6 weeks old

    Carter is 6 weeks old and what a huge difference that makes!  He has started interacting with us so much.  For the past 4 mornings, he has made eye contact with me and smiled the biggest smile ever.  The first time he smiled, I was in shock and I couldn't help but get tears in my eyes.  It gives me the most amazing feeling to know that he is happy to see me.  It's like he's missed me during the night time and is relieved to see me again.  His first smile was at 4 weeks and that was for his daddy.  I included 2 videos showing his sweet smile.  Also, Carter has been cooing, ooing, and awwing a lot more.  I do my best to keep a conversation going with him throughout the day, so he'll keep chatting with me.  I'm happy to say since he's much more alert, he'll nurse for 15-20 minutes now, instead of only 7 minutes.  I'm so proud of him for stretching his little tummy out and getting enough to eat.  In fact, he now weighs in at 11.4 lbs. and he was 8.3 at birth!  WOW!  You go boy.  He can also lift his head really well and push up on his legs.  Carter, you're growing so fast!

   
     Now there is only one thing that I regret to tell you, Carter has a little piece of umbilical cord that will not fall off.  At first it looked liked a very tiny piece of ground beef or a little worm.  I know disgusting, right?  The end of it kept drying up and falling off, so the worm would get shorter.  I took him to the doctor 2 weeks ago and they put some chemical on it to make it fall off.  Well 5 appointments later, the worm is almost gone, but it still a tiny stump.  On Tuesday, they tied a string around the worm and lopped off most of it.  We're going again today to see what the ole doc wants to do about the tiny stump that's left behind.  The worst part is the nasty stuff that it leaves on all Carter's clothes.  I can't wait for him to have a normal belly button.