The Harvey Family: Blake

This week Blake had his 2 month visit to the doctor and got 3 vaccines; 1 oral, and 2 shots. He did very well with the oral one and the first shot. The nurse tech let us know that the last shot normally hurts and Blake seemed to agree and definitely cried. After I picked him up off the table, he calmed very quickly which was a relief. He was fine all morning until about 3 hours later when he decided that something wasn't right and started screaming bloody murder. We had to resort to the Tylenol which, after 10-15 minutes, seemed to help with the pain and he was good for the rest of the day. The main side effects that we noticed from the vaccines were just drowsiness (which was kinda nice actually)and lessened appetite. After a full day of stimulation and rest, Blake was a pretty happy baby for the remainder of the evening, woohoo!

Diet update: I had cut milk, soy, spice, caffeine, and citric acid out of my diet and it seemed to make a difference last week or the week before. I'm ok with keeping spice and caffeine out, but citric acid was tough because that means I can basically only drink water... boring! So that was the first thing I brought back and things seemed to be ok with Blake's tummy and demeanor. Then I really wanted to bring back soy so I could eat Cliff Bars again since they are such a quick easy meal which is nice with a baby who doesn't like to nap during the day sometimes... and heating up leftovers even takes too long. Somewhere between adding in the Cliff Bars and formula supplement things went wrong and Blake had been a super fussy baby. This week I took soy and citric acid back out of the diet and so far, so good. Let's hope that is what was upsetting him so we can move forward... it really is crazy how many foods have soy products in them though.

At the doctor on Tuesday, Blake weighed in at 11lb 10oz and a length of 22 3/4 in long. He wasn't going to let being born early affect his growth curve. =)

This week, Blake:

has become more aware of his surroundings so he wakes up really easily if he's sleeping or napping out in the main living area. Even the click of a light switch is enough to wake him up now, whereas I used to be able to run the blender and it wouldn't phase him.
has started smiling and cooing more. His little toothless grin is the highlight of my day!
taught us that he needs to be stimulated constantly during his awake times. He has a super active brain like his daddy and doesn't really like to just "chill".
likes his new swaddle blanket, the Miracle Blanket, to help calm him for his nap during the day and also the one before bed. He gets so tired that he works himself up and can't calm himself down and being all tight and snuggly helps him relax.
went on his first trip out of the house with mommy, to the grocery store. It was only for a few items but he had fun looking at all the shelves of food and, of course, the lights. We took a few more trips as well, but things go best if we keep them fairly short.
went to the cardiologist to have his heart murmur checked out since our pediatrician noticed that it hadn't closed up yet. The cardiologist said there was absolutely nothing to be concerned about at this point and everything seemed perfectly normal. We can go get checked out again in 6 months and should only be concerned if the small hole between the atriums has grown with relation to the size of the heart.
went to his first restaurant for lunch. After our walk down to the end of the Safety Harbor marina pier, we decided to stop and have lunch at Crispers. I fed Blake before we went in and he slept on me for a few minutes but once I put him in the stroller to sleep while we ate, he immediately woke up and looked around for a while. He lasted a decent amount of time before getting too fussy to stay any longer.
went for walks around the neighborhood in his stroller almost every day this week. Sometimes he sleeps and sometimes he looks out the side of the stroller, but his favorite time of day is the evening right before the sun sets so he can look up at the trees and sky. We can't stay out too late though, or the bugs will get him.
got to meet his cousin Tristan who is a 5 month old ball of energy. He showed Blake how to use all his toys the right way and tested everything out for us. Blake still doesn't like to look down and acknowledge people... he's much more interested in things on the ceiling. Tristan thought Blake was a fun toy to grab onto though.
still despises tummy time no matter how many different ways we try to do it. He gets so frustrated that his face turns almost purple and he won't make any effort to move it. We did find that he does somewhat ok on the couch, but we've only done one session here so far. Hopefully it continues to work! He's going to start falling behind on his development if he doesn't start making progress...