Today Jack is...38 weeks old.

Another good week and now we've only got a week and a half left of the cast! He still hasn't let it faze him in the slightest and his army crawl is getting even faster. This crawling thing is awesome. He can just be happy and play on the ground on his own. See how pleased he is with himself?

Here he is practicing his elevated crawl (still not successful) but he's getting there.

There he was smiling, right next to me so I turned away to choose a book off the bookshelf and when I turned back around, he was off and out the door.

What happened to my little immobile baby? He's a speedster. One of his favorite "toys" this week was an accounting envelope John brought home with an address window so it had like cellophane plastic that would crinkle when he would throw it around. He was very very amused.

He also is still obsessed with mirrors and MAN, he loves himself. Which he certainly doesn't get from me.

The little guy is still into books and his daddy is more than happy to oblige most mornings. It's quite adorable.

Earlier in the week we headed on over to our favorite outdoor mall where they were setting up Santa's house. I'd like to say that this is him looking in awe at the Christmas decorations, but he is just enthralled with the big fountain as usual.

In other news, I'm almost done breastfeeding I think. Each day I've done it less and less and he seems to be taking it just fine. He's chowing down on the formula bottles. I think he's getting a lot more than usual because he's eating less baby food. But I guess that's a fine trade off. I don't know really but I'll just keep doing what I'm doing.

And now, more pics from the week!

Looking at himself in the car mirror

Modeling his latest winter wear

And some pics of Jack enjoying time with our friend Orlando

La Leche esta aqui!

I'm hoping that means "the milk is here!" It's been a while since high school Spanish. But after our 12 hour formula sojourn, my milk came in. So that solved problem one. But Jack was/is still having trouble latching so we had a lactation consultant come visit. LC's are quite popular nowadays and, while I didn't know how worthwhile it would be, this woman was worth her weight in gold. She spent three hours with us, going over Jack's long 3-day history, different latches, and helped us breastfeed for 90 minutes. She was fantastic. She left and we were confident we could do everything she had taught us. Of course, we hit a few bumps in the road but we're all doing better. Jack's been feeding away and I'm confident he's gaining weight. Well, I'm mostly confident. A few 2am meltdowns shake that confidence sometimes, but most of the time, Jack is an angel. Here he is, pretty damn mellow, after a nice long feeding.

First outing

Yesterday Jack had his first outing. The special destination was the pediatrician's office for his standard 3 day check-up. He's so tiny that the car seat almost swallowed him up.

Of course, he was looking tinier than before we thought. And the previous 10 hours or so, he had refused to really breastfeed and was just so so upset all the time. His lips were really chapped and, upon further investigation, his mouth and tongue were super dry. So thank goodness we happened to have a doctor's appointment right then. The doctor was wonderful (so glad we chose her pre-birth). She told us that he had lost about a pound since birth which was more than she wanted to see and that he was dehydrated. As my milk hasn't come in yet, he wasn't getting anything to eat and that's why he was so upset and didn't want to bother with the breast. I don't blame him. So Doc suggested that we would have to supplement with formula to have him gain some weight. The mere mention of formula was somewhat upsetting. After nine months of reading how much better breastmilk was than formula, it was disheartening to hear that we would have to use formula. But she assured us that he would be able to go back to breastfeeding once my milk comes in. We'll see what happens. But it was hard to argue with the immediate results of him getting some food. His color got back to normal, his lips immediately began to be moist again, and he stopped crying for hours. So, what's best for Jack is best for everyone. :-) Especially since it allowed us to get some more sleep.

Jack had his follow-up appointment this morning and we're happy to report he gained a whole 5 ounces overnight! Not back up to birth weight or even to hospital discharge weight, but we're getting there!