Pics...cuz he changes too fast to wait another day...

5 Weeks: Lessons for Mom

Today is 5 weeks! While Johnny learns new things right and left, it seems like I am the one learning the most lately.  Frequently I have made blanket statements about what he can and cannot do, just to be proven wrong shortly after. For example:

"He can't fall asleep by himself in his bed." Sunday he did this twice (with the aid of Mommy putting the pacifier back in.)

"He doesn't sleep more than 10 minutes in his carseat after we take it out of the car." 75 minutes today. Bam. (I loosened the straps...that helped...then later he fell asleep in it at the doctor.)

"We are both having some trouble with latching." The he latches on right away in the OB office when I'm trying to get a checkup.

In other mommy lessons, I have learned how to:

- Shower while he is napping without other adults present to supervise him

- Re-try things that failed previously because it is possible that now he can handle the particular activity (i.e. the first examples, also he will enjoy his playmat a little longer now.)

- Read my baby development books. Not sure why I didn't do this while pregnant...but every time I read it now, it is 1000% relevant to what I am wondering about baby development at the time. Now if I could just read the "months" a few weeks in advance, I might actually be prepared for something once in a while!

In other news, John is smiling, imitating us (i.e. sticks out his tongue at Daddy), and now weighs 9 pounds. I guess all this eating for an hour each time (up from 20 minutes) is paying off.  Still wearing his NB sized clothes though.  He fit into a 3M outfit but the pants are HUGE on him.  Zach and I were both hypervigilant about not over-buying clothes, and just this week I realized the 3M stuff we have is all summery.  At this growth rate, we will probably be wearing 3M through the end of the year and we had...ONE pair of pants and 1-2 PJ's.  So I hit up our local consignment kids store and got a bunch of pants and PJ's and maybe splurged on a completely useless zip-up hoodie (he's always got a blanket outside anyhow) and one last NB outfit that I couldn't resist. Now our cold snap will probably end and we'll be back in only a onesie all day but...at least we've got warmer clothes when we need it and they didn't cost much!

  I used all my good photos last week and I have some new ones to upload but here is what I have for now.  I kinda wish I got a camera that could upload wirelessly automatically... Anyhow, this is one of the most genius baby shower gifts I have ever seen.  Its a onesie, with a snap sewn on, then I got 4 different bow ties to interchange!  I am going to check the snap size and hopefully sew some snaps onto some bigger onesies too. I am excited!

Photo Shoot #2: Mostly a failure, haha.

So, the first photo shoot we had with the baby was at the 1 week mark and it went swimmingly.  He slept through the whole thing and was completely pliable into whatever position we could get him into.

For this next attempt, I wanted a different background. Here he is laying on his Boppy with a couch coushin in the background.

Fail #1: cut off top of head.

Fail #2 and #3: falling over and couch coushin not properly centered.

Fail #4: Massive spit up.

Fail #5: Not-really-matching fabrics. Not centered in photo. Cute kid though.

Not quite a fail, but not "the picture" - but I love that he has almost his entire fist in his mouth! :)

Probably my favorite pic of the day.  Too bad he wasn't centered on the white blanket and I was so close....still, pretty darn good, I think!

4 weeks

Tuesday marked 4 weeks.  I don't have too many pictures, but some. 

Some observations about this time:

1) Nursing is still really tough! I've been spoiled with the nipple shield.  Real latching on takes full concentration for both of us for the whole feed.

2) Swaddle sacks are our friends.

3) I had more things to say and I forgot what they were. Dangnabit.

We went to a nautical themed baby shower and happened to have this outfit...its a little big still but he rocked it anyway!!!

Chillin in his basket. See how his head is touching the pillow at the top? Thats Baby Crack right there. Once I got over being afraid he would suffocate (and not putting his face near the pillow), he started doubling and tripling the amount of time he would stay sleeping in this basket. Seriously. He's even gone TO sleep a couple times being put in here (when drowsy.)  I'm not claiming he is sleep trained or anything, but constant contact with anything near his head is very soothing.

Pics

Week 3 with John was a real doozy. 4th week got better, but we had company and I tried to sleep and so I didn't get around to uploading my pictures. I'll make up for that now.

around 2 weeks, smiling (I think?) while laying on my shoulder

Trying out the bouncer. He isn't a fan. Started screaming right after this picture.

During week 3, Squirmy Worm wouldn't sleep in his bed (or not longer than 20-50 minutes.) So we rocked the Moby Wrap. A lot. Or took turns holding him. Here he sleeps through some studying with Dad.

We see a fair amount of this...especially if I don't feed him .025 seconds after waking up from a nap. When he is really mad, he grabs his face or hair and pulls. Tthen cries harder because he hurt himself. i'm really considering those hand covers or putting socks on his hands until he has better control.

Spontaneous smile. I LOVE this kid's smile!!

Stares at Daddy a lot...

On Not Being Pregnant

Here are some things I am still getting used to being NOT pregnant.

1) I can lean over the table to reach things.
2) When I lay down at night (if I'm not already passed out tired) I put my hand on my stomach and feel for kicks. No kicks! Oh yeah...no baby in there anymore.
3) Lunchmeat. I can eat it. Yay.

Ok, short list, but I'm sleep deprived, so its OK, right?

And here is our little guy, not to impressed with learning about the Great Gatsby with Dad.

3 weeks (Its been 21 days already?!)

21:31. 21 minutes, 31 seconds. That is how long our babe has currently been sleeping, by himself, in his basket, in the other room. I don't want to jinx it or anything, but I'm hoping for a whole hour of sleep in there.  

Without further ado: Pictures since the last post.

Grainy cell phone, but love the eyes and how his arms are always by his face.

Again with the arms. And dimples. The dimples SLAY ME.

Face-timing (or was it Skype?) with our GEM of a cousin in Rhode Island.

One of my top 3 favorite pictures so far.  

Sleeping baby (of course on Mom.) See that sleepy smile? I hope to get a big one of those on camera. That would require using my camera though.

And now on to all the words.  3 weeks: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

The Good: We love this kid. He is gaining weight. He can sleep for long stretches if we are holding him. He is healthy.  He can breastfeed naturally when we are [both] in the right mood.  Zach and I are balancing responsibilities mostly well and he is giving me lots of opportunity for sleep, when I can actually get a nap in. I've even gotten a shower almost every other day.

The Bad: Holy cow, diapers and wipes.  I know they say newborns go through 9-12 a day, and they are right. Sometimes the new diaper seems to last 2 minutes.  Also, breastfeeding? Um, ouch.  I use my relaxation/breathing techniques during nursing way more than I ever did in labor!  Also, doesn't like the swing or the bouncer yet. Boo.

The Ugly: Can't stay sleeping in his bed. At the first flail (swaddled or not) he wakes up and needs to be fully soothed back to sleep. In the middle of the night, this takes a while with tired and impatient parents.  So we either hold him (recliner: best purchase EVER) or, I've started sleeping by his basket so I can put my arm in there at first cry and mostly successfully soothe back to sleep without him fully waking.  So picture taking has taken a back seat to nursing, soothing, rocking, sleeping, diaper changing, and going to the bathroom.  This makes me a little sad, but I'll try to add that into the rotation as soon as possible.

Today I started my Bible Study (BSF) up again.  I needed to be at the church (nearby) by 10:30. A friend called me at 8:45 as I was wrapping up a feeding session and asked if everything was OK. "Yeah!" I replied, "I only need to change his diaper and get myself dressed. I will totally be on time!"  I was 6 minutes early.  Took the me the entire hour to get him changed, diapered, soothed, and into his car seat.  I should have just let him cry it out, but I'm not that strong yet!  And then, it turns out I should have been told 10:15 or even 10, not 10:30, so I was late anyways. :(  Anyhow, time has a whole new meaning now!  Or lack of meaning...

36:18. Still asleep!