From Head to Toe

As I'm sitting here feeding Dominic, I always notice these little details about him.  I mean, he's laying there in my lap, and I do so enjoy this time I have to just study every inch of him.  So I thought I'd share with you what I see starting with the very top of his head to the very tip of his toes.

He has lots of medium brown hair on his head, and a natural "part" on his left side (our right in photos).  Even though he is losing his hair, he still has quite a bit.  His scalp is mostly really soft, but there is a patch about 3 inches wide starting from the hairline on his forehead back to where his natural part ends where his scalp is covered with thick flaky skin someone told me is called "cradle cap".  It's not very noticeable, especially right after he takes a bath and is really clean.  People who have noticed it tell me that his is not as bad as most.  I don't worry about it. As the flakes come off, they take little clumps of hair with them, so he might be bald on top for a little while when it's all over.

Over his left ear you can see where I have cut his hair.  The hair there used to hang over the top of his ear, so I figured he wouldn't miss it if I cut a little to put in his baby book.  It wasn't really his "first haircut".. just a little lock of hair so we'll be able to look back at this first fine baby hair and remember.

His ears are a lot bigger than they were when he was born, but they still lay pretty flat against his head.  They stay pretty clean although with all the growing, I have to use a Qtip to brush away some of the molted skin about once a week.

His eyes and eyebrows look so much like Daddy's!  Above his left eyebrow is a vertical line of pink that somedays you don't notice but other days looks like a scratch.  Dr. Pellman says that is a birthmark, as well as the pink scratched-looking section on his right eyelid.  With as much as he pokes his fingers in his eyes while sucking his thumb, he occasionally has a real poke mark in addition to the birthmarks, so I try to keep his nails very short.  

We debated keeping hand mitts on him (Dr. Pellman says we have to be careful he doesn't scratch his cornea), but with the thumb being such an important element in the sleep-all-night schedule, we opted to forgo the mitts at night.  Believe it or not, a couple of drops of breastmilk on a scratch or poke mark moistens them and heals them up in no time!  This stuff is better than neosporin, which you couldn't put on an eyelid anyway.  Just another amazing breastmilk fact!

Dominic definitely has at least one dimple.  We see the one on his left cheek almost every time he smiles now, which is - thank God - quite a bit!  His nose and mouth... it's debatable whether they are Eddie's or from my side of the family.  I think his mouth looks a lot like my brother, Dominic's Uncle John.  But the dimple definitely comes from Daddy.

He doesn't have any millia (tiny white dots like baby whiteheads) on his face any more, but there are one or two left on his arms.  I remember he used to have one or two on a couple of fingers at the cuticle line, but those are gone too.  His face does still have a couple of minor "baby acne" bumps (I bet they'd go away faster if my diet was healthier - the new year's resolutions ought to help there), but overall the skin on his face is really soft and smooth.  Fine little hairs grow all the way down where a sideburn would be.  I think he will have thick hair like Daddy's but it doesn't look (yet) like it will be as dark.

Many of the pictures on the blog look like Dominic doesn't have much of a neck, but he really does.  I work hard at keeping patooey (my word for spitup) cleaned out of there!  When he is in a sitting up position, his head tends to compact into his shoulders, but laying down you can see he loves to stretch his head up and show off his nice (clean) neck.

I have already noticed his shoulders are becoming broader.  When I feed him, he rests on his side on this doughnut-shaped pillow I got at the family shower from Frank & Yumiko Lee called "My Breast Friend".. haha.  Now that he is growing, I sometimes have to put a folded cloth under his head because the distance from his shoulder to the side of his cheek is far enough that, if resting on the feeding pillow without additional support, his head will tilt uncomfortably.  Sometimes during the day feedings I don't put the cloth so Dominic is forced to work his neck muscles to stay in his most comfortable feeding position.

His hands, in my opinion, are still larger than I would expect relative to his overall size.  I guess that might come from me, as I have pretty long fingers.  The knuckles on the backs of his hands are dimpled, and the skin is amaaaaazingly soft.  His nails grow quickly, and the nail beds are really pink as well as the skin of his fingers just around his nails is particularl

y brown - a characteristic from his latin heritage.  He still occasionally keeps his hands in very tight fists, although that limits thumb access, plus he is much more likely to hold them in a more relaxed, open position.

He has a nice, round belly!  Definitely a good eater!  His belly button - can't tell if it is exactly an "innie" or an "outie" - is still a bit dark and bruised-looking, but I'm sure it will continue to change color as it heals.  His thighs are thick and chubby cute, and are covered with rolls and rolls of skin.  All those rolls of extra skin will likely come in handy if his legs are going to grow to match his giant feet.  From day 1 the little newborn socks have not fit him.  We'd put them on just to try to keep his feet warm and the heels would never go much further than halfway from his toes to his heel.  His big toe is longer than the other toes on both feet.  Will it stay that way or will his second toe eventually be longer like on my feet?  Only time will tell!

He has dry patches on his knees and elbows.  I put baby oil on them when I change him, but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference.  Hmm I bet breastmilk would fix that...  Mental note to try it.

His dark olive complexion is not as dark as Daddy but not as light as Mama.  He looks best in dark colors, and although  I bet he is not likely to sunburn easily when he is older, we still keep a little fisherman's hat on him when we go out on a sunny day (which are most days in California). When I hold him naked, his behind has little dimples like cellulite but they don't show up when he's laying down.  He hasn't had a single occurrence of diaper rash (yet?), and I attribute that to Dr, Pellman's advice to "slop on the Vaseline" (he says petrolium jelly is better than any dedicated diaper rash product), my friend Michelle Garofolo's advice to air-dry his tooshie after wet-wiping and before diapering it, and my mom's advice to change him immediately when I notice he's wet.  We've definitely moved on to a size 2 diaper.

So that is our little tu tu (as in "you you" in Spanish) as he is today.  Maybe next post I will put some comparison pictures so you can see how he has grown.

Bye for now, and thank you again for reading!