First Christmas

We were so excited to celebrate Christmas for the first time with David!  

The night before Christmas Eve was a rough one though.  The poor dude only slept 2 hours because he kept waking himself up.  We were both exhausted. Luckily on Christmas Eve I thought to bust out the swaddle again (he hated being swaddled for a long time so we gave up). It worked!  He was well rested for all the festivities!

 Christmas Eve was celebrated at my aunt and uncles house.  This was the first Christmas Eve that hasn't been at my Grandma's house so it was a little strange for all of us I think.  We had a nice time anyway. David got to debut his first "big boy" outfit! We found the cutest herringbone pants and red sweater and even though he only wore the sweater for a little bit, it was so dang cute! David was awake for a good portion of the evening and then zonked out for a short nap before becoming Mr. Fussypants before church. We weren't sure if we were going to make it to mass, but luckily he fell asleep in the car and slept all the way though church!

Yes, his hands really ARE that big. You should see the feet on this kid too!

That night David gave us the gift of sleep!  Sleeping his first 5 hour stretch!  Ahh sweet, sweet sleep... He must have known he has to sleep for Santa to come!  I celebrated by falling down the stairs in the morning. Luckily I wasn't carrying the baby, but it was quite the spill. My back still hurts! Christmas morning we packed up for the day and headed over to my parents house for breakfast and gifts. He took a good nap and let us eat breakfast and then hung out under the tree while we opened gifts for a little, but soon got fussy and Grandpa had to take over! Something tells me he didn't mind though!

After my parents house we headed over to my Grandpa's house. This was the first time David was introduced to my dad's side of the family and boy howdy, are there a lot of people to meet!!!  I was really nervous about him being passed around with all the germies that usually come with a zillion grand-kids running around, but lucky for us he slept in his car seat the whole time! Everyone got to see him but from a "mom approved" distance :)  Finally we were all totally worn out so we headed back home to open our gifts and crash out for the night.  David slept for seven straight hours that night! He must have been exhausted.  He hasn't slept that long again since, but we are hoping for more to come soon!

Next up we head to my friend Kristy's for New Years Eve. We won't be staying long, but it will be nice to get out and do something. We haven't celebrated NYE in years!

David is Six Weeks Old

Six weeks already!  I have a feeling I'm going to start each update post with that sort of disbelief.  The time is really flying.

I am not exactly sure what to say that has changed since my last update, but I'm sure there's a ton.  He's still pretty much in the same routine that he's been in since we brought him home. He gets up every three hours to eat On. The. Dot.  Once in a very great while he'll sleep longer, but usually it's exactly three hours, around the clock.  I keep waiting for some longer stretches at night and hope they are coming soon... The books I have say six weeks is when they start to finally figure things out, so we'll see about that.

We are also trying to work on sleeping in the crib.  Right now he's not a fan. He sleeps in our room in the pack & play at night (very well, thankfully) and for naps he's usually in his swing (seriously, we'd be lost without that thing!) or sometimes in his little baby seat. We put him in the crib and he'll even put himself to sleep in there but without fail wakes up within an hour screaming.  We'll just keep at it, someday he'll get it.

Meals are still his favorite thing. He eats about 8 times a day and loves every second of every meal. And when it's time to eat and we are taking too long getting the bottle ready - watch out. Hangry to the max! He must get that from me...

His fifth week was a big one though.  I hosted the 10th annual "Girls Christmas" get-together. Usually we go out to eat, but since I'm not comfortable taking David out yet, I had it at my house instead. We had a great time eating appetizers and lots of sweets. David slept most the night but made sure to wake up and have a major scream-fest right before everyone left.  Luckily Zach was home from work early so he could help me out.

Then, this past Tuesday Zach and I had our first day-date since we had David.  We dropped him off at my parents and went to lunch and did some Christmas shopping. We were only gone a little over two hours, but it was nice to get out, just me and him again. And, much to my surprise, it wasn't THAT hard leaving David.  I knew he was in good hands (and would be sleeping most the time...)

The next few weeks are big ones! His first Christmas is coming up and I'm looking forward to it so much!  I hope he's in the spirit because he's got lots of places to go!  Church, Grandma and Grandpa's, and then both Great-Grandparents houses!  It should be fun!  Then the next week he has his two month appointment (TWO MONTHS!) and his shots.  I'm not looking forward to that, but I am looking forward to seeing how much he's grown.  Wow. Time is just slipping by.  I am SO thankful that I don't have to go back to work until the end of March!  I know it will be here before I know it though.... Till then I'm going to soak up every day with him!

David is One Month Old

Hooray! We made it a whole month! Look at us go! 

It's hard to believe that a whole month has already passed us by.  The days are absolutely flying!  People keep asking if we've developed a "routine" yet and I can't help but laugh. There is no such thing as a routine with a newborn I've found out.  I've tried, oh yes, I've tried but he kind of runs the show around here right now. Just when we feel like we've figured it out, he throws us a curve ball. Always keeping it interesting, that David!

3 weeks

He spent most of the first two and a half weeks of his little life asleep. He would sleep for hours if we let him, but we were instructed to wake him to eat every 3 hours, so we did.  And boy does he like to eat!!  He will throw an absolute fit when he's hungry but once we sit down and put on his bib he knows food is on the way and is happy as a clam the whole time he's eating.  The past week and a half he's been awake a LOT more.  Mostly at night.  Of course, right?  I don't really think he's got his days and nights totally mixed up, but he seems to wake up on his own more often at night than during the day.  We'll have good nights were he sleeps for 3 hours at a time, then other nights where he's up on the hour, every hour.  I'm having a hard time believing he'll EVER sleep longer than three hours, really. But at the same time, no matter how tired I am or what crazy hour of the night it is, I am soaking up every single moment of cuddle time I can get right now, because that won't last forever and I love it so much.

4 Weeks

I'd love to report all of his "developmental milestones" but honestly, I have no idea what I'm supposed to be watching for (book suggestions welcome!).  He's really good at tummy time and has awesome head control already (we think anyway) but he's also extremely wiggly. The pediatrician said we need to be careful with him because he's so strong and so reflexive right now.  She asked if I felt him move a ton when I was pregnant and was totally shocked when I told her I hardly felt him move at all. I guess he was saving up all his energy!  He can already wiggle his way around his crib, so because of this he quickly outgrew his cradle. He still sleeps in his pack-n-play in our room at night though.  He loves looking at the big windows in the living room, the lights in the kitchen and his blue curtains in his bedroom.  He loves being read to most of the time and is a big fan of his George Winston "December" CD of piano solos that we listen to over, and over, and over again every single night when we rock him to sleep. Overall he seems fairly happy and content but definitely has is majorly fussy moments.  He is a baby afterall :)

As for me? I'm doing alright.  This "mom" business is hard. I feel like I do nothing all day, but at the same time I feel incredibly busy. It's very strange.  I've had a really great recovery though. Despite the PUPP's (which is now mostly gone, thank God!) I have felt back to normal since about the first week!  I am so thankful that I healed so fast! I've lost two-thirds of my pregnancy weight so far and have just started going back to the gym. Oh wow, I've missed that. It felt SO good to put on my headphones, crank up the music and really push myself again.  I hope to drop the rest of the weight fairly quickly. I hardly have time to snack like I used to, so that should help.  I've also quickly realized the importance of getting out of the house every so often by myself. I feel really guilty doing it, but both Zach and I realize I need that time to get dressed, do my hair, get out amongst adults and feel normal for a while.  I am very grateful that Zach is able to look after David while I do that.  Sometime soon we are going to have my parents watch David while Zach and I go out Christmas shopping and to dinner. I'm excited and nervous at the same time!  We need to do it though.

So yeah. One month down! We are so in love with the little guy and can't wait to see what the next month has in store!