Well it's started...

Today I got a phone call around 10:00. "YOUR son decided he doesn't like diapers anymore." Apparently Matthew decided to make a habit today of waiting until the diaper is off to do his business. Hmm... Now this is noteworthy mainly because last night I said something like "Pass me my boy." and was promptly informed that he was OUR boy. But this morning when he's soiling everything in site and leaving clean diapers, he's MY son. Yep, it's started....

Luckily he remains cute most of the time, and decided to make up with Mommy in order to get fed and a comfy spot for a nap.














Judging from some of the diapers that have been seen around here lately I just thought the name was too fitting.














Matthew continues to grow. I think he eats from about 5:00 to 10:00 straight. This is what we call Milk Drunk. He basically falls off the tap and goes completely limp.














Sunday, we got this when looking outside. I've about had it with snow this year. At least it mostly melted quickly.














Finally last Saturday's Craig the Bear picture. At the current rate of milk consumption, he'll have outgrown Craig by 3 months. Enjoy the rest of the week!



















Jake

Hungry Baby

Man we have a hungry baby. Sometimes I think all this kid does is eat. I'm thinking he's getting ready to grow a bunch, so he should be full on toddler size in about 2 more weeks. It's nice that he eats so much (I'm not the one who has to feed him!) , the problem is that what goes in must come out.

This week he learned that if he keeps dropping stinky ones when getting ready for bed, he can continuously put off be stuffed in the swaddle sack. He's not a big fan of being swaddled, but he does sleep better in the papoose sack.
















Today is Jamie's birthday, GranDan and Gramma came over last night with dinner and ice cream cake. GranDan decided that Matthew has been freeloading long enough, so he put him to work as a beer cozy.



















Daddy's not nice sometimes. Don't leave me with the baby when I'm bored.














This just made me wonder "What's he thinking?" (I'm betting he's trying to decide which tap to go to for the next meal.)














Jamie's family is stopping by tomorrow, so hopefully we'll have some more photos then.

Jake

Laundry

I need some math help. How does a 50% increase in family size correlate to a 500% increase in the amount of laundry we seem to have done over the last week and a half? And his clothes are small....

We have a loaned swing that holds his carseat, he's still not so sure about it.



















Look at how small those hands are!












He had a rather cranky day this morning, but seems to have gotten over it. Milk and sleep do wonders for a baby's disposition.
















Jake

No More Umbilical!

Well, the nasty ol' umbilical stump has now fallen off. Went to change the diaper and there it was stuck to the inside of his shirt. None too soon either, that thing was kind of gross.

Jamie gave him a bath today, he was starting to get a little crusty. He looks like he's about to melt down, but he actually doesn't mind the scrub down. Note the lack of stump and frog belly.




















He did NOT enjoy his visit to the doctor, getting stripped downed and poked and prodded is apparently not Baby Matt's idea of a good time. I think that's the most I've heard him scream ever.

Kate and Karen brought us dinner friday night to trade for time holding the baby. Thanks again for the sandwiches!



















Saturday night the whole Virnig clan showed up (Sorry Ryan, but with the way you drink beer you're getting lumped in.)

Staring contest with GranDan. This is one of Matthew's favorite activities, and he's getting pretty good at it.















Checkin' out Uncle Ryan.



















More of Matthew's favorite activity, sleeping on people.














Jamie let him sleep on her for a while the other night, and when she got up his feet just stayed like this. He likes them all tucked up.



















Today we took advantage of the rare summer sun and went to the park to take Matthew for a walk using the sling for the first time. He seems to like the sling, but I don't know if he likes the sun.















Finally some Craig the Bear pics again. I've been told to note that Craig is rather large, about 24" tall. We learned tonight that putting Matthew down on Craig when he's hungry results in Matthew trying to take a bite out of him. Lesson learned.

1 week old!

Well we have survived Matthew's first week. He seems to have outgrown anything we have labeled 0-3months.

His general schedule consists of Eat, Change, Eat, Sleep, Repeat. Although occasionally he likes to throw you a curve, like this evening which was Sleep, Change, Change, Change. (Where did it all come from? He's not THAT big.) The Sleep part still seems to be his favorite activity.














We do seem to get more of the quiet alert time now, and try to let put him down occasionally to get used to the crib. We generally hover over him when he's in there though, wouldn't want to miss anything....


































He has developed excellent Virnig reflexes, and seems to be able to actually burp while drinking and not miss a gulp. He's also getting much better about tolerating diaper changes, which is nice, because he seems to need them frequently. In other bodily function news, he still gets the hiccups fairly often, which I find fairly funny, but I don't think he likes it. This needs sound.



Matthew also continues to work on the head control thing. It's not great, but he can keep his head up like this of a bit. This one's for auntie 'lecia.
















Yesterday and today we actually managed to get all 3 of us out of the house for a little adventure, walking around the park, or the neighborhood. It's cold out and the bear suit is the warmest thing he's got, but he still doesn't like it.







































Tomorrow we're going to go for his first doctor visit. I'll bet he loves that....

Sleep

Looking over the pictures for the last two days, sleep seems to be the name of the game right now. Sleep for Mom and sleep for Baby Matt. Thus far he has yet to do much sleeping anywhere but on one of us, occasionally he spends a little time in the crib, but it's not long before he gets cranky.

He likes to sleep with Mom a lot, and she tries to sleep too.












































Sometimes he does get to sleep with Dad too.



















This is what happens when we let him sleep in the crib for a bit. This is about 2 seconds before nuclear.














Since he was starting to get a little crusty, he got a wipe down bath last night. Bathtime wasn't too bad. I won't say he liked it, but it could have been worse. He did like getting wrapped up afterward.














Check out these toes.














Jamie's family came by for a visit sunday night, and brought icecream.




























Today, we worked on book time, and holding the head up. Doing well at both!














It's important to note that seconds after this, Marie became the first Pee victim. Onto the knee, down the leg and into the shoe. I was impressed.














Dealing with a baby is a lot of work. Jamie is working on her multitasking skills. Feeding baby, talking on the phone, surfing the web, and I'm pretty sure the TV was on.
















Jake

Snarfy

I knew infants made weird noises, but wow. The amount of googles, slurps and snarfs coming out of this kid is amazing, hence his new nickname, "Snarfy".

Luckily for him he seems to have gotten his mom's looks, but fear not, he seems to have the Virnig appetite. Last night he started eating about 11:00, and finally finished up at about 5:30 this morning, packing on a hefty 2.5oz in the process. The good news is, as long as he's not hungry, he's pretty content.

Mom made the mistake of going in for a kiss when he was hungry.
















Yesterday we got visits from all the grandparents. Matthew and Grandpa Johnson -



















Matthew and Gandma Virnig and GranDan.


























Today Matthew also got to spend some time with Craig the bear. He's soft and comfy.

































Today we also practiced tracking. Luckily I was able to find something suitable to keep his attention.



Right now it's time for a nap with mom before I get hungry again. (Should be about 10 minutes)














Jake

BABY OUT!

For about the last two weeks "BABY OUT!" has become the mantra around our house, hoping to convince him to come out on his own. Unfortunately his parents were not convincing enough, and he had to get a little encouragement from the medical community. After going into the hospital at 6:00 on Tuesday, Matthew James joined us on the outside at 4:24am on Thursday morning. I could not be more proud right now of Jamie and our little (well relatively little) guy.

Here's one of his first picture, a few minutes after he was born. Note the weight on that scale. That's right, 10lbs, 9.5oz. I guess Jamie should have thought through all that nutritious foods and ritualistic morning workouts.














A few minutes after he was born, he started posing for the camera. Here's the famous weight lifter pose.




















He likes sleeping on Mom after a good meal.















For the trip home we put him in his bear suit. I'm thinking he didn't care for it....
















The Staff at UW Medical Center were awesome and made the experience a great one.

Jake

A little late...

We are now at Due Date +1 week, and Matthew has decided that since the pool is still warm, he's not coming out. Unfortunately I think his Mom feels he's getting to be a bit large.















He is scheduled for eviction this Tuesday, if he doesn't decide to come peacefully before then.

Jake