Newborn Kendrick

The newborn stage passes by so quickly, and when comparing Kendrick to my other kids I find myself trying to remember exactly which baby was like what. So, I decided to make sure I document the little newborn traits of baby Kendrick that I love (or maybe don't love) before he gets months old and I forget, paired with pictures I took of him at a week old. He's already changed so much!

Kendrick has the best facial expressions for a newborn that I've ever seen. He's constantly looks concerned or puzzled. He's a constant entertainment. Even when he sleeps he looks like he's a tortured soul. It's hilarious. I think it's in large part due to the heavy monkey brow he was born with that I just adore. It's actually slowly started to disappear which makes me sad, but he still keeps the looks coming. Don't even get me started on his poop faces.

He has smiled earlier than any baby I've ever seen or heard of. He was only a few days old before he legit smiled at me. No, not gas or sleep smile, but aware, upturned lips. Then a couple days later I got a couple full-flegded grins. And I have witnesses. My entire family was astounded as they watched him grin and smile at me and melt my heart forever. He then later smiled at my brother and then for my mom. They don't last long and it's always days between, but usually babies don't start smiling for weeks!

Though he smiled early, he is the fussiest of my babies. Lydia and Ammon were both usually content unless hungry and didn't mind if I wasn't holding them, but this boy is fussy quite often and wants to be held. If you put him down to sleep during the day he doesn't last long. But that might be because there was so much family to hold him during Christmas that he never got put down and he sure got used to that. The late nights after nine pm are particularly bad. Lots of pacing and bouncing to keep him happy. Luckily, he can be calmed down and doesn't just scream with no relief, it just takes work to keep him happy.

Part of the problem is that his little tummy often bothers him and he'd probably be a lot happier if it wasn't bugging him. He farts CONSTANTLY and has the stinkiest farts known to man. He's pretty much faked everyone out that he's stinky, when in fact he just let another one loose. It's a good thing he's clueless, otherwise he'd be pretty embarrassed all the time.

Since the day he was born, all the nurses, doctors, friends, and family have remarked on how good his muscle tone is. He is SO strong! He can hold his head up for so long and has great control of his neck. He hardly needs help. The nurses at the hospital were astounded. And my family members that recently held other newborns couldn't believe the difference. The doctor laid him on his belly and was surprised at how mobile he was, saying his muscle tone was fantastic. He's even rolled over twice when practicing tummy time on the bed. Yes, I was laying on the bed so it was slightly slanted, but a newborn pushing himself over?! My strong boy! Perhaps he was exercising in the womb with me as I went to boot camp each week :)

The nurses and doctors also all say how good his color is. He is a pink/red little boy and barely had any yellow coloring at all when it was jaundice time. 

This little boy hates being confined. Normally a swaddle calms a babe down, but he just fights and grunts and struggles - sometimes it sends him into a rage. And he really hates his car seat. Talk about temper tantrum! I knew from how he kicked inside of me that this would probably be the case.

Kendrick HATES the cold and lets you know it. Don't even unzip his sleepers, his grunting is just a warning that the screams will come when he is more exposed to the elements. And don't even try to change his diaper. It's unbearable he says! I know most babies hate the cold, he's just more vocal about it than I'm used to. I guess he might be a very volatile baby - smiling one minute and screaming the next. He doesn't really have a cry. It's either grunting and whining, or screaming bloody murder - no in between.

He doesn't care for his binky and works really hard to figure out how to spit it out. I'm working hard to change that because I need babies that like binkies. He gets pretty upset when I try to use it to keep him happy when he wants to eat early.

Speaking of eating, boy has he been a pain. For the first two weeks of his life, he fell asleep halfway through his bottle and WOULD NOT FINISH. EVER. I would undress him, tickle his feet, torture the kid, and it took so long to get him through a feeding. I had to put the work in because he lost so much weight at first and wasn't getting the ounces he needed to put it back on. I didn't want to keep having to bring him back to the doctor for extra weigh-ins. Because he doesn't each much at each feeding, he wants to eat constantly. Every one and a half to two hours he's starving and ready to eat again. So my life has been trying for forty minutes to get one little boy to finish only two ounces, and then an hour later starting all over again. Luckily, as he's gotten older, and is waking up to the world, he's getting better. Now that he's finishing his bottle better, the torture is trying to get him to go three hours between feedings. He doesn't like that one bit.

I'm not used to this high-maintenance little man. My other two loved binkies, car seats, had little problems eating (once Ammon got reflux under control), and were mostly content. This little man is keeping me on my toes. I had a feeling he'd be my wild child. We'll see how it changes as he gets older. I wouldn't trade him for anything!

I mean how can you not love that little face. The sweetest boy.