Billy After Bath Time...

Billy is just over 5 weeks old now and we caught this picture of him just after bath time. He's now reached the 22 inch mark in length, which keeps him in the 50th percentile at about 5.5 weeks of age, although in this photo, its tough to tell since he's snuggled in there pretty good.

As for this week, the little guy is still dealing with some belly button issues, but they still appear minor. No signs of concern we've been told to look for. It still looks like its going through the natural healing process, but just taking forever to do so. Without a doubt it has improved over last week, but still has some healing to do. He won't be back to the doctor for at least a couple more weeks, so we'll keep an eye on it ourselves. His hair may also be falling out now as he's clearly lost his "sideburns" and maybe a little on the sides, which is now just smooth baby skin.

After the last blog update, that very night, Billy had one of the roughest nights since we've had him. He was up constantly for hours at a time, which is very rare for him. He was fussy as can be and his Mother and I couldn't figure out what his issue was. Finally, we came to the conclusion that we may have gotten a little lax with his schedule that we've been trying to keep him on, so we decided to get back to being as proactive with his daily routine as we can be, eliminating any corner cutting we were doing. After getting back into that routine this week, he clearly righted the ship. Most nights he was back to 2-4 hour windows of sleep. A couple times this week, Antoinette only had to feed him twice at night. The schedule consists of 20 minutes of eating, another 30 minutes of awake time (again, essential that it comes before sleep time), and an hour and a half to two hours of nap time. At nighttime, the lights stay down, voices stay down, and he's fed and put immediately back to sleep. The less we break from this routine, the smoother his little cycle is.

Reading time has begun for the little guy. When I get home from work, I get one diaper change a day (mandatory requirement from his Mother), which I don't really mind. He loves his changing table for some reason. If he's not hungry, he'll stop fussing the minute you put him down on it and typically start smiling. He gets a quick change and then I use my little "awake time" window to read to him. Some days are better than others and most of the time he just lays there and watches my mouth move, throwing in own little oohs and aahs and quite a bit of smiling. When he's had enough, he'll start to fuss and then reading time is over. We get through a couple pages a day depending on how much I stop to play with him while I'm reading. Can't help it. When he smiles and giggles, it just washes away all of the stress of your day like it never happened.

On Tuesday, Billy seemed to hit some sort of developmental milestone. We're not really sure what happened, but it didn't seem gradual at all to us. All of a sudden, he seemed to have control over his smiles and laughs and they seemed much more voluntary and responsive than the involuntary smiling the day before. His oohing and aahing came almost as if in response to our own talking back to him, he was much more interactive on is playmat, and as of Tuesday night, he began to sleep a bit longer at night. All seemed to change from Monday to Tuesday, which was worth noting.

I'm not sure how to take this next part, but the child seems to really like Barney. He was fussing one day and Antoinette turned on Barney and he immediately spun his head around like an owl to try and crane his neck to see where that singing was coming from. He just sat there in his swing staring either at the TV or in the general direction of the TV "watching" and listening. Cessation of all hostilities and immediate focus and attention shifting. I hate Barney, but if it keeps the little guy content when he's fussing, whatever...

Billy also seems to be a little better at tracking objects with his eyes. He'll follow you across the room if he's not fussing and turn his head to follow your motion. He seems particularly focused on your eyes, but seems content to look at your mouth when its moving. He still lacks most control of his hands, but still pauses for a second when he feels something touch them. Antoinette has been putting things by his feet lately and he seems to want to touch them instead of involuntarily kicking at them.

This week, the major things to look forward to should be more of the same from last week. A stronger neck, more cooing and vocalization, more laughing and giggling, and more interaction and awareness. We'll also keep practicing his Tummy Time. He gets 3-4 sessions a day of about 3-5 minutes at a pop. If he doesn't want to do it, he makes it perfectly clear by continuously rolling over onto his back (and crying). Point taken, and we take him off the mat. He also gets some interactive time on his playmat from time to time and still loves his swing for daytime naps.

The Lionhood Family Portrait...

This is the our first family photo together, which Antoinette wanted for Mother's Day. In the picture, he isn't quite three weeks old yet. As of yesterday, he just crossed the one month mark. Every week that passes, he seems to be just a little bit different than the week before. But before we get into all of that, the only bit of bad news for the week. We are officially NOT coming home in June. We simply cannot make the logistics work in terms of work schedules, immunizations, and non-stop flights. We should be attempting to call just about everyone to give them this update and as of this posting, we have already contacted about half of you. We are instead thinking about pushing the date back to mid to late August when we can drive up for a week. As that date gets a bit closer, I'll let you all know. At that point, he'll be about 4 months old.

Anyway, for the little guy, he has started to go through some changes to his skin that are quite common in babies. For instance, a condition common to babies born after their due date is a round of skin peeling that typically occurs at about this time. Billy is going through this now. His skin looks a bit like shoulders out in the sun where you can see some edges of skin that you want to peel off here and there. He also has some milia, which are small red bumps that occur across the nose, cheeks, and even forehead. They are quite common in newborns and at about one to two months, the little guy's pores should open up and this condition should clear up.

Another interesting change we've begun to see in him is his walking reflex. This reflex is characterized by a baby's attempt to move one foot in front of the other when the soles of their feet are placed on a surface. It is a sign of a normal developing nervous system and will typically disappear within a few weeks. It will then reoccur as a voluntary movement when he's about 8-10 months old. Another physical development point is that the little guy now weighs in at about 9.5 lbs.

We bought him an activity mat last Sunday. It is a Fisher Price Jungle Gym set and he seems to like it...for awhile. He really doesn't seem to want to spend more than about 5 minutes on it at a time and it makes me wonder if part of that is his inability to interact with the mat at this point. He also uses it for Tummy Time and last weekend, he clearly didn't want to have any Tummy Time, choosing to roll over five times in a row when we put him on his belly. Some times he stays and others he just rolls out of it. Last week, we wasn't rolling fast enough for Hunter's liking, so the dog nuzzled him half way through his roll and had him flipped in no time flat. As he gets older and gets better control of his extremities, he should be able to interact with the mat and will probably get more out of it. That's our hope anyway...

Speaking of Tummy Time, Billy has seen a substantial improvement in his overall neck control now. He's fully capable, as many of you have seen in the 2nd to last video, of holding his head up and turning it from side to side when he's in your arms on your chest. He can push himself up quite well in a pushup position when leaned against something. He's also improved in his ability to track objects and will follow you as you walk past or when his Mother gets up to go into another room...especially if she's talking when she does it.

The eye color mystery for Billy is solved. After reading about a technique for finding this out early, I got a mini flashlight and shined it quickly in each slate baby bluish (with brown edges) eye as if you were checking him for a concussion. Only this time, instead of checking for proper pupil dilation and contraction, I was told you would be able to clearly see his eye color. Sure enough, his eyes flashed a deep brown, so I'm pretty sure that as time passes and his iris gets deeper in its ultimate color, the little guy should have brown eyes. Mystery solved.

On the belly button front, just when his belly button appeared perfectly healed, a little protrusion popped out. I think its just what's left of his possible granuloma. Either way, it looks 100 times better and I think it should be good to go in a week or so. His belly button looks better every single week. Having thought that his belly button was 100% healed, we went ahead and gave him his first actual bath in water (as opposed to the sponge variety). He's actually had a couple baths at this point and handles them quite well. While he's not crying, he's clearly unsure of what to make of the water as he sort of stiffens up at the limbs and just freezes when he gets put into the tub that's only an inch or two deep. Its kind of funny, but the bright side is that at least he's not screaming his head off.

A huge part of the payoff of being a parent is the first couple times your baby actually smiles back at you when he hears your voice or sees your face. Billy's smiles have become much more controlled and don't appear to be as involuntary now. If he gets excited, he'll often smile, laugh, and then giggle or coo. The fact that it corresponds with improved vision is comforting and makes you feel, as a parent, like its you that he's responding to. Also, the mere fact that the baby has an additional method of communication other than just screaming bloody murder when he wants something is nice, too. While there are clearly various forms of crying which indicate different needs, they are not always easy to tell apart and even so, they are all still crying. A positive reflection of mood is nice, too.

Looking forward, I know I said it last week, but this is actually the week I'm going to start reading to the little guy. We are going to shoot for a half hour a day of reading time, but I think that's extremely optimistic. We'll see how it goes. Not sure I can even keep his attention for more than 5 minutes at this point, but my hope is that he will gradually do better and better as we go. We'll see. As the week goes on, we are hoping to see more vocalization from the little guy, little by little. He should also start smiling a little more each week. On the physical side, all we are hoping for is some increased neck stabilization. Hopefully he can hold his neck a bit steadier on a 45 degree angle for a bit longer than last week.

Everyone have a great Memorial Day weekend.

The Bad News...

The news is all good for Billy, but could be all bad for our trip home. After some elaborate planning for the Baby Shower in mid June, we seem to have hit a major snag and can't seem to find a way around it. Here's the dilemma. At the last doctor visit, the doctor agreed, after some persuasion, to give Billy his first round of vaccinations two weeks early at 6 weeks old. He will not give them any sooner than that. He is adamant about him having his shots before he gets on a plane or "shakes hands" with 100 people attempting to pick him up and hold him. Especially since there's no telling how many of those 100 people may have little illnesses that are no big deal to them, but a huge deal to a vaccinationless baby.

That brings up the first problem. Billy turns 6 weeks old the Wednesday prior to the Baby Shower. After his vaccinations, it is likely that he will run a slight fever for a day or two, which is likely to cause him significant discomfort and pretty much make him a very unhappy baby. If we got his shots on Wednesday, then Thursday and Friday would be rough days for him. The only day we can find where we can take a non-stop flight (pretty much mandatory when flying with an infant who is running a slight fever) is Wednesday morning, the earliest day he can get his shots. Taking connecting flights, even ones where we never have to deplane, would mean that we would be stuck in airports or airplanes for approximately 5-6 hours with a very unhappy child. In other words, that's not happening.

So we looked into the possibility of driving home. The drive from Jacksonville to Chicago is approximately 17 hours. You can probably do it in 15-16 hours if you drove straight through and stopped for gas and ate on the road. With a 6 week old baby, that's not possible. We would need to stop every 2 to 2.5 hours to feed him, which takes a half hour each time. That means we are driving about 10 actual hours for every 12 hours in the car, give or take. At that rate, it would take us 18-20 hours to get home, meaning two full days of travel there and two full days of travel back. In order to make the trip, I would have to take another full week off of work, which isn't going to happen since I just took two weeks off for the baby's birth.

Long story short, while the Party is not officially off at this moment, its not looking real promising. I would handicap it at 99.5% chance its not going to happen. One of the worst parts is that we already sent out half the invitations, not anticipating this much to happen all at once. Poor planning, I guess. Anyway, we hope to maybe push the party to August and plan a trip home where we drive home and take a week and a pair of weekends to get it done. Maybe leave on a Thursday after work, drive the rest of Thursday, all day Friday, and arrive on Friday night. Then stay for a week, leave on Saturday afternoon, spend the rest of Saturday and all day Sunday driving, and then arrive home that following Sunday. We'll see. Planning begins on that as soon as we've officially cancelled the party on Sunday. Again, I know its a month out, but I am sorry for any inconvenience that this may have caused anybody in planning to be at the Party.

Now that we've dispensed with the bad news, let's move on to the good news. Billy is doing great and his Mother is doing even better. Antoinette is almost back to her prepregnancy size, down a quite amazing 23 lbs. Of course, she's getting hammered in the sleep department as she's up every 2-4 hours with the baby at night and catching what make up sleep she can during the day. She's less than 5 lbs. from her prepregnancy weight and we're just 3 weeks since delivery. She's even starting to get her abs back. She can't wait for the 6 week mark to come and go so she can get back to working out. Other than sleepiness, she feels great. Hopefully, we'll get out and get some good walks in over the next couple weeks to help her get out of the house. I know she has to feel couped up in here all day.

Its fairly difficult to notice the tiny, nearly imperceptible little changes he seems to have every single day, but if you really pay attention, you will. For instance, his vision seems to have improved dramatically. He locks onto the ceiling fan now and just stares at it. The neat thing is that the fan is hanging from a 15 foot vaulted ceiling. Just last week, his vision seemed to be limited to just 8-12 inches in front of his face. He also locks on to you from across the room. Just yesterday, as a matter of fact, I turned and looked at him and he was glued to me from the other couch. As I waved or moved my hands, he would track, even more so with an object making noise, which was good to see. His Mother gets up to walk away while talking and his head turns to follow her. All little things, but still baby step milestones in their own right.

Some other new items to relay include an increased neck strength. When laying against your chest, he seems to be able to hold his head far better, although still for short bursts. He can turn it with control to the left and right, although his movements are still jerky. He seems to be developing that understanding that his hands are actually his and are capable of exploring the world around him. If you stick your face in his waving hand, he slows for a second as if registering the touch. Then he tries to hit you again, only this time he tries to grasp when he does it. Again, his movements are still jerky and basically out of his control, but he's getting better.

Regarding the Baby Wise techniques to getting him on his sleep schedule, we'll see about that. Antoinette is tweaking the system to something she finds a bit more tolerable. For instance, the book suggests putting him down regardless of if he's tired or not. This results in unbearable screaming that can last far too long. Instead, Antoinette has decided she will attempt to quiet him and prep him for sleep before putting him down, yet still put him down without any tricks, such as fans, music, noisemakers, etc., in an attempt to truly teach him how to fall asleep. A minor change, but one we feel is necessary. Only time will tell if we are right. Now, he wakes up less and is still managing to keep his 2.5 to 3 hour schedule fairly well, which is good, because this week, he can add another half hour to that schedule and move to a 2.5 to 3.5 hour window with up to an extra half hour added for nap time.

From a growth standpoint, he hasn't exactly slowed. Billy has already grown out of his first set of baby clothes that Antoinette bought soon after he was born, which is very noticeable when all of a sudden he's wearing clothes I've never seen him in before. We went from being able to fit comfortably in about four outfits to now being able to fit in about 10 outfits (and that's after retiring a couple for the next baby already). If we don't make the trip home this time, we'll probably push his vaccination date back to 8 weeks, which means I won't have an updated weight/length measurement for some time. I can't do that, so I'll just have to do it myself and ballpark it for you. This week, we'll update his length and next week his weight and so on. As of today, little Billy appears to be measuring out at about 21.25 inches in length. That puts him in the 50th percentile at 3.5 weeks.

Billy's belly button has almost become a non-issue. After falling off a week ago and having left what we thought to be a granuloma (piece of tissue sticking up), it all seems to be healing well. None of the warning signs have appeared (various fluids leaking, redness, swelling, etc.) to indicate anything out of the ordinary, such as infection, and the overall appearance is starting to look like a normal "outtie". We'll keep treating it this week, but ultimately, I think this is the week he could get his first real bath in water (unlike the sponge baths he's been getting). Finally, the soft spot on the back of his head appears closed.

We hope you enjoy the picture of Antoinette and Billy. During our photo shoot on Mother's Day, Billy was fussing a bit, so the photographer went to help another couple while we attempted to settle him down. Antoinette only took 2-3 minutes to get him calm, so we decided that while we waited, we would take some pictures of our own using the backdrop and my cell phone. This photo is of Mom and Baby, about 2 minutes after a little tirade. Apparently, he doesn't like bright lights being flashed in his eyes. Go figure. Next week, we'll have our first family photo as the Baby Blog picture.

He Rolled Over...Already?

We start this week's blog with the news of the week. We put the little guy down on his belly for his first bit of Tummy Time. After 30-45 minutes of getting prepared for this event (researching what we're supposed to do and what we're trying to accomplish), the unexpected happened when we actually laid him on the mat. First of all, he started crying his eyes out. After that he started to kick his legs and lift his head a bit, which is what we were trying to accomplish. Then, it got strange. He began to lift one leg and twist in an awkward angle, almost like a dog making a visit to the hydrant. He then started to shake one leg back and forth like a chameleon walking down a tree branch (youtube it if you're lost). And then, he gave a leg shake/kick so strong, that it actually rolled him over and he wound up on his back.

Now, why is this strange? Namely because he's two weeks old. According to the Mayo Clinic website and BabyCenter.com, babies don't typically begin to roll from front to back until they are 2-3 months old. They don't roll from back to front until 3-5 months. So after we looked at each other oddly and wondered what we had just seen, we figured we'd go get the video camera and see if he'd do it again. After setting up the camera on the ground, we rolled him over again and gave it another shot. This time it took almost 2 minutes, but sure enough, he eventually got into his awkward position and rolled over again. If you want to see this on video, because its quite funny, just email me, anyone in my family, Antoinette, or Charlotte. We've all got the video. Very funny stuff.

Next up is his doctor's office visit. Billy went to the doctor with his Mother on Tuesday for a two week checkup. It seems that eating has not been a problem for him. He's already climbed over the 8 lbs mark, gaining weight at the rate of about one pound a week. Doctor says he expects that rate to slow to about a half pound a week and expects him to weigh close to 10 lbs on the next visit in four weeks. The good news is that he's climbed into the 30th percentile for body weight, up from the 23rd percentile a week ago. From a height perspective, he measured out at about 20.5 inches, give or take, which I miscalculated last week and actually puts him in the 23rd percentile this week, not the 80th percentile. All in all, he's a little guy.

Some other notes from the doctor visit include an OK on his breathing from his doctor. Billy has a bit of a wheeze sometimes after eating. The doctor heard it, listened to his lungs, and said he's good to go. He said that his sinuses haven't opened up yet, which should happen in a couple weeks. When they do, the wheezing should go away. The doctor also checked his dry skin and said this was also normal. Babies run through a bit of dry skin right out of the gates. Billy's are here and there around his body and should also pass. In the meantime, Antoinette got the OK to use unscented baby lotion for his skin. The doctor also suggested putting him on a multi-vitamin to supplement his diet, which we bought and administered for the first time. He threw it up. Not spit up either. The real stuff. So Antoinette is going to spread it out with a couple drops during each feeding and see if that helps him keep it down. He needs to stay out of the Sun still and avoid 80+ degree weather, which means that he can go for walks at sunset, but he needs to avoid insect bites as much as possible because the sensitivity of his skin means they'll really show if he gets one.

As we venture down the Baby Wise path to sleeping through the night by 8-9 weeks, we took the first step back on Tuesday and have been diligently trucking along with the plan. At this point, Billy is on a 2.5 to 3 hour cycle which consists of eating (20-30 minutes), awake time (30-45 minutes), and nap time (1.5 hours) give or take. The key is awake time before nap time during the day. Can't let him fall asleep after eating. The other key is that we have to decide when its time to put him down for his nap, not him. We're "training" him how to sleep. The hard part is when he starts crying. You have to suck it up and deal with it for 15 minutes before going in to pick him up. Many people don't like this plan, but we don't know anyone who has tried it and let its run its course that has said anything negative about it. And in every instance, from people whose opinions we trust, the baby has always been able to sleep through the night before 10 weeks. You can follow along with us and see if it works. Anyway, on the 15 minutes of crying deal, after 15 minutes, you can go in and pick him up, bounce him a bit and sing or talk to him and within a minute or two (typically), he's asleep and you can put him down again. Crying is very draining apparently.

So far, the plan is working well, but the early part is very difficult. Especially hearing him cry. Also, I find that when I'm rested, I can listen to him cry and it doesn't bother me. But the more tired I am, the more frustrating it is to hear his cry. Anyway, it seems to be working. Billy would cry for 15 minutes until he was picked up every time for the first few days. Now, he's had a few instances of falling asleep after crying for around 10 minutes without any need for someone to come in to hold him, which is an improvement. He's also woke up crying a few times and simply fallen back asleep after a few minutes of crying, even though we had to fight the urge to go in and get him right away. We read that these stirring moments are simply the baby's way of working himself into a deeper sleep and that appears to be the case, so for those of you that have babies, don't be fooled. Finally, the goal is to have him sleeping through the night and to keep him gaining weight through the process. Billy has improved from 3 consecutive hours of sleep to 4.5 hours at a time as of last night. Its not necessarily longer each night, but on the whole, its definitely getting better. He's probably averaging 4 hours in a row now when he was averaging 3 hours in a row before. All the while, his weight has continued to increase in a healthy manner.

Billy has begun really staring intently at faces. While he's looked at your face (or glanced) since his birth, he was mostly checking out eyebrows and hairlines. But now, he's clearly looking into your eyes and its a great feeling to have those little eyes stare right back at your own. His features seem to be developing and his face is beginning to take on its own personality. His eyes are continuing to deepen in color and it really looks like we've got some brown coming into those irises.

Next up is the trip home. We have taken another step toward making that happen. Two steps actually. First, remember to keep open June 14th, which is a Sunday, as the date we will be back in Chicago with the little guy. Antoinette got the invitations and is preparing them. They should be ready to go soon. You may not get one if you've indicated to me you can't make that date or if you've never replied to me at all about that date. We also talked to the doctor about taking a 6 week old baby onto an airplane. The doctor said that taking him isn't a problem except he needs his first run of vaccines before we go. The problem is that he's not due to get his shots until he's 8 weeks. The doctor suggested we move up the screening but contact our insurance company to make sure they'll cover vaccinations two weeks early. Apparently some won't. Well, Antoinette called and ours will, so that's two more steps to coming home that we've completed. This weekend we'll figure out the plan in terms of dates, times, flights, travel arrangements, work schedules, etc.

Last night, Billy's belly button fell off. It just kind of happened on one of his diaper changes. The area it left behind is still red and will need to be monitored and alcohol swabbed for up to a couple weeks so that it dries up. That will delay Billy's first real bath in the tub with water. In the meantime, Antoinette is still handing out sponge baths to the little guy.

For next week, playtime will include lots of involvement with high contrast imagery including black and white objects, books with babies faces, and reading with Dad every day. We will probably look to get him acclimated to a play mat on the floor where he can learn to swipe at objects that are dangling over his head improving depth perception and hand eye coordination. We will also practice grabbing, but at this age, the only way to do this is to put objects in his hand and let him keep grabbing on to them. He lacks the hand eye needed to actually reach out and grab what he wants with anything resembling control. This is also the age at which most babies will begin to develop a basic level of understanding that their hands, arms, legs, and feet are attached to their bodies, so many of the games will be designed to help further develop this. Games like "This Little Piggy", etc. Also, the soft spot on the back of his head should have closed up, but the front spot will remain open to some degree for up to two years.

10 Days Old & Already Growing Up So Fast...

Your picture this week is little Billy taking his first nap with his Daddy. This is the first time that I make an appearance on the Baby Blog, but this was the picture that got the vote. Its really quite an amazing experience. It was certainly the best nap I have ever taken and interesting in terms of how conscious you are of where you baby is at all times, seemingly even when you are sound asleep. Anyway, on to the blog update...

Billy is 10 days old now and already there is so much going on. Let's begin with his first doctor visit this past Tuesday. At that visit, we had some interesting info. First of all, his weight. Most babies are born at a certain weight (Billy was 6 lbs. 13 oz), then lose up to 10% of that amount in excess water weight within the first 3-5 days of life (Billy left the hospital at 6 lbs. 10 oz. at 36 hours old), and then spend the better part of the next two weeks just trying to get back to their original birth weight. This was just not the case for our little guy. Apparently, Antoinette's milk came in early and the result is a fast growing baby. At just 6 days old, Billy had already reached his birth weight and exceeded it by 4 oz. As of Tuesday, he was weighing in at 7 lbs. 1 oz. That's a 7% increase in body weight in 4 days, which is great news. At that rate of weight gain, I would estimate that today, he's probably just shy of 7.5 lbs. since the weight gain can slow a bit if it starts out rapid. He had a little catching up to do anyway. Billy is in the 75th percentile for length/height, but just the 25th percentile for weight. In other words, he's tall and skinny for a baby, so he's got a little filling out to do.

Other interesting info to come from the doctor visit was that the white residue on his tongue is not Thrush, which was our concern, but is instead the more common "Milk Tongue" often seen in breastfed babies. He's also apparently out of the woods from a Jaundice concern, which is something that afflicts 50% of babies to some degree. The likely reason is the Florida sunshine and his Mother's milk coming in so fast allowing him to eliminate quicker and more frequently, which is a primary means of the body ridding itself of the broken down red blood cells that cause the telltale yellowing of a baby's eyes and skin. His circumcision has healed and he's good to go there, and we expect his cord to fall off this weekend. The doctor showed us a technique to dry it out faster and while it is just 15-25% of its original size when we left the hospital, it hasn't fallen off just yet. Next doctor visit is this week.

We also had some interesting new parenting experiences this week. Thinking the quickly growing boy was ready to make the leap from newborn diapers to size 1 diapers due to some increased snugness, his Mother may have made the change a bit too soon. During one wonderful morning, there were some "signs" that he was using his diaper (#2), which wound up on my pants. That's right, I was pooped on. I'm sure it won't be the last time. And just for good measure, while taking baby pictures with his Mother and Grandmother, Billy wound up peeing in quite the impressive arc....all down Mom's shirt. Pooped and peed on all in the same 24 hour period. Oh well. Back to newborn diapers for the rest of this week.

Speaking of the baby's Grandmother, Charlotte flew home on Thursday night after 10 days of helping out with the baby and around the house. And she was a huge help. By the time the two of us very sleepy new parents woke up, Charlotte spent nearly every morning cleaning the house, doing the dishes, and making breakfast. Then she was more than willing to take the baby so Antoinette could get back to sleep and catchup on what she lost during the night. Ultimately, she was a great crutch to rely on in our first week and there will no doubt be some adjusting that needs to be done without that third set of hands helping. And we need to adjust fast, because Monday I'm back to work and Antoinette will be down to just her own set of hands for 1/3 of the day.

Let's talk about some newborn development. Eyesight is still fuzzy on a 1 week old child. It is limited to just 8-15 inches from their face (not surprisingly the exact distance from their eyes to their Mother's during feeding) as the muscles in the eyes allowing the baby to focus are nowhere near fully developed. Billy could take 3-6 months to have his eyes develop fully. Newborn babies tend to look at eyebrows, moving mouths, and hairlines, but they do seem to have an affinity for faces over other inanimate objects if given a choice. Throughout the first month, the amount of eye to eye contact will increase. Billy is already able to lock onto your eyes, but unless you are talking (or singing to him), his attention span is very limited. He does seem to enjoy the song my Father used to sing to me as a baby, which is "My Rifle, My Pony, and Me", although I butcher the words sometimes when I'm tired. He doesn't seem to mind.

While feeding or just mutual staring, we move hands and fingers across his line of sight to help him strengthen his eye muscles. The next advance for him in this department will be the ability to see high contrast images, like checkerboards. For the first month of life, its very common for his eyes to lose control and cross up during these exercises, which they do from time to time. Despite these limitations, the little guy can see in three dimensions already and his eyes are very sensitive to light due to his limited ability to squint and keep his eyes in this position. More often, he will simply blink immediately when the lighting changes and then cry if they continue to bother him.

Even this early in life, while a baby seems like they are only eating, sleeping, and soiling diapers, there is really so much going on inside of their heads. They are creating enormous numbers of connections inside of their brains as they constantly experience new things. On the outside, you often see a blank stare, but the baby is learning and processing at all times. Playing games like sticking out your tongue, bouncing your eyebrows, making faces while talking to them, etc. are being constantly processed and soon will be outwardly reflected back at you. It is often too easy to forget that Billy is developing in more ways than just weight and length.

This week, we are likely to begin Tummy Time, which is more or less the time the little guy needs daily on his belly where he can practice strengthening his neck muscles, arm muscles, and shoulder muscles. In the beginning, this need only be a couple minutes at a time a few times a day. In time, he'll grow to the point where a good 5+ minutes of consecutive time on the belly works best. Its all a issue of time and development. I'll tell you this much though, the scariest part about having a newborn to me is that noodlelike neck of theirs. My kid doesn't seem to have a particularly large head, but it freaks me out every time I see it shift to an awkward angle in his car seat or stroller, etc. The day he can balance that sucker won't come fast enough for me.

Last couple of things on the baby I wanted to tell you about from last week. He had his first bath (sponge bath until the cord falls off), loves going for car rides in his car seat (he's been on two), was quiet as a mouse for 95% of the time we were in a Target (until he got hungry), absolutely loves his swing (it has a cradle mode, not just a front to back), doesn't seem to like his vibrating chair just yet, and is sleeping fairly well during the night (up about 2-3 times for 20 minutes a pop).

Regarding Antoinette, she's already down 21 lbs., which means she's only up 9 lbs. from prepregnancy weight. She's feeling much better and as long as she doesn't exert herself too much, her soreness is very mild. We've been able to get out of the house for a couple of short laps around the neighborhood with the stroller, which Mom, Billy, and the dog seem to love (I like them, too). And on top of all of that, Antoinette has been fantastic. Every time she's touching that baby, whether its to change a dirty diaper, to feed him, or just to calm his fussiness, she's always smiling. And as a bonus, he's recently begun to smile back. Not sure if his smiles have meaning just yet, but they still have plenty of emotional value for Mom and Dad, so even if they don't, we can still pretend they do.

Over the course of the next two weeks, Billy has some very daunting challenges on his plate. He will lose the leftovers of his umbilical cord, he will get his first bath in the baby bathtub where he actually lays in water (that should be fun), he will get his first Tummy Time, he should begin staring more intently at faces, should begin responding more to sounds around him, and should see the soft spot on the back of his head close up (the soft spot on the front could take up to two years to close). Judging from the size of this entry, I imagine there will be much more, including another trip to the doctor to go with it. Plus, he recently got a host of Ohio State memorabilia from his Great Aunt and Uncle from Ohio which he will be testing out in future photos, including an OSU Binky and a tiny, soft OSU football. Start 'em early, folks. Thanks Uncle Dean and Aunt Chrissy.