning. He's also started to make "communication" noises. They aren't the usual grunts and pfffffts that he has been making since birth, these noises are different. We can tell that they are something he is doing on purpose.

It's been an awesome week. They just keep getting better.

In case you haven't seen it, this is the birth announcement that our photographer put together.
He did great work, we'll post some of the individual shots here once we get the digitals from him.

If you're in need of a great photographer, give him a shout, or check out some of his work: Terpstra Photography

Outside

After Bobbie Jo and I got back from Big Bobs (quick pizza and a beer) we took Max for his first walk yesterday. While he didn't walk (we pushed him in the stroller) we think he enjoyed it. He slept most of the way.

We also put him in his little car seat thing and put him on the deck for a few hours while Bobbie Jo and I worked in the yard and cleaned out the garage. What a beautiful day. We're really looking forward to consistent warm days.

The good and the bad

Max will be 6 weeks old on Monday. It's been interesting.

We have a lot of fun with him, but it can also be extremely trying. He's a great baby, but has been very slow to eat. We know that he's too young and small to get him on a schedule, but he seems to always be eating, and there's no rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes he'll eat 4 oz. and go to sleep for 3 hours, but that's not the norm. Usually he'll eat a bit, fall asleep for an hour, wake up, eat more, fall asleep again, and so on. What we consider one feeding can take up to 2 hours, at which point he will then usually sleep for 2-3 hours. We're trying everything we can think of to get him to eat more in one sitting to no avail. We try to make sure he's good and "angry" so he'll eat in one shot, but it doesn't often work. We've tried darn near every bottle and nipple on the planet and have high hopes that the one we picked up yesterday will do the trick, so far so good.
We've heard that any feeding over 30 minutes actually burns more calories than are going in, so obviously any feeding beyond that isn't necessary-but that doesn't change the fact that he's still "hungry".

Things are getting a little tense around the house, as neither of us are getting the sleep we'd like. We are hoping that Bobbie Jo's Mom (who's stopping by tonight) might want to watch him for a few hours so that I can take out the wife and get a few beers in her.

That's it for the bad, it's tough, but so worth it.

Now for the good - Max is pretty awesome. He's putting on a lot of weight, and outgrew his preemie clothes a few weeks ago. He's almost too big for his "Newborn" diapers. He watches us a lot, and is very curious about all of the things he sees around him, he finally noticed the various mobiles that hang over him. He has a great smirk. He spends more time awake. He's really strong and has a great grip that hurts our fingers when he holds on. He can lift up his neck quite a bit when he's on our chests or on the floor. He likes the baths we give him every other day. He gets cuter every day.

He's been a joy, and is really such a good baby. We think about how tough it is for us, and then think about people who have babies that cry for no reason, or real issues to deal with. Our hats go off to them.