Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas from the Balogh family to yours! Below is a picture of our holiday lawn decoration. It's animated and moves it's head back and forth. Nothing says Christmas like a light-up flamingo. :). Mango the pink-nosed reindeer wishes us all happy holidays as well!



Wednesday, December 23, 2009

7 weeks old

Baxter is seven-weeks old now. We are continually amazed at how fast Mighty Mouse is growing. At his one month checkup, he measured in at almost 6.5 lbs and 19.75 inches long. Over the weekend we were wondering how much he weighed since our arms were starting to ache from holding him, so Mike got on the scale with him and subtracted his body weight from their combined weight. The result was that Bax was now 8.5 lbs. We measured him at 21.5 inches in length as well. He's growing like a weed! Some of his newborn outfits are getting to be too short for his legs and narrow for his shoulders.

Baxter's been sleeping pretty well through the night, usually giving us a 4.5-5 hours stretch of rest. He's still co-sleeping with us, otherwise no one in the family would get decent sleep. Bax tends to grunt and grimace in his bassinet, and we wouldn't be able to sleep through it. I'm not sure if the grunting is because of his reflux issues (for which he's on Zantac -- baby has a med list already), or because of his straining/constipation problem. I hope things regulate for him soon as I'm tired of getting ambushed by projectile vomit and having to see him strain to fart. Farts should be fun, dang it.

Another fun thing we've noticed is that he likes to focus on people's faces, even his own. He has this mirror toy with bugs and other things to grab, and he probably spent 45 minutes playing with it today. It's so cute to see him give his reflection cheeky little smiles.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

One month and 14 days



I took this picture this morning as Baxter slept on the couch. It's memorable because he's actually in a deep sleep and NOT being carried by someone. Amazing! I discovered this yesterday when I tried putting him down for tummy time and he promptly fell asleep. I know babes aren't supposed to be tummy sleepers for fear of SIDS so I'm frquemtly checking on him to make sure he's still alive. It's not that hard to figure out though, as he seems to have inherited his father's nose whistle.

Friday, December 4, 2009

One Month Old!

Baxter turned one month old on December 2. The funny thing is, he wasn't even supposed to be due until December 5th. He had his one month check up with his pediatrician, Dr. Kregenow, today. She was thrilled to see how much he's grown since birth. His weight today was 6 lbs. 7.5 oz and height was 19.75 inches. When she adjusted the growth charts for his gestational age, he actually made the charts (25th percentile)!

Baxter's been dealing with reflux issues. We can't lay him horizontally very long (even for a diaper change) or else he'll barf. Even when he's sitting in his bouncy seat, he'll randomly barf an hour or so after eating. He sleeps best laying face down on Mike's chest. He's always making these little noises like he's barfing in his mouth and swallowing it again. Poor baby. So far it doesn't seem to bother him that much, but if/when it does, his pediatrician will put him on Zantac. Right now she wants us to do reflux precautions and just watch to see if he starts getting irritated by it.

He's also got a bit of a problem moving his bowels, as evidenced by grunting and grimacing whenever he has to fart. His bowel movements aren't very regular, and one of the last ones he had looked like a dog turd -- not normal for babies. Dr. Kregenow thinks it's because he's transitioning from breastmilk to formula (my milk supply went kaput despite taking Reglan and fenugreek capsules). Just to soften things up, he'll be getting an ounce of Pedialyte to help him out. I hope it helps the little guy out.



This picture was taken when he was about three weeks old, but it was a sexy body shot and he was wearing Harley Davidson socks that morning.

Most days Baxter's like this:

He covers his face in shame and wonders why he has such strange parents. :) He has quite the fun personality. He likes to have both his hands by his face and will wriggle out of any swaddle we put him in, no matter how tight and complicated. We call him Houdini sometimes. He also is very "hands-y" -- he's always wanting to grab either his ears, his eyes, his hair, or shove his fingers in his mouth when he's feeding.

This picture was taken in Poulsbo at the Thanksgiving table. We celebrated Baxter's first holiday at Mike's parents home, where he got to meet most of his cousins. They were all pretty interested in him: Matthew, Leah and Brittney all took turns holding him, and Max and Chance liked peeking at "Baby Bachsturr" in his bassinet.

The next day we had another Thanksgiving celebration in Gig Harbor with my family. His Tita Bee is always so excited to hold him. Up next: Baby's first Christmas! Happy holidays everyone!