Patrick had a good Thanksgiving! I think I got to hold him for about 20 minutes the entire day. Lots of Aunties wanting their time with the baby, and cousins too! We almost had a problem in Missouri Valley when I realized I forgot a nipple for the bottle, but Jon's cousin Brooke's husband was able to track one down with a family member who had just had a baby and lived nearby. Aaron saved the day!

Patrick came in at 7 lbs 12 oz this morning! Kid is getting huge! He's starting to fit into newborn clothes, and today he hated tummy time so much that he rolled over! Exciting day around here.

I've got something like 3 weeks worth of pictures, so here they are!

Loves Dad!!

I fit in dad's shoe!

I LOVE ELECTIONS!!

Aunt Sara

Grandpa Max

We are on the verge of a crisis. The rainforest sounds and lights crib toy is running low on power! I think Patrick already notices the slower music and the sluggish movement of the monkey and the frog. All I know is, we had better to go the store tonight and get some batteries!

Patrick had his follow up eye appointment on Monday, and the doctor was happy with how his eyes looked. We dodged the bullet on the ROP, so now we'll just have to see (ha!) if he needs glasses eventually (which I'm sure he will, given his parents history of vision) or if he has a lazy eye or gets cross eyed. His next appointment isn't until February!

We also went to see his regular doc on Monday, and he's progressing well. Not doing everything that they check on 3 month old babies for, but then he's still a few weeks shy of 3 months. He was 7lbs!! I weighed him just a few minutes ago, and our scale says 7lbs 4 oz. We've stopped fortifying his milk, but we are mixing breastmilk with formula because the stock is running low. Also working on that.

I don't know if nights have gotten worse, or if we're just getting used to it. He seems pretty content with being crammed in my arms between my body and the couch. Jon was up with him for 3 hours last night, and Patrick just would not go to sleep. For some reason I can put him to sleep in minutes. Is that a mom thing?

Depending on which doctor you talked to, my due date for Patrick was either Monday or Tuesday! I can't even imagine what it would have been like to have had him just a few days ago. His weight is right on track with what the ultrasound tech predicted for him, though. It would be so amazing to be on maternity leave right now, instead of starting back at work full time again on Monday. It's been nice to have the half days, but that had to come to an end...

Other than that, not too much going on in Patrick's life. He's been out travelling some, met some new people, makes some new faces. Had the most disgusting diaper I have ever seen just a few minutes ago. Pretty typical baby stuff. Katie is headed home to Hastings for Thanksgiving, so it's going to be just us here for a little bit. Jon's going turkey hunting tomorrow morning before Thanksgiving at the farm... so there may be a fresh turkey? Ew. I'm sorry, but just ew.

Happy Turkey Day!

Patrick does not like to be alone at night. It seems like he's pretty set as that being his awake time. I'm losing track of the time, but I know that Jon spent a couple hours up with him this morning, then handed him off to me because he couldn't stay awake anymore. I was sleeping with him on the couch for a couple hours until Jon got up for work at about 5:30. I know I'm not supposed to do that, but it was the only way he would calm down. I try to wedge myself in the couch so neither of us will move. So far it's been okay.

He just had an explosive poop. Wow. Kid is loud sometimes!

But really, he's been sort of a crabby kid the last couple days. His temp is normal, even though he feels warm to me, and he's eating and pooping, so I'm not worried about him being sick. He has been spitting up like crazy again, though.

Last night he was 6lbs 11 1/2 oz! We went to Jon's dad's house for dinner, and we've pretty much decided we really don't need to bring the Pack 'n Play in the houses anymore, because whenever we're at the grandparents' houses, he's being held all the time anyway!

We're still adjusting around here... couple of exhausted people in this house.

Patrick has learned how to scream. Am I a terrible mom for thinking it's hilarious? I feel bad for the kid, but I can't help but laugh when he's screaming his little head off. Every once in a while, he spits up, but it goes out his nose. When I use the sucker bulb to clean out his nose, he just explodes. And it's funny, because he can't make any sound for a second while the bulb is pulling everything out. Poor little guy. I still laugh though...

Other than that, he's just growing out of his clothes! Still pretty cuddly and doesn't like to be left alone. He makes the funniest noises when he's got his binkie in his mouth, I'll see if I can record it sometime!

I started back at work again this week, and it's been rough. There have been a couple of nights where Patrick thought it would be fun to be awake at 3am. Katie and Patrick have a good time while I'm at work, though. I think he mostly sleeps the entire time. It's nice to finally get to the weekend.

I finally went and printed pictures yesterday! That was probably the most exciting thing that's happened this week!

Hi!
We have a 6 lb baby! Weighed him last night!

On Friday we went and got the first Synergis (I think that's how it's spelled) shot for Patrick. He haaaaaaated it. Poor kid. They love him over at the doctor's office. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to get him back from them! I was a little worried though, because they have to base the amount of the shot on his weight, and when we weighed him, he had his diaper on. I haven't seen any strange behavior from him, so I think it's okay.

We're still working on this sleeping stuff. Some nights he does really well, most nights he's up at the worst times. Last night I put batteries in a swing that someone brought us, and he seemed to like that. Didn't fall asleep, but calmed down quite a bit.

It's getting less scary to take him out in public. We went out to dinner for Grandpa and Uncle Trevor's birthdays, and he slept the whole time. We also took Patrick on his first trip to Scheel's, and I think Jon has plans to take him to Cabela's today. Start him early, I suppose!

I go back to work part time tomorrow, so that will be interesting. I think Katie's been around him enough to have a handle on what to do with him. I'll only be working 4 hour shifts, so I don't think it'll be as hard on any of us.

I need to figure out places to put all his baby stuff... we have things that he'll use when he gets bigger that need to be put away. I probably should have left some of it in the boxes that it came in, but it's all so cute! I just want him to play with it!

I can't find our camera right now. It's probably buried under baby stuff. When I do find it, we'll get more pictures. It really does look like he has red hair, though! I thought it was so strange (and had more than one person mention a milk man), but then I remembered that his Aunt Katie had reddish hair when she was born. So I think he belongs to both of us.

Okay, kid is making noise, so I'm going to go see what all of that is about! Pictures soon. I promise.

We thought that getting him home would make things easier. Okay, we were a little bit wrong about that. Patrick did so well one night with the waking up and eating, but every other night has just been awful.

For Patrick, night time is play time. He doesn't want to be alone at all. You can count on being awake from about 3am to 8am with him. I started looking into things we can do to get him set into a routine, and maybe that will help.

Our friends Ben and Shari had a baby scale from Shari's sister, and they're letting us borrow it. Last night he weighed in at 5lbs 13oz! For as bad as his eating habits have been, at least he's getting bigger!

Patrick went on his first Home Depot trip to pick out some shades with Gramma Vickie. The first of many trips, I'm sure!
Here's some pictures of Patrick not being a huge stinker -

Cousin Colin helping out with the bottle. He kept asking "Where's my baby?" when he came over.

Not a fan of tummy time.