Already???

And no, it's not an April Fool's Joke  Oh, and check out the new pics I just posted!

First a couple pieces of fabulous news: Our very good friends Scott and Melisa (well, mostly Melisa) had their baby this morning! Mariana was born at 12:19am and weighed in at 7 lbs 2 oz, 20.5 inches long. Very close to Luke! I was just thinking this weekend how cool it would be if she were born today because she would be one month younger than Luke exactly. I know, I'm weird, but whatever.

Also- we got a call yesterday from another close friend saying he and his wife are expecting their first baby in October! Hooray!!! Justin was in their wedding the Christmas before we got married and even though we haven't SEEN them in a couple years, they're never far from our thoughts. (PS- you know who you are, and you can call me anytime if you have any questions! Some stuff I just can't post on here...)

Luke is getting bigger and stronger every day. He looks like a little boy now instead of a wrinkly infant! He can hold his head up for several seconds, long enough to look around and focus on something (like our faces) before flopping back down onto my shoulder or whatever. When he's lying on the floor (another new favorite activity) he likes to flail himself around to the point where I'm sure he could flip himself all the way over if his shoulder didn't get in the way. We're approaching the five-week mark, which is when they can start purposefully smiling, so we're starting to see glimmers and hints of it coming! And the kid is gaining weight like crazy! We have our 1 month doctor's appointment on Thursday so I'll post his new measurements then, but I'm sure he's over 8 lbs now and has grown over an inch I think. He's too long for his newborn size clothes now (though when he sleeps at night we still use those because he likes to be curled up in a ball), and even though his 3 month size clothes are still too wide for him, he is almost too long for them when he stretches all the way out!

He's starting to enjoy "playtime" now too. In the morning he usually sleeps from 9-12 or 1pm and then after he wakes up and eats he is awake for a couple hours in the early afternoon. We use this time to play on the floor, in the crib, or in his bouncer. He loves his bouncer! It has a vibration setting that soothes him and a bar overhead with three dangling bears. The middle one doesn't interest him too much right now because you have to squeeze it to make a crinkling sound, but the two on the ends rattle and jingle when he hits them so he loves those. We think he's starting to get some "purposeful" movement now because he'll bat at the bears and when they jingle he gets all excited and bats at them again. I don't think he's necessarily reaching for them, per se, but I think he's realized that if he can flail his arms in their general direction (outwards from his body, instead of upwards around his head like usual) they will move around and make fun sounds. His other new favorite toy is an ocean wonders mirror that hangs on the side of his crib. It has three little ocean creatures that hang down from it that, when touched ever so slightly, cause the mirror to light up and make fun sounds. This just fascinates him! He can reach his arms up just high enough to bonk the mirror too, which also sets off the musical treat. There's a picture on our webshots page of him being enthralled with the thing.

As for me- I'm feeling better, finally. Mom told me way ahead of time that 4 weeks is the height of exhaustion, and she was right. Being sick didn't help either, but there was a point on Saturday night when I thought to myself, "I can't do this anymore," and then it was like all of a sudden something changed. I woke up Sunday morning NOT feeling like I'd been run over by mac trucks all night, and now things seem a little more manageable. It's hard to describe unless you've been there yourself (I'm finding that's the case with a lot of pregnancy/newborn stuff), but please be encouraged by this if you're following the same life path as me.

Justin's been really busy with work and some business trips lately (he'll be gone all this weekend- eek!), but on Friday and Saturday nights he'll get up with Luke in the middle of the night and change and feed him so I can get a little extra sleep on the weekends. The nice thing is we usually only have to get up once with him, if we time it right. We'll feed and change him around 11:30 so by midnight he's ready for bed, and then he won't really wake up again until around 4am. When we put him back to sleep around 5am he'll let us sleep until around 8am, and then our daytime routine starts. Yes, I said routine! It's not 100% in stone, but I know roughly what times I can get stuff done around the house (or sleep) while he's sleeping. Most babies have a specific time of day when they're generally fussy for no real reason, and for Luke that is from around 8pm-11pm. Evenings are the hardest for me when Justin's not around because he doesn't want to be put down or he screams. He's fine as long as he's eating or being held or entertained, but this is the time of night when I'm wanting to finsh dinner and clean up, or get ready for bed or do other assorted things... and it's just not a fun time for me. I'm not sure how long the fussy phase lasts (some people have told me it's worst around 6 weeks), but I'm sure I will miss it when it's gone.

Lessons Learned:

1. Time really DOES fly. A friend's mom told me recently, "Remember ... the days are long, but the years are short. If that doesn't make sense now, it will later." *Sigh* it's true.

2. Infants Mylicon drops (for gassy-ness) are great!

3, Babies love to be read to, no matter how young. Every night before bed I read him some Bible stories from his childrens books and it really calms him down. He sits (or lays) on my lap so still and seems to be listening very intently. It's very cute!

4. Bathtime is NOT a favorite yet! But he does like to be rubbed briskly with the warm towel afterwards and be massaged with lotion.

We made it back from Philadelphia all in one piece! Unfortunately, that piece seems to be falling apart...

We tested Luke's limits and discovered that he can only really handle about 9 1/2 hours in the car. The bad part- our trip was about 12 hours each way. Grrr. Poor little guy; he did sooooo well on the way out there, but on the way back he was so tired of being in his carseat and I felt so bad for him.

Also, I came down with a fever on Sunday and it hung around all through our trip back on Monday. Tuesday morning I woke up without the fever, but with a raging sore throat and cough. This is the first time I've been sick in 10 months!!!! On top of this, Luke will not stop SCREAMING!!! This isn't just crying, it's definitely screaming at the top of his lungs until his voice gives out. It just breaks my heart! We've taken his temperature several times and he hasn't had a fever, so we're not sure if he cought the bug that I've got or if he is gassy or colicky or what. The only times he's quiet =  when he's sleeping or eating. He nursed for almost 5 hours straight on Tuesday night! Everytime I thought he was done he would start screaming and the only thing that calmed him down was letting him nurse again. Oh well. Good thing I don't have any plans to go anywhere this week!

We've also started introducing formula at this point. The poor kid is just so hungry alllllll the time and I just can't keep up! I felt guilty for a whole day, but then realized that I have to do the best thing for my baby, and right now that was keep his little tummy full so he wouldn't be unhappy. We've been mixing bottles half-and-half with breastmilk and formula so he still gets the benefits of the breastmilk, but he went straight from drinking 3 oz at a time to downing 6-8 oz and still rooting for more! I can tell he's much bigger though, so at least I know he's growing! His head is very round and filled out now, and his eyes are HUGE! I've attached a picture of him from this weekend because it's so adorable.

He's also awake and alert a lot more every day now, and he's getting stronger by the minute. He can hold his own head up for several seconds now! And his new favorite thing is to push with his feet as hard as he can if he feels something up against them.

Well that's all for now.

Another week- another long news update!

We had our second doctor’s appointment on Tuesday and I expected a clean bill of health. We got one, with one major exception- Luke had only gained 2 ounces (in weight) over the last 12 days, and he should have gained one per day for a total of 12 (duh). L Poor guy! The doctor said overall he looked very healthy and he wasn’t worried, per se, but he needed to gain some weight because he should have been back up to his birth weight by now. So my assignment was to eat more fatty and salty foods (like whole milk, steak, ice cream and French fries), and then feed him every 2 hours or so instead of 3 or 4 when he was waking up hungry. It was hard, but we managed to wake the poor kid up every 2 hours or so and feed him, and my mom took me out to lunch for some good high cholesterol meals for the next two days—and it paid off! When we went back for a quick checkup on Thursday he had gained FIVE ounces in 2 days!!! Yay Luke! The doctor had been hoping for 3 or 4 but we went above and beyond, which is awesome. We don’t have to do as many feedings anymore, especially since now he’s drinking a full 4 oz bottle every feeding, and nursing for longer each time as well, so he’s getting plenty of calories.

He cooed for the first time on Wednesday! I was straightening up some things in his nursery and had swaddled him in his little swaddler pj’s and put him in his crib. Mom and I had gone on a shopping spree at Meijer together and bought a few baby toys since he’s starting to focus on faces and objects now, and I had just hung a brightly decorated mirror on the side of his crib. I didn’t know if he would react to seeing his reflection or not, but set him in front of it anyway, and a few minutes later I heard some happy baby sounds coming from the crib! I went over to see what he was doing and he was staring at himself in the mirror in fascination and waving his arms and legs around like crazy, and cooing!!!! It was the sweetest little moment! He doesn’t do it very often, but once or twice a day when he’s content and not busy doing anything else (eating, sleeping, pooping, etc.) we can get him to do it.

A major part of this week- I’m writing this entry from PHILADELPHIA!!! We are out here for my best friend Dana’s wedding (I’ve mentioned it a few times on here already) and a visit with my grandparents. My mom drove us out here in her van; we left at noon on Thursday and made record time, arriving at my grandparents’ at 11:45pm. We made 3 stops, each about 20 minutes long so we could change and feed Luke in the car while we were stopped, and the weather was perfect for traveling. It was a little exhausting, but worth the trip. I got to see some of my friends that I haven’t seen for a few years, and I’m so excited to show off my little baby!!! Of course he was practically the life of the party at the rehearsal tonight, so I’m hoping he won’t steal the show tomorrow at the actual wedding. J It’s been nice because my mom has been around to help take care of him in the morning so Justin and I can sleep in a little and get ready instead of trying to keep Luke happy (he likes to just be held from about 9am-12pm and screams if we put him down) and do everything else. She’ll also be able to watch him for a little while so we can go to dinner at the reception and have our first little date night without baby. Eek! I don’t know how it’ll feel. He’s only 3 weeks old (tomorrow) and already I’m so attached that I can’t imagine him being out of my sight for any reason. *sigh*

He’s also been on a quasi-consistent sleeping schedule, which is extremely nice. I nurse him around 9:30 or 10pm and put him in bed with Justin while I straighten up the house for a half hour (it’s the only time I have to myself alllllll day practically). Then he gets us up anywhere between 2 and 3:30am and I’m up with him for about another hour and then we fall asleep again until 8 or 9am usually. So I’m getting a fair amount of sleep, it’s just not in one long stretch, and usually he wakes me up in the middle of a sleep cycle so I feel extra tired. I’ve been taking a 2 hour nap with him every afternoon though, so that’s where I catch up. Today I missed my naptime though, so I’m really feeling the strain at this point!

Once I survive the rest of this weekend (we’re driving back on Monday), I’ll post some more J

With a new baby in the house, it seems like every day gives us something new to celebrate. It’s only been a few days since my last post, but again, a lot has happened! Here’s a rundown:

Sunday:

Luke’s umbilical cord “stump” fell off!!!! I went to change his diaper in the early morning and it had rubbed off on the diaper overnight and kinda fallen into his little sleeper pajamas. Yay Luke! And now that his circumcision is also healed, diaper changes aren’t quite as traumatic. Almost fun for him, even. We make a big deal out of it, cheering for him, kissing him on the lips and blowing raspberries on his little tummy, which he seems to enjoy immensely. Even though he’s too young to smile, we get a lot of arms waving and legs kicking, along with what we call the “oo” mouth- it looks like he’s trying to coo but there’s no sound.

Monday:

Luke “found” his thumb again! And now he really likes to suck on his fist/fingers/knuckles/thumb almost as much as his beloved ninny. Also, we spent Sunday night with my brother and sister-in-law (Jordan and Carrie) in South Bend. It was our trial run for our Philadelphia trip, in a way. Luke did really well on the 3 hour drive up there- slept pretty much the whole way! And he wasn’t even too bad overnight. We slept on a king size aero bed in their living room, and ended up putting Luke in his boppy pillow on their papazon chair because it was within arm’s reach for me and I spent most of my time keeping track of ninny when it would fall out of his mouth. Monday morning Jordan went to work with Justin and I got to hang out at their apartment all day while Carrie went to work at Notre Dame. It was really nice because I could just sit around and play with Luke all day and not have to worry that I should be cleaning or doing laundry or something since it wasn’t my house! I even got to take a 3 hour nap, which was nice.

Tuesday:

We ventured out of the house for some massive errands- finally! Not feeling quite brave enough to do it myself, I enlisted the help of my mom and we ran around to a few places to pick up some baby things. First stop was David’s Bridal because I’ve lost a lot more weight than I expected and my bridesmaid dress for Dana’s wedding is like hanging off of me. Unfortunately there is no store in Indiana that has the specific dress in my size in the right color, so we’re just going to have to do some nip-tuck work to make it fit right by next week.

Next stop was Baby Depot at Burlington Coat Factory. That place is great! Not for the baby clothes selection (it was organized like a Goodwill store in my opinion) but for all the other stuff! I walked out with a cartload of goodies for around $100- including a $150 Evenflo playpen that I purchased for $40 because it was the floor model of a discontinued pattern. J Now we have a place to put Luke down when we’re downstairs without the wieners attacking. After that we crossed the street to Target and bought a few more little things, and Mom finally broke down and started buying “Grandma” stuff. She’s been pretty mellow about it until now, and one of her friends told her she needed to “jump into the new role” or something so now she’s buying stuff like crazy!!! It’s fun to see someone else having as much fun shopping for Luke as I do.

Wednesday (today):

MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT!!!!!! Luke didn’t keep us up all night!!!! He’s normally not a fussy baby, but the problem at night is that he’ll wake us up when he’s hungry or needs a diaper change, and we’ll take care of it, but then he won’t fall back asleep heavily enough for us to put him down to get back in bed. We move and he wakes up, thus keeping us up. But last night I fed and changed him around 11, then went to bed expecting him to wake up at any moment. He didn’t. I actually woke up around 4am and decided to get him up to change and feed him. Since I was the one who woke him up (and not the other way around), he fell back asleep pretty quickly and I got to sleep in until 9am when he started fussing! Hooray! I know there’s no guarantee that we can do it again tonight, but we’re gonna try, because that was awesome. It was nice to have a little break since I was starting to get desperately tired of turning into a night owl.

We also ventured out for some quick grocery shopping, just me and Luke this time. It wasn’t as difficult as I would have imagined! He fell asleep immediately in the car, and then was wide awake in the store but just quietly looking around at all the new colors and sounds. It was so cute. And of course I enjoyed all the compliments from all the other shoppers around me. Now I feel like I can take him out places and it won’t be a disaster (mentally or physically).

Overall I’ve been able to keep up with daily household stuff to an extent. There’s still a massive amount of clutter everywhere since basically everything moved up from the basement while they’re putting the ceiling in. It’s really starting to drive me nuts too, but there’s nothing I can do about it until the basement is finally done and ready to go. Also, since there’s been a lot of sanding of drywall, there’s always a fine layer of white dust on everything. I keep a swiffer duster in hand usually and just swipe it over the stuff that’s obvious, but a major cleaning will also have to wait until the basement project is done, or it’s just pointless. I seem to do laundry every couple days too, which instead of being annoying is actually kind of nice. I do smaller loads in lesser numbers and everything stays clean! And I haven’t had to cook anything yet either because of the meals that people from church have been bringing over. And since I don’t have to worry about going to work, I just sleep in until Luke wakes me up, feed and change him, then get myself ready for the day while he goes back to sleep. It’s a great system! Now if we can just get him on a “normal” person’s sleep-at-night schedule…