Hendrix is a little chunker!

Hendrix had his first appointment with the pediatrician on Thursday afternoon, and weighed in at 6 lbs. 4 oz.  The doctor said that there could be a variation on her scale of about 1-2 ounces from the scale that he had been weighed on at the hospital......but even so that is still incredible progress in just a few short days!  (He was 5 lbs. 13.8 oz. on Tuesday)  She was so pleased, but still wants to keep him taking the calorie supplement for a while to make sure that we don't regress.  I am going to start trying to nurse him on both sides for 1 out of every 3 feedings starting tomorrow, and that will be our first step in trying to get him to breastfeed exclusively.  

I had gone out and bought him a few little preemie outfits, and as you can see from the pictures, he fills them out very well!  I imagine that he will outgrow them within a matter of weeks, and that is exciting because then he will maybe be ready to get into all the other cute clothes that we already had for him!  :)

Dr. Alexander gave the go ahead for us to start incorporating tummy time into his daily routine.  She wants us to put him on his tummy at least twice a day for 15 minutes while he is awake so he can spend time strengthening his neck muscles.

He is not really sure what he thinks about it!  In fact, he spent a lot more time using his feet to push himself up than using his neck muscles, and definitely fussed through the whole thing.

Daddy was right next to him talking to him and cheering him on and I am sure that he will get better the more he practices!  :)

We went out for our first family "date" last night.  We took the little guy to dinner at El Azteca, which is our favorite Mexican restaurant here in Ames.  The doctor had given me the okay to take him in public yesterday, though she said that she really wants us to protect him from being touched by strangers.  His immune system is still compromised, so when we take him out we need to try to keep him covered and/or in his carseat or another type of baby carrier.  (He is a little bit too small for the baby bjorn yet, but I can't wait to use that as it will make it easier to protect him!)  We have to be vigilant to tell people that they can look, but not touch; which I didn't realize was going to be so difficult!  I took him to target to get more of his calorie supplement and tons of people were like "Is there is a baby in there?????", wanting to lift the blanket to look at him.  Might have to take Daddy so he can be the bad guy!  Anyways, we had a really nice dinner, and just tucked him on the inside corner of the booth.  He was quiet and asleep the whole time, and it was really nice to enjoy an evening connecting with my hubby. ;)

Both Bud and I started reading him some stories last night around bedtime.  He seemed interested in hearing our voices, but wasn't interested at all in the pictures!  LOL  The stories basically just put him to sleep.

Look at that sweet sleeping child!  He has this thing about getting one or both of his hands out of his swaddling.  Though the swaddling definitely soothes him to sleep the best, he also kind of really wants to be free.

Now we are all dressed and ready for the weekend!  We don't really have any plans, though we have some things that we want to do around the house and yard to get ready for fall.  I have had my box of fall decorations sitting in the dining room for a couple weeks now, and I think I was just waiting for it to really feel like fall before I got out my pumpkins.  Now I am going to have to get out the box of long-sleeved clothes and sweaters so we have something to wear when we wake up to only 58 degree weather.  Better get busy with my projects!

Happy Weekend!  :)