Zachary Overload

Finally!  I am finally talking about sweet Zachary!  Isn't he adorable?

But folks, it's time to get honest.  Zach was not the easier of my two babies.  Now, to be totally fair, Ruby was as easy as they come.  Really.  But I think Zach was harder than average as well.  At first it was just the whole nights and days were flip flopped-- which is to be expected so I don't mind that.  I will say that day my cute mother in law was here and I took a two hour nap was completely amazing though!  I was pretty exhausted running on little to no sleep the first two weeks...  Which means I found a lot of pictures like this on Parker's phone.  Don't judge me, I'm not a cute sleeper- but these are the moments people.

 So the sleep thing was one thing... but then there was (okay, is) the gas... oh those stinking bubbles!  At sweet Zach's two week appointment we got some super great news.  When I took him in to his inital "meet your pediatrician" appointment he was five days old (just a result of being born on a Friday and she doesn't work Mondays).  He was already back up to his birth weight!  Wahoo!  At his two week appointment he was still just chugging along in the weight gain department.  Since that is sort of the only way we can measure they are eating enough and everything is working right, that was great news.

The bad news, though, was that we discovered Zach has a tongue tie.  "The worst one I've ever seen" in the words of our doctor.  Hmm.  Great.  But the primary issues with that are that the baby has difficulty nursing and that makes the mom sore.  I was sore-- but we'd worked through that and I was fine now.  And since he was gaining weight so well, we made the decision not to get his tongue clipped.  Our doctor was explaining that since the tongue is a muscle, it often stretches out over time so some of the secondary concerns listed on that link really aren't much of an issue.  Anyway... it's genetic and runs in my family.  I have a nephew that had it and, actually now that I know, I think there is a chance that I actually have it.  We were comparing mine and Parker's tongues and it is pretty wild, actually.

Anyway, my point in writing this is that sometimes when Zach eats, he clicks more than he should.  Which means he is getting extra air in his tiny body and gets super bubbly inside and uncomfortable.  I just couldn't burp him enough.  (My mom has said I was a really gassy baby too... perhaps not coincidence?)  He loves to be held upright and likes to bounce- which I think helps his hurty tummy.

His stomach made him cry a lot.  And loudly.

But in the last week or two though, we have all been adjusting sooo much better.  Our sweet baby seems to be doing so much better with his bubbles and is so much happier.  His routine is pretty predictable now and we have all pretty much settled into our "new normal."

And- just to be clear- we really, really love our baby boy.  He was exhausting, yes, but we really adore him.  And I'm also very glad to be past that first little bit.

Anyway, I'm going to do the same thing I did with Ruby and just slam on the pictures now... consider yourselves warned.

"I'm too sexy for my shirt"

Sweet baby Z would smile in his sleep from the get go.  Even at the hospital.  Love his little grin.

His first bath.  He wasn't such a fan of his first ever bath- I think he didn't cry for only a few minutes, if that.  But now he loves the bath.  He would probably stay in it forever if he could.

Super Zach!  (Complete with socks)

He started smiling about a week ago and I love it.  I try to get him to smile every chance I get.  He's so stinking cute.

We will be blessing him when we are in Utah, but I realized he wont wear his blessing outfit in Texas ever he didn't wear it now because he will likely outgrow it by the time we get back... so he wore it to church last Sunday and he looked like such a stud.

Love me a baby wrapped up after bathtime...

 I was trying to catch this little side grin and accidentally cut his head off... but come on!  Look at that.  It's a regular and it is my favorite.  Totally melts me.

Just hanging out while I was at story time with Ruby, but look how much bigger he has gotten.  I weighed him yesterday and he weighed 12 pounds!!  Ruby didn't weigh that much until she was 4 months old!  He's totally outgrown almost all his newborn clothes and fits into most of his three month size clothes great.  We have a big little man on our hands.

And I am oh, so grateful he's ours.