Zack -Newborn to One

Zack was born at 10:35 a.m. on Sunday January 24, 1999...2 hours and 35 minutes after the doctor broke my water and the "real" labor started.  He was my only birth without an epidural.  

C.J has given me a hard time about this picture...look for the inner beauty!


Zack was my smallest baby at 6 pounds 5 ounces and 19.25 inches.  He was also my baby with the most hair.  And also my only baby that I breastfed.
By the time we left the hospital he was under 6 pounds. 

But despite being so small, he was my best sleeper.  He also had a somewhat predictable nighttime sleep pattern right away.  Nurse at 9:00 p.m. for about 45 minutes...sleep until between 2-3:00...nurse again for about 30 minutes...sleep till about 6:00-7:00.  Heavenly!!!

Unfortunately we have very few good pictures of Zack as newborn.  Most of the pictures turned out like this:

or are so blurry you can't really see anything.

But, thankfully, we have a few nice pictures:

This is one of the very few pictures I have of Zack with his father.

Zack hardly ever cried.  In fact the very first week he was home I never heard him cry - ever.  Either I had to initiate the feeding or I knew he wanted to eat because he I would hear him sucking on his fists.

However, he was not so good for other people.  From the time he was two months old he could tell if I was gone and would give his babysitters a hard time.  

At six months old I had to leave a party to come home because he was crying and would not stop. Once I got home he was smiling and giggling at me like nothing happened!

Notice the Gator outfit??


Like his brothers, Zack hit his milestones pretty early.  He was army crawling and sitting up on his own just before turning six months old.

And crawling on all fours by seven months

But unlike his brothers, he was very dark-skinned

And loved the water (unlike his brothers)

A true Florida baby (we moved when he was four months old).

Another picture illustrating Zack's habit of sticking his fingers through his knit blanket.

He would also suck on his tongue!


Zack had his first haircut the day before he turned eight months old.

And then pretty much every six weeks after that - his hair grew quickly.


Also, like his brothers, he had an obsession with the dishwasher:

and also the refrigerator:

He was such a happy baby!!!

He and I had fun spending our days together while C.J. and Jon were in school.

Playing outside and taking walks in the Florida sun and then heading inside for a late morning nap.

The one big area that Zack differed from his brothers was size.  While C.J. and Jon were never on the growth charts...Zack was always very average in size.  
He also was not walking by his first birthday...even though he had been standing on his own since ten months old, he seemed to have a fear of walking.

And I guess I should mention his incredibly fat feet!! As he neared a year and we went to buy him his first pair of shoes, we were shocked to find out he was a EEE!  For two years the only shoes that we could buy him were stride rites!

I remember when I took this picture I thought that someday I would use it a blackmail...my boy happily pushing a pink baby stroller.

By a year old his hair was pretty curly in the back.  I kind of let it grow out then because they were so adorable.

And here he is on the morning of his first birthday.  He was not crying... but I had just woken him up to take the boys to school.