Thomas the Tank

I never did understand why all my friends who had babies posted lots and lots of pictures on their blogs right after their babies were born and then disappeared for a few weeks. Now I completely understand why that happened.

My Blog Maternity Leave is officially over. It's time to fill you in on the past two weeks.

Thomas is resting and digesting. The dishes are done. I've practiced my harp. The kitchen floor is scrubbed. And most importantly - my NCAA tournament bracket is filled out (I've picked Pitt to win over Memphis in the finals, but, honestly, I'm not quite sure how I ended up with that pick.) But I digress...

We had Thomas's two week appointment on Monday. When we left the hospital, he was down to about 8.5 lbs. He now weighs 9 lbs. 9 oz. and has grown 1/4". The doctor said he was a healthy looking boy, but was a little concerned about one thing. Apparently Thomas has something called "torticollis". His little head tips to one side and could potentially mess his muscles up in his neck if it is not treated. It's pretty common in breech babies because their heads are stuck at weird angles in their mommy's ribs for months. I decided to learn all I could about his condition. Naturally, I consulted The Source of All Truth (Wikipedia). Imagine my shock and concern when I saw this picture:

As I gazed at this guinea pig, visions of Thomas with a permanantly crooked neck flashed before my eyes .

Fear not - we have an appointment to see a physical therapist next week. They are going to teach us exercises we can do with Thomas to help even out the muscle tone/length in his neck. Until then, we just have to rotate his sleeping positions. I'm also constantly obsessing about his head position in the carseat and bouncy chair. We'll keep you posted on his progress.

Other than that, things have been going really well here. The women in our ward and my mom are amazing. They brought us yummy food and gifts. It's been nice to have visitors since I shouldn't leave the house very much while Thomas is still so little (confession: I've been taking him out for walks because the weather has been so nice). Thomas has had a lot of fun making new friends. He got to meet a lot of family this past week.

My mom came for a little while to help out. I only have one picture of her entire body and Thomas - unfortunately I am also in that picture and am half dressed. So here's a different picture:



Thomas also got to play with his cousins Calvin and Linden. Linden and Thomas enjoyed some tummy time together.


Calvin was initially excited about meeting someone as small as Thomas. Then he realized that Thomas didn't really do anything. So he found something more exciting to do instead:


Aunt Ami and cousin Dane were in Oklahoma for a brief visit. Dane brought a whole new meaning to the phrase "kissing cousins":

I guess it's okay when you are still small.
Thomas had another big milestone this week - his first bath! I was curious to see if Thomas would love water (like his mommy) or hate it (like his daddy - if it was socially acceptable to never bathe, I think Kenta would be elated). Here's how it went.

At first, he wasn't quite sure what to think:



He did fuss a little, but once he was enveloped in warm, watery goodness, he was just fine. With Kenta's mad photography skills, we were able to get a full body Thomas shot by strageically positioning my arm in such a way as to not offend our blog viewers:

So getting him from the tub to the towel and eventually into warm clothes wasn't as pleasant of an experience. But here's the finished product:

Nothing smells as good as a baby straight from the bath.

Now that we know Thomas is a big bath fan, we've tried to establish some sort of nightly routine (based, of course, on Thomas's schedule). It usually consists of a "bath" (usually just a dip in warm water - not soap every night) a late night snack, a bedtime story, and prayers. The other night, I let Kenta be in charge of the story, since I always have to be in charge of the snack. He decided to read Thomas a little from 2 Kings (yes, quite captivating for a 2 week old).

A harmless enough bedtime activity. You would think. Here's how I found them the next morning:

Apparently, things got wildly out of control. I think that's the last time I'll leave Kenta unsupervised :).

That's it, for now. I'm going to be a little indulgent and leave you with this parting Sleeping Thomas shot:

Shoot. He's a cutie.