Stephens' Stories: 2 weeks

Yesterday Austin turned 2 weeks old. It's hard to believe he has been with us that long already. He had his pediatrician appointment and we are happy to report that he is eating well. He weighed 8 lbs 2 oz and they really just want him to be back at his birth weight (7lbs 13.5 oz) at 2 weeks. Good job, boy! Everything else checked out perfect too. The nurse had to prick his foot to get drops of blood for his second round of newborn screenings. He did NOT like that! He doesn't know that next time we visit Dr. Schwartz, he will have his vaccinations and will be poked with a needle more than once. On Austin's 2-week birthday, DiDi left to go back to Houston. It was a sad day! We will miss her help around the house and Austin will surely miss her voice. She won't be back to visit until Austin is 9 weeks old. He will have changed alot by then so I think we are going to start using the video camera more and posting videos on the blog for DiDi (and everyone) to see.

On another note, Austin is becoming an expert at riding in the stroller. We have been on 4 walks so far (about 3-4 miles each) and he has snoozed peacefully throughout all of them. He doesn't mind the bumps at all. On Monday night, Austin slept from 9:30pm-3am (I even had to wake him up at 3). We kept him awake between his 6pm feeding and 9pm feeding so that he would be tired and sleep longer at night. It worked! Last night, we did the same thing, but he did wake up at 11:30pm wanting to eat, and then again at 3am. Dr. Schwartz said it was fine to let him sleep as long as he can (and not wake him every 3 hours to eat) now that we see he is gaining weight. Hopefully he can have another 5-6 hours stretch tonight.

This past Sunday afternoon, David kept Austin while my mom, Lauren, and I went to see The Help. We took two cars so that I could leave right after feeding him and skip the previews. I also kept my phone out the whole movie in case David needed me to leave early. I don't know why we doubted because Austin did great and slept the majority of the time. They even went on a walk. Thanks Dad! (side note: The Help is so good....read the book first though if you can)

Here are a few pictures from the past couple of days. He is becoming more and more alert. When I walk up to him when he is awake, he turns his head to see me. Dr. Schwartz said not to worry about Savannah getting close to him or even licking him a little since he can't catch diseases from dogs. We still keep a close eye on him when she is nearby.