first 4th

Yes, I know I should be sleeping while Elias is (finally!) napping. I did take advantage of a shorter nap earlier this morning but now that he's out again I find I'm wide awake. So I thought I'd just post a quick update to note that he continues to gain weight at a good rate. At our follow-up with the lactation consultant yesterday he weighed in at 7 pounds 9 1/2 ounces; later that afternoon we took him to the pediatrician for a case of the goopy eye (a few applications of eye ointment have already mostly cleared up the conjunctivitis, which I think might have been brought on by suddenly freed hands after we finally got up the nerve to clip his fingernails...the hands still go straight for the face, though) where he registered 7 pounds 9 ounces on their scale. So that's a gain of 2 1/2 ounces between Saturday and Monday. I'm still, to be honest, incredibly frustrated with breastfeeding, but we are mostly off the bottle supplements, just nursing with the shields. So that's good, but I look forward to the day when I can start weaning him off the shields. They're fairly tedious, especially when I've been advised to offer both sides during each feeding. How will I ever feed this kid in public?! I'm not sure my nursing cover is sufficient to discreetly carry out this elaborate production.

Otherwise, he continues to be a very awake and alert baby. He usually has one good three or four hour stretch of sleep at night, which has moved up from 11 or so to about 9 p.m. Needless to say we've been going to bed as soon as he does. The last couple of nights, though, he hasn't really gone back to sleep all that well after a 1:30/2 a.m. feeding. He wakes up more often and in between he makes a lot of mysterious noises that keep me up, peering over the side of the bassinet more often than I should be. The 4th of July was probably our best day so far. He took three decent naps and spaced them out throughout the day, meaning Mom and Dad were much more rested and eager to welcome his alertness in between. We went for a long walk (a mile and a quarter feels long after several weeks of barely moving throughout the apartment!) and he even seemed to kind of enjoy yet another sponge bath later that evening. We've been given the go-head to administer the full dunk so I think we'll give that a go either today or tomorrow.

Here he is in an outfit that I thought was fitting for the holiday, although he was pretty much swimming in it.