Rice Cereal

The smiles are increasing in frequency the last couple of weeks which is pretty awesome! But more importantly, the nighttime sleeping is increasing in hours! Keep your fingers crossed but Zachary has been giving us 6 hours between feedings through the night. Usually goes from 10 to 10:30 pm until 4 or 4:30. Then he goes til around 7. Hopefully we can cut out that middle of the night feeding in the next few weeks. He is on the right track though! He was stretching the time out a little on his own, but really I think its the rice cereal that we started mixing in with his milk for that 10 pm feeding. Several people recommended we give it a try and he hasn't had any problems with it so we are thankful for it! (we tried not using it one night to see if it was really helping and he only went 4 hours that night...so we will stick with it)

Haiti and Partners in Health

Several months ago I randomly bought a book that caught my attention in a discount book store. It's called "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder. I had never heard of the book or the author but after reading the back of the book my interest was peaked. I would put this book near the top of my list of "life changing"...or maybe I should say "most educating" reads.

I don't think it is a book that EVERYONE would be as interested in, but I wish that everyone would read it. It shows the difference one person can make, and the sacrifice that this difference can require. It is about Dr. Paul Farmer and the organization he has started and maintained called Partners In Health.

I don't understand exactly where Paul Farmer stands spirituallly...I do know that he believes the words and message of Jesus Christ and I do know that he is living out that message and has inspired many others to do so.

Dr. Farmer has opened health clinics in the poorest areas of our world, the places he is told it will never help...and he helps. He doesn't only address the health needs of the people there either. Any need they have, he does whatever he can to help and his staff is taught the same. Partners in Health improves the lives of entire communities where ever they are established.

When I heard about the earthquake in Haiti, I immediately thought of the clinic there and wondered if it had been destroyed or not. As of now it seems that they were not but they are struggling and they are attempting to quickly respond to the needs in Port Au Prince right near them.

The country needs our help...the people there always do, more so than we often realize, but especially now. If you want more info, go to the partners in health website.

And check out the book too: (I hear there is sequel now too)

Also, here is a video of Dr. Farmer speaking about their efforts and why he does what he does. It was made before the earthquake so it doesn't reference it but it still lets you know what they do in Haiti and other 3rd (and what he calls 4th) world countries.

Partners In Health - Paul Farmer

If you want to donate $ to help, this is a very trustworthy organization...all of your money will directly help the people of haiti who need it.

6 wks and a lil smile

I'm still waiting for Zachary to REALLY smile and laugh at us...but I at least got a picture of a lil one yesterday. (It was prolly just gas). Can't believe he is 6 wks now. Even though he isn't laughing at us, it is prolly my favorite thing when he randomly does it. Can't wait til its directed at us.

Some friends let us borrow their exersaucer and we tried it out...he can hold his head up but we

gotta prop him up with blankets too. I think he was a lil cranky when we tried so after a couple minutes he wasn't too excited about it. We will try again later when he is in a good mood. :)

Carseat

I've always heard people say that they can tell how much their babies are growing from their carseat pictures...never really thought about it too much, but its true. I can tell that Zachary is gaining weight but I'm not sure how much cause we haven 't been to the Dr. since his 2 wk appointment and don't go back until 2 months. He is 6 wks tomorrow. I know we can stop by to have him weighed whenever but we haven't done it so far. I can't believe how much they grow so quickly though.
This is when we were leaving the hospital.

This is around 4 weeks.

And this is a couple of days ago...about 5 and 1/2 weeks.
His cheeks get chubbier in every picture. ;) I'm just glad to know he is gaining weight and growing. I did measure him about a week ago and he was 22 inches...he had been 20 and 3/4 at his 2 wk appointment so I guess thats good.
On a side note: He has adapted well to eating every 3 hours for the most part...and has even gone 5 hrs at night a couple of times. I hope we can keep it up! I'm also hoping that the "6 wk growth spurt" doesn't throw us off too much. :)

Bath Time

I was curious about how Zachary would respond to a real bath because he hated sponge baths...as you can see below...But turns out he loves bath time. He has never cried when I put him in his tub. He just relaxes and lets me get him all cleaned up. Our baby tub has a little cup that drizzles water from the bottom and he loves the water sprinkling on him. I just think he's so cute. :) Apparently bath time relaxes him so much that he can just go right to sleep. This pic is from the other night and was literally less than 60 seconds after I put him in there. He slept most of the way through it.
I love a good relaxing bath too. :)