Dress Rehearsal

Tonight Brian, Max and I went over to Aunt Carm's house to bake cookies - Max just wanted to watch. During the cookie making the talk turned to Max's baptism, which is set for July 6th (one day after our 5th anniversary and at the same church). Grandma Carlotta was also here for the cookie making and between the two of them they convinced me to have Max try on the family christening gown, since he will be too big for it come July.

Here is a picture of Max in this very special gown. It was made by a friend of my Grandmother's when she was pregnant with my Uncle Butch, 59 years ago. This gown has been worn by every member of my family since. The last to wear it was Anna (who will be Max's Godmother), 17 years ago. I am sad that Max will not be able to wear this special gown on his day, but it was fun to see him in it for just a few minutes. He tolerated the ordeal very well, that is until Grandma tried to tie the bonnet. Apparently Max has a big head - I will attribute it to a big brain!

Bath Time

Lately our little man has become a bit stinky! I decided that the sponge baths weren't cutting it anymore and it was time for Max to experience the real thing. So Brian and I attempted to give Max his first tub bath last night. It was quite the ordeal. . . We put the baby tub in the big tub and had everything ready. I was in charge of the bath while I had Brian take pictures. Unfortunatly, I needed help so he only got one picture.

Max kept sliding down and every time I tried to wash him he screamed. He also squirted me a bit - I am beginning to get used to this. Hopefully our next attempt at a tub bath will go more smoothly, but for the rest of this week we are sticking to sponge baths!

One Month Check Up

We were off to the doctor again this morning, this time for Max's one month checkup. As always I was a nervous wreck! What if there were tons of sick kids (I still haven't figured out quite how to build a force field around him. . . )? What if he doesn't gain enough weight? What if he has a horrible reaction to his shot? Luckily all went well.

There was only one other child in the waiting room and he didn't look too sick, but we still sat as far away from him as we could. Max had a great weight gain! He was up 21 oz from his appointment two weeks ago! The doctor likes to see a gain of an ounce a day, so Max did that and more! He is now up to 9lb 4oz. Our little boy is filling out. He has now officially outgrown a few outfits, so I had a feeling he had gained. As for his shot, he only needed one today and I was able to calm him down afterwards fairly easily. Unfortunately the doctor told us that he will get lots of shots at his two month appointment, so I am not looking forward to that.

Other than that, all is well. Max had one four hour stretch between feedings last night, so that was nice. He is nursing well and he is getting quicker - which means I get to back to bed faster.

One Month Old

It is hard to believe that we have spent an entire month caring for and getting to know Max. Today was so exciting that the ground shook - we had a 5.2 earthquake at 4:30 this morning. Brian and I both jumped out of bed trying to figure out what was going on. I ran in to check on Max and he was sound asleep, completely oblivious to his first earthquake. However, he was not oblivious to the fact that he was hungry 20 minutes later.

Max has had a very busy month and he has changed so much! He has been working very hard to control his head. He looks from side to side and we have to be careful when he jerks his head. He is awake a good part of each day. He loves riding in the car and going for walks. We head to the doctor on Monday for his one month check up, so you can look for an update then. I'm sure it will be more traumatic for me than for Max -he has to get another shot! Keep your fingers crossed that our little guy packed on some weight too!

Here is a picture I took of Max this morning. He was trying out his play gym for the first time. I don't know if he was too excited by it, but the cat sure was. Chewy loved batting at the hanging toys and was very proud of himself when he managed to knock the whole thing over.

Sleeping Like a Baby

I am not too sure who came up with this saying. I am guessing that Max sleeps like all other babies and it is very sporadic! He has been up most of the day the past couple days and then he sleeps most of the night, except for feedings of course. He continues to amaze me every day.

Last night I was reading him a story - I Love You Forever. Before I was even through the first page I had tears rolling down my cheeks. I think it hit me last night just how much I really do love this little guy. I want to protect him from every pain that he could ever encounter. My mind began realing and all I could think of was all the times Max might get upset. What if he does poorly on a test and thinks he is dumb? What is he is picked last or kickball? What if a mean girl breaks his little heart? When I was reading up on babies during my pregnancy I came across a quote - Having a child is like spending the rest of your life with your heart wandering outside of your body (I know the real quote was much more poetic). It hit me last night just how much this is true. Anything that could ever hurt Max, will just break my heart. I know things will happen to him thoughtout his life and he will grow and learn from them, but I just want to do anything I can to make my little man happy and healthy. I have a new found respect for just how much all of our mothers love us. . .

Dr. Visit - Take Three

Well out little guy went back to the doctor for another weight check yesterday. He has gained another 6oz. This is pretty good news. The doctor was shooting for an oz a day, so Max was just under that. We are happy with that and we don't have to go back to the doctor for another two weeks. Max will be one month at that point and he will get his next shot - yikes! I have a feeling that will hurt me more than him!

It is so hard to believe that Max is three weeks old today. It feels like I just found out I was pregnant yesterday. He is such an amazing little person. He is awake a lot during the days. He loves sitting on the boppy in the living room with mom and dad. He is also getting to be more interactive. He tracks toys if you move them across his field of vision and he loves to stare up at us when we talk to him. He also loves getting a bath - that is until I try to wash his hair. This picture was taken after his bath last night, I think it is pretty cute.

Yesterday we introduced tummy time for a few mintues. Max wanted nothing to do with it. He got pretty annoyed with the whole thing, even after mom and dad spent 30 minutes trying to fill the little fish area on his tummy time mat. He actually got so frustrated with tummy time that he pushed himself over onto this back. I thought it was a fluk, but he did it two more times! He is already growing up so fast!

Eat, Play, Sleep, Repeat

All is well in the Dull household. Max has fallen into a bit of routine - eat, play, sleep, repeat. We have noticed that he is up a lot more during the day lately. He has been sleeping pretty well at night, last night I almost had three hours of uninterupped sleep! During the last few days he has been eating more frequently, just about every two hours. We think he may be going through a bit of a growth spurt - they are common in babies between two and three weeks old.

We will find out how he is growing when we go back to the doctor tomorrow. Brian and I have our fingers crossed that our little one has packed on some weight. The hope is that he has gained about 7oz or so since last Monday. If not, we may need to begin supplementing with formula. While this is not ideal, it isn't the end of the world either. Our goal is to have a healthy little baby that is growing as he should. If we need to break down and give him a bit of formula we will.

Max had another first this afternoon. The weather was too beautiful to resist, so we took make out for his first walk. I had him all bundeled up, Brian thought he was probably hot. I just wanted to make sure our littl guy wasn't cold! He seemed to really enjoy the walk. We didn't go too far - just around two blocks. I did notice for the first time just how uneven our sidewalks are, but Max didn't seem to mind.

Feeding Time With Daddy!

When we were at the doctors office yesterday we spoke to him about beginning to use a bottle. I can't really imagine that I would ever want to leave him, but I am sure eventually I will want to get out of the house for a couple hours. This will mean that someone else will need to take over feeding for a bit. In order to make sure that Max will take a bottle when the time comes, we are beginning to introduce it little by little.

Last night was our first attempt at a bottle feed. I pumped and Brian fed Max. He took three ounces of breast milk and still wanted to be topped off a bit, so I nursed him for a few more minutes afterwards. It was so cute to watch Brian feeding Max! Max just stared up at his Daddy and gobbled down his food. He did spit up a bit afterwards. Brian made sure to take lots of breaks during the feeding since the milk comes out of a bottle much faster than it comes out of me. Overall it was a great experience and we are going to try to give him a bottle every other day or so. We also got a couple really cute pictures out of the ordeal.

Max had a new first today - his first trip to Gus's Pretzels. Granted he and I waited in the car while Brian went in to get lunch. But at least we were out of the house for a few minutes. We even took the dog, she loves car rides! I think Sierra was a bit disappointed that she had to sit in the front seat and that I wouldn't let her put her head out the window - it would have been way to cold for little Max.