Four Weeks

During one of my many trips to Target this past week, a woman stopped me when she saw Kieran's dark head sticking out of the Baby Bjorn and said, "Oh my goodness, what a sweet baby. How old is he?"

Honestly, I had to stop and do the math. May 7 plus two weeks plus a few days....

"FOUR WEEKS! He's almost FOUR WEEKS OLD!" I practically shouted at the innocent shopper.

Can you believe it?

I can't.

He's gone from a tiny, delicate, newborn...

...to a chunky, fuzzy-headed infant who's increasingly fascinated by his own hands.

Being with him every day (sometimes, every moment of every day), I didn't notice the dramatic changes until I looked at pictures. It's shocking and a little melancholy to me how fast this last baby is growing up.

Milestones this month include:

Like his siblings before him, Kieran has freakish neck strength. He started lifting his head in the hospital, and by this point, he can lift it and hold it upright and steady for a good long time. Of course, at the end of that 20-second exertion, he flops down onto my collar bone, completely spent. But apparently, he believes it's worth the effort, because he does it more and more each day.

Unlike his siblings, he lost his umbilical cord within a week of coming home from the hospital. We were stunned. Before Kieran, Teyla held the record for Fastest Belly Button Unveiling, and hers fell off at three weeks and two days. (Natalie's was on so long, it was starting to stink. I ended up cutting the final sinew with clippers.) (I know. Ewwwww.)

I already mentioned his weight, but let me say it again for posterity. At Kieran's two-week check-up, he weighed nine pounds. The boy can eat. I'm pretty sure I watched him grow a second chin this past week.

His growth spurt last weekend appears to have paid off as well. Last Sunday, I was able to dress him in his (teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy, too-cute-for-words) newborn outfits. By Thursday of this last week, dressing him in a newborn onesie made him looked like a stuffed sausage.

So as of today, we've moved up into 0-3 month clothes and size 1 diapers. It pains me to think of putting those newborn clothes away. Physically. Pains. Me.

Despite his weight, the first thing everyone everyone says when they see him is, "Oh my goodness, he's so small!" (To be followed immediately by, "And look at all that hair!") Facts would indicate he's not tiny, but I think there must be something about newborns that make them seem small. Maybe it's the way they roll into a ball when they are sleeping on your chest? The way they tuck their arms and legs in close to their body? Don't know. Whatever it is, I like it. There's something about his smallness that makes me sigh big happy sighs.

He's a good sleeper at night, waking every two to three hours to eat, then falling right back to sleep. He tends to have to have a couple of wakeful hours during the day when he's growing increasingly alert and active. Otherwise, he's sleeping -- usually, on my bed, next to my pillow or on me. And when he wakes up, you'll hear from him. He goes from zero to 60 in 2.4 seconds. In fact, he's screaming right now as if we've deserted him in a dark closet for five hours. And he woke up six second ago.

Time to go and get some more baby snuggles. I'd mail you some if I could.