Four Months

Hey, world! Guess who is four months old already? This guy!

What an amazing change over the past four months. Our little guy is growing up and filling out. We've doubled our birth weight already, from 6 pounds, 10 ounces at birth to 14 pounds at his last well-baby check-up. 

We have been totally slacking in the blog department. It turns out that working two full-time jobs and caring for an infant does not lend itself to much free time, especially to someone not known for her time management skills anyway. If I have extra time, I just use it to stare at this little guy. So I apologize in advance for the massive photo dump from the past three months. They're not necessarily even in chronological order because I kept adding just one more photo. We'll try to do better next time.

Two months old and wearing his favorite onesie, a lovely tribute to our sweet TJ.
I returned to work this week (~8 weeks, sadly).

Three months old and fully chunked out.
Someone got a shower in today.

Three-and-a-half months.
Nicole looks exceptionally tired; Oliver looks particularly well-rested.

Four months old and full of love.
(I don't know where these flashing hearts came from, but they work.)

Highlights from the past few months.

Reading stories with Grandma Johnson. She always has the best books.

Tuckered out from his Christmas festivities.

Once again, Oliver takes after his father. Only one of these guys is eating chicken wings, but it's hard to tell which one.

Unfortunately, our little one seems prone to a particularly stubborn case of eczema. This terrible, horrible, no good, very bad winter is making things difficult for all of us. Currently, Minnesota is experiencing the coldest winter since 1978-79 with at least 40-odd days below zero. Poor baby. Winter started early this year. He really hasn't had a chance to experience the warmth of our sun. 

He gets lotioned up head-to-toe every morning and evening and at most diaper changes, too. We keep trying to tell him that many babies would pay top-dollar for these hands-on personal massages, but he's not buying it.

Note the hydrating power of our top-of-the-line humidifier. Nothing but the best!

Some of our first baby giggles and smiles. They haven't stopped since. 

Thank goodness we have a happy, good-tempered little man. This is a guy that likes to party. If it's day-time, we're up. He's an expert cat-napper, taking maybe one or two 20-minute naps throughout the day. Sometimes I really wish he would take longer naps so I could get some stuff done around the house, but who am I kidding? I wouldn't get anything done anyway. 

Oliver's all-time favorite activity is looking at himself (and us) in the mirror, any mirror. I used to think he was just vain, but then I learned that he won't recognize himself until much later. So I have no idea why he loves this so much. He still might be vain.

His other favorite activity is grabbing his toes and pulling off his socks. This is especially fun when we have somewhere we really need to be. He has recently started rolling back-and-forth from his back to his side and back again. Loves it. Not quite rolling over yet, but that's OK. We still need to baby-proof our house.

For his three month birthday, I bought him a bumbo. He currently hates it. We're hoping he comes around by the time he starts eating solids because it came with a nice little serving tray.

These socks are going to be history!

Oliver, discovering our cat. Pickles and Oliver have an agreement. He lets her sleep curled up in his chair, and she leaves him little cat hair presents on every pacifier, toy, article of clothing, and basically anything touched by lotions, so essentially everything, everywhere, all the time.

His daycare face, circa 6:30 AM.

It's hard to take him too seriously when he's wearing his best bear paws, however.

To help Oliver combat his sensitive skin, we've been taking him to Como Zoo and Conservatory for the heat and humidity. I don't know if it helps, but sometimes you just really need to get out of the cold.

The start of another flare-up. So frustrating! It just makes me angry to watch him have to deal with this over and over and over again. Plus, we could just about buy a trip to Florida for what we've spent on creams and ointments and medications and doctor's appointments.

It turns out the iPad is a good substitute for a mirror.

Another flare-up. We're starting to suspect allergies of some sort, although our pediatrician and dermatologist continue to dismiss that possibility. I don't know, though. He seemed to react very poorly (hours later) to strawberries, but maybe he just doesn't know what to do with summer fruits since he's such a winter baby. We have since added (very dilute) bleach baths to his moisturizing skin care regimen, along with a small arsenal of topical steroids, used as sparingly as possible.

We have also returned to swaddling his arms at night so he can get some sleep. Otherwise, it's itch-scratch-itch-scratch all night long. He's given himself some pretty good scrapes if an arm gets loose overnight. Seriously, it is a two-person job just to change a diaper sometimes. Someone has to pin his arms down on the really bad days.

He is so darn cute, though, that it's easy to overlook all the work. Totally worth it!

For Valentine's Day, Adam and I skipped the wine and chocolate and bought a jumperoo instead. Best gift ever! This baby loves it! Miracle product. Let us know if you need to see a video or three. He's eating up my memory card with his cuteness.

We survived our four month vaccinations with far fewer tears (Nicole) than our two month vaccinations. 

Side note: stripes are in.

This is his plotting pose. He likes to clasp his hands together and stare out of the corners of his eyes while he's working on his world domination plans.

Here is a crazy sign that it's cold, really cold: frost is forming inside our house. We will need to address this issue when it warms up, but my thermal detector informs me that this corner is a cool 34 degrees.

Meanwhile, our fridge is a balmy 61 degrees for the second time this month. Adam has been staying busy with home repairs this year. Another unintended consequence of our one recent warm day was the appearance of four new ice dams from the roof. My personal favorite was the water dripping from the ceiling straight into our computer. If I lose the rest of this post, at least you'll know why.

We got a sweet blizzard to end this week. We got a partial snow day in that daycare was closed so someone had to stay home (Nicole), but now someone (Nicole) will have to work on the weekend, and not for the first time this winter. Boo. At least it was pretty.

Our poor birch trees have had just about all they can handle this winter.

Can you find our lawn chairs?
I promise they are there since we forgot to put them away before the first snow fell in November.

I couldn't make it up the snow hill to the bird-feeder, so I just threw the birdseed as close as I could. The neighborhood squirrels were very happy.

Finally! The sun! Thank God the days are getting longer.

Merry Christmas from Adam, Nicole, and Oliver. 

Sorry we're a little late.

Catch you in a few more months! Check out those clean and clear baby cheeks! 

He is going to be smothered in kisses today.

One Month

It's hard to believe a month has already passed (more than one month, technically). Everyone warns you about how fast babies grow, but I really can't believe it. I literally watch him grow before my eyes, like one of those toy sponges that expand when you add water. It's simply amazing.

Hospital photo, within an hour or two of birth on 10/20/13

The past four and a half weeks, growing so fast!

Oliver weighed 8 lbs, 2 oz at his one month appointment, up from his birth weight of 6 lbs, 10 oz. He also added another 2.5 inches in length, which makes sense since he has outgrown several of his newborn jumpers due to length. He's only about 10-15% for weight, but nearly 70% for height, so we need to work on packing on the pounds. That shouldn't be too hard. He's become a much more ambitious feeder lately. (Thank goodness!)

This is a bit of a photo dump, but here are a few highlights from the past month. 

We have two main infant carrier options in this house. Nicole prefers the Ergo since it is two buckles and you're done. Adam prefers the Moby wrap, but he is far more coordinated than Nicole. Oliver likes both.

Sleeping Series No. 1

Babies do a lot of sleeping, and Oliver is no exception. He takes his best photos when he's napping. 

We've had our fair share of health scares in his first month. Obviously, like so many others, we had the jaundice experience, and now we're running through the checklist of annoying but innocuous infant issues: newborn skin rash (erythema toxicum) - check, conjunctivitis - check, baby acne - check. Oh, that baby acne! I would probably have 100 more photos except for his acne. Poor guy. We picked it up in week two, hit our peak bumpiness in week three, and we're still going strong in week five. Sigh...

Four weeks today! The resemblance to Adam is amazing. I don't think I got a single trait represented, except perhaps for his penchant for long naps and slow meals.

Pickles has come around to our new house guest. She likes that we now keep the house at a warmer temperature, but I'm not sure how she feels about losing her place on my lap.

Sleeping Series No. 2

 

I know this is a fake smile, but I'm going to pretend it is real.

This is perhaps our favorite video. It is simply two soft wails - not quite cries, not quite coos. We're not really sure what it means, but it makes our heart ache when we hear it.

I love when Oliver falls asleep on my chest, which he does quite frequently at this stage. This is the reason why I now get nothing done.

Our second major health scare of the month is Oliver's hearing. We failed our newborn hearing screen twice and were referred to the audiologists for a more extensive test, the OAE, which measures otoacoustic emissions from the cochlea. Unfortunately, he also failed that test twice and we were then referred to even more extensive testing at the U of MN. Here we are on our way to the U for an ABR (auditory brain stem response) evaluation, which measures the function of the auditory nerve. He wore his best fuzzy bunny outfit for the occasion.

The ABR requires that you remain silent and still throughout the whole procedure, which can take up to an hour. Infants will generally sleep through the testing, but anyone older than three months or so would require sedation. To his credit, Oliver slept through the entire evaluation. The technician said he was her best patient yet, and I don't think she says that to everyone! We got a lot of useful data; unfortunately, the results showed he will very likely display some hearing loss, particularly at the higher pitches. This was just about the best news Adam and I could have hoped for. We (well, I) had spent the past few weeks mourning his potential hearing loss after his failed newborn screens and OAEs. I couldn't even read him a bedtime story without crying. Just the thought that he would never hear spoken word or music made me break out into huge sobs.

We will need more testing to determine the extent of his hearing loss and a possible course of treatment, along with a determination of its cause (genetic, viral, structural, etc.), but for now, we are so, so grateful that all hearing is not lost. For what it's worth, we have some very competent contacts in the hearing department that may be getting a call from us. We are fortunate indeed.

As a treat for his good behavior (and so mommy and daddy could get some sleep!), Oliver got a new bed. He was just not a fan of his bassinet, with its firm mattress and zero incline, and we had heard very good things about this little Rock 'n Play Sleeper. So far, he loves it! He is back to sleeping like a baby! (And we haven't even had to use the vibration feature yet. We're saving that for emergencies.)

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we are so grateful for this little gift. He has been blessed by the love and support of so many friends and family. The long journey was worth it to meet our little man. No matter what the future holds, we wouldn't trade him for the world!

Here are some photo outtakes. This was a far more typical experience of our weekly shoots. I'm going to have to work on my shutter speed settings, and Oliver is going to have to work on his head control and total body coordination. It's a team effort.

An Evening with Toppling Goliath PseudoSue

Adam wrote this post!

Citra hops might be the best thing on the planet. Even if a brewer doesn't know what they are doing (who, me?), citra hops can make a beer taste pretty good. PseudoSue is close to citra hop perfection. The aroma draws you in with an intoxicating tropical scent that is followed with a delicious grapefruit flavor. Extremely well-balanced and with a great mouth-feel, this is great stuff. Oliver didn't seem to care. 

He was also not allowed to drink any of it. Nicole continues to be a strong believer in IPAs and even though this one is called a pale ale, it received her stamp of approval. Tummy time continues to be a little frustrating for all of us, but as long as we can pair tummy time with a good beer it will be worth all the effort.