The Baylor Family Blog

Here is a picture of Eli wearing shoes for the first time. Of couse, his little toes didn’t even reach the part where the shoelaces end, but his daddy and mama thought he looked so grown up with shoes covering his feet!

Since he conquered wearing shoes for the first time, Matt had an idea…

At first, Eli liked big shoes better…

…but then he became a little distraught when we started encouraging him to walk, already!

Eli with his Mama, showing off his cool new socks sent from my friends, Lindsay and Justin!

Matt and I are amazed at the positions our little boy can fall asleep in. Eli has figured out already how to multi-task. He can burp and sleep at the same time. When we burp him (one would think this to be a way to wake up a baby…but not ours!), Eli has figured out how to rest his head on our hand and fall asleep….kinda like the picture above. We try and keep Eli awake for a little bit after he eats, but sometimes the task is next to impossible. This picture was taken at one of those times! Eli felt safe in Daddy’s hand and ready for dreamy land!

As I mentioned in the last post, we played a lot of cards while my parents were here. Matt and I took turns having our “special helper” assist us in winning at Sabotage! We usually played while Eli was sleeping, but sometimes, he decided there was too many fun things going on to be missing out secluded all by himself in his crib napping. And, of course, the four of us were delighted to have his company at the card table!

We took advantage of my parents being here to get a family picture with the three of us. We dressed Eli up in a polo and jeans (just like his daddy). He was so cute in the outfit, until he decided to dribble milk all over it…his way of asking for a new outfit, I guess!

Eli looking adorable and soaking up the extra attention in his Grandma’s arms!

My parents flew in from Indy this past Tuesday to meet Eli. We had a wonderful, low-key visit. Our big outings were simply to Sams’s Club (for milk and samples), to church, to my parents favorite Colorado Springs restaurant, Gunther Toody’s, and to one of Matt’s favorite restaurants, Famous Dave’s Barbecue. Otherwise, we played with Eli, sat around and talked, took lots of pictures, and played lots of cards! Matt and I had fun dressing Eli up in cute outfits to show him off to his grandparents. Eli successfully dirtied most of the outfits prematurely…as if he wanted to show off more of his cute clothes! Eli is looking forward to his first plane trip to visit his Grandpa and Grandma Davis at their new home in Wisconsin this summer. Needless to say, I think my parents thoroughly enjoyed the time with their first grandson!!

I took the picture below yesterday of Eli in “celebration” (haha) of Tax Day. Matt couldn’t pass up buying the “Tax Deduction” onesie for Eli, and my Aunt Carlean sent him the H&R Block bib (which I might note, covered his entire little body when he received it in the mail a couple of weeks ago).

Speaking of size, our little boy is getting bigger fast! As of Monday, he is up to 8 pounds, 5 ounces…adding 13 ounces to his weight in the last week. It seems as though he is still playing catch up with his weight.

Matt and I are delighted that Eli now fits into Baby Bjorn. Though he hates getting in and out of the baby carrier, he is very content once he settles in! On Sunday, we ended up leaving the church service early due to a fussy baby (I won’t name names). Matt and I hadn’t been in the mountains in quite some time and decided today would be a good day. After grabbing a few things from home, we were in route and headed up to Divide for a short hike. It was quite a bit snowier and cold in the mountains, but we bundled Eli up, and he did great in the Baby Bjorn. In fact, we were all shedding layers by the end of the hike! We enjoyed some beautiful views of Pikes Peak and the surrounding mountains, though unfortunately, we forgot our camera. Anyway, the short escape was just what Matt and I needed.

Eli continues to wake up about every 3 hours for his favorite food: milk. We are continuing to work on the suck, swallow, breathe routine…with a special emphasis on the suck. We saw a lactation specialist a couple weeks back who diagnosed Eli with a weak suck. She said most babies are able to suck strong enough to breastfeed effectively by 6-8 weeks of life. So we are going to hold out for another couple of weeks in hopes that he’ll learn the art. Until then, he is definitely getting plenty of milk through bottle-feeding. The lactation specialist was extremely encouraging and supportive…just what I needed! She said she would even supply Eli with all the formula he needs to supplement until he is able to breastfeed…that was music to my ears with the expensive cost of formula! Matt has faithfully been praying for Eli to grow for the past few months. Since Eli is growing so well (praise God!), I’ve asked Matt to pray for Eli to suck (which he cannot do without laughing).

Today, we are looking forward to introducing Eli to his Grandpa and Grandma Davis, as they are flying in from Indianapolis to meet their grandson.

So that’s all for now. Enjoy the picture and have a great day!!

Eli all bundled up and ready to face the cold and snowy weather to visit his daddy at work.

Eli is outgrowing his preemie clothes and is finally starting to fit into his newborn outfits! He’s not quite as excited as his mama about fitting into new clothes, but he’s a good sport, anyway!

A couple weeks ago, I put Eli on this mat to see if he might notice the toys above his head. Upon stretching his arms out, he couldn’t even come close to batting at the toys overhead! So much to my delight, when I placed him on the mat again yesterday, he could reach the toys…more proof that we have a growing boy on our hands! Despite having way cool things for him to play with, he continues to enjoy simply flailing his arms and legs and sucking on his fist. Our cats, Titus and Roxi, are definitely more intrigued with Eli’s toys at the present time!!

Mama’s pride and joy!!

So Matt and I are wondering if we are going to have a mobile child at a very early age. When Eli is on his tummy his raises his legs and pushes hard…Matt and I keep waiting for him to roll over onto his back. Well, Eli had a little help from his daddy, who provided a slight downward slope as he was laying on the bed next to Eli…but Eli managed to push off and roll over to be right by his daddy. Now, I don’t think our son could repeat this feat without the downhill grade…but it did prove for yet another adorable picture with his daddy.

Eli’s first spring unfortunately doesn’t consist of the green grass, blooming flowers, warmer days, full of sunshine or great thunderstorms that I remember growing up with in Indiana. Here in Colorado, the springtime forecast continues…cold and snowy. BRRR! I’ve had spring fever since January…I think I’m now developing summer fever!

Eli in his crib shielding his eyes from the camera’s flash in hopes of getting some sleep after a long photo shoot! He already has bad dreams about the paparazzi.

Mama enjoying some awake time with her sweet boy who keeps getting bigger and changing everyday!

Tummy time for Elijah, which is becoming a morning ritual. Eli actually “accidentally” played with a toy for the first time. He got his arm through the hole of a caterpillar soft rattle (opps!) and couldn’t figure out how to get it out. So every time he moved his arm, it rattled. Pretty much, we put toys around him when he put him on the floor to make us feel like good parents…Eli could care the least!