Ash is 1 month old

Today I am one month old. It has been a busy month!
 

I was born at 7.5 lbs, promptly lost a pound and spent a couple weeks gaining it back. At my 2 wk appt I was within an oz or two of birth weight and measuring in the 15th percentile for weight and 77th for height.  I'm still wearing NB size clothes and diapers. Since I'm so long, some of my sleeves are getting short and I might grow out of my NB sleepers at my next growth spurt.

I've spent the whole month improving my technique at breastfeeding and have gotten pretty good at it. I just moved to my "big boy" crib in my own room this week and even slept through almost the whole night.

I've just recently started spending more time awake and interacting with the world. I like to lay on my play mat (thank you great-gpa-Ted!) for 10-20 min at a time. I'm just beginning to find my voice and make occasional outbursts of sound.

My daddy's favorite thing about me right now is when I'm fed and happy and he can play with me in the evenings. He can't wait for me to be able to hold my head steady and start smiling and interacting more.

 

My momma's favorite things about me right now are my new ability to talk and the way I grin & chuckle as I'm falling asleep. She is sad that my hair is falling out and can't wait for the new fuzz to grow in.

My parents love to laugh about the bizarre positions I sleep in and tease me about the faces I pull, but I know they both love me so much.

 The things I'm looking forward in the next month are visits from my Moomer/Nanna Patti and my "Aunt" Chellie. I'll also start taking a bottle with daddy this month and start taking walks with momma when the weather's nice.

Don't cry, I'll be back next month with more updates! :-D

A letter to my husband

Dearest sweet husband,

There is so much in the last three weeks, in the last nine months, in the last (almost) 10 yrs to thank you for - where do I begin? You have been so faithful and loving through the good years and the bad ones. You've put aside your dreams and desires for me to follow my heart in childcare and granted me the gift of mothering your child. You've been supportive and sweet through my pregnancy, doing what you could to help out when I needed it and to be understanding. You stood by my side while I labored, exhausted and worn out with me, but supporting me in all the ways you could. And over the past three weeks you have taken care of us like only a loving husband and father could. You have kept up the housework and finances, set up appts and maintenance for the house, driven us to Dr visits, fetched food and water and anything I needed, run errands for and with us, accommodated my every need, worked to be supportive and understanding through post-partum hormones and exhaustion and breastfeeding struggles. And at the end of all that service, you return to work on a shortage of sleep, supporting us so that I can be home with our son. Your companionship is sorely missed in the quiet house, but you are still deeply appreciated. I hope you know how much you mean to us; we would not BE without you.

Much love,
your grateful wife and newborn son

Post-partum

Pregnancy Wrap-up:

I thought I'd write a little bit about each of the categories I've been commenting on for months.  I meant to have this up a couple weeks ago, or at least last week, but life with a newborn has been busy and exhausting.  Now that Josh is at work and I'm home alone, I'm taking advantage of a short nap-time to finish and post.  This is Ash's first nap in his big crib, by the way; hoping he learns to sleep well there.

How Far Along : born at 41 weeks (3 weeks ago)

Size of Baby : born at 7 lbs 8 oz and 19" long

Total Weight Gain : ~32 lbs

Maternity Clothes : I'm wearing my maternity pants, but they're already pleasantly baggy, as well as some pre-baby sweats. I was shocked at how "jolly" I looked after the baby with my jiggly belly, but love how quickly it is shrinking. I can't wait for my organs to find their way back to their rightful positions. :)  As far as tops, I'm running around almost exclusively in the nursing tanks Jordan sent me.

Best Moment This Week : falling in love over and over.  And any day that involves multiple effortless perfect latches - for anyone who's ever tried to learn breastfeeding, you may know what I mean; for everyone else, let's just say those are less stress and pain filled days, and very welcome!

Gender : boy...he looks like a little old man :)

Movement : he sleeps a lot, but when he's awake he's active and strong. He's got scrawny tiny limbs, but he's always moving them. His eyes are still learning to focus and we have fun teasing him about his crazy eyes and the faces he pulls.

Food Craving : it has been so nice to eat chocolate and tomatoes again!  We've had chili and lasagna and a myriad of other tomato based meals, not to mention tomatoes on my burgers and just snacking on tomatoes (thank you, Lindsey!).  I've already eaten my way through a whole package of double stuff Oreos and have started into a bag of Dove dark chocolates... mmmm.


What I Miss Most : I miss my independence.  Even though I was unable to do some things for myself towards the end, I was at least able to do what I wanted when I wanted.  Now I'm at someone else's beck and call... nursing is a demanding job and without a predictable schedule yet I never know when I'm going to have time to get anything besides nursing done.

Sleep : It is SO nice to be able to sleep in any position I want!  I've done my fair share of enjoying lying on my back and stomach, but have to admit I forgot all about the beauty of being able to curl up into a ball.  Lots of fetal going on, I won't lie.  It's also nice that he's settled into sleeping almost 4 hrs between night feedings, so I'm getting a couple good chunks of sleep.  Now we're just working on getting into bed at a reasonable time since Josh is back to work and has to get up early in the morning.  And hopefully we can land on a sleep schedule that includes one mid-night feeding and then another when Josh's alarm goes off at 5:30am so that I'm not waking at 4:30 (to feed), 5:30 (when the alarm goes off), and 6:30 (when Josh leaves for work)... at least that's the ideal.

What I Am Looking Forward To : While I'm doing my best to cherish every day, these early weeks are hard for me b/c they're foreign.  When he's a couple months old, I'll know better what to do with him and what is developmentally appropriate.  Also at a couple months we should have established some sort of routine, and we all know how I thrive on routine! :-D

Belly Button : mine is almost an innie while my belly continues to shrink back to a smaller size and flatter shape.  His is a definite outtie, which we're hoping will diminish at least a little as time goes by.

Symptoms : I have already almost forgotten what it felt like to be pregnant!  It's only been 3 weeks, but it feels like it's already been a lifetime.  It is so nice to have my energy back (except for losing sleep at night), to be feeling like myself again after the couple weeks it took my body to recover from the birth process, to be able to move freely (when I don't have a baby attached to me externally).  I'm also so glad to be free of the reflux, of course. 

But now my baby boy is waking up and fussy, so I need to go take care of him.  Hopefully soon I'll start regular baby updates....