Big Update

I still have not bought a baby book and feel like I need to write some things down that I don't want to forget. So this is really for me to reference once I do get a baby book.
William was born on a Tuesday, we were out of the hospital on Friday, the 21st. We made our first trip out of the house on Sunday, the 23rd. Walks, William and I went to the Mote's house to celebrate Virginia's birthday. Walks took William back home and Mom and I headed to Target for a much needed trip for some essentials. That was the day that I started to have problems nursing. We bought nipple shields, a nursing shirt and lots of other baby paraphernalia while we were at Target.
I kept trying to nurse William, but after being supplemented with formula (obviously out of a bottle), he ended up having trouble latching back onto me. I tried to pump, but my milk wouldn't let down. I think the last day he nursed me was Sunday, the 23rd- that was a very sad day for me, but at the same time, I'm very glad I was at least able to nurse for 6 days. It took me about a day to realize how lucky I was that Walks was going to be able to feed William.
Christmas Eve--We went to the Umbach's house for a Christmas Eve party. We got to meet William's second cousin, John Grove. He is 7 weeks older than William and they will eventually be together a lot at school (Aunt Pam's house). After we left the Umbach's we stopped by Susan and Robbie Bowers' house for their annual Christmas party. Of course Sara, Susan and Robbie all held and fed William while we were there.
Christmas Day (One week old)- We went to Mimi and Grandaddy's house Christmas morning and spent our first Christmas with William. My Nana and Grandad (William's great grandparents) met WAM for the first time that day. We relaxed Chistmas afternoon and then went to the Mote's house Christmas night. Our first Christmas with William was very laid back and relaxing.
Probably sometime around Christmas is when William moved up from eating 2 ounces to 3 ounces per feeding. By the time he was 4 weeks old, we moved up to eating 5 ounces. He was 7lbs 2 ozs when he was born, dropped down to 6lbs 8ozs and at 5 1/2 weeks old, is now 10lbs 6ozs. He doesn't miss a meal or an ounce at any feeding!
He ate every 3 hours from the beginning so we had 8 feedings a day. He was probably 3 weeks old when he dropped one of the night feedings (around 1 o'clock). We're down to 7 feedings a day and this is his typical schedule:
Wakes up at 7:30 and has first bottle
10:30 am
1:30 pm
4:30 pm
7:30 pm
10:30 pm- Goes to bed after this feeding
4:00 am
7:30 am- Up for good
When he eats at 4 in the morning, he goes right back down- we hear a few squeaks, but there is not any night time crying. He has never cried at bedtime or in the middle of the night. AND YES, WE DO REALIZE HOW LUCKY WE ARE!!!!!!
He started to hold his head up right away, but he is really starting to hold it up well at 5 weeks. He has smiled (not gas related) for about a week now. Today has been a day for a lot of smiles--they are in response to me getting close to his face and making noises and saying "hey" in that typical Momma voice. :)
He took his first vacation when he was 4 weeks old. Walks and I went to DeBordieu to GrandAnne's beach house. We headed down Thursday and spent the night, just the three of us. On Friday we were joined by Mimi and Grandaddy, Gene, Haley and Emory Anne and James and Mary Dameron. They stayed through Sunday and then the three of us left Monday.
While in DeBordieu, William made his first appearance in a bar (I swear I'm not a bad Mom). It was Saturday afternoon and the guys headed to Georgetown to a Festival and ended up in the Big Tuna. The girls went to Pawleys for a little shopping then headed to Georgetown to wrap it up. We met the guys at the Big Tuna and we stayed there for about an hour. He might have been the youngest baby ever to go to the Big Tuna (let me say that we were in a non-smoking room).
Sunday, January 21st (while we were still at the beach), I started to notice spitting up while he was eating. We finally called the doctor about it Tuesday, went in to see her on Friday and she told us to change formula to Enfamil A.R. and we started Zantac for some reflux. This has seemed to help so far- hopefully this will keep him feeling good. While we were at the doctor's office, I told Dr. Rickenmann that William was making a hiccup/squeaking funny kind of noise sometimes and she said it was something to do with the larynx and his windpipe having floppy cartilage. He will eventually grow out of it and there is no remedy/cure or any risk involved, so for now we wil listen to our little man squeak. It's cute now, but very curious to those who have never heard it!
William has spent a lot of time on the go over the past 5 weeks. We like to get out of the house and our favorite two places to go are Target and Publix. If we're not there, we might be at Coldwell Banker. We've had lunch with both sets of Great-Grandparents, eaten 2 or 3 meals at Mr. Friendly's, and had a few other miscellaneous lunches with friends.
I'm going to try to keep up with this a little better from now on, but sometimes it's hard to sit down and think about writing things down.
I love you little William-you continue to bring us so much joy and happiness every day!