Luke's Christmas Accomplishments

Wow! The past couple of weeks have been a busy learning time for Luke. He's now sitting up for several minutes unassisted. He's taken several falls from this position, but he's getting better at maintaining balanace. Luke has many new toys to explore. One of his favorites is a singing frog named Tad....that counting song stays in your head for many hours!

Luke is more willing to try some solid food now. He does, however, prefer to take the spoon and attempt to put it in his own mouth. This usually results in cereal or fruit everywhere!

One of our favorite accomplishments is Luke's newfound ability to say "dada!" He doesn't distinguish when he says it yet, but he knows how to say it. We're still working on "mama."

Luke didn't quite know what to think of all the Christmas celebrations we had. He did enjoy trying to eat wrapping paper!

Luke still prefers to roll to his side or stomach after we lay him on his back. We usually hear a loud "thump" about 10 minutes after we lay him down. This is the sound of him rolling and hitting the side of the crib. He seems to be sleeping better at night though!

Checkup and Solids

Luke went to the doctor for his checkup and second set of shots on Tuesday. He enjoyed smiling at the doctor and looking at the pretty lights. He weighed in at 16 lbs and 15 oz. which puts him in the 75th percentile for weight. He is growing like a weed though...his height jumped up to 27" which puts him in the 95th percentile! Of course, he objected to the vaccinations. His crying was fairly short lived compared to last time. They recommended starting him on some cereal. Luke's not too keen on the idea yet. Most of what goes in his mouth comes right back out!

Rolling the Other Way

Luke is growing up so fast! He has been working to turn himself over in his crib and finally succeeded last night. He managed to get his legs stuck between the crib slats in the process. He's anxious to start moving and can scoot several inches. He'll be crawling before we know it! Luke is now able to sit by himself for about 5 seconds before he topples over! We're just amazed each day at the new things he is able to accomplish.

We're working to get rid of his swaddle while sleeping, but he likes to move so much that it doesn't always work. He has decided that he prefers sleeping on his side. Despite the fact that we always put him to bed on his back, he twists and wiggles until he has himself completely on his side and then he goes to sleep.

I'll post some new pictures since he's finally getting some hair back! My scale also says that he's up to 16 1/2 pounds!

Growing up

Luke is a giant. He's just over 4 months old, and he's wearing 6-9 month clothing. Maybe the formula has made him grow faster, or maybe he really will be an NBA star. I'm hoping the latter.

Luke's settled into a pretty good sleeping routine. He's asleep by about 7:30 every night, and sleeps mostly through the night. We usually wake him between 10 and 11 to feed him one more time, then attempt to sleep. Most nights, he makes it until about 5:30-6 the next morning. Lately, he's been up at odd hours; we think it's due to the frenzy of colds going through our family.

Melissa has been fighting off several colds over the past month or so. Her kids at school are walking diseases, so it's amazing she isn't sick more often than she is. I only had one cold. Luke had a slight fever last week, which kept Missy and I both on edge and exhausted. He slept all through the day, and there were a couple days where the ENTIRE time he was awake he was crying. It was not fun.

Luke continues to become more aware. He searches for your voice when he hears it. He will stare intensely at you when you're making noises. He likes to look at bright things, especially TVs and computers. He continues to try to sing / talk to us, but unfortunately his favorite sound is a loud screeching noise that would probably make an opera singer faint. His mother and I are competing to get "Dada" or "Mama" as his first word.

His diapers are more routine, and downright scary. Formula diapers are incredibly nasty. Maybe this is a wake-up call for solid foods, but yikes. He's grouped the "poopy" diapers more now. Usually once every 2-3 days he lets it go, and it's usually in a set of three. Three COMPLETELY FULL diapers. It's a solid test of your constitution to change one of them.

His walking instincts seem to be kicking in. If you guide him he will make the walking motions a lot better now than he used to. We got him a bouncing toy to get his legs stronger, but we usually walk him all over the place every day anyway. The sooner he's walking, the sooner he's running, and the sooner I can train him in cross country!

Melissa nurses him about 1-2 times a day now, and the rest of the feedings are formula. He seems okay with the current formula, but we tried a couple different types and brands and he rejected them. Sometimes he's really odd and rejects even Melissa's nursing. He eats small amounts, which is surprising since he's growing like a balloon. It's still usually 4-6 ounces per feeding.

He had a good time at Thanksgiving. He got to hang out with his cousin. They had a great time together. He seems happy sleeping anywhere and in anything, which is fine by us. He usually dozes through car rides too.

I'm got hands!

Luke has become more aware of his environment on a daily basis. He has discovered more about himself and his surroundings. And boy, is he getting big!

He has a slobbering problem. I'm not sure what his motivation is, but he drools almost constantly now. Usually he has a hand, toy, or pacifier in his mouth. The hands in the mouth is the worst, because the slobber usually ends up everywhere afterwords. We like to kiss his cheeks, but I'm definitely cautious about it, otherwise it might be slobbery and gross.

His interest in his hands go beyond being in his mouth. We've taught him to grasp things, and he's starting to try it on his own. He has a couple of toys in particular where his first instinct is to try to grab stuff. It's quite amusing to watch. He intensely stares at his hand and whatever object he's holding. He seems to be noticing textures he feels, and he makes a note of it.

He's very observant in a new environment. Any time we take him out, he quietly takes in the world. He seems very curious about store aisles in particular, noticing all the merchandise we pass by and hearing all the noisy crowds. The neat thing is he's so interested that he doesn't fuss or even make a noise. Good for us!

Luke also seems more aware of Melissa and I. He recognizes our voices and will try to look around and find us. He definitely enjoys our entertainment. He still likes any strange sounds I make. Missy has a kissing game that he thinks is hilarious.

He actually has a "laugh". Not like a happy noise, I mean a real laugh. It's tough to get out, but is very funny to hear. He usually will do it during the "kissing game" or sometimes I can tickle it out of him.

He's growing out of his clothes! He's gained a lot of weight since we've switched to formula. He seems to be okay with eating it, but formula doesn't seem to have the "sleepy drugs" effect that real nursing does. Not that he isn't sleeping, but he doesn't pass out while feeding as much.

He's trying to talk. His noises are becoming more varied daily. Unfortunately, a lot of them are like high-pitched screams or squeals. Hopefully he learns soon that there's other, quieter, more peaceful sounds to make.

Discoveries Galore

We've had a busy couple of weeks. Melissa has started back to work, so the workload has picked up a bit at home. Luke is getting his daycare from Melissa's cousin Debbie. We were worried that Debbie's own young children would have jealousy issues with Luke, but they really seem to like him.

Melissa hasn't been overly thrilled to be back at work. She misses Luke a lot. Fortunately, her days are busy enough that she's back with him before she knows it. Unfortunately, evenings and weekends seem short, too. Luke goes to bed early at around 8:00 at night, so a late evening at work means you don't really get to see much of him.

Work has taken a toll on her nursing ability. Pumping milk and feeding Luke takes a ridiculous amount of time (Luke thinks nursing is a seven-course meal and likes to feed in no less than sixty minutes). Since she has to do this in the morning, she's sacrificing almost ninety minutes of early morning sleep to get Luke ready. I don't know how many of you are morning people, but I'd personally give up a pinky toe rather than get up that much earlier.

We're starting Luke on formula. We're going to attempt to use formula during the day, and breast milk at night. This should save Melissa a lot of time, which she really needs more of. I'll keep you updated.

Luke has finally realized that humans are interesting. He will now make an effort to look at the people around him. He especially responds to the voices of his parents. He really seems to like us, as he smiles every few seconds at us regardless of what we're doing. It surprises me sometimes. I'll be doing something routine like brushing my teeth, I glance over at him and he thinks it's hilarious. Then I'll dance like a monkey and he looks at me like I'm insane.

Luke even liked his reflection in the mirror, which is quite funny. Remember how cool you thought mirrors were when you were a kid? I remember many times wondering if it were some kind of alternate universe. You didn't think that? Oh, I was just kidding, I never thought that...

He is starting to become attentive to changes in his surroundings. When we go for walks he becomes quiet and observes. He seemed very curious at all the singing going on at church. He glanced at Melissa and I occasionally to make sure things were okay, then continued watching.

He's also learning how to play. The other day I put Luke's hand on a toy while he watched. He learned, and now will try to play on his own. Melissa has trained him with other toys. He is now very self-entertaining. He has a short attention span, though, and he will let us know when he's bored or frustrated with a certain toy.

Unfortunately, he's also learning how to use his voice. One time last week, I was about fifteen minutes slow on getting his bottle ready. My ears are still ringing from the encounter. I almost couldn't believe a person that small could be so loud. I was scared at times that there was something really wrong with him, but he was instantly satiated once he was feeding.

About that car seat...

The proper age and size to turn a car seat around is 20 lbs and a year old, so I guess there will be no seat flipping anytime soon, sorry about that.

That means our car midget, Ralph, who is 19 lbs, will never get his seat turned around. Although, he does prefer the backwards Racer at Kings Island...

I've Got Hand, First Shots, and Memory

Luke has been growing in leaps and bounds, both physically and intellectually. He's almost 24 inches tall now, so he's about to reach Melissa's height chart (which she placed 12 inches from the ground...) I don't remember his exact weight, I think it's about 14 lbs. We're almost to the point where we can turn his car seat around. I tell you one thing, carrying the car seat with him in it is a laborious task, and I'm not THAT scrawny.

Luke has definitely taken an interest in his hands. We should have named him "Harry", but after Houdini, not Potter. The swaddle blankets we put him in are basically straightjackets, but somehow he still ends up with his hands in his mouth. I've tried to watch this process before, but he refuses to reveal his secret.

Anyway, once he gets his hands out, he will actually hold them up in front of his face and just stare at them in wonder. He also will try to eat them to the point of gagging himself. We've been giving him toys and fingers to stimulate his hands, and he seems to like it. He particularly enjoys a blue monkey that Melissa gave him. Fortunately, it's a nice, quiet toy, unlike a certain alphabet singing frog, who's repetitive song has been permanently burned into my brain and laughter will haunt my dreams for the rest of my life.

Luke's first shots were last week. A lot of people have told me how horrifying this is for a parent. I can definitely understand that, but honestly it wasn't too bad for me. I think it helped that our nurse had all three injections completed within 5 seconds.

Luke's reaction to the shots was as expected. When he is in pain, he definitely gets the pain grimace, but he forgets to breathe, so he's just sitting there with this horrified expression on his face for what seems like an eternity. When he finally takes a breath, the screaming begins.

He definitely wanted to nurse on mommy directly afterwards, and he took a long time to calm down. He was pretty restless that night, but not too terrible. He seemed to recover within 24 hours.

Okay, so as I was playing with Luke the other day, and I think he may have associated a noise with me. I was making "pbbbb" noises while sticking my tongue out. He started making the exact same noise! Granted, his noise wasn't quite the same, but he had the right idea. Then, the next day, he did it again, but this time, he did it without provocation, almost like he had remembered and associated that noise with me. I was dumbfounded, but managed to not fall immediately into the fetal position. Anyway, I'm working on "dada".

Having your baby smile at you is a thrill. I still become overwhelmed with joy every time he does it. At the same time, it's terrifying, because I remember that this little creature is a person and will probably end up more intelligent than me.

He will smile in response to me making a funny noise. Usually I'll have him sitting in my lap and I'll lean over so my face is really close. Then I'll make up some very loud animal noise, such as an elephant that just saw a mouse.

He will usually respond in one of three ways. One is he'll smile immediately. It might be that he just likes how goofy I look more than the noise. Secondly, he'll get a confused and concerned look on his face, then smile. I think he's actually responding to the noise in that situation. Thirdly, he'll stick out his lower lip, clearly ready to cry. I have only had that happen a couple of times; I'm not sure if it was the noise I was making or if I scared him or what. It's hilarious when he does it, but it breaks your heart at the same time.

Our cats still behave oddly around Luke. Melissa thinks they're out to get him, but I think they just don't understand why they get so much less attention. Puma will occasionally come up and sniff Luke, but he still won't touch him. Missy caught Puma sleeping in the pack'n'play the other day. "Why would he even want to be in it?" I asked. "Because he knows he's not supposed to be," she replied. She's probably right.

Luke has discovered his hands a few time in the past few days. A couple times I've been occupied with something else, then I notice he's being quiet and I'll look over. He's got both hands up literally inches from his eyes, and he's just staring at them expressionless. It's amazing to watch him learn.

I'm scared he's going to poke his own eye one of these days. He still moves his arms and legs in twitching motions. I like to hold him standing with support, so he basically supports his weight while I keep him from falling. He doesn't really have balance, so he looks like he's making a poor attempt at a hula dance. He'll usually accompany this dance with random giggling, grunting, farting, etc.

I've tried walking him a couple times. Although the instinct to stick his feet out are there, he tends to not want to support his weight in those situations. Along with the standing, Luke likes to demonstrate his leg press ability. For example, when sitting and laying him in my lap, he'll press his legs against my stomach, and sometimes he nearly pushes himself off my lap. Missy predicts he'll be crawling by Christmas.

He's added a lot of weight. His eyes continue to look more brown, but he's clearly a light blonde and has much fairer skin than me, so he's not my clone. Sorry, ladies.

Sleep, Sleep, and More Sleep

Luke has decided to sleep throught he night for the past two nights in a row! I had almost forgotten what a full night of sleep feels like. He goes to bed before 8 and we give him a "dream feed" around 10 or 11. Then it's back to bed until 7a.m. ! I did have to sneak in last night and replace the pacifier to help him stay asleep, but it worked to keep him sleeping! I must admit that my biggest fear in posting this news is that my luck will end and I'll be back to missing that full night of sleep. Thank you to all of you who prayed for Luke's sleeping habits!

Go Colts!

Luke knows what team to cheer for! He watched his first Colts game today. He was happy about spitting up all over his Colts onesie, but not so happy that we tried to make him take a nap during the second half.

Luke Blows Mommy Away

I know that Matt normally writes our posts, but I feel I have to clarify on the farting situation. You see we were sitting in the balcony at church. It was the quiet time right before communion begins when I decided to see if Luke had a dirty diaper. He was sprawled over my lap as I carefully pulled back a portion of his diaper to peek inside. At that exact moment (my hand holding the diaper open and my face not too far away) that he lets out one of his powerful, wet sounding farts! Keri, who was sitting beside me observing the situation, and I both found this to be hillarious! We were trying desparately to stop laughing so that we wouldn't disturb the people around us. I think the guys passing around the comminion trays thought we were nuts because by that time I was wiping away tears from laughing so hard! Luckily, Matt volunteered for the diaper change.

Rolling Over

We told you Luke was freakishly strong. He has proven this theory with his latest "milestone". He rolled over multiple times last week. From what I've read, only some babies can roll over even at three months, and we're at half that.

Luke will also stand up under his own strength (with us keeping him from falling) for several minutes. He will fully support his head, although he still will wildly flail his head around sometimes when he loses control. I'm waiting for the day I come home and Melissa has a giant bruise on her chin.

He's still growing rapidly. His food consumption has increased slightly, but Melissa is keeping up fine. He's eating a lot faster now, so nursing him doesn't take hours at a time; a welcome relief.

He's finally started clumping his diapers together, so we have fewer per day. We've read a lot of material claiming that a nursing baby's poop doesn't smell that much. We disagree. I personally have a sense of smell so poor that I usually step on the skunk before recoiling. However, there is definitely a smell when Luke lightens himself. My thought is that once the baby begins eating solids, the smell will be so relatively bad that I'll think the nursing smell was heavenly.

Luke continues to smile more often. He focuses quite well on things that attract his attention. Flashing lights with music are his favorite.

Missy and I also have a theory that Luke is aware that I have a difficult time putting him to sleep. He will NOT go to sleep for me. Melissa thinks I'm just not patient enough, which is partially true, but I really do wait until he appears to be out like a light before I leave the room. The problem is ten minutes later he wakes himself up.

By the way, there is a built-in sedative in breast milk. The thing is that it really only lasts about ten minutes for us. You'd think that when heavily drugged like that, Luke would just stay asleep. Not the case. After a meal, he's usually completely unconscious, but ten minutes in the crib and the howling begins.

I can't complain, though, he IS sleeping during the night, which is excellent at this stage. He's still waking up about twice during the night, but it's regular and predictable.

During the day, when he naps, Luke grunts. When I say that, I mean he grunts CONSTANTLY. Half the time, you'll hear associated farting. But half the time, it seems like he's doing it for fun. Weird.

We finally took Luke to church on Sunday. He seemed to enjoy the singing, then he fell asleep during the sermon (ha!). We had one instance where he smelled, and promptly farted on Melissa when she checked his diaper. I haven't seen her turn that red with laughter in a long time!

First Road Trip

As our first lengthy road trip with Luke, we went up to the lake for labor day weekend. It was chaotic, exhausting, and fun.

I had poor expectations going into the trip. My sister's baby did not have a good night when she was away from home for the first time. I figured Luke would be equivalent, but he was very good at night. He wakes up about twice a night now, and there's usually a five hour stretch of sleep sometime during the day.

Luke can sleep through noisy conditions. I've discovered that our house has inadvertently been designed to amplify sounds from every room to the nursery. For example, when Melissa gets ice from the fridge ice machine, it sounds like Mt. Saint Helens is erupting. She was preparing a meal the other day, and I actually went down and asked her if she was being intentionally loud. She looked at me funny.

Anyway, the lake cottage is a lot different than home. The fan in the bathroom sounds like a turbine, and our redneck neighbors sometimes think Labor Day is actually the 4th of July, so "bangs" are pretty common. He slept perfectly fine through all of it, though.

Luke apparently thinks I'm funny, or funny looking. He's smiling at me a lot now. I continue to make the stupidest noises and faces I can think of, and he seems to like them. The smiles are very brief, though. He can instantaneously go from smiling to concerned to crying.

It's a different case with mommy. He tends to be more relaxed and sleepy around her. The girls have come up with a "boob pillow" theory, and they're probably right.

He has started clumping his diapers. By clumping I mean he burns through about three or four within an hour. He also gets very fussy when he has a wet or full diaper. Hopefully the clumping will eventually combine to larger, fewer bowel movements, but he's not quite there yet.

Luke took his first boat ride. It was similar to his first car ride. Meaning, he just slept the entire time. He seemed to enjoy the strange new surroundings, though. He listens and watches very intently to his environment, especially when it's unfamiliar.

He's making a larger variety of noises. He also seems to have slighly more control of his arms and hands; you could almost believe he's trying to touch things. He stands up while supported for a pretty long time now.

He met a lot of people on this trip. He's still young enough that he doesn't really know what's going on, so he wasn't shy or anything. He never cries if a stranger holds him, but we'll see if that changes in a couple months.

Packing was horrible. Our car was completely full. He easily had more volume of gear than Melissa and myself combined. "Pack and Plays" are convenient, but they are a pain to transport. I thought Melissa was crazy to pack fifty outfits for Luke to wear in three days, but it was barely enough.

Guess it's time to start pricing minivans.

One Month

It's hard to believe Luke is already a month old. It seems like he's already been around a long time, but the time has also gone very quickly. He's already grown so much he won't fit most newborn diapers anymore.

Speaking of diapers, we're having trouble getting diapers that are effective. You'd think that diaper manufacturers would understand that consumers won't be satisfied if they end up brown and yellow. It's not like we're making mistakes putting the diapers on. It's quite simple, just cover the danger zones. Yet somehow these diapers aren't doing the job. Not just some of them, I mean 4 out of 5 of the brands we try fail. I'm no diaper genius, but what are these people testing their diapers on?

I'd like to thank everyone who's brought us food, watched Luke, etc. Sometimes it's difficult to recharge our batteries, so the occasional meal or babysitting really helps.

Luke has been a menace the last couple of days. There's a vicious cycle where if Luke starts getting really tired, he gets cranky, and crankiness keeps him awake. So, for example, two nights ago he didn't sleep much. Then he didn't sleep at all during the day yesterday because he was so cranky. What's making it more difficult is Melissa is trying to get him to put himself to sleep in his crib. When he's cranky, he just lays there for hours on end, fussing and fidgeting. It's a good thing my wife has patience; I'd have given up a long time ago.

Luke get closer to smiling daily. We've caught a couple on camera, but I still think most of the smiles are accidental. He has a lot of strength in his legs. I can keep him steady and he'll stand on his own power. He probably could roll over, but I don't think he has any idea what he's doing when he moves around. He also laughs occasionally, usually during our most stressful times, like when he's been up for 24 hours. There's no way it's a coincidence.

Our garbage generation, laundry, and dish use is up 500%. Our appliances keep breaking. If Melissa breaks, we're in serious trouble.

Did you know that Melissa's original plan was to have a boy and then twin girls? If we were to get so lucky, we'd be taking care of two babies and an infant. I researched people in similar situations:

Definitions of horror on the Web:
the feeling of dread and anticipation that occurs before something frightening is seen, heard, or otherwise experienced.

Our little insomniac

Nine hours is all he slept yesterday. Babies are supposed to sleep at LEAST 11 hours, sometimes pushing 15. The good news is he sleeps most of that time during the night. The bad news is Missy is being asked for tips by people who want to be zombies for Halloween. The annoying part of it is Luke wont go to bed later in the evening. Missy and I basically have no time for ourselves because by the time he goes to sleep, we need it too.

Luke grows in size and intellect daily. He carefully observes Melissa and I for hours when I get home for work. He enjoys our weird faces and sounds. I pray to God that Melissa hasn't set up a hidden camera somewhere, otherwise she'd have unlimited bribe potential. Is that part of fatherhood? Acting like a monkey?

Luke is sitting here with me as I type. I must state that there is nothing quite like the experience of a child passing gas when in your lap. It's sort of like getting hit in the stomach with a bowling ball. *Sniff sniff* Be right back...

We still haven't quite snuck a smile out of him yet. He's close, but not quite there. He's got a heck of a grip now. I'm surprised he hasn't bruised me yet with one of his merciless pinches. I'm hoping to train him to continue doing it, especially to strangers.

He is nursing better. We have only had to give him one bottle yesterday, and he hasn't had any today. I'll probably end up giving him one so Melissa can sleep a few hours undisturbed.

*Sniff sniff*. Yep, seriously. Two diapers since I've started this post. Catch you later!

Hungry Butt

At first, you might think Keri was decribing Luke when she used the term "hungry butt". After all, the term describes my son fairly well. I think she was referring to a wedgie or something. It was quite funny.

Luke is three weeks old. It's hard to believe he's already that old, but he's already gained a lot of weight and grown over an inch. He's going to grow fast. At three weeks, babies are getting ready for a growth spurt. Luke has been drinking greedily from his bottles in preparation. Missy is starting to get worried that he's becoming less interested in nursing from her.

I hate the internet. People have posted all their nursing baby problems, and Melissa reads each and every one of them and tries to find a way that Luke has a similar problem. Recently, she found a story about a baby that needed his tongue needs surgically cut to allow him to nurse correctly. I'm almost certain that one of these days she'll find a story about a baby boy that had to have his penis removed to nurse properly.

Nursing correctly or not, Luke's getting plenty of food. Our latest crude weighings have him at almost 11 pounds, which is amazingly fast weight gain. He still ends most bottle feedings with that "why did I eat so much?" dazed look on his face.

Luke has been attempting to smiling at us. He makes a noise sometimes that we perceive as a laugh, but we're usually doing something like changing a diaper, which he doesn't really like. So either it's evil laughter while he's thinking, "I'm going to fill this new clean diaper with corrosive foulness within seconds", or he's just experimenting with sounds. Or maybe he's just in his own little world.

He's growing!

Luke has already grown 3/4 of an inch. He's also still gaining weight twice as fast as an average baby. Although we thought he'd slow down, he still is extremely fussy until he's had a LOT of food, then he finally calms down.

We finally caved in and gave him a bottle. We were worried, because several sources claim that the babies will prefer the bottle to any other nursing, and you pretty much have to give them one every time. So far, Luke has not had this problem. In fact, he seems to be nursing a bit better without bottles. Bottles are a great thing. I can finally let Melissa sleep more than three hours at a time. She's already looking a bit more rested.

Missy and I both become demons when awoken in the early morning. For example, we have this spring-based clamp light attached to our bed. The other morning Missy tried to adjust it to not blind Luke, and it fell off, crashed loudly, and went out. I bolted up, screamed, ran over and unplugged it. It wasn't THAT scary, I just become a little psychotic when I'm sleep deprived. I was so tired that the memories feel more like a dream than real. When I'm tired, I tend to say stupid things too, like "maybe you should feed him".

Missy doesn't say or act nearly as stupid as I do, but it's a noticable difference between night and day when she feeds. During the day she's got a smile and is chatty and having a good time. At night she looks stressed, and I feel there's a reasonable chance she'd slay me if I breathe too loudly.

Luke's been sleeping mostly through the night though, other than feeding times. He's had some longer stretches of sleep, too, which is great. He's rarely fussy when he's well fed, even when he's awake. I've almost had him smile at me a couple times, but I'm guessing it was an accident.

He's still dark blonde and his eyes are in the dead zone between blue and brown (we're still pretty sure he'll be brown-eyed). He's got a nice double-chin now thanks to his double feeding rate. His skin is in between Melissa (pale) and mine (tan), but closer to Melissa's than mine.

This is the usual conversation guests have with Melissa: "He looks like Matt!" followed by, "I'm so sorry".

I'm Hungry I'm Sleepy I'm Hungry I'm Sleepy I'm...

We really wish he's make up his mind. I've already mentioned Melissa's uncanny sedative-rich milk. Well, Luke's starting to take it to the extreme. He'll feed for about 10 minutes, then fall asleep for 10 minutes. Then he'll wake himself up, eat for 10 minutes, fall asleep. The end result of this pattern is Melissa sprawled out in bed, daydreaming of that enjoyable thing she used to do called sleeping.

He's been very active during the evenings. Most days he stays awake from the time I get home until I go to bed, a period of about 5 hours. Unfortunately, Melissa usually is exhausted by the time I get home, so it's tough to get much time to spend with her.

Luke has been very interested in television. I read an article the other day about how babies who watch a lot of television have a harder time developing speech and have a shorter attention span. Apparently babies can be overstimulated. So I find myself trying to keep his attention from the TV, but the TV usually wins. Come on, Friends reruns aren't THAT great.

We're really close to trying a bottle on him. With his virtual non-stop feeding routine, it's almost going to become necessary to keep Melissa well. I can't tell you how strong my desire is to just take him and let her sleep for 8 hours. She needs it.

It's scary how fast the house falls apart now, though. I've been trying to stay on top of some of it, but my list is growing faster than it used to. Baby socks are the bane of a washing machine. Those little things are getting crammed in spots I didn't think possible.

Luke lost his umbilical cord. He still has what looks like an old wound on his belly button, but it's healing rapidly. He had a circumcision cover, too, and it's finally fallen off. His hair is also growing rapidly. I'm hoping for a full-blown mullet before it falls out. Everyone keeps saying he looks like me, but he's still got dark blue eyes and golden hair...

Back to Birth Weight

Luke has finally reached his birth weight. He continues to gain about two ounces a day, which is twice as much as a normal baby. We're not sure if this trend will continue now that he's caught up. Yesterday, he ate virtually the entire time I was home before bed. He didn't sleep at all. He would just stare around for about half an hour, then start his hunger dance.

Melissa has had basically no sleep the last couple nights because of his feeding frenzy. Luke has stopped his usual five hour naps, instead he wakes up every 2-3 hours on his own to be fed again. Since it takes an hour to feed him, and Melissa takes about 30 minutes to fall asleep, it's obvious why she's so tired. Somehow, yesterday she managed to make two trips out to her school to get stuff ready for her sub. What a warrior. I think her only goal today is to sleep. That's my goal too, and I'm going to work.

Yum! A Finger!

Luke was great today. He was active and awake for several hours during the daytime, which gives us hope that he'll sleep tonight. This is good since I have to head back to work tomorrow.

He will usually focus on us for a little while when he's active, but then he'll start to stare at random blank spots on the wall and seem to be really concentrating on them. I think he's playing a game of "made you look!" with me.

We've started backing off on the amount of syringe feeding Luke has been getting. So now, he spends a lot more time nursing. While he's getting plenty of food, he takes FOREVER to get it. Melissa is typically nursing for an hour at a time just with him now. He's eating every 2-3 hours. That's 8 hours a day nursing. I wish I could spend 8 hours a day eating.

We've been watching "Friends" basically nonstop. The theme song is getting ingrained into my head (sorta like the baby crying thing). I swear, if Luke's first words are "I'll be there for you", I'm throwing away all our TVs.

Luke has also decided he's anti-environment. Our combined total yesterday was around 13 diapers. There were two seperate times I changed three of them between feedings. Seriously, kid.

Tomorrow Melissa gets to spend most of the day handling Luke by herself. I expect about 50 calls at work. We'll see!

How Typical..

I had this conversation with Luke this morning:

Matt: Hey buddy!
Luke: Waaahhh!
Matt: Yeah, yeah, you're hungry, I know.
Luke: Waaahhh!
Matt: Yeah we're getting to it. Anything else I should know?
Luke: Aaa.
Matt: Say again?
Luke: *Liquidy discharge*

It wasn't the most satisfying little talk, but what did I expect?

Luke had a worse night than normal last night. We've started supplementing him less, so he's a little crankier since he's not being stuffed to the brim every feeding.

The real reason for his crankiness is probably his newly clogged tear duct. We think it started yesterday because we saw his eye leaking a lot of water. We thought it was just his tear ducts starting to work. Well, I guess if they leak a lot of water, they might be clogged. Well, by late last night, he started having some crusty pussy stuff on his eye. We'd clean him off, and it would be back in ten minutes.

We learned earlier at the doctor's to rub around his eye to attempt to unclog it. All that has succeeded in doing was upsetting him. Melissa thought his eye might be swelling, which the nurse said was something to worry about.

However, Erika read somewhere that breast milk could help clogged ducts. We've started applying that, and he seems to be a little better so far. We'll have to see how that progresses.

Melissa's having a great time feeding Luke. He's taking nearly an hour every feeding now, and it's starting to be a real burden on Melissa. If we could get him feeding correctly, we'd be done in 15-30 minutes. For some reason he still thinks nursing is the perfect time to catch a quick nap.

If you have a baby that cries a lot, you might experience the phenomenon that Melissa and I did. We both at various times have hallucinated that the baby is crying. You sort of hear the crying in your head, and you seriously have to concentrate to tell whether or not it's really happening. This tends to happen more often around 3 a.m.

All Systems, Go!

When Luke sleeps, he sleeps. When he's awake, it's like he tries to do everything else at once. He exhumes as much as we feed him, usually at the same time. He also tries to get his pushup and fidget routines in, which doesn't make feeding any easier.

We still can't get this nursing thing figured out. We tried this breast shield thing that makes it easier for him to latch on. The idea is to use it for awhile, then try the classic method again. Luke apparently thinks classic nursing is equivalent to sleep. He dozes off virtually everytime. With the shield, he's slightly better, but he's still not taking his fill. Then I have to give him another ounce or so in the syringe. We'll be back to the doctor today to see what else they have for us to try. I am NOT wearing a fake breast.

Luke really wants to sleep like 5-6 hours. I really don't understand why they recommend we feed him every 3 hours, and we can't let him sleep. It'd make us a lot less cranky. Missy's been good about letting me sleep, which will be nice next week when I go back to work.

Luke spent a lot more time awake yesterday. He had several 40 minute stretches and even a two hour stretch in the evening. He's been sleeping through most of the night now, which is fine by us!

He also basically doesn't cry, ever. We're crossing our fingers that he stays that way. He's a smart kid, though, so I think once he realizes the power he has when he screams, we're in for it.

Since yesterday, his bowel movements REEK. It supposedly gets a lot worse when they eat solid foods, and if this is true, I might consider investing in a hazard suit.

Tongue Massages

That's right. I now get to perform "tongue massages" on my son. What a way to bond.

Luke has apparently had his tongue to the roof of his mouth every time he's tried to nurse. While not a huge problem, I don't understand why it took FIVE lactation nurses to finally have someone figure out what was really wrong.

So now, I have to wear a latex glove and massage Luke's tongue with my index finger. It's pretty weird, to say the least. Evidently it will train him to keep his tongue down when he nurses.

They came up with a couple other tricks for us to get him nursing properly. The smart little guy still knows that if he's stubborn long enough, he gets his milk nice and easy from a syringe.

I've come up with a theorem. You know, those little rules you learned in physics. I call it the "Fetal Position Equivalence Theorem". The rule is as follows: "The parents of a newborn will at some point end up in a fetal position state greater than or equal to the fetal position of the newborn." Usually, we feel it around 4 a.m. when Luke's in one of his active states. Although he's been a great baby and not really crying, it's still 4 a.m. You remember playing the original Sims when your character would fall asleep on the spot he was standing? I've been close a couple times.

Although the last couple days, Luke has been sleeping a lot. He's gone as long as five hours without stirring. Unfortunately, the doctor and nurses say that four hours is as long as you should go without a feeding. What the? Now come on, if we can sneak in five hours of sleep because our baby is naturally sleeping that long, why can't we?? Let's see how you like waking to an alarm to wake your sleeping baby up in the early morning. No, of course we didn't go back to sleep for another hour. No, of course not...

Ahh, Contentment

Luke had his first doctor's appointment yesterday. We found out that he hasn't been getting all the food he needs. We're having difficulty getting him to latch on properly, so he's not getting enough milk.

Breastfeeding has been, in general, a pain. At first it's a struggle for everyone, but Luke still insists on having his hands in his face while feeding, which logically won't work. So we still have a tough time getting it to work.

We had to resort to syringe feeding him because he's losing some weight. The results of this first feeding were hilarious. He had this weird look on his face, which we decided was "being full". He just sat there bewildered for almost half an hour. Then naturally he relieved his newly found weight into his diaper.

Since we've started syringe feeding, he's starting to behave like what we expected. He hasn't been crying much at all, he sleeps all the time, and I'm going to have to cut our trees down to make more diapers. The naps are giving Missy and I a chance to catch up on our sleep, too.

Oh, and he definitely snorts like a pig when hungry.

First Bath, Playmat, and Cribs

We had a pretty good day yesterday. We had some family in town to take care of Luke a bit while we slept. He actually slept fairly late into the night, which is fantastic.

We had several firsts, such as his first bath. Melissa and I clearly have different opinions on what "warm water" is. Luke protested at first, but then he settled down and seemed to enjoy it. We also tried him out on a playmat. He seemed very interested in it, which was kind of surprising. My sister's baby Macy is now nearly three months old and she apparently likes these things too. It must be the bright colors or the happy music. Can you overdose on cuteness, bright colors and baby talk?

We have been attempting to make him sleep in cribs instead of in our arms to get him used to it early. He's already a lot less fussy in the transition (usually setting him down made him stir). He slept a solid two hours in cribs yesterday, which is far more than he's been sleeping.

Luke has a lot of moro reflexes. These sudden twitches have scared several people who have held him (poor Sarah). One thing we're noticing is that it actually will make him wake up a bit when he's sleeping. I am clearly a genius when it comes to babies, so I came up with the idea of swaddling him before we laid him down in a crib. It immobilizes him a bit more when he has the twitches, so I think he's been sleeping soundly when not in a person's arms.

Today we have a doctor's appointment to see how he's doing. We have a few concerns, but what new father doesn't? Circumcisions are scary.

Whoa! Those things are huge!

Luke's cluster feeding has had his desired effect. Melissa is swollen with milk and actually in quite a lot of pain. We're putting together her pump to try to make her a bit more comfortable. Luke is happily feeding away on this massive milk supply.

We are finally home. It took the hospital a long time to get us discharged. Part of it was because Luke was running a slight fever, so they had to take some blood cultures. Turned out everything was okay, but it held us up a couple hours.

Melissa and I are much more comfortable at home now. Being able to take a fussy baby to another room is a huge impact on our sleep deprivation. I'm feeling pretty good right now, but I know Missy has had far less sleep than I. She seems to be doing better. Her new milk supply actually satisfied him for a couple hours during the night, so we managed to get a little more rest than normal. If he's even slightly awake, he's difficult to get away from her. He likes those breasts.

Luke is freakishly strong. He holds his neck up on his own, which is incredibly early. He's rolling onto his side at night. For some reason, he tries to do pushups while nursing, and then after pushing himself off he gets upset about it. With his huge hands, I'm predicting he'll be a good basketball player. Melissa's grandpa predicts president, but hey, basketball players make more money.

We've figured out that Luke definitely has a long stretch during the morning and afternoon where he's completely zonked. Although we have always had guests during this time, we can finally sleep now that we have a bedroom to run off to. We're glad we're home!

"I don't control the world anymore, Matt! He does!"

Eight straight hours of fussy feeding can take a toll on even the controller of the world. Melissa was finally starting to lose patience (I had lost patience within the first twenty minutes). Luke will currently nurse for just a few seconds, then just lay there and almost fall asleep. If we tried to move him, he would complain in a loud way. We think he's trying to get the best of both worlds, but this obviously won't work too well for mom. I tried to hold him a couple times to give Melissa some rest, but my lack of milk just wasn't cutting it.

Around 1:30, we had a nurse sent from heaven who suggested she try to calm him in the nursery for a couple hours. We happily took a couple hours of rest. When he returned, his behavior was about the same. Aren't babies supposed to sleep a lot??

We had him stay at the nursery for another 90 minutes after being weighed this morning. So we're feeling pretty good with our 4 hours of sleep.

Our pediatrician said Luke looked great, so we'll be closing up shop and heading home sometime this morning.

The First Sleepless Night

Luke learns. He learned how to breastfeed in a single day. He (and we) were a little confused at first. He was definitely making clear motions that he wanted to be fed, but he definitely didn't have the patience to get any milk.

He apparently had a lot of bowels to move. He woke us up every hour under the strain of filling a diaper with a sticky black substance. Finally at about 4 a.m. we gave up and let the nursery have him for a couple hours so we could sleep.

It's now 10:00 on our second night. Luke has been feeding, but he has enjoyed it a little too much. He won't stop crying because he thinks he needs to sleep attached to Melissa.

Actually, at the moment he won't stop crying regardless. I hope he gets tired soon. Melissa apparently has infinite endurance. She's had about 4 hours of interrupted sleep in the last 72 hours, and that's not including the whole labor thing she just went through. I want to help her sleep, but he's chosen his favorite.