The Hannen Family

Celebrate with us as Gavin is now officially “Fat Baby!” as we affectionately refer to him. Lol! I don’t know if I ever posted about his recent weight troubles here, but he was called ‘failure to thrive’ in late August. We discovered at his 4 mth check-up that he had only gained 8 oz. in two months time. I knew he was small, but that was ridiculous! It should have been more like three lbs. for his growth curve. Ummm… yeah… not good! After a month of varied schedules and basically just feeding him anytime he opened his mouth, he gained a whopping four lbs. It’s an odd balance of formula and breastfeeding, but if it works, who am I to complain? He is now over 5 mths old and weighs 14 lbs.- apparently still on the low side of the charts, but at least he is ON the charts now.

He has recently started on rice cereal and tried sweet potatoes the other day. Let the fun begin!

Did you remember to buckle the baby Dear?  Lol… No, I didn’t leave the room and find him like this.   I stood there and watched him to see how far he would get.  If you place him in the chair and walk out of his view, you can guarantee he will start to wiggle his way over and out the front of the chair.  Unfortunately, he just can’t quite figure out the last step.  He pauses as if to ponder the next course of action, sighs deeply, and madly kicks his legs and whimpers until you flip him back over.  He then looks at you with this wide-mouthed smile as if to say, “My Hero!”   Straighten him out, walk away, and repeat.  It’s one way to get exercise I guess!  Lol

It’s a good thing we’ve never tried out for one of those home improvement/interior design TV shows….   They would probably take away Gavin’s new best friends.  He seems to have developed a love interest with all of our ceiling fans.  Lol-   The boy practically breaks his neck trying to bend around to keep the spinning blades within view.  He will lay on the floor, wave all four limbs, and coo away talking to the fan.  His eyes just get huge when one suddenly appears within sight.

I can’t believe Gavin is two months old already! He went in for his check-up on Thursday. He gained over a pound in the past month, but still falls under 10 lbs. It puts him in the 25th percentile for weight. He is now 23 inches tall though so he is really shooting up. The boy is all legs!

He’s really social lately and will coo or smile at anyone who will give him attention. He adores his big sisters and enjoys it when they sing to him. His sleep schedule is all wacky though and I’m not sure I’m happy with it. Lol… he will pass out around 7 p.m.and wake about midnight to eat. He then sleeps until about 6:00 a.m. when I’ll feed him again. Chances are he then will fall BACK to sleep again and sleep until almost 10:00 a.m. What’s wrong with that you may ask? He doesn’t sleep during the day!! I would much rather he nap a bit during the day since I’m up anyway at night with Shealyn. Lol Life isn’t fair…

He was not happy one bit about the four shots he got and he showed the nurse his best “I’m not happy!” big lip pout. He got over the initial shock quickly but then had a fit about the two bandaids on his thighs. He kept kicking his legs and waving his hands in the general direction. I took them off and he immediately calmed. I think he would have ripped them off himself if he was able to use his hands! Lol It seems Shealyn’s dislike of bandaids may have passed along to Gavin. God help us…

I can’t believe Gavin is a month old already. As you can tell from other posts, it has been a difficult month in the Hannen household for several reasons, so time really flew by. Gavin has had a battle with gaining weight since birth. He lost much more than what is considered ‘normal’ and was almost hospitalized twice for dehydration. I had to feed him every 2 hours around the clock for over a week and still he gained only a few ounces. I would nurse him, feed him formula in a bottle, and then pump to keep my supply up… wait an hour and repeat. Who needs sleep??

I’m happy to say that he has started to improve and is now almost back up to his birth weight. The Ped. said he would really like to see a larger gain, but since Gavin lost so much initially, he is happy with the amounts at this point. Gavin had his 1 mth check last Thursday and got an otherwise perfect bill of health. He looks great and is generally a very happy baby.

My apologies for not sharing photos! I haven’t had a chance to format or load many but I promise they WILL be coming soon =)

We’ve heard that a bunch of folks out there are waiting to see Gavin’s face a little better. Here he is - still in the warmer just after being born! (EDIT: Added another of him awake, alert, and looking right at you!) More pictures and stories to come after we get home and settled.

Here’s your first post, little guy. Born at 3:07pm. 8lbs 8oz. 20 and a half inches.