in my life...: Hamp

I can't believe Hamp is 2 months old!

He did very well at his check up yesterday. He is 13.7 lbs and 24 1/4 inches long. Big boy! He has been struggling with reflux, but Dr. Castles upped his Zantac dosage, so hopefully that will help. He'll be taking .7ml 2 x daily now, as well as 1ml Maalox, as needed up to 3 x per day. He did well with his shots, but was pretty fussy for the rest of the day. I gave him some Tylenol to help.

Boring schedule stuff:
Hamp takes 5 ml breast milk every 3 hours during the day and 1 formula over night. He is usually up for the day around 6:30 and isn't too hungry right when he wakes up. I usually feed him 1/2 of his first bottle, let him play, then feed him t he rest 30 or 45 minutes later. He is still sleeping between each feeding (with the occasional exception). I do my best to put him down for a nap at the first sign of being sleepy. Otherwise, he fights sleep like crazy. When we're home, he naps in his crib, except his last "supper nap" of the day, which is in his swing. About 75% of his naps and bed times are preceded by about 20 minutes of the pacifier war. It's because he's so gassy and his reflux is bothering him, so he grunts the pacifier out by accident and then cries for it. It's exhausting. I'm hoping this new dosage will help with it.
He goes down to bed around 7pm, wakes around 11:30 to eat, again around 3:30 or 4 to eat, then up for the day around 6:30/7am. MOST of the time, he goes down easily between feedings at night. One night this week, he slept from 8pm to 2:30am. Awesome.
I am trying as hard as I can to pump once for every bottle he takes. It is hard work, if I'm being honest, but it's worth it. My mulk supply is down some, which kind of worries me. Like i said, it is hard to pump every 3 hours. I'm still able to pump enough milk, but only one feeding ahead. Not that I'm looking forward to it AT ALL, but I think I should be able to turn it around when I start work again since I'll be here alone and will be able to pump like crazy to get my supply back up. I'll probably also start taking fenugreek again. That helped when this happened with Jake. I do have a good couple of weeks' supply in the deep freezer from when I was flowing like a dairy cow in the beginning so that's good.

Fun stuff:
Hamp is so pleasant most of the time. The only things he really fusses about are trying to get to sleep if I miss the first sleepy signals and his reflux. Again, hopefully the reflux meds will help. He loves to coo and talk to us and his smiles will just kill you. PRECIOUS. He is starting to notice Jake more and more, which Jake is enjoying. I can't wait for Hamp to be able to laugh at him. Jake's such a ham, so I know he will just eat that up.
He is so flexible. From the very beginning, he's been toted along everywhere. Such is life of a second (or 3rd, 4th, etc...) child. He loves being in the bjorn, thank goodness. That has been the biggest necessity with him for Soccer games, practices, vacations, trips to the grocery store, EVERYTHING)
He loves to "stand" on our laps and is very strong. He has great head control, too. He doesn't mind tummy time. He hasn't rolled over since a few weeks ago, which I knew was a fluke anyway. I'm in no rush, as I know he'll get there in his own time. I actually don't even know off hand when it's normal for them to start that. (that is a BIG difference from last time when I was watching for milestones like a hawk).

His hair is starting to fill back in on top. It's light brown and it kind of looks like there's some lighter hair coming in too. His fuzzy little head is the softest thing on earth. He LOVES me to rub his head and stroke his cheek.

He looks some like Jake as a baby depending on the day and he definitely resembles John a good bit, but I swear I look at him sometimes and see te spitting image of my dad. Something about his eyes and some of his expressions. I love it.

Likes: standing on your lap, birds on his swing (although the swing is becoming less and less popular), smiling and talking, bath time and diaper time, his pap pap.

Nicknames: Hampy, Hamp the Champ, The Champ, Champ, Snaggletooth, Hampopotamus, Hungry Hungry Hampo, Jabadahamp (John came up with this one, a Star Wars reference)

What a sweet little one Hamp is. I couldn't love him more.