Genes of Giant, Appetite of Hobbit

My sister and her boyfriend just left, after a long-weekend visit. I am feeling that disheartening, when-will-I-see-you-again? feeling... You know, when you're going to see someone and so look forward to it, then suddenly it's over, they're gone again, and you don't know when you'll see each other again? Having a baby seems to amplify that feeling, because they grow up so quickly; it's possible that my family won't see Robert again until we meet up in December-- he'll be seven months old! Essentially a totally different baby than this flailing little newborn, by then he'll be a sitting, crawling, babbling creature.

We had Robert's one-month doctor visit yesterday, and it actually went really well. We didn't have to wait at all: not in the waiting room, and not in the exam room either, surprising after our last experience there. He now weighs a whopping twelve pounds, twelve ounces (up two and three-quarters pounds from his birth weight of ten pounds) and is 22.5 inches long (up an inch). He is not actually on the growth chart but hovering above it, over the "95%" line. The doctor assured me that he is "proportionate": big, but not fat. I guess my "growth spurt" hunch last week wasn't wrong. Speaking of which, I realized the other day that I have this creature who enjoys twelve meals a day when he can get them, who has a lot of hair that has a tendency to curl... it seems I gave birth to a hobbit. Except that he's giant. A giant hobbit?

His crying/ screaming/ fussiness/ gas is getting mostly worse. The doc wrote us a prescription for baby Zantac, since it sounds like reflux, so we'll see if that helps at all. I'm trying again to eliminate dairy from my diet, too, to see if that helps. Last night he cried for over an hour, and it was awful. He just sounded like he was in so much pain, and there was nothing we could do to help him... I hope either the medicine or the diet works. He still sleeps well, thank goodness, as I imagine that if he were sleep deprived it would have everything else feel worse for him.

The breastfeeding is getting marginally better. We have been off the pump for three whole days now--no training wheels!-- my supply seems to be evening out somewhat (as long as I keep feeding him frequently, if I go more than a few hours I'll get engorged still); and although my nipples still hurt when he nurses it's more of a normal-feeling, breaking-in kind of pain, less of an intense, hit-the-ceiling sensation. We're about half-way through the thrush prescription and it does seem to be helping; Robert's diaper rash is gone, his poops look more normal, and my breasts hurt less.