First Thanksgiving

We are learning more and more about our boy every day and his unique and individual personality. He is a sensitive baby. As he grows and becomes more aware of his surroundings and wakes up more and more each day, he is becoming sensitive to atmosphere. He has always been sensitive to position. When being held if he decides the position you have him is no longer working, he yelps a few times to let you know it’s time to try something new. Often times he just wants to be put down into his bouncy seat, breaking the heart of whoever wants to hold him. Now we are starting to see he is also cautious of new places. Most places we have been since Andrew has started ‘waking up’ we have been many times before, Grandmas’ homes, friends’ homes, things like that, but since he can now see where he is and he seems to know it is not HIS home, he gets upset. At least the first few times we are there. He has gradually gotten used to a few of the places we visit.

I have noticed also a curiosity developing. He is starting to prefer to be held upright or sitting up instead of lying in his bouncy, unless he’s sleepy. He wants to look around more. He is holding his head up very well, though it is still quite wobbly, and he is even enjoying the exersaucer we were given as a gift from an online friend. His feet don’t quite touch the bottom but when it’s stuffed with a blanket he can hold himself up.

His limbs are not yet his own, he still startles and doesn’t have control of his arms so he can’t really play with toys. But he is enjoying looking at them and likes it when they move, make noise or light up. We’ve been able to lay him under his gym and he really sees the things hanging there. Also his mobile in his crib is being noticed. We had to go get batteries for everything finally! Lol

He gets most upset with crowds of people. We took him to my mom’s church group so everyone could see him. There were a few young kids running around making loud noises as kids do and it really seemed upsetting to Andrew. I think he wanted to see everything but was tired and hungry and couldn’t calm down enough to eat and sleep. He was quite over-stimulated.

Because of that we decided it would be best to keep him home for Thanksgiving. Originally we wanted to take him to a family get together, but due to the distance we would have had to drive him and the number of people and children to be there, we thought it best to just stay home. It would have been awful to drive him over and hour and have him wake up in a strange place with tons of strange faces and noises and then when he got upset and we had to leave (we don’t keep him places when he gets upset!), we’d have had to drive him the over an hour back home again. By Christmas hopefully he’ll be a little better equipped at handling these situations. But the family get-togethers we go to then are much closer also so if he is upset and we have to leave, we can get home quickly and meet whatever needs he has.

Andrew is such a treat to have around! He is seldom fussy. He only gets cranky when he’s tired really. Sometimes when he has gas but he is getting better at getting that out, and mommy and daddy are getting good at helping him get it out! When he’s tired he often wants to fight it so then he’ll cry. But he sleeps through the night most nights. We do have an occasional 2am night, but it’s usually due to him sleeping too much in the evening and he just wants to sit and hang out some more. There has been maybe one night in the recent weeks of him crying with gas till 2am.

I am so grateful to have Andy here to help with Andrew too! I couldn’t do it without him for sure! He won’t go to sleep if the baby is crying. He wants to help. Neither of us can usually sleep if Andrew is upset, we just want to make him comfortable and happy. And let me tell you, when he smiles at us and giggles in our faces, our hearts melt and it makes us want to do whatever we did to get him to do that over and over again!

Andrew still has most of his hair. In fact it looks like it’s all still there, but his head got bigger and no new hair has grown in! It is the softest hair in the world and he likes it when we gently rub it.

His favorite time so far seems to be bath time. He loves his face time with mommy and daddy and he gets the most of it in the tub. We are both there and all of our attention is on him. He also seems to really enjoy being in the water. Andy and I both enjoy being in water also so we’ll be a water loving family for sure. As soon as he can hold his head up a bit better, I want to take him into a shower with us too.

He is still exclusively nursing. No bottles. Andy has tried to give him a bottle of water and Andrew didn’t seem to know what to do with it. He just chewed it! But I wouldn’t mind if he took some water from a bottle on occasion too. Just in case he needs to be comforted and I am not around.

I think he is in the middle of a growth spurt right now. He has been sleeping more than last week and he eats for longer periods of time. Not more often, just longer when he is eating. I can’t even imagine how big he will be for his appointment next week!

I am not looking forward to his next appointment as much as I am because he gets his first round of shots. He did very well with them in the hospital but again, he is more aware now and if his body is feeling some new sensations he may react to it. But I am very excited to find out how long he is and how much he weighs.

Be sure to keep checking the album linked at the right! We have pictures from Thanksgiving we will put up very soon. I also plan to take some Christmas pics of him this week that will be put up there as well. Remember to let me know if there are any pics you see that you want a copy of. We can order it for you and have it shipped to you or sent somewhere you can pick up!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you all have as much to be thankful for as we do!

Size 2?

Today is Andrew’s 6 week old birthday. Happy Birthday Andrew! And wow has he changed. We are trying so hard to keep up with pictures (check link on the side of page!) but I feel like if we miss a day, we miss a lot, and it happens.

Last week we went to my mom’s home for dinner. She had out her digital scale and we wanted to weigh Andrew. He doesn’t go back to the doctor until the end of the month and even an estimated weight would be cool to know. So I weighed myself first and was pleased to see I am still losing weight at a reasonable rate and then weighed me holding Andrew and did the math. Um, 11 pounds. 11 pounds? At 5 weeks old? The doctor told us at our 2 week visit if he kept gaining like he had been he’d be 12-13 pounds by 2 months. Yeah, 5 weeks. And my back has been feeling every pound of it. I have been good for 6 weeks and not done any strenuous exercise but now my back is paying the price. Needless to say, I started working out again yesterday. Little walks are not enough, we’re talking push ups and back strengthening stuff.

So this week we went to another friends’ home, just a couple of days ago, to hang out and discuss the big weekend coming up. For those of you who don’t know, Nintendo is releasing its new console this weekend. Andy is a huge Nintendo fan and lover of all things gaming so he’s been saving money since last summer to get this machine. Unlike most new consoles, this one is actually affordable by us normal folks!

So anyway, at our friends’ home we asked to borrow their scale. It had after all been a week since we weighed our little man last. I got on and was again pleased to see another pound or so gone, then took my baby. Um... 13 pounds? Could that be right? Let’s try this again. OK. 13 pounds. Even if the scale is off with the weight, could it be off with the math? I don’t think so.

So yeah.

I use cloth diapers most days. Some days if he’s kept me up most of the night, are disposable days. Days we are out and about, he gets disposables and nights, he wears them as well. We co-sleep and the cloths don’t soak up his massive amounts of pee!

Well, yesterday I had to retire the size 1s. I kept him in the disposables all day just to use up the last of the package of 1s we had, and this morning when I was planning to take him back to bed, I busted open a size 2. And it wasn’t such a tight squeeze. He’ll be in his clothies today, which are getting small too.

Fortunately Andy’s mom bought us diapers of all sizes and we are stocked up. We also have plenty of 1s left for our next baby even! And should have plenty of 2s to last however long he can wear this size! Like what a week or so?

Also, fortunately, my mom bought us good cloth diapers, so I already have the next size up, I just need to get them washed and prepped. I really didn’t expect to be doing it quite this soon!

Our big boy!

He is holding his head up well, but not for too too long. We put him in his exersaucer for some neck exercise at least once a day for as long as he can stand.

And this week, he started laughing. He laughed at me on Monday. When he had finished nursing he looked up at me and saw me. He broke out in a huge smile and started giggling! Oh yeah, my heart melted. That was no gas bubble, that was an “I love my Mommy!”

Then yesterday he laughed at Andy! You never heard such joy from a grown man! He’s been doing it at least once a day all week and we can’t wait to see what he does next.

Still doesn’t take a pacifier or suck his thumb so that’ll be neat to see if he picks one of those up, especially once he notices those hands of his!

Thanks to all the grandmas for all your help!!

We love this whole family so much and are looking forward to showing off the new boy for the holiday season!

One Month Old Already!!

The official one month birthday was passed yesterday and our little man is getting huge! We haven’t been able to weigh him as we have no scale nor access to one, but let me tell you, our backs can attest to his weight gain for sure! When he is extra tired and doesn’t want to sleep and when he has his minor fussy hour or two at night, my arms, elbows and lower back feel the burn from walking him around the apartment! I tried to pass it on to Andy to carry him in the papoose carrier and we take him outside, but even that is wearing Andy out! Definitely time to start working out, he’s only going to get bigger!

We don’t see the doc till the end of this month so I may have to find a scale before then to weigh him. The curiosity is killing me!

We’ve been getting some real smiles from him every day and it is absolutely amazing! In fact just a bit ago, I was nursing him and singing a lullaby and every time I started singing, he’d grin at me! So adorable

!.

His Granddaddy and Grandma stopped by today for a very welcome surprise visit. Our place is a mess but it was so good to see them. And Andrew was quite fascinated by his Granddaddy. He is totally learning to be more aware of people and surroundings! He even smiled for Granddaddy, too cute! Of course Granddaddy wants to take mommy’s baby out hunting and riding on his bike but we’ll have to wait a few years before we can even discuss such adventures! :D

We had a great Halloween. Went to Grandma’s dressed in the costume she got for Andrew. He was a little frog and super cute of course! There are pics on our photo album and the link is on the side of the page.

I also got some cute shots of baby and Daddy at bath time – no real nudity so don’t worry! But it is about the cutest thing I personally have ever seen!

We are all doing well. It is hard to figure out our timing on things still. He doesn’t usually sleep or eat in any real pattern so it’s hard to plan around him. And it seems the last couple of days he’s been eating more often and more at a time too so maybe he’s about to get even bigger! He slept a whole lot yesterday but not as much today. He was up for four straight hours thanks to our visitors. He was sure impressed with his Granddaddy! I think he likes deep voices because eh likes his Daddy’s voice a lot too. And Granddaddy did a lot of talking to him.

It is as usual a struggle to live in the moment. We want to enjoy every day, we know they will be gone and over too quickly. But at the same time there’s such a sense of wanting him to acquire new skills every day. He’s getting better at holding his head up and there’re so many toys and things we can show him once he can hold his head up! And in a few months we can start playing more games. Right now our games really consist of, following the rattle with his eyes, turning his head towards Daddy’s voice, holding his head up on his tummy, or just some good face time and conversation. He does a lot fo grunting and talking of his own so we try to answer him and make his noises back at him as well as talking to him. He won’t usually let me read to him right now. I miss our reading times at night like we had when he was in my belly! But he seems to prefer my eye contact now. I can sometimes hold him on my lap at the computer and read a few news stories before he gets bored or just needs to move.

I hear him calling right now so off I go!