Liam is 7 weeks old today.  I can’t believe how fast the time has gone.  He is almost 10 pounds now and is 20.5-21 inches long depending on who measures him.  He is outgrowing his newborn clothes, which is good because I like the little boy clothes much better than the baby boy clothes.  He is starting to vocalize.  Most popular is "aaah", followed by the occasional "uuuh".  The family favorite is the Howard Dean.  It’s a kind of "Mwaaaaah" that is usually preceded by a sneeze or big yawn.  We call it the Howard Dean because it’s a dead on replica of the infamous yell given by Dean during his presidential campaign.  You know the one I’m referring to. 

He is increasingly mobile.  Not rolling or crawling or anything, but he squirms so much he can move around.  He sleeps in our room in a bassinet which has a sleeper inside.  The sleeper can be moved into our bed if we wish (we don’t).  He woke up the other night ready to eat, and when I glanced over at him he was no longer in the sleeper.  He had squirmed his way down to the foot of the sleeper at a 90º angle from the way he was put to sleep.  He did it again this morning.  He will no longer sleep in the sleeper.  He’s also quite good at flailing especially when he’s hungry or excited.  Those hands and feet will go a mile a minute.  His head control improves daily.  He can hold his head up for several minutes at a time when I hold him in a sitting position.  He will lift his head up and look around when I have him laying against my chest; he’s nosy and must see what’s going on around him.  He does the same when he has tummy time. 

He loves to be read to and sang to.  Anything that rhymes is a big favorite.  We read a lot of nursery rhymes and Dr. Seuss.  If you’re a science geek like me, I recommend the book Science Verse.  It’s nursery rhymes and poems that have been rewritten about science topics.  The songs I sing are the old standbys like Itsy Bitsy Spider and Baa Baa Black Sheep (who can resist a song about wool?).  I will also sing commercials (Oh, I wish I was an Oscar Meyer weiner).  When I’ve run out of standbys and commercials, I move on to fight songs.  My high school fight song is a good one since it repeats and has spelling (For-ev-er, Hail to the Pointers, to the golden and the blue, faithful and loyal to you we stand so true, forever, hail to the Pointers to the team that always wins, so let us fight again for South Point High School, we are the winning team P-O-I-N-T-E-R-S, repeat all that again!).  I also sing what pops into my head.  Ice Ice Baby was a huuuge hit.  When all else fails, I make it up.  The diaper changing song is

My baby has a poopy butt, poopy butt, poopy butt

My baby has a poopy butt, Stinky Butt Boy!

Sung to the tune of London Bridge is falling down.  It’s quite entertaining around here some days.

He’s eating 25-30 oz of breast milk a day.  I pump for him so he gets breast milk only.  We never could get him to nurse and when his weight kept dropping that first week, we decided to give him breast milk in a bottle.  He’s obviously growing very well.  He will bring his hands up to his bottle and "act" like he’s holding the bottle.  When he’s full or needs a break, he will push his hands against the bottle to push it away from his mouth. 

We will be starting early intervention services very soon.  I’m excited to get these going mainly because I am curious about all it will entail.  We had our follow up with the pediatric cardiologist yesterday.  Liam has an atrial septal defect (ASD), which is a hole between the two upper chambers of the heart.  The cardiologist considers it a mild heart problem.  We only have to see the cardiologist once a year (yay!) unless Liam starts having problems.  When he’s 3-5 years old, we’ll do another echo to assess the ASD.  If it hasn’t healed itself, we can consider closing it surgically.  We can hold off on surgery if Liam is healthy with no problems.  The cardiologist says the ASD will have no effect on his quality of life and in no way should limit him.  The ASD will always be a worry until it’s gone, but it’s definitely not one to worry over daily.  Now, my concerns are the developmental ones.  I don’t want to see those delays come.

Wow, that was long and if you’re still reading…Hi! And thanks!  Hopefully, with the next Liam update I can report that he’s smiling.  He seems to be on the verge of it sometimes and then that hint of a maybe smile disappears.  I want the real smile.