Wren at 7 Weeks

Waiting for his bath.

On Monday I took Wren in to Newsvine and everyone commented that he did not look like the newborn they were expecting. Its true. He is now 7 weeks old and getting quite plump. His legs, which were little sticks when he was born, now have rolls of fat and even his calves have healthy curves. He has found places to fatten himself behind his neck and under his armpits as well as the usual cheecks and belly. His belly deserves special mention.

In utero, Wren was scanned a number of times to check on his rate of growth. These growth and size estimates always noted that his extremities measured 50-70%ile while his belly was a good 20% larger. This is how he remains. When we went into Cardiac Clinic last week and I undressed him for weight and length measurements Elisha was startled and said "his belly is distended! How long has it been like that?" He was unconvinced when I said "always" and worried me. I asked Dr Lewin to check his belly and he said its fine - nothing of concern there (even his liver is now normal). He said he just has a big belly.

Despite his heart condition and rapid breathing, Wren is quite strong. He loves to push up off his legs and stand holding onto my fingers. When he's in my lap he pushes up off my legs and quivers there a while before his legs collapse. While he does this his eyes are wide as if its a great effort. He also holds his head up almost all the time but needs some support after a while or it lolls back a bit. When he is on his tummy he lifts it up a little bit but not enough to really enjoy this process much.

He is much more talkative at this age than Frost was. I remember taking Frost to a language lab at UW and them wanting to record his "babbling" (months later) but Frost was always pretty quiet until he started talking. Wren likes to make noises. He doesn't "coo" but he grunts and hoots and makes other noises that sound like "nyah" and "hi" and "ooo-oh". Most of his talking is done at diaper change time when I lay him on the little wedge and chat to him while he watches the curtains. He usually replies after a while and waves his arms and legs around while he makes his own talking noises.

Meanwhile, he is starting to be a bit more interactive in other ways. He has a distinct cry and behaviour when he wants to nurse (which is all the time) and he smiles occasionally at irrational moments. He loves to watch the fish mobile in the living room and to listen to the sound of the bath running in. If he is crying Josh holds him next to the running faucet in the kitchen and he quiets down.

He likes to look around the room when he's in a quiet state and is particularly happy when I carry him around in the sling. Sometimes its hard to get him in there if he is already fussy (mainly because I have trouble positioning his feet now he pokes them every which way) but he usually falls asleep pretty quickly if he is at all tired.

He likes to wave his hands about if I lie him on the floor but he doesn't seem to find them when he wants them. He likes to suck on his hands but I have to bring them close for him to get a hold of them and just when he is happy sucking that hand he is distracted and the hand flaps off somewhere else and he gets pissed off.

Here he is flapping about waiting for bath:


Wren can follow me with his eyes if I move around in front of him and when I hold a particularly interesting toy he will move his head around to follow it, even arching backwards as if he could see behind his head if he tried hard enough.

He continues to have a lot of baby acne on his cheeks, around his one ear and under his chin. It could be a sign of the dairy sensitivity I have been worrying about. I've been trying to remove dairy from my diet but its too tempting with the ice-cream floating around in the freezer. Perhaps, starting Sunday I will make more of an effort to stick to goat cheese.