Six Week Stats

Caleb turned six weeks old yesterday! Since I didn't post any info at four weeks, I thought I'd give you the scoop on what he's like now at six weeks. I'll have to try to get a picture later, too.

• He is growing like a weed! I'll be interested in seeing how much he's grown when we go for his 2-month check-up in two weeks. Four days after birth, he was in the 10th percentile for height and the 5th percentile for weight. But then, he was having difficulty nursing and had lost 13.5% of his birth weight. Yikes!
• He is doing a decent job sleeping at night. Some nights are better than others, of course, but he generally settles down to sleep at night fairly well. His days are a different story! Every once in a while, he has a day when he naps well, and I feel like we're getting the hang of things. Then the next day, he screams through every single naptime all day long! Argh! I'm hoping we'll get the hang of it eventually!
• He is pretty patient with us while we're learning to diaper and dress and bathe him. He doesn't usually get fussy during those activities, but he sure is a wiggleworm!
• He is strong! He doesn't necessarily move a lot during tummy time, but when we try to lay him on our shoulders, he doesn't usually lay down unless he's completely exhausted. He likes to have his head up, looking around.
• He is learning to smile. It's still difficult to tell, though, which smiles are social and which have a less pleasant cause. :)
• I have been concerned because he likes to look all around, but he rarely looks at our faces. Babies are supposed to be fascinated with faces! But over the last few days, it seems like he's been looking at us more. Hopefully that will continue!
• He's bald on top. Poor little guy! He was having some issues with cradle cap, and so last week, I was brushing the top of his head as several articles online had suggested. Later that day, we noticed that he had a bald spot on the top of his head! Who knew that soft little baby brush could do that? I'm maintaining that it's not completely my fault, though, because he has since lost more hair. I know that wasn't my fault! I was relieved to see this weekend that he's starting to grow some fuzz back on top of his head. I think he was just wanting to look like his Daddy! Ha ha. :)
• He's a little Houdini! We swaddle him when he sleeps using a combination of methods Joel calls the German hammer. The bottom blanket secures his arms using a method taught to us by our friends, the Hammers. The top one is a general swaddle a nurse at the hospital showed us. She said it's how they swaddle babies in Germany. We think the combination is pretty effective, but he still manages to escape sometimes! We don't know how he does it!

Merry-Go-Round

Since Caleb was born almost six weeks ago, I've been feeling somewhat like I'm riding a merry-go-round - constantly moving, but never getting anywhere. I'm a task-oriented person. For years, I avoided admitting that, because it's not the way I want to be. But it's the way I am. I don't like reaching the end of a day and feeling like I haven't accomplished anything. Over the last six weeks, I've felt that way a lot. Caleb had a lot of difficulty nursing at first, and we still don't have it completely down. It takes him between 45 minutes and an hour to nurse, sometimes even longer. Multiple that by at least eight, and I have a full-time job just feeding the little guy! Add in the other baby care activities, and I'm having a hard time getting anything else done. The house is a mess, I don't remember when I last scrubbed the kitchen floor, the bushes have needed trimming for weeks, etc. What I have begun praying every day is that God will help me remember that feeding and caring for Caleb IS accomplishing something, and something very significant, at that. God has loaned us this little life to care for, and that is way more important than the piles on the kitchen counter! Maybe that's one of the reasons God was gracious enough to give us a child, so that I would have opportunities to learn proper priorities! Meanwhile, if you come over to our house, please try to ignore the dirty floor!

Here are a few more pictures of our precious gift. I don't have any within the last week, so you'll have to wait to see his poor bald little head. But that's another post...

He is growing so quickly! I took this picture a couple weeks ago because I was so excited that some of his onesies were finally starting to fit him. Now some of them are a little tight, especially when he's wearing a cloth diaper. I'll have to take some pictures of his big cloth diaper butt!

he has this funny thing about raising his arms!

we happened to catch a rare smile!

chillin' in his pack 'n' play

when we got to church on Sunday, Caleb was fast asleep in his car seat just like this!

First "Official" Pictures

My good friend Rachel came over when Caleb was 2-1/2 years old and took some wonderful pictures for us. I was going to put up just a couple of our favorites, but I couldn't decide! So here are more than just a couple. :)