Mr. Fussypants

...is 5 weeks and one day old today. It dawned on me that I only ever post pics taken during the "quiet alert" periods of a given day. This is the face Elias likes to wear during other times, accompanied by various cries that aren't as easy to decipher as the books and dvds lead you to believe. I can usually pick out the "I'm hungry" cry, which sounds more like "meh" than "neh" to me, but I'm usually pretty confident it's food he wants when I hear that one. Otherwise, who knows what this kid needs sometimes?

On a related note, the fussiness accompanied by and seemingly caused by the episodes of spitting up have seemed to get worse in the past week. On Thursday and Friday he had particularly bad 2-3 hour stretches when he'd spit up a fair amount half a dozen or so times after each feeding. Before this week he seemed like a more or less "happy spitter." The fussiness seemed like a separate development. Doctors and lactation consultants are fond of saying spitting up is just a laundry problem. And I'm fine with doing laundry every day - going through the dozen or so cloth diapers and shoulder burp cloths that we have on hand in 8 feedings or less. But it was the obvious discomfort he seemed to be in that sent me to the pedi yet again, coming home this time with a prescription for baby Zantac. I have mixed feelings about this course of action, but all of the other tactics we've employed over the past three or so weeks have clearly not been working. If anything, things have seemed to get worse. And he does seem to be doing and feeling better in the couple of days he's been on his meds. Hopefully this will do the trick and we can wean him off the drugs once his body has worked out these kinks, which usually happens somewhere between 3 and 6 months. Fortunately, he continues to gain weight at a good rate, up to almost 9 pounds as of Friday's appointment.

Otherwise, he does seem to be developing a somewhat predictable routine. It's likely to change, of course, but he's been pretty consistently conking out after a final feeding around 8 or 9. He sleeps until about 1:30 or 2 and occasionally falls right back asleep until somewhere between 5:30 and 7. Usually, it takes a bit of work to get him back to bed, sometimes as long as a couple of hours. Either way, he tends to wake up around the same time in the morning. He's good for about one longer nap during the day. Other than the occasional cat nap here and there, on the shoulder after a feeding or in the car seat, for example, he's pretty much awake most of the day, eating, hangin' out on the play mat, vibrating in the bouncy seat, listening to music (I tend to play the kid CDs we've received as gifts; his father prefers the likes of Prince and They Might Be Giants), having his diaper changed, etc. And sucking on just about anything he can get into his mouth.