Tate Update #2 (This one is lengthy!)

Time for another Tate Update. We took him for his 6-week checkup last week. (FYI - he is 8 weeks old today.) Again, we were told Tate looks great and is a perfectly healthy boy. His measurements were taken and as of last Monday, he is 23 1/2 inches long and weighed just over 10 lbs., 13 oz. That puts him in the 90th percentlile for height (what??) and the 5oth percentile for weight. Apparently we have a long and lean child. He obviously takes after his daddy. ;) And the Barnettes can exhale a sigh of relief...his head circumferance is in the 5oth percentile.

Tate also received his first round of vaccinations at this visit. Again, David deferred the baby holding to me during this time. So far, I have held Tate for his two heel pricks and his shots. Those of you who know me, know that I am not above fainting after I get a shot or my blood taken, but David thinks I am more qualified for this task. Tate received 4, yes 4 shots in the legs and one oral vaccine. He took it much better than I would have! The nurse was so fast he didn't know what hit him! He did let out one of those extremely long silent cries where you think he's going to faint because his face is turning purple and all you can do is keep saying, "breathe. breathe. BREATHE!" He quieted down soon and was back to his happy self. He fell asleep on the ride home and took a long good nap. Thankfully, we don't have to go back until after Christmas when he is 4 months old.

I thought I would also give you glimpse of Tate's day to day activities. He is a relatively happy baby. We have been very blessed not to have to deal with colic. He only gets cranky when he's ready for a nap, hungry or the rare occasion when he has an upset tummy. I know what you're thinking..."that's all the time, right?" No! :) Most of the time I can put him down for a nap while he's still awake, but sleepy, and he will fall right to sleep. He sleeps best while swaddled because his arms flail if he's not. He eats about every 3 hours during the daytime. He will eat, play for about an hour and then nap till the next feeding time. Last week, he showed a few promising signs of sleeping from 10 pm till 4 or 5 am. However, that didn't last long and he's back to waking me up around midnight, 4 am, and then again after 7 am. Atleast I know he has it in him and we can look forward to it in the future.

As stated in a previous post, Tate started smiling about 3 weeks ago and it absolutely melts our hearts. He smiles a lot during his playtime, especially while playing on his floor gym. It has a mirror in the center and he will smile and "talk" to himself and the animals hanging down. He has even started cackling or giggling when he smiles. It's funny to see his legs and arms moving like crazy while he lays there. He would stay there till his next nap time if I let him.

We have been working on tummy time, but he's not too fond of it. Here he is holding his head up for a quick moment, and then resting. Holding that noggin up is hard work!

And this one shows how our child is a genius. He is already grasping!

He is showing so much more personality these days. I wanted to include these three pictures because they show his personality so well.

sneezing

laughing

smiling

And this one is so funny because it shows his "George Costanza" hairdo. When Tate's sleepy, he will rub his head back and forth on his mattress (picture Stevie Wonder laying down). So any hair he had on the back of his head when he was born is now gone! And the red spot is his birthmark, thanks to his dad's side of the family. All of the Hartley men have red splotches on the back of their heads. We'll take another picture of his head when his hair grows out...it will be a mullet then!