8 weeks

Our Damon is 8 weeks old!! Amazing how fast the summer has gone. I was tempted to write “little Damon,” but he’s just so big! Big enough that I think he deserves the “Big D” nickname… (sorry Dallas). Although in reality, we’ve taken to calling him Bubba, or Bubbaloo, or just Bub for short. Suits him well.

[Damon wearing a cute outfit from Julie… supposed to be for 6-9 months, but fits him perfectly… ]

Anyway. We took Damon for his 2 month check-up and the first thing the pediatrician said was, “That’s a big baby!” He’s 23 inches now (50%) and 14lbs 8oz (97%). She says, given his size, he should easily be able to sleep 8 hours in a row at night. She gave us a really great handout on sleep. He’s already a pretty good sleeper, but we both think it’s worth putting in the effort now to make him a great sleeper. With Riley, she slept pretty well early on so we didn’t really worry about forming good sleep habits… and I think we (and she) paid the price later. The doctor (and the handout) suggest putting him in the crib (or bassinet) when he’s drowsy but still awake, and only picking him up again if he actually cries (Damon will occasionally wake up and make a lot of grunting noises, but the pediatrician was right, if we leave him be or just rock the bassinet a bit, he goes right back to sleep). He obviously doesn’t need lots of night-time feedings, so she said try to get it down to just one… The next step is to move his bassinet out of our room (probably just right next door by my desk), which we are working up to.

[nap time with dad]

[grainy iphone pic, but still cute]

2 months means shots… 3 in the leg and one by mouth (rotovirus! That’s new since Riley was born) making for 7 vaccinations in all (some are combined). The nurse here is unfortunately not nearly as good as the one Riley had at this age – she was so fast she could get almost all in before Riley would cry. This nurse took her sweet time while Damon cried louder and harder then I’ve ever heard. Brutal, but totally worth it. He had a bit of a rough day, much harder to console then usual, but the wonders of tylenol really helped.

Apparently a new recommendation is for parents to get vaccinated against pertussis (whopping cough) since the vaccine wears off in adolescence, and babies don’t get vaccinated until they are 1. They had big posters all over the office with Jennifer Lopez on them saying that she got vaccinated to protect her children. I love it! I wish celebrities didn’t have more influence on the public then doctors, but they definitely do in some arenas… nice to see a celebrity promote vaccines for a change.

Last two little things… the doctor laughed at me for being afraid to suck the little boogers out of Damon’s nose (“It’s easy! Just like putting in an NG tube!” um yeah, except it’s my baby, not an adult patient…) I remember Sage’s sister Cheyenne writing about doing it though, so I got over myself and just did it. He hated it, but he does breath better now… Also, his head is a little flat on one side, oopsie. So we’re supposed to fill a sock with rice to keep his head turned to the right while sleeping.

We love our baby boy, he’s such a cutie pie, especially with his rolls of chubbiness. I think he has a really nice demeanor already, and I’m excited to see him grow into a little (big?) boy.