Plumping Up

We're happy to report that Jonas is on his way to becoming chubby. He eats like a champ (with occasional spit ups) and has begun to visibly put on weight, especially in his upper thighs and belly. I'm concerned that I'm overfeeding him. My milk supply is quite generous and flows so quickly that he often chokes. When he detaches, there will often be a spray of milk that hits him straight in the face. Poor little guy! I think it's total irony though, as he gets ME in the face when I change his diaper.

Ed and I are consumed with curiosity about how much weight Jonas is gaining. We both thought him a bit too thin at birth. So how to you measure a baby? We tried the bathroom scale, but he doesn't weigh enough to register on it. Ed then suggested a little orange kitchen scale we have that will register up to 8 pounds. Unfortunately, it has a tiny little spot to rest the item which you intend to weigh. Ed's solution was to put Jonas in our tupperware popcorn bowl, then put the bowl on the scale. He was quite thorough in his approach, and even weighed the bowl first, so as to deduct it from the total. It would have worked, but we couldn't view the digital readout because the bowl was too big. Plus, the baby didn't fit very well in the bowl, as he is more oblong rather than circular.

We then tried my solution - place the scale near the edge of the counter, then sit the baby on the scale while gently supporting him to keep him from toppling over. I'm certain this really would have worked, but the scale readout fluctuated too much. We think he weighs a bit closer to 8 pounds now, rather 7 pounds, but this is pure speculation.

Besides putting on weight (we hope to post pictures of His Royal Chubbiness later), Jonas has become quite the traveler. We are now in Columbus, Ohio where Ed is participating in a water innovation workshop. We counted the states that Jonas has been in as we traveled yesterday. Born in Kansas, living in Missouri, and just traveled through Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. That's 5 states under his belt, and he is only 3 weeks old!