Open Letter to Desmond: Weeks 5 and 6

Dear Desmond,

Boy, do you hate your car seat.  There have been several times this past week where I have considered walking a few miles to wherever just so that I didn't have to be in the same car, alone, with you.  I love you to death but my goodness!  You've got a pair of lungs on you.  When Billy and I go somewhere together, I sit in the backseat next to you and try my hardest to divert your attention from whatever it is that's bothering you.  Sometimes it works...other times, not so much.  :)

You're still fussing a lot, but now we know exactly how to placate you.  Every night, I or your dad put you in a sling or a wrap and walk up and down the driveway with you.  Sometimes, if you are especially fussy before 10pm, we take you and the doggies out for a long walk until you quiet down.  The fact that the days are getting cooler scares the crap out of me since walking around the neighborhood when it's snowy and icy out will be next to impossible. 

Not looking forward to putting Desmond in winter clothing.  They're so bulky!  

You have been getting really big boogers.  Well, big for a baby.  Most of the time, you love getting your nose sucked by the little bulby booger-sucker thing.  When I do it, you gasp and look shocked for a second and then relax.  You also started making some eye goobers.  Your baby acne is subsiding, but there's still a few left and when I stare at your sleeping face (which is a lot of the time), I have this insatiable urge to pop them...but I don't.  

My hair hasn't fallen out noticeably...yet.  My mom says that once your baby makes eye contact with you, that's when your hair starts falling out.  I think you have made genuine eye contact with me.  Initially, you'd look at me in the eyes for only a second or two and move onto my hair (your favorite thing to look at.  I know because anytime someone with dark hair holds you, like my brother Sergio or my friend Suzi, you just stare and stare and stare).  Now, however, you look directly into my eyes for more than a few seconds.  

And then you smile.  And then my heart melts.  You usually smile when I talk to you in a high-pitched mommy voice.  You open and close your mouth as if you're trying to talk back to me.  It's amazing how silly little things like that make me want to call everyone I know and bore them with the minutiae of our days together.  On the other hand, there are some times that I feel like calling my mom and bribing her to come back and stay with me so that I could get some rest.  

I look at your pictures of you when you were just a few days old and I get tears in my eyes because you're so much bigger already!  It's amazing how time flies and how fast you grow.  Your hair has been falling out on the top but has grown more in the back.  You really look like an old man.  Another person today mentioned how they wanted to call you Benjamin.  That makes three people who think you look like a Benjamin.  Must be the whole Benjamin Button connection. 

I am starting to think that you look more like this guy:

Detective Andy Bellefleur from True Blood.  Both he and Desmond have the same male-pattern baldness going on.

My poor baby's hair!  In Colombia, they shave babies' heads so that their hair can grow back in fuller and more luxurious (I guess).  They do the same thing in other parts of the country.  My Thai friend Woot just shaved his 5 1/2-month-old's head.  

Today you had your first golden-yellow turd curds in weeks!  I was so excited, I almost passed out.  I also realized today that a little bit of coffee goes a long way to help me get through the day.  I bought my first ever coffeemaker (15 bucks at Smith's) and two bags of starbucks coffee.  I make a pot, pour the coffee into an ice cube tray, and then put the ice cubes into a glass filled half with regular milk and half with chocolate milk.  It's so effing delicious.  And that little bit of coffee does the trick.  

You are starting to go a little bit longer in between feedings.  A few weeks ago, I fed you every 3 hours.  This past week, you went 3.5-5 hours in between feedings!  I sometimes worry that you're not getting enough to eat, but you seem to be growing out of your clothes, so you must be growing well.