Great Checkup: 2 Lbs in 2 Weeks

Well, it has been a busy week, the highlight of which, being little Michael and little Peter's baptism on Saturday! It was a GREAT day, with lots of friends and family, and truly an honor to be a part of God's grace filling the souls of these two little boys! What a huge responsibility, both being a parent and a godparent. But we are SO looking forward to introducing these boys to the goodnews of Jesus Christ, and watching and praying as God's grace works in their lives, and doing whatever we can, as limited, sinful people, to help foster God's grace. Please pray for us!



After the baptism, we hung out with Michael's family for a while, and then went to Aunt Wheetah and David's house and spent time there. It was great seeing Gramma (G.G-short for Great Grandma), mom, dad, David's mom, and ALL the Campbell kids. Jack and Thomas were at their charming-est, and little Peelo was ensnaring us all in the cuteness of his little coos. It was SO much fun "talking" with him...I can't wait until Michael reaches that stage too!

I didn't have a camera, so I don't have any pictures for the Baptism...maybe someone can send some along to us!

In other news, our little man is over a month old and GROWING. The last visit to the doctor, he was 9lbs 5 oz. In just a little over 2 weeks, he grew to 11 lbs 6 oz. and up half an inch in length. So yes, that is a pound a week. It's funny because I'm really seeing the weight and feeling it. When I pick up Michael, I'm aware of how much more substantial he is! I also am noticing how much more of a butterball he is becoming. In his car seat, or on my lap after nursing, he just looks "big."

Little Michael is spending much more time awake and is starting to really respond to stimulation with smiles. He is SO cute! He is also occasionally cooing....not anything like his cousin, but making little sounds here and there. I think it is accidental at this point, but soon I think he will learn to control it and be able to coo in response to us.

His temperment varies from pretty easy (as long as he is eating constantly) to sometimes fussy. The doctor suspects colic (doh!) but at this point, it is pretty mild. It occurs mostly in the evenings. Fortunately for me, since he is pretty happy during the day, and I can enlist Michael Sr to help when he is here in the evening after work. Not so fortunate for Michael, who lately has been coming home to a fussy kid. The days where I can just feed him and pass him off to Michael and he can just sleep there for hours on his lap may be coming to a close, or at least put on pause for now. In fact, that is true for me during the day. I try to feed him and get him to a point where he can just fall asleep on me, and that is becoming more difficult to do. He either wants to stay awake, he just gets fussy, or he is asleep for all of 10 minutes on me, and then wants to be doing something else....though what that is I do not know. It's a sign of his growth and expanding his repertoire of things to do during the day, but at the same time, it is a little sad for me, like I mentioned in an earlier post. Could it be that our snuggly little baby is becoming more independent?

Michael is having a little trouble sleeping for longer periods during the night. I've noticed that in the past few days, it is no longer typical for me to get three or four hour stretches of sleep. They are more like 1.5 to 2 hours. Most of the time, he's up because he needs to nurse. But towards the earlier morning (like around 5 or 6 am) he doesn't want to nurse, he just needs to be "tucked in" or held for a minute and he'll go back to sleep. It's nice that he doesn't need a full meal, but still, it would be nicer if he would just let Mommy and Daddy sleep the whole way through.

Michael Sr. is so good. Usually, at 6 in the morning, I'm pretty wearied because I was JUST up with him, so Michael will get up and get him to go back to sleep. I feel bad because he has work to go to and I don't at this point, but, I"ll be honest, at the moment it happens, I don't feel that bad and grateful I can just roll over and go to sleep for a few more minutes. Admittedly, I have greeted the baby's early morning sound effects to a loud sigh, or a groan "I just fed you!" I should work on a more cheerful disposition, I think.

The reason little Michael keeps getting up, I'm convinced, is because of his love-hate relationship with swaddling. Michael NEEDS to be swaddled in order to go to sleep in his crib, but he also spends a great deal of effort trying to get out of the swaddle. But once he gets his arms free, he wakes up! However, when we tried a blanket with velcro that made it impossible for him to get his arms out, he HATED it. It's the weirdest, and getting to be the most frustrating thing. I find myself, when I see those little arms surfacing, begging him to stop breaking free! He hates his arms being free so much...so why does he do it so persistently?

Oh well. He's just a baby and doesn't know any better. It's certainly not calculated. But, when the cause of his waking up every 1.5 to 2 hours seems have nothing to do with hunger and everything to do with his arms being once again free....it drives me crazy! And now that he's getting bigger and presumably stronger, swaddling him and keeping him swaddled is more and more of a battle.

Well...if this is my biggest problem in life, then, I'm pretty lucky. So, I get to hold the baby a few extra times in the middle of the night. In a few months or years, I will be craving those extra moments of closeness. We have a healthy, playful, growing, charming, BAPTIZED baby...if a pair of feisty little arms is my biggest worry in life, then I have no right to complain!!

Thank you, Lord, for blessing us with such a wonderful little boy!