Last Saturday. 3:19PM. A momentous occasion...the exact time Miles turned 6 weeks old. I kept hearing that magic number - 6 weeks. "They" said things would be so much better by the time he turned six weeks old. So I waited for him to magically sleep through the night and spend all day long a smiley, contented little bundle of joy.Instead, Miles decided to go through a growth spurt. He was a like a drunken college kid at frat party - chugging away bottle after bottle. We actually went through every single bottle that we owned. I even busted out the ones I had pushed to the back of the cupboard: the ones that this paranoid first-time mom could neither confirm nor deny had the evil chemical BPA. So, no, nothing magical happened at 3:19 on Saturday, but when we woke up on Sunday, it seemed like Miles had gained about 5 pounds.
So, pudge on a baby is cute, right? Sure, Miles is even cuter now, but he's also going bald! He still has hair on the sides and back, so he either looks like an old man or is growing a mullet...or should I say a skullet? The cute pudge and the new hairdo cause me to refer to him as Baby Winston Churchill sometimes. With the baby acne and cradle cap, he's a sure-fire winner to add to a baby dating site, no? Here could be his profile picture..."loves crawls on the beach, candlelit bottle feedings, and hanging out with his best friend Giraffe."
The good news is that, although he is still a bit grumpy sometimes, the smiles and periods of alertness are coming more often now. I discovered a magic invention called a Mei Tai carrier which is kinda like a cross between a sling and a Baby Bjorn. Most of the time, Mr. Cranky Pants will disappear when I put him in it. Either he loves checking out the world or he'll fall asleep in it. Even though it gives me a sore back sometimes, I can actually get some housework done!
And here is the picture that makes all of this hard parenting work worthwhile...
On the Fourth of July, I got a voice mail from my mom saying that she and my sister and crew were waiting in line for the Ocean Motion at Cedar Point. I must admit that, even though the Ocean Motion scarred me for life, I felt a twinge of jealousy wishing I could partake in some coaster action at America's Roller Coast. Well, Miles has helped to give us new parents some different ups and downs since we missed out on the pee-your-pants delight of the Millennium Force for yet another year.Click...click...click...the first "up" is that Miles is actually beginning to sleep at night! I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I think that whole not-wanting-to-sleep-in-his-bed thing was a phase. We started to get 3, 4, and 5 hour chunks of sleep last week. Last night was the pinnacle - almost 7 hours!
Now comes the drop...Miles has been super grumpy lately. He must take after my side of the family because he does NOT like waking up at all. There's definitely no Peer Gynt playing or little birdies tweeting in the background when this sleeping prince awakens! Maybe some death metal and buzz saws would be better theme music for his waking scenes. Now the good news again - we have seen real, actual smiles!! I started seeing hints of them this weekend, but Jason didn't believe me. Then, during the three minutes of calm amidst a crying bender on Monday, Jason and I both saw some smiles! Of course, being camera shy as he is, this is the best picture I could muster...blurry and on the camera phone...but awake and smiling!
We had some more outings this weekend - church, Wally World, and a baby party/cookout for Alicia & Suellen and Krysten & Adam. Although I hadn't seen many of the people there in awhile, we didn't need to do much catching up at the party. Most of the people there read this blog and have blogs of their own (hi guys!) so it kind of abridged many of the conversations. It was a good thing because Miles decided to go all grumpus on us about an hour in, which convinced us to leave pretty early. I consider all that screaming a public service to the parents-to-be as a sign of things to come!Sorry for the lack of pictures this week. Not only did the batteries die on our camera, but Jason started summer rehearsals this week, which leaves me alone with Miles most of the day. The batteries are replaced now, and I'm slowly getting the hang of going one-on-one with the boy, so I promise next week will be better! Here's one more blurry half-smile for the road...
Another week has flown by and Miles is now a month old!! After his one-month check-up, we now know that Miles gained two pounds and two inches - he's 9 pounds 3 ounces (50th percentile) and 22 1/2 inches long (75th percentile). Miles celebrated his first Fourth of July by wearing this shirt from Jen. We were super-ambitious and caught three different fireworks displays - on TV! We thought about driving someplace to watch the Indy fireworks from the car, but the shows in Boston, D.C., and New York might have just been slightly more interesting. After all, we would have missed mediocre performances from several former American Idol contestants and over-the-hill has-beens if we had chosen to go to the Indy fireworks! 
We also attempted to put on a pair of new pants we bought for Miles. Guess he has a bit of growing still to do - either that, or he's aspiring to be Steve Urkel or Ed Grimley. Can't you hear him saying, "Did I do that?!?"
On Saturday, we took Miles to his first church service. Unfortunately, we didn't think about the fact that our church's Saturday evening service is really quiet with not many kids. Luckily, Miles' 2-month-old friend Jack was also there, which meant Miles wasn't the only one making funny baby noises. Jason spent a lot of time quieting Miles in the narthex, but Miles did manage to make it through the entire sermon! Here's a pic of him in his (again, too big) church clothes, worn out from the excitement of old ladies oohing and ah-ing over him.
Miles celebrated his one-month birthday on Monday by going to the Indianapolis Indians baseball game. He was a very good boy! Contrary to my worst first-time mom fears, a foul ball did not come and land right in his car seat. ;-) Miles was awake most of the time and only fell asleep towards the very end...admit it - don't we all want to take a nap after about a few innings of baseball anyway? We were convinced we would not be able to stay long, but we managed to stay until the top of the ninth inning. Unfortunately, we left too soon. We missed when the Indians scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Columbus Clippers 3-2. 
Yep, we finally had a night where at least one of us was up all night long. Remember when I was complaining in previous posts about Miles waking up every hour to eat? Those were the good old days. Mr. Miles now has decided that he only wants to sleep if someone is holding him. Considering we're not one of those hippy couples that puts our kid to sleep in bed with us, that leaves limited options. So, Jason went to bed last night while I stayed up with Miles until about midnight. Then, except for a few feedings, Jason was up with Miles from midnight until 5AM. I then pulled the 5AM to 9AM shift before Nana D woke up and let both of us finally sleep. It's gonna be a long couple of weeks, especially now that Nana has gone back home again. :-(
In other news, we had more visits from Nana, Papa, Aunt Kari, and Uncle Davy. Miles had a big day out on Saturday and was a good boy in Kohl's and Target with the exception of one major poop explosion. You should have seen me, Nana, and Aunt KK triple-teaming the poopster in the back of my car! We even went out to eat for the first time. He was generally pretty good, but it definitely helps to choose a loud restaurant where his screams aren't quite as noticeable. 
Miles had a few more firsts this week. He got his first bottle on Sunday in preparation for his alone time with Nana on Monday. Our seventh wedding anniversary was Monday, June 30th. Both of us actually totally forgot about it until my mom volunteered to come stay to babysit that day if we wanted to go out. Our first outing without Miles was actually a romantic sojourn to the dentist's office, and WOW was it just as bad as it sounds. We spent an hour in the waiting room before seeing this new guy. I use the word "new" lightly...we calculated he really is 77 years old or so. The dentist actually had bad breath - not exactly the best role model. The day did improve though - we had a delicious meal on the rooftop at Dunaway's with a nice view of downtown Indy and the weather was great. 
The notorious umbilical cord stump finally fell off this week too, so Miles had his first "real" bath in the baby bath tub. He screamed just as loud as he did for the sponge baths, so we'll probably be experimenting with the best way to do this more.
I'm realizing that "Booty" was a whole lot more clever in his posts than I am. I guess sense of humor is the first thing to go when you're getting no sleep. Here's one more pic, minus the snarky comment for now. I'm still on the elusive hunt for a smile, but this half-smirk will have to do for now.
