Growing up fast

Jay is now two and a half weeks old. He is doing wonderfully. He's a really good baby. He definitely cries when he needs something but he doesn't really complain for no reason. Right now we are focused on mastering the baby basics: Eat, sleep, poop, and a little bit of play.

He's doing well in the eating department. Newborns lose weight immediately after birth. They are supposed to be back at their birth weight when they reach two weeks. Jay has blown past his birth weight and is now registering 6 pounds 8 ounces. He's doing great! As a paranoid mom, it would be nice to have a baby scale at home so I could track his weight gain every day. But we will have to wait until his five week appointment. Or I might try using our home scale and see how that works. They say that newborns have one of their growth spurts between 2 and 3 weeks and maybe that explains his crazy hunger over the past few days. I've been feeding him almost every hour during the day! But when it comes to food, he's the boss right now and I'm happy to oblige.

The other end of the factory is also working well. He's a pooping and peeing machine. We can pretty much count on a dirty diaper change after every feeding.

Sleeptime is a little tough. He's not good at falling asleep even when he's very tired. He gets fussy and cranky and confused when he's tired and that makes it even more difficult for him to fall asleep. My mom has been the best at getting him to fall asleep. But it sure does take a while and sometimes by the time he's out, it's time to wake him for a feeding. Hopefully he will get a little better at regulating his sleep/wake cycle.

Lastly is playtime. Jay is alert for a few hours during the day (and sometimes night!) and we all have a blast when he is. He's able to focus on our faces when we are up close to him and he listens to our voices. His favorite voice is his dad's. He'll listen to Pat very intensely and with great concentration. After we run out of general things to talk to Jay about, Pat reads him Shakespeare. We're still on Hamlet, which Pat started back when Jay was in my belly!

Pat goes back to work on Monday after a wonderful two weeks at home. It's pretty sad because we have all been bonding during our time together at home. Hopefully things will continue to go mostly smoothly. He'll be one month old very soon!