Five weeks old but wearing 6 month old clothes!

We've been living with Ramon for five weeks now and it definitely feels like he's been here a lot longer. Time doesn't flow the same way anymore :).

I haven't posted in a while so I'll try to provide highlights of Ramon's first five weeks with us. Then maybe I can post more often from here on out :).

Doctor visits have been largely positive experiences. All the Westcare Pediatricians are very nice. They all gush over how cute Ramon is and assure us that not all babies are cute but Ramon definitely is :). Ramon continues to be off the charts on all measurements. Here's how he measured at his doctor appointments so far:
1 week appt: Height 22 inches, weight 8 lbs 7 oz, head circumference 39 cm
2 week appt: Height 23.5 inches, weight 10 lbs 15 oz, head circumference 41 cm
percentile for 2 week: height 105%, weight 96%, head circumference 100+%
4 week appt: Height 24 inches, weight 13 lbs 3 oz, head circumference 43 cm
all percentiles are 100+% now :)

We gave all our newborn, 0-3 and most 3 month clothes to the little duckling (Shaun and Matt's baby in the oven). I checked the sizing charts for Gerber and Carter since those were our most popular brands of sleepers and Ramon is now in the 6 month sizing section at 5 weeks! Both of them say any baby longer than 24 inches and weighing more than 12.5 lbs is in the 6 month range. At Baby Gap Ramon is in the 3-6 month range.

Ramon is pretty well traveled so far. He has been to our Warren, Vermont house and got to walk around all bundled up outside in the sun. He has been to Richmond, Virginia to go to the shower for his cousin to be.

We have also been renovating our apartment. The wall between 1C and 1D is down and the guys are working on the electricity today. Tomorrow they plan to sand and polyurethane the parquet wood floors. We decided to match the floors from the rest of the apartment even in the new kitchen. I think it will be beautiful. We ordered the cabinets yesterday. We are going with shaker style light wood finish and a bright orange quartzite counter top. We still plan to buy a new, larger stove and microwave combination and a new sink. Ramon finds the noise to be helpful in falling asleep. Ruta finds the noise to be very upsetting and he barks at some of the workers because they won't pet him. Other workers are very fun to play with. The guys that came to combine and move the intercom units for both apartments were very fun. They played keep away with Ruta's nylabone and even threw it for him to fetch :).

And last week Johanna, Caleb, Leo and Lucy visited us. Their visit was an adventure for us. We got to go to a playground near Riverside park, the Natural History Museum, the Intrepid Museum and Inwood Hill Park. Ramon slept through every one of the adventures but cried sometimes on the drives. He hates traffic as much as his daddy does and is much more vocal about it :). He prefers to be moving all the time. Sometimes he fusses in the evening if he has been static too long. Then we have to put him in one of his carriers and go outside for a walk or walk around the apartment. When we stop, he cries :).

Ramon's daddy has been reading Dr. Harvey Karp. He talks a lot about the 5 S's: swaddling, side/ stomach lying, swinging, shushing and sucking. So we have been swaddling at night for sleeping and Ramon sleeps much longer and deeper....at least when he keeps the swaddle on. Most of the time he escapes so we have been looking for better swaddle blankets to keep his very active arms captive at night. If they are free they have a tendency to hit poor Ramon in the face....stupid arms. Hopefully he will develop arm control sooner rather than later so that his arms can stop attacking him in the night. It must be very frustrating for him...I know it is very frustrating for his parents :).