Baby Vegas' First Month

I can't believe how fast the first month flew by!  Baby Vegas is 6 weeks old now, but I wanted to try and do an update on his first month home - this blog is partially his baby book after all.

Bright lights of home on our first night!

Baby Vegas is such an easygoing little sweetheart.  The first thing anyone comments about him though is - "THAT HAIR!"  It started out so dark that it was close to black, but I think it has lightened up a little bit in the last month.  It is so silky soft, but if we go more than 2 days without a bath it turns very oily and not-so-cute.  Speaking of oily, Baby Vegas also got an unfortunate case of the baby acne at around 8 days old.  But we were happy that it showed up the day after his newborn photo shoot that the same lovely friend who did my maternity photos ended up doing for us!  If you are in the MD area and looking for a photographer, message me and I'll shoot you her details - she was amazingly patient with our little one and took great photos!

Big blue eyes, silky soft hair, great skin - I'm a little jealous.

Unfortunately it looks like Baby Vegas is a little jealous of his big brother's busy calendar full of doctors appointments.  After his first newborn well-check, his pediatrician noticed his feet were a little turned in.  He assured us it was probably positional from being all scrunched up in my uterus, but wanted to recheck us at two weeks.  Then again at one month.  Although his feet looked better, his pediatrician ended up calling me at home the day after his one-month check and wanted me to take him to an orthopedist for a second opinion.  That doctor also agreed it was positional, but we'll be keeping an eye on his feet for the next six months or so.  

And speaking of eyes, he has a clogged tear duct too!  So we've been massaging his little left eye because it is constantly goopy and watery.  His ped gave us a prescription cream for the eye which he said I can use if I think it is getting out of control, but I'm hesitant to use a prescription cream on a one-month old for a problem that usually can clear itself up.  Every couple of days it clears up and I think it is going away, but then it comes back with a vengeance

3 weeks old - already trying to rush into the teen years with that acne.  Poor buddy.

Enough with the medical talk - let's talk normal baby things.  At his one month check up Baby Vegas measured at 23 inches long (95th percentile) and 10 lbs 6.8 oz (75th percentile).  I figured he must have gotten bigger because this kid seriously eats us out of house and home.  Despite assurances that formula fed babies stay fuller longer, he eats 4 oz every 2-3 hours.  If you try and shortchange him he frantically does this little snuffle sound while whipping his head around violently looking for food.  He's like his momma - he loves his drink.  Bwahahaha.

Are you trying to hold out on me?!

Since he is constantly hungry and eating, he is rarely sleeping.  After the first blissful few days where he slept all the time, he decided that being awake was much more exciting.  He catnaps throughout the day for anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour - but no long stretches until around 5 or 6.  Then he sleeps for about 4 to 5 hours and then goes back to being up and about every two or three hours all night long.  We technically co-slept with a bassinet for the whole first month.  But he really sleeps best if he is laying on his tummy on our chest, or snuggled in our arms.  I'm not ashamed to admit that there have been a few early mornings where that is the only way the two of us are getting a few zzz's out of sheer exhaustion!  The only other time he will sleep?  If he is out on the town in his carseat/stroller - just like his brother!

First big family outing was to the Renaissance Festival! They both slept most of the day.

When he is awake though, he is just so wide-eyed and sweet.  He is trying so hard to control his little head, he can hold it up for several seconds at a time and then ends up wobbling around like a bobblehead.  I am loving watching his progress so quickly through this early development... it is so beautiful.  I try not to compare him to Little Man because even if they were both typical kids I know they'd progress at different rates, but it is very hard not to notice how drastically different his newborn stage is going for both of us.  

Another photo from his newborn shoot.  I love this one, even though Little Man ran away and refused to get in the picture.

I thought about getting the onesie stickers that everyone and their mother is using to mark Baby Vegas' monthly progress in photos.  I'd like to say that I didn't get them because we like to forge our own path or be super creative - but really I procrastinated too much to order them off Etsy or something, and then had no idea where they'd be in a "real" store.  So instead I ended up getting some iron-on numbers from Michael's and making the onesie myself, which I actually think turned out so much cuter than the stickers would have!! Not to mention the added bonus of his pictures being special and really standing out from the mainstream baby crowd.  (HUMBLE BRAG ALERT.)   I did steal an idea from a friend of mine who took her monthly baby photos alongside a Cabbage Patch doll to show how small her little guy was, and we are going to use a koala bear that belonged to Hubs' dad as our size comparison. And as a tribute to my family, we are taking the pictures on our glider - because every early baby picture of me is on this old red recliner that I remember loving to snuggle on as a kid.

Next time I will remember to take these in daylight!!  I am a hopeless procrastinator.

Precious right?  I love it. 

So Happy One-Month Baby Vegas - I will remember all of these wonderful moments forever, how you've been healing my heart and helping me to live that dream I always had of being a typical momma with her new baby.  As your pediatrician says a million times per visit - "love youuuuuu baby!"  Time to go snuggle with you some more before we go pick up your big brother from another fun day at school!!