The Boy Who Smiles in his Sleep

Ollie is 7 weeks as of yesterday, but a week ago we had our discharge appointment from the midwife. It was a little bit sad to say goodbye to the two hardworking ladies at the practice, especially after they took such good care of us over the past 10 months. However, we will meet his doctor in early June for his 2 month check up and first round of vaccinations. I'm sure we will be in good hands.

As for me, I am almost back to my old self and my iron levels are slowly rising. I left the hospital with a hemoglobin count of 61 and as of a week ago, I was at 86. My goal is to get right around 100. My energy levels are pretty good, and I can't wait til I feel well enough to walk the golf course again and head back to yoga. Shouldn't be long now.

More importantly, Ollie's 6 week stats were great. He is a strong, healthy boy and he is already growing too quickly! Here are his stats from birth to 6 weeks:

Weight-- At Birth:  8lbs/11oz
               6 Weeks: 11lbs/12oz

Length-- At Birth:  21 inches
               6 Weeks: 23 inches

Head circumference-- At Birth: 13 inches
                                   6 Weeks: 15.5 inches

Also at 6 weeks, Ollie took his first plane ride down to California to meet my side of the family. For being kind of a grumpy baby, he was a perfect angel on both flights. We did happen to have a blowout diaper on the way home... which I managed to change in the airplane restroom. Of course while I was in there, we hit a patch of turbulence, but I was quick enough to get him into a clean diaper and clean clothes without much trouble except for a few tears (from him that is).

Since we returned from California, we have gotten into the groove of things. Ollie has been smiling and cooing a lot, and he even started blowing bubbles. He also has a newfound love for bath time. At night he has been sleeping pretty regularly from 11pm to nearly 4am. And then again from about 5 to 7am.  He is really settling into his own, especially now that we've discovered how much he loves to bounce in our arms on the exercise ball. He used to have nights when he cried inconsolably for hours, but now we have a few tricks up our sleeves. He is calm or asleep in minutes after swaddling, bouncing and turning on the white noise machine. Some good advice, a few gadgets, and the book "Happiest Baby on the Block" helped us figure out what we needed to do to make him happy. At night, when we are bouncing on the ball, just after he falls asleep he usually flashes me a little smile, and then I know it's safe to put him down. He still works himself up pretty well several times a day, and the kid definitely isn't afraid to use his lungs when he's not happy about something. But overall, I'm just so relieved to have found a way to soothe him, and because of that he is more settled and content.

At 7 Weeks these are his top 3 (and possibly only) favorite things:

1) Eating
2) Bouncing
3) Bathtime

(...we hope the list will continue to grow, and Pete and I are still waiting to make it onto the list ourselves!)