Six Weeks!

Daniel channels Napoleon; appropriate for being 6 weeks old on Bastille Day!

Happy six weeks to Daniel! I can’t believe he is six weeks old already. It’s funny because I occasionally watch TLC’s Bringing Home Baby (see, it’s not all Law & Order reruns in my house), and when I see those newborns, I go, “awww! I remember when Daniel was that little and, well, swollen and smushed LOL.” Daniel is going through a growth spurt, and his schedule is shot to hell frankly. Sometimes he eats every 2 hours; sometimes like last night, he goes 5 hours between feedings. That also means that at night, he tends to go to sleep later, and he both sleeps longer and wakes up more often (possibly a situation like Schrodinger’s Cat).

We weighed him with our digital scale on Sunday, and I was shocked to discover that according to our scale, he weighs 9 pounds, 8 ounces…over a pound more than at his pediatrician’s appointment on July 2! I’m unsure whether I fully believe that he has gained so much weight in such a short time, but at the same time, sometimes I look at him and swear he has tripled in size! I love seeing his arms and legs chub up, though. He is quite roly poly! I guess the weight gain means that he will be moving up to a bigger size clothes very soon. No more newborn items for him!

Recently he has discovered the mobiles in his crib and Pack n Play and LOVES them! I’ll try to post a video later in the week. He turns his head to them and watches them move and listens to the music. Sometimes he pumps his legs like he is dancing along. Sooo cute! It is remarkable because a week ago, he had no interest, and now he does. He is responding well to music but isn’t grabbing at items on his bouncy seat or play mat yet, but he has started grabbing at hair and chins. He sees me all day, but when J comes home, he wriggles in recognition. I swallow my offense because it’s so cute!

I intended him to wear this outfit home from the hospital, but it didn't happen. Cutie pie!

We left him with J’s mom on Monday so we could attend baptism class for him, and we both felt so weird leaving him even though it was only for 1.5 hours and we trust her 100%. I can’t imagine what it will feel like when I leave him at daycare. Speaking of which, six weeks today for him marks 6 weeks down of leave for me as well. Only six more weeks to go and then I must return to work (unless I win the lottery–drawings every Wednesday and Saturday). I know that I am very fortunate to have 12 paid weeks off when so many of my friends and family have only had 6 or 8 weeks, but I’m dreading the end of my leave. I keep reminding myself that the fall always goes by quickly, and I’ll have lots of holidays with him as well as 2 full weeks off in December (yay state employees!!! Assuming I still have a job…). He’ll be fine and make lots of friends, I know.

Things Daniel likes this week:

• Harry Potter (yay, since we are leaving him with grandma again tomorrow to go see it!)
• The Departed: oddly fascinated. He’s alllllll boy.

J and I watched BBC’s Addicted to Surrogacy on Sunday and quite enjoyed it. Amazingly, it was very well done. Each surrogate except for one had done multiple surrogacies, but the supposed addiction part was hardly addressed. We really identified with one of the couples shown and found ourselves nodding along with parts of their journey. I didn’t think I would say this but kudos to BBC!

Friend E posted about another surrogacy article in the NY Times, and it was interesting. I liked that it was less sensational than previous pieces, but it focused a lot on addressing surrogacy with your children, and I felt uncomfortable with how the various parents addressed surrogacy with their children. They started mentioning it VERY early on, and I’m not sure if I agree with that. J and I agree that Daniel and any other children will know about surrogacy and how they came to us but at the same time, we don’t want to emphasize it over-much. I don’t think we plan to bring it up until Daniel is 3 or 4 or at least until he understands that babies come from…somewhere. We don’t intend on hiding that Daniel came to us via surrogacy, and it is certainly nothing shameful. I don’t think that we are de-emphasizaing surrogacy and F’s role, but Daniel is our baby and that’s what is important to us and what we want to emphasize. Sometimes I am frustrated by all the additional things we have to think about and deal with thanks to having a baby through less-than-traditional means, but that’s ok. We’ll deal with it.

So, tomorrow we leave Daniel with J’s mom again while we go see Harry Potter 6. I feel less nervous about it since he’ll be at home. It’s good to get out of the house, but we miss him when we are. Welcome to parenthood, I guess!

Happy 6 weeks, Sweet Pea!