Holden 6 wks

Holden is six weeks old today. We took him to a baby shower yesterday where there were five more kids under the age of three. The closest in age is Isabella who is six weeks older than Holden. (so, right now, twice his age). She's already 15 pounds. She makes Holden look like a premie. She was born 8 lbs, 15 oz. At six weeks, Holden is just over her birth-weight.

Holden 5 weeks

It's Easter Sunday and Holden is exactly five weeks old. His life is pretty much comprised of this: eat sleep poop cry, eat sleep poop cry, eat sleep poop cry...He likes movement and motion, and he's fine to be out of the house. We take him out to lunch, dinner, the movies, church. So many people have told us that once you have a baby, you never leave the house. Wusses. They obviously don't know The Pages very well. Holden had a pretty busy weekend already. He met auntie Laura when we all went out to dinner Friday night at Verbanos. And he met uncle Shaun on Saturday when we took the boys to the park to play football.

Four weeks old

Holden is four weeks old today. He's still a little guy - just about 8 pounds now - but eating like a champ.

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March 10, 2008

So, I have to hand it to Victoria. She, by far, does the major care and maintenance of Holden. I'm good for rocking him to sleep, the occasional feeding, or keeping him company for an hour or two so she can get stuff done or catch a cat nap, but pretty much everything else is her. Cleaning, feeding, keeping our baby supplies stocked, his clothes clean, his blankets soft, changing his diapers, and his overall comfort and happiness should be credited to her.

Speaking of changing him, that's an area where I could use some improvement. But first, let me say this; it's not like when I changed the diapers on the doll in the child care class. The doll didn't fight back. With the strength of a hundred donkeys. This kid is tough. Don't even get me started on trying to get his arm through the sleeve of a long-sleeved onesie. That's not even a fair fight. But I digress.

I change his diaper occasionally. Admittedly though, not very well, and pretty much always under Victoria's supervision. This sounds like a cop-out, and I don't know, maybe it is to some extent, but she's just so much better at it. She wipes him so well, making sure to get in his little folds, she knows just where to apply vaseline to protect him from diaper rash, and although it seems easy, my diaper wrapping skills emulate my Christmas wrapping skills. Thank God for gift bags. Unfortunately, diaper bags aren't the same concept.

I'm not overly concerned about it though - not because I don't want to get better at it, or be more helpful - I'm not overly concerned because I know I have a lot of opportunity to practice.



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Holden's three weeks old (3/9/08)

Holden is three weeks old today. I'm back from Orlando and happy to be spending time with my little family. He's healthy, gaining weight, and handsome as ever. Victoria, of course, did a fantastic job taking care of him while I was away. She's incredible; taking care of both of us.

Holden seems to be sleeping for slightly longer intervals at a time. During the day, I try to comfort him whenever I can. I have to learn more lullabies. I downloaded an album of them off of iTunes, but it turns out they were just instrumental. I need lyrics. Something did occur to me though - did you ever realize that Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and the Alphabet Song are all essentially the same song? Hum each one and you'll notice that they're all the same song with different words. Does everyone else already know this? He likes movement. So I rock him and walk around the house singing one of the four songs I know. Or I just make songs up. That seems to work pretty well too, plus it entertains me at the same time - seeing what kind of stuff I come up with.

Two weeks old

So, Holden is two weeks old today. My son, my beautiful little boy, is fourteen days old, and I'm sitting in an airport four thousand miles away. Sucks. I watched the film 'August Rush' on the plane about an orphan looking for his parents. The movie was pretty lame, but the message struck a chord. I miss him.

I stayed home from work for about ten days after he was born - getting to know him and helping Victoria. I went back to work this past Thursday for two days then hopped on a plane on Saturday to Orlando. Thursday and Friday were practice days for Victoria - having Holden on her own. She did great, of course. She's awesome; Holden and I are lucky to have her.

We've gone through a lot of the fears and concerns that I imagine all new parents experience: are we feeding him enough/too much, is he pooping enough/too much, sleep patterns, weight, etc. He's mostly breast-fed, supplemented by formula. He was 6 lbs, 3 oz when he was born. He left the hospital at 5lbs, 12 oz. Four days later we had him back up to 6 lbs, 2 oz. Now he's around 6 lbs, 7 oz.

His doctor is very helpful. We interviewed five different pediatricians. We ended up choosing the only female one that we interviewed. I was pretty happy with most of the ones we interviewed, but we felt that Victoria would be most comfortable talking with her and discussing ideas and options related to Holden's health and development, and that she would be most sensitive to a small child. So far, we've been very pleased. I try to go to every appointment, especially the initial ones because we learn new things each time, and it's better to have two sets of ears in case either of us misses anything.

Holden is healthy and apparently normal. He sleeps, eats, and poops, and that's really about it at this point. The ever changing colors of his poop make for an interesting show. Initially you have the black tar stuff, when he drinks mostly formula it's green, when he consumes more breast milk it's yellow and seedy. It's all pretty stinky. But I have a feeling that it will get a lot worse down the line when he starts eating solid foods. That's when the real fun begins.

So, one of the things I'm doing on this business trip is interviewing for a promotion. I would love to be able to tell Victoria that she doesn't need to go back to work and we can still maintain our lifestyle. This promotion could probably make that happen. Then she and Holden could travel with me. If she does have to go back to work in two or three months, we're fortunate that her mom just retired and lives nearby. She can't wait to spend as much time as possible with her only grandchild.

Well, it's time for me to board my next flight taking me even farther away. Wish me luck.