Trial by fire. (Or something like that...)

Even though Annie and I are both new parents and flying by the seat of our pants sometimes, my wife still knows a heck of a lot more than I do about Max just by virtue of growing up as a girl always wanting to have a baby and asking this and that whenever someone she knew had a baby of their own.

The latest thing I've learned: Breast fed babies sometimes don't poop but once or twice a week. When they do poop sometimes it's a whole hell of a lot more than these little preemie or newborn diapers can hold.

That's all I have to say about that...

Due Date = New look

As you can see, things have changed a bit here at Max's site. I decided to change formats a bit to make it easier for any of our many visitors to leave Max a comment, word of advice, or just a plain "You listen to your grandparents young man..!" It's easy enough, just click the "comments" link at the bottom of each post and you're in business. We'd love to hear from you.

It's amazing to think tomorrow is Max's original due date. December 14, 2007. He was supposed to be a Christmas baby and ended up being more of a Halloween guy.

Seven weeks, two days early. Almost two months early. wow.......

He's doing great by the way. Since the beginning of November, he's gone from 4 lbs. 4 oz. to damn near 9 lbs. (And he probably just hit it lying next to me on the couch).

We all couldn't be happier. (minus the sleep debt)

We like to think of Max's arrival as a two month head start. We'll teach him not to "jump the gun" later.

The oh-so-popular reflux

We ended up going to the doctor yesterday to confirm what we already knew-- he has an umbilical hernia. No worries. New parents being reassured it should take care of itself in the next 1-3 years.

Three days ago we estimated Max's weight at about 8 pounds. Right. The nurse threw him on the scale when we first got there, and then later the doctor threw him back on the scale figuring her nurse made a mistake. Nope. Confirmed. 8 lbs. 14 lbs. He's damn close to doubling his birth weight. He's already doubled his lowest weight recorded a few days after he was born at 4 lbs. 4 oz.

Due to his fantastic rate of weight gain, he's now off the formula (which is good because he hates it) and on vitamin drops. Also the doc prescribed Zantac due to Max showing some signs of reflux. We've already noticed a decrease in his fussiness over the last 24 hours. Gotta love the gastroesophageal reflux.

As Nanny says, he's our own little "el chunko"...

Oinker

In a completely unscientific procedure, using an old, beat up regular bathroom scale and a cloth tape, we estimate Max to be right around 8 lbs. and 20 inches long. No surprise, he should be with the way he's been sucking down his milk lately. My wife's down to around... (uh uh. I'm not that stupid.)

The little guy is making a valiant effort holding his head up, looking around the room or at whoever might be feeding him, before his little neck muscles give out and the old mellon flops down to the nearest shoulder.

Also, just as we thought we might have a quiet baby on our hands, Max has begun to LET US KNOW, every three hours, that it's time to eat. The boy has some lungs.

I'm not sure about the rest of his genes, but he definitely has some Bloxom in him to blame for his insatiable hunger and very short temper.

A day in the life...

12am-2am: get ready for and hopefully be in bed
2am-3am: feed &/or pump
3am-5am: sleep
5am-6am: feed &/or pump
6am-8am: sleep
8am-9am: feed &/or pump
9am-11am: think about doing laundry or other chores
11am-12pm: feed &/or pump
12pm-3pm: first decide, then make & eat lunch
3pm-4pm: feed &/or pump
4pm-6pm: first decide, then make & eat dinner
6pm-7pm: feed &/or pump
7pm-9pm: maybe catch some tv / update site
9pm-10pm: feed &/or pump
10pm-12am: try to stay awake

But it never really goes like this...