first 7 weeks

I can hardly believe it, but Jamie is 7 weeks old today. Where has the time gone?? He is an amazing little guy, and we feel so lucky to have him!

The first few weeks of his life were very rewarding but very difficult--rewarding because I finally had my sweet little boy and could snuggle him and cover him in kisses, and it is SO wonderful to watch Thomas with him--they are too cute together; difficult because both of us had some health problems. Jamie unfortunately had jaundice. We had to take him to the hospital to get his blood taken each of the first five days we were home from the hospital, which was awful. He cried so hard. Because his bilirubin levels were still going up after the first couple blood tests, we also had to use a biliblanket, which looks like a heating pad with UV lights and helps the levels go down. He was supposed to stay on it basically 24 hours a day, which made it so we couldn't hold him as much as we wanted and made it tricky to feed him, etc. Finally his levels were down where they were supposed to be, and then I got mastitis and ended up back in the hospital to get IV antibiotics. NO fun. And on top of all this, Jamie had his nights and days completely confused and would stay up all night long (poor Thomas...Jamie would finally go to bed just as Thomas had to leave for work). It was pretty rough for a while.

on his biliblanket

Things are getting easier, though! Jamie still needs some work in the sleep department, but he generally sleeps at night now and has even slept all the way through the night a few times (though most nights he still wakes up a couple times to eat and occasionally he decides he doesn't want to go to bed at all!). It is getting more and more fun to take care of him every day. It is amazing how quickly babies change and develop. He smiles at us all the time now and makes lots of adorable cooing noises. He loves bath time and sometimes cries when we take him out. At first he hated tummy time and would scream bloody murder as soon as we put him on his stomach, but now it takes him a good 7 or 8 minutes to start crying, and he is learning to hold his head up better every day. He loves motion--being walked around or rocked, sitting in his bouncy chair, going for a drive (I hope he'll enjoy the 11 hour drive to Tennessee...). He seems to be discovering his hands; he has started sucking on them a lot and clasping them together sometimes, though he hasn't figured out how to reach for his toys yet.

after bath time

in his bouncy chair

tummy time!

He is getting bigger and bigger all the time too. At his 3 week doctor appointment (why it was at 3 weeks instead of 1 month, I don't know), he already weighed just over 11 pounds. We took him to the doctor around 5 1/2 weeks because he was sounding congested, and at that point he weighed 12 pounds 12 ounces. I sure don't need to worry about whether or not I'm producing enough milk! He has a huge double chin which can make it hard to clean his neck. We think he is the cutest chunky monkey :)

Other than taking care of our adorable baby, we are super busy right now trying to get packed up and ready to head out to Tennessee! We are moving this Sunday and it feels like we'll never be ready--it's a lot harder to pack and clean when there's a baby to take care of at the same time. Both grandmas are pretty upset that we're taking the little man away. It is hard to believe we'll be gone so soon. We are sad to be leaving our families and friends but excited to start this new phase of our lives!

Some more shots of our cutie for your enjoyment :)

first time changing the diaper genie

grumpy little man

napping with Dad

with Mommy on the fourth of July

one month old!

hanging with all his animal friends

story time with Daddy