Thursday, January 29, 2009

It's show off time!


As Conner nears 3 months of age, his smiles and attempts to laugh grow more and more each day. It's so much fun to see. As you can see from the photos, he's starting to show off a little bit. He's also getting pretty strong. While he's certainly not sitting up by himself, he's got good control over his head and loves being pulled up.

His doctor's appointment went well the other day. Long story short, we were pretty much told to come back in about a year. While it seems that no one I know has heard of an umbilical hernia, it's quite common and it's generally not serious. So we're keeping our eye on it and not worrying about it. And, to me, it's actually gotten smaller recently.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

11 weeks = sleep

At least for Conner and us it does! It seems as soon as he hit the 11-week mark, Conner started sleeping more through the night. Tuesday night he (finally) went down at 9 p.m. (he just didn't want to go to sleep) and was up around 2 a.m. then was up for the day at 7 a.m. Thursday night he went down at 7:30 p.m. (more his normal bedtime) and didn't wake up until 1:45 a.m., then was up for good at 7 a.m. Then again last night he was down between 7:30 and 8 and didn't get up until 3:45 a.m., then was up around 7:15 this morning. Woo-hoo!!

It seems as though Conner's growing in his sleep, too. We're slowly working the 3-6 month clothes into his wardrobe, and he's not yet 3 months old. He's more alert during the day, talking and smiling a lot. There's always something new, it seems!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Conner's first big road trip

We had a quick, cold, but fun trip to Ohio this past weekend. Christina's grandmother turned 90 last week and there was a great turnout for a party for her. Here's a look at some of the pictures of Conner's first visit to frigid Ohio.

The whole family.


Big smiles all weekend.

Bundling up for the single-digit temperatures.

Four generations of family.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Not-so-little man

After a two-month hiatus, I'm back! I'm still working on getting into the swing of life, but I thought I should take a minute to update you on Conner, who we affectionately call "little man." Well, we found out Monday at his two-month check-up how "little" he is. He weighed in at 12 lbs 14 oz and is 23-1/2 inches long. That's pretty impressive for only being 9 weeks old! Both his doctor and my doctor have complemented me on my milk supply's magic. :)

Overall, Conner is great. He's growing like he should and progressing at an appropriate pace. His smiles come more often these days and he's so alert and aware of us. It's so neat to see his changes every day!

On the down side, his head is a little flat on one side, but that can be worked out by us making sure he lays on the other side more often. Also, he has a herniated belly button. It's not pretty. For those of you who don't know what that is, here's the scoop: basically, the muscles in his abdomen didn't grow together like they should have, and his intestines are coming through the opening, making his belly button stick out. It's gotten much worse since our last trip to the doctor, and Dr. Grossberg referred us to a specialist during our trip Monday. Our appointment is scheduled for Jan. 27. Dr. G. said they usually don't do anything until the babies are 6 months old. It seems to bother us more than him, so we're not too worried about it right now.

Conner's sleeping habits are slowly getting better. The last two nights, he slept for 5-hour stints, as opposed to his 3- and 4-hour ones. His bedtime has also gotten earlier -- he gets really tired around 7 p.m., and he's usually down for good by 7:30 or 8. Our schedule is constantly changing!

I'm glad to be writing on here again and updating you on Conner. It was a tough first couple of months for me, both physically and mentally. Motherhood is a blessing, and I am so happy. I love seeing Conner's little smiles and hearing his little coos. He is really growing into a neat little person, and every day I am reminded what a miracle he is. At the same time, motherhood is a huge adjustment, bigger than I thought, I think. I struggled at the beginning with breast feeding and my emotions were haywire for a while. And it's a lot of work to figure out a schedule that will work around meals and naps. But I'm getting there -- we're getting there -- and every day gets easier.

Conner doesn't go back to see Dr. G. until March for his four-month check-up, but we'll update you on the appointment with the specialist. Supposedly, hernias are very common in babies, especially when they come into the world early like Conner did. And they can be fixed rather easily -- a small incision under where the belly button should be where they go in and stitch the muscles together. We'll let you know what we find out!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Two months

Seems like only yesterday I was posting his 1-month old photo! Now it's on to two months:

And here are a couple of more photos since Christmas:

Conner is smiling more and more every day, but he doesn't want to smile yet for the camera. He's very much a morning person, greeting us with big smiles every day. He's growing like a weed - we'll get a weight update tomorrow, but he's officially out of his 0-3 month onesies and he went up to size 2 in diapers this weekend.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Sunday, December 14, 2008