As always, check out our pictures.

Technically we’re at 7 ½ weeks… should’ve posted this sooner J

There’s really not a whole lot to report on- things have been pretty calm and slightly boring around the Zenn household. Luke is growing like a weed though- definitely getting bigger (and heavier)! He’s getting a lot more strength in his neck and shoulders too- he loves to hold his head up and look around at everything when we have him propped up on our shoulders. He’s also officially grown out of all his “newborn” size clothes and is wearing 3 month size now. They’re still a little roomy on him, but I figure he’ll grow into them right about the time he turns 3 months old on June 1^st. I can’t believe he’ll be 2 months old next week! And his new favorite thing is smiling all the time, I finally even caught one on camera!

One nice thing: He’s been sleeping in his cradle since last Monday! It’s so nice to have our bed back! It was fun cuddling with him at night for sure, but I didn’t realize how lightly I was sleeping with him in our bed until he moved down to the cradle. Now I get the same amount of sleep but I feel a lot less tired. One problem with this, however, is that if the ninny falls out of his mouth, I have to either get out of bed or crawl all the way to the foot of the bed to lean over and pop it back in. We haven’t had to deal with this too much the past few days though because after I feed him at night he’ll conk out (usually around midnight) and be asleep enough that I can move him to the cradle without him needing to suck on anything. It’s the morning when he’s only really dozing and I’m exhausted that he needs his comfort ninny. He’s also been sleeping through the night more frequently. About every other night he’ll sleep from 12am to 6am, and one night he slept until 8am! That night he was fussing around 4am because he was cold and needed a diaper change, but when I offered him the bottle he was already asleep and I couldn’t wake him up to get him to eat. J

Luke has also turned fussy on us. I think it’s partly gas, and we’re going to switch his formula to one for sensitive tummies to see if that helps, and some of it is general discomfort. With the change in seasons we’ve turned our heat/AC off and had the windows open. This means it gets slightly uncomfortably warm in the house during the day, and much cooler at night (great for us parents, bad for sleeping babies). So we have to keep changing his clothes and bundling him up, and he doesn’t like that. He’s also become particularly sensitive to wet and dirty diapers. We can tell instantly when he needs to be changed because the fussing starts. All the frequent diaper changes have helped his diaper rash completely disappear and stay gone for 5 days now! He’s had a rash of some sort (sometimes really bad) since he was 5 days old, so this is awesome. And then the big whammy: all babies have a certain time of day where they’re just fussy in general, and Luke’s is in the evening. Justin and I will have finished dinner and just want to spend the evening relaxing, and boom here comes Mr. Fussypants. I’ve accepted the fact that he’s going to be generally unhappy for a couple hours, but it really frustrates Justin sometimes. He won’t take a bottle (milk or water), spits out the ninny, has a dry clean diaper, and gets bored with his toys rather quickly. I’ve found the easiest way to deal with it is to constantly change what he’s doing. We pass him back and forth and take turns holding him and switching hold positions, and offer him the bottle every few minutes for snacking purposes. Burping is also fun because he likes to be upright and since he can’t sit up yet this is the only way for him to get that way. His little jungle gyms are fun for him too, but only in short bursts at this time of day. So pretty much my evenings are super exhausting because of all the extra stimulation, and by 11 I’m ready for bed. Good thing he starts to wind down then!

One piece of advice: Johnson’s “bedtime bath” collection is amazing! It says it’s clinically proven to help baby sleep better, which I was skeptical of at first and bought the stuff merely because it smelled good, but I think it really does help! Luke has a bath about 3 or 4 times a week (roughly every other day or as needed), and then every night at his last diaper change before bed I rub the lotion all over him, which he loves (mostly for the massage part I think). A few minutes after this is when he falls asleep, and stays asleep! There have been a few nights that I’ve forgotten to do the lotion thing, and those are the nights when he doesn’t fall asleep very well, and doesn’t stay asleep very long. In a nutshell- I recommend this product!!!!

Another suggestion: Infants’ Mylicon is a lifesaver when it comes to gassy fussiness. You just give baby a few drops before and/or after each feeding (up to 12 times a day) and right before bed and it helps their discomfort due to gas. This has definitely helped cut down on the screaming!

In Mommy News: I’m shrinking!!! After having lost 30 lbs in 4 weeks early on, I kind of hit a plateau and stayed at the same weight until a few days ago. This past Monday I had a breakthrough- I fit into my pre-pregnancy Capri jeans! Then for fun I decided to try on some dress pants and regular jeans. The dress pants fit (a little snug still, but can zip all the way!), and the jeans almost fit… We’ll get there eventually. J This is a huge relief because right now we can’t afford new clothes in bigger sizes for me. One of my aunts call this the “can’t afford to buy new clothes so must lose weight to fit into existing clothes” diet. Hehe. I haven’t been dieting, per se, but since Luke’s weight gain is back on track I haven’t had to eat all the high calorie foods that I’d been prescribed a few weeks ago. It’s nice to be back to my staples of fresh fruit, pasta, meat and cheese, and more fruit. I’ve started doing crunches too, and will add leg lunges in pretty soon. I don’t know if I’ll do anything aerobic, though the elliptical machine was nice, since I go up and down stairs in our house a million times a day. My legs and lungs have been getting a pretty good workout so far.

This has been a very exciting spring for me: A new baby, a new house with lots of pretty flowers blooming now, my birthday is right around the corner (well, this happens every year) and my first Mother’s Day is coming up! And Mother’s Day Sunday is when our church is having their baby dedication ceremony. Fitting, I say. Of course, Luke is participating. To clarify- this is not an infant baptism or confirmation of any kind!!! It is simply a way for us as parents to publicly declare our intent to raise our child according to God’s Word with the support of our church family backing us up all the way. Both sets of parents are coming to see this happen, and we’re pretty excited about it even though it’s not a huge event.

A few of my friends have had a very exciting week, so instead of ending this blog entry with lessons I’ve learned, I’m going to sign off with some hearty CONGRATULATIONS:

1.       Congrats to Titus and Kelly on the BIRTH of their son, Silas Eden! The little guy was born on April 21^st at 2:19am and weighed in at a little over 8 lbs. I can’t wait to meet him!

2.       Congrats to my friend Kristen, who helped me survive my pregnancy- she is proudly expecting Baby #2!!! Due in December, she’s having “fun” with morning sickness at the same office where I worked during my first trimester. I swear there’s something in the water over there… (3 of us have gotten pregnant while working there)

3.       Finally, congrats to Jillie-Bob (not her real name, don’t worry)- she and her hubby just found out they’re having a BOY!!! Obviously I’m “desperately in love” with mine (as she puts it), so naturally I am ecstatic to hear that they will be decorating a blue nursery as well.

That’s all for this week. We have Luke’s 2 month doctor appointment next week, as well as the general 8 week update. Talk to you all then!

We made it to six weeks! Not that there was really any doubt, but I've looked forward to this bookmark in time and now I feel like I've got this whole "mom" thing in the bag.

Luke has amazingly transformed from a crying/sleeping/eating/pooping baby to a baby who eats, sleeps, poops like a champion, and now loves to play! As for the crying- it's still there, just not as much, now that we've figured out what his hunger and diaper change signs are. We sleep in together in the morning after Justin goes to work, and then after he wakes up and eats we get to play together for an hour or so. He's awake a lot more in between naps now, which is nice, since I was getting sick of staring at his eyelids 20 hours a day... He's really been interested in his stuffed animals lately (rattles, not so much yet), but yesterday he seemed to get bored with his teddy bear sooner than normal. I remembered we had 2 baby play gyms upstairs in his closet, so I brought out the ocean themed one and set him under the toys. Immediately he became the most animated I've ever seen him! He was waving his arms around and cooing like crazy at the dangling toys. And then he figured out that if he kicked with his feet he could kick the clear plastic ball (see picture on the link, the 4th example image) and make it jingle too- so there was fun at both ends! That kept him occupied for a good 15 minutes, which is a record for a newborn! I wish now that I'd gotten a picture of it because it was pretty cute.

Also, I propped a fun mirror up next to the changing table- it has lots of colors and fun stuff around the border, plus, of course, the baby staring back at him! This was a breakthrough in diaper change routine. Now instead of crying because he's half naked, he's completely absorbed in the baby staring back at him in the mirror and even talks to it! It's so cute! After I'm done changing him I just let him lay there and play for a few minutes because it's so fun to watch.

Another fun thing happened just this morning- we had our first smile at an inanimate object! We were playing on the floor in the nursery and I brought out the little penguin that his Aunt Carrie made for him instead of the usual teddy bear. He smiled at it the instant he saw it! He's been smiling at us for a couple weeks, but not yet at things that don't breathe. The little animal has long skinny flippers that are the perfect size for newborn hands to grasp, and it was a new sensation for him since it is knit wool instead of fuzzy fur. He can grab and hold onto things now for a few seconds at a time, and it kind of startles him when he does it.

The yellow stuff in his eyes has completely cleared up now, but now he has crazy boogers in his nose that I have to fish out every morning (gross). He also loves bath time now (see pictures on our website). My friend Nikki came down to visit for the weekend and took lots of bath pictures for me! He is sleeping 4-5 hours at a time at night now (that one 6 hour event was a fluke, I think), but isn't as fussy at night anymore either. Our little boy is growing up!

This is going to be a quick update because he's sleeping right now and I don't know how long that will last...

As always, check out new pictures

We have passed the five-week mark and are well on our way to 6 weeks! That is when (supposedly) I'll be officially healed from giving birth and babies are generally well enough adjusted to life in the outside world. A few fun things have happened:

1. We had a smile- a REAL smile!!! It happened Saturday afternoon right after I changed his diaper. He's been smiling with his mouth for a little over a week now, but it was usually random and fleeting. This one was after I had been talking to him and cooing with him for a few minutes, and his whole face wrinkled up when he smiled- it was so cute! He's done it a few more times for us, and everyone says it will become much more frequent pretty quickly.

2. He loves to "talk" now. We have a few hours of playtime on the floor every day now, since naptimes are scarce during the day, and he loves to wave his arms and legs around and make fun sounds with his new-found voice. Another favorite thing is grabbing my hair with his hand after I gently run it over his face. He'll close his eyes and open his mouth and then grab wildly until he has a fistful, it's the cutest thing.

3. He likes his toys now! He loves to stare at stuffed animals next to him on the floor or in hs crib, and he'll turn over on his side and swipe at them wildly until they tip over, and then he gets all startled and confused. He gets all excited again when I set them back upright for him to look at.

4. We survived a whole weekend by ourselves (sort of). Justin was away in Wichita Kansas for a conference from Friday till Monday, and I was left to fend for myself with a 5 week old infant. Great. It actually was a great weekend though- Mom came over every evening for a few hours to help me get through his fussy time, and it was really rejuvenating for me to just have some time to think about something other than BABY. I mean, I was there in the room, but she would hold him and feed him and generally keep him happy so I could collect what little sanity I had left. By the time Justin got back I was refreshed and emotionally recharged. Plus the weather finally turned to SPRING so I was happier in general.

5. **Drumroll please** Last night, for the first time ever, Luke SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!! I tried to put him to bed with us at 11:30 because that's been the norm for the past 2 weeks, but he would have none of it. Finally at 12:45 he calmed down enough and fell asleep and I collapsed into bed dreading the fast-approaching 3am feeding. The next time I woke up it was 7am! Yikes! I guess he was pretty comfy though- he's learned how to scooch his way over to me and turn on his side so he's snuggled up against my stomach facing me at night (I put him down on his back in between me and Justin). That kid can really move- I have to be careful every time I put him down for 2 seconds or he'll be in a completely different spot! But anyway, I'm trying not to get too excited about this yet, as I'm sure these nights will be few and far between for a little while yet. The downside- he ddn't want to go back to sleep after I fed him when we got up. Normally we get up in the morning, I change and feed him, he goes back to sleep for a couple hours and I shower and get ready and then sleep again till he wakes up. Nope, this morning he was all fuss fuss fuss from 7am till now (9:30am) when he finally just conked out. Guess I better go do my stuff, haha.

Great news all around!

The biggest thing (quite literally): Luke now weighs 8 lbs 10 oz!!! That's AMAZING!!!! That means we are close to sleeping longer at night, yay! The doctor was extremely pleased, and said to keep up the good work. His jaundice is 100% cleared up now- I looked at him one day this week and thought he looked really pale, then realized that's his real color without all the yellow! Yay! He's also 1/4 inch longer (20.75 inches) and his head is 37cm in circumference now. All three of those have him in the 25th percentile for each category, which makes him "well proportioned," as the nurse put it. Dr. Walters held him for a few minutes after the exam and we almost got a smile! He said he'll start to go longer between feedings now and get on a more predictable schedule as far as sleeping and wakefulness goes. He also said the 2nd month is the most exciting time for parents because babies will start smiling and making other sounds besides crying, as well as sleeping longer at night and eating less frequently during the day. They'll basically interact a lot more and start to become little people instead of a "ball and chain" (that's how my father-in-law put it, haha).

Luke also got his 2nd Hepititis B vaccine today. Poor kid had to have a shot in his left thigh but was a real trooper about it. Of course he screamed for a few seconds right afterwards, but after some cuddling with Mom he felt better and it doesn't seem to really bother him anymore. The nurse said he'd probably have a bruise at the injection sight because he tensed up so much. She was way impressed with how strong his leg muscles are! I told her that when we put him on his tummy to play, he's not so much interested in lifting his head and shoulders (he does that when we hold him) as he his getting his butt as high up in the air as he can get it! He looks so funny! He can really get it up there by pushing his knees under his belly and then shoving upwards with his feet. He'll get his legs all the way straight too, but can't hold it for more than a few seconds. Still too short for me to get a picture. One day I will though, cause it's worth showing!

We've had lots more cooing too, and now it's almost conversational. When he cooes I'll make sounds back at him and he'll look at me and make another sound. This will go on for about 5 minutes before he goes back to waving his arms and legs around like crazy. Play time is so much fun now that he's getting more responsive to us! We're slowing introducing toys, but Mommy and Daddy are still the favorite playthings.

I've added more pictures to our webshots page, so here's a new link because now there's a new album for the month of April.