Seven Weeks

Felix is seven weeks old today! He's already grown quite a bit, and he's getting more and more interesting. We bought a baby gym for him, and he really seems to enjoy it. Put him on his back on it, and all of a sudden, he's looking around at everything, smiling and cooing. Of course, keep him on it too long, and he becomes Mr. Grumpypants.

Today, I took Felix for his first "hike." It was such a beautiful day, so the two of us drove up to Parfrey's Glen Natural Area just outside of Devil's Lake S.P. Alas, he slept all the way up and during the hike. He did, however, let me know he was not thrilled about being confined in his car seat on the way home. :o) He's been a sleepy boy today, overall, though. That probably doesn't bode well for tonight...

Felix: 7 wks

Milestones

Today is a big day! Felix has officially outgrown his newborn clothing and graduated into 0-3 month clothing. Also, he made his first tentative smiles at us this morning. Hooray!! Now we're just a step closer to his being a baby model and us making a buck off him. :o)

He's up to about 9 pounds now (despite all the spit-up), and getting bigger seemingly every day. He's also spending more time awake, which is both fun and time-consuming. His neck is getting much stronger - holding it upright from his tummy for 10+ seconds at a time. This past Saturday, he had his first Packers game, and we got some nice family pictures in our Packers jerseys.

Felix: 5 wks

Growth Spurts

Baby math: Growth Spurt + Gas/Diarrhea + Spitting Up= Constant Feeding. I'm getting tired. Hopefully at least one of the three will resolve itself soon. I do think it's kind of ironic that Felix's doctor recommended yesterday that I give him bacteria. The good kind found in yogurt, but bacteria nonetheless. It's to help with his tummy issues.

We started using the Happiest Baby On The Block methods to soothe Felix when he gets fussy. This picture shows our attempt at swaddling, swinging, and sucking. It seemed to work there! However, our little man is a little Houdini, and manages to work his arms free no matter how tightly we swaddle him. Beware - when this little guy starts to be mobile, he's going to be EVERYWHERE.

Felix: 4 wks

Staying Put

Yesterday, we took Felix for this first extended car ride, to Nick's aunt and uncle's house in Germantown for his grandma's birthday brunch. We learned one very important lesson - if a drive takes about the same amount of time or longer than the average time between feedings, we shouldn't go. Not yet, at least. On the way there and on the way back, Felix screamed bloody murder within about fifteen minutes of our destination. And we weren't in a position to stop and feed/change him. No way. No more trips for quite a while.

We did take him to the service at Prairie today. He was very good there - wide awake the entire time (!), and didn't even fuss. We did have to change his diaper, but that wasn't unexpected.

He's still spitting up a lot. I really hope that ends soon, because it's tough to keep up with the constant feedings necessary to keep something down, and our laundry is getting out of control. But that's the worst of it, which is pretty mild, comparatively speaking. He is growing, so he is getting plenty to eat. He's almost fitting perfectly into the newborn clothing - 0 to 3 month clothes aren't far behind!

Felix: 4 wks

Fuss

Felix is growing bigger, and starting to show a tendency for being a little fusspot. He was so good about calming himself down, but now I think he's discovered he's got lungs and likes to use them. He lets us know quickly when he's not happy about something (but at least he's still pretty easy to calm down). He's still eating like a champ, and it's showing. He was 6 lb 10 oz and 20 inches at his two-week doctor's appointment on Monday. The doctor didn't think it was possible for him to grow two inches in two weeks, and thinks that they didn't quite get his length right when they measured him at birth. Oh well - he was bound to get bigger than that anyway.

Today we took a long walk, and got caught in a downpour. Well, I did, anyway. He was snug and dry in the stroller. We are also starting to do tummy time. He's 50-50 about it. Sometimes he doesn't mind it, other times, cries loudly the whole time. It seems to be working, though. His little neck seems to be getting stronger by the day, and it shouldn't be too long before he lifts it up on his own.

We got some of the newborn photo session pictures back already! 

Felix: 2 wks

Two Weeks

Felix is two weeks old today! He's currently sleeping on the couch between us, and I'm pretty sure he needs a diaper change soon. We're all watching the end of the Tour de France, but I don't think Felix cares much yet who wins. He's been a hungry little man the last two days, which I think means he's not going to be a little man for much longer. He's got a two-week checkup tomorrow, so we'll see how much weight and length he's gained. He still is pretty tiny, though.

Yesterday, Nick's family came down to visit. I think Felix was a little overwhelmed by the three of them - he didn't spend much time awake. On the bright side, I think Vicky fussed more than Felix did. :o)

I setup a Shutterfly account to share pictures: http://nickandcara.shutterfly.com. The password is our last name, all lower case. I also have a Skype account setup if anyone is interested in a video chat. Call or email for our user name (I don't want to post it here).

We're doing our newborn photo shoot tomorrow. I want to get professional photos of Felix while he is so little, since he's not going to stay this way. Hopefully, it will take less than a month to get those back from the photographer. We did get our Maternity photos back this week. Here are a few:

Felix: 2 wks

Better and Better

Just a quick little update. Felix is now ten days old! He's doing very well. His jaundice is almost completely faded, and he's starting to figure out his days and nights better. In fact, he slept for a whopping 4 straight hours last night, much to my delight. The hiccups he had in the womb have started to take over now that he's out. He went several days without them, but in the past few days, he's had them a few times.

My mom and dad came down yesterday, and Mom and I went for Felix's first extended outing - going to Best Buy, Kohl's and lunch at Granite City. So, we had our first public restroom changing, and first out-of-home feeding. So many firsts.

Nick is home with me today, so we're spending some quality time with Felix on the couch, watching the Tour de France. I watch it for the scenery. :o)

I got a new toy yesterday - a new laptop computer complete with webcam so we can share Felix with more people. We're going to set up a Skype account to use it.

Also, I'm going to set up a Shutterfly or Snapfish account so we can share the multitude of pictures we've taken of the boy in the past 10 days with everybody. I'll post information once that's done.

Felix: 10 days