Dax's Journal

Progress Report-Two Months of Baby

Dax is eight weeks old. It’s hard to believe that it was only a short while ago when we were strapping him into the car seat for the initial ride home.

I never really grew up around any infants, so my experience with Dax is my first experience with any newborn. What I’m slowly finding out are the little things that Dax is capable of doing when he shouldn’t be at that stage yet. Granted, I am aware that babies develop at different rates and that the estimated timelines of development are only an average.

Example One: At the hospital on only Dax’s second day in the world, as I was holding Dax upright in my arms, he was already holding up his head. It was maybe for five seconds at a time, but I didn’t know that his head should have been flopping more than it was. I did support his head from falling back , but it was on a limited basis. Dax’s interpretation of head flopping was him peeking over my shoulders, shifting his eyes around to survey the scene, and then all of a sudden dropping his head forward onto my shoulder. The doctors later said that Dax has a really strong neck. What does that means for the future? I don’t know…maybe it means he’ll be headstrong? Bullheaded? But looking back now to when he was almost three weeks old, it amazes me that he was holding up his head during tummy time.

Example Two: Alertness. On the day we took Dax home from the hospital, I wanted to take pictures of him in his going home outfit. So I wiggled and snapped my fingers in front of the camera lens and he stared at the camera…and tracked my fingers as I moved them in front of him. A couple of weeks later, I was able to walk in front of him, as he sat in his baby chair, and he followed my every move as I walked around the room. He not only moved his eyes, he moved his head also as I started to get out of his range of vision. What does this mean for the future? I don’t know…maybe it means he’ll be able to judge the angle and the sound of the baseball coming off of the bat and will know exactly where to be when he catches the ball out in left field.

Example Three: Dexterity. I threw a baseball at Dax and he caught it with his right hand. I’m kidding, I didn’t perform this test on him.

So anyways, Dax seems to be a really good kid. He’s teaching me a lot and making this the most worthwhile adventure of all time.

8 Weeks

Dax is two months old now and continuing to grow at an alarming rate. He's already outgrown a lot of his 0-3 month clothes and is into the 3-6 month clothes. His next doctor's appointment is November 7th so we'll find out how much he has grown then.

He is quite good at tummy time but we're still waiting for him to roll over. He's had several close calls.

He has good enough control of his head now that he can sit up in his swing and reach his toys. He still doesn't enjoy actually swinging.

He still spends a lot of time sleeping. THe good news is that his daytime sleeping is decreasing and his nighttime sleeping is increasing. Yay!

I'm so in love with this child. You wouldn't believe how much time I can spend in a day just staring at him. Look at this thigh! I want to slather it with butter and strawberry jelly and eat it. He's so yummy.

7 Weeks

At seven weeks Dax's smiles are still a bit ellusive but they are becoming much more frequent.

This week's favorite new pasttime seems to be....flailing. Sometimes he looks like he's trying to hail a cab or flag down a moving train while simultaneously dancing a vigorous irish jig.

In this picture he is demonstrating another favorite move....thrusting his arms and feet out in front of him as if miming that he is on a swing.

We think he's very close to being able to roll over. I'm curious to see if he'll go from front to back or from back to front first. I'm placing my bets on front to back. However, he does this thing sometimes when he first wakes up where he pulls his little legs up, flings his arms over his head, and rolls over onto his side.

Another big development this week is that he's started to make new sounds. My favorite so far is when he says, "Ooh". (Mostly because this is usually accompanied by loads of huge smiles.)

Cat has been playing a lot of "tracking" games with Dax. Sometimes he'll hold a toy and pass it in front of Dax to see if he'll follow it. Sometimes he walks around Dax to see how long the baby will be able to keep track of his daddy. I'm impressed with how well he is doing and how long something like that will keep his attention.

We're all getting a lot more comfortable being out and about. Yesterday we ran a bunch of errands that had us out of the house for nearly four hours. Dax slept comfortably in his carseat for most of that time but he did take a dinner break in the "Mother's Room" at Babies R Us.

Speaking of sleep....my little one has given me two nights of good rest. For the past two nights he's slept for one four hour stretch followed by two stretches of two hours. Ahhhhhh.

Six Weeks

Dax is six weeks old now. According to the "Cat Method of Baby Weighing" (which consists of him weighing with Dax and then subtracting his own weight), he weighs 11 pounds.

He's smiling more and more. I haven't quite figured out exactly what will make him smile. He's a big fan of the "Blah, blah, blah" game. That's when you move his little chin up and down as if he is talking and say, "Blah, blah, blah". He also likes to walk around the back yard. He likes getting smooches on the nose. Sometimes I have no idea why he's smiling. Here is a rare photo of the tail end of one of those smiles.

Below is a picture of a new face. A very sad face. Oh, the Horrible and Tragic thing to cause such a very sad face. What is that Horrible and Tragic thing? The "Blah, blah, blah" game. Apparently it gets old. This face says, "Woman, you already DID that. Can you not come up with anything more creative?"

I'm getting more into the swing of things with this mommy thing. We're getting out of the house a lot more and I'm getting exercise once again. What a difference that makes! Someday I'd like to sleep for more than two hours at a time but that just might be greedy.

Five Weeks

My mom flew out from Colorado and spent this last week with us. She was spectacularly helpful and Dax had a wonderful time bonding with his Nanna. I took extra naps and Cat and I got to spend some alone time together.

He has changed a lot this week. He's vocalizing a lot more and he's even giving us some real smiles. I keep trying to catch a smile on camera but he's too quick for me. Even Nanna (who is very patient and persistent) couldn't catch one on film but at least she got to see it.

He continues to grow like a weed. He's up to 10 pounds already. He's getting better at controlling his arms. He has mastered stuffing his fist in his mouth. He's also been staying awake for much longer periods of time. While my mom was out here he stayed awake for nearly five hours at one stretch.

Mom also discovered that he likes to hang out on the bed in our guest bedroom. I don't know for sure but I think it may be because of the brightly colored quilt in that room. Here he is lounging on the pillows.