Well-baby check up

Well, at 5 weeks exactly, Graham had his well-baby check-up.  In what is proving to be typical Graham fashion, he screamed the entire appointment.  The doctor concluded that he is a very healthy, but very fussy baby.  Sadly, there is really nothing to be done with a fussy baby except putting your entire existence on hold to do whatever you can to get them to stop crying - pacing, bathing, car rides, bouncing.  So all that soothing makes it difficult to do much of anything - completion of a task sometimes is downright impossible.  Eating is done in shifts or standing up, and everything else is crammed into the times when he sleeps.  Some days he sleeps a lot, like newborns should.  Other days he decides that he just doesn't want to sleep - those are the days that are a real challenge because Graham not sleeping means I'm not sleeping either.  Napping for me is a challenge because there are other things I'd like to do when he's asleep (like type this blog or go to the grocery store or take a shower) which means I'm not always napping when he's napping.  We've tried using Colic Calm (which the doctor doesn't recommend simply because she isn't familiar with it - I've decided that it's worth a shot despite the fact that she hasn't endorsed it), which is supposed to help relieve their little tummies.

But I do love the little guy.  Really.  I'm trying not to always complain.  I wanted this baby SO MUCH and it hurt me every month that I didn't conceive.  I just have to let go of my picture perfect newborn that was in my head, and of my perfect ability to be a mother.  Apparently he's not a perfect baby and motherhood is not coming as naturally as a I thought and I'm going to have to let some of that go.

Although, I suppose physically he is pretty darn perfect.  He's the cutest baby ever.  And apparently a giant baby as well!  At 5 weeks he weighs 12 pounds 5.5 oz (95 percentile) and is 23 inches long (90 percentile) and his head is in the 75-90 percentile.  All signs point to him being healthy, just a bit of a curmudgeon.

He's starting to smile a little