Baby's First Hickey

So, yeah...Jacob has his first hickey :) Yesterday afternoon I looked down at his arm and there was a mark on it. It was sort of purple. I thought maybe it was just an indentation in his skin from how I had been holding him, but the more I looked at it it just didn't look that way. Then I started thinking that maybe it was a bruise. He wiggles around a lot these days so I thought maybe his delicate skin just bruised from him being held too tight when he tried to wiggle out of my grasp. I felt bad, obviously, but he didn't seem phased by it when I pressed on it a little. But then I started thinking...hmmm...if it was a bruise from holding him, it should be higher up on his arm, around the bicep...not on his forearm. And then last night it hit me...it was from him sucking on his arm! Yesterday before we went to the doctor, Jacob was hungry. He'd already been fed but he's been eating a lot lately (hence the weight jump, I suppose), and I was planning on feeding him right before we left anyway. I just wanted to get myself ready ASAP so Craig could get back to the air conditioning people (still no A/C, by the way...our furnace's fan apparently wasn't A/C friendly so they have to add a part...supposed to happen today...though right now we really don't need the A/C anyway) and I could just feed him and go. Well, Craig was doing everything he could to keep Jacob from screaming while I was finishing getting ready (he's inconsolable when hungry), and had him on his belly on the Boppy pillow. He was sucking on his arm, which he tries to do a lot, but rarely gets a good suck going. Apparently he got a pretty good grip on it this time, because he left a mouth-sized purple mark on it! I knew babies can give themselves sucking blisters (one of the babies in the special care nursery had one on his arm, and I saw on a baby show where a baby was born with blisters on both arms from sucking on them in utero), but I couldn't believe he'd managed to give himself a baby hickey!

Knock on wood, he's been pretty good (though very hungry) the last couple days. He's had a couple diaper blowouts recently, which probably means he's almost ready for the next size diaper...and based on his weight yesterday, I suppose he is. Of course I just bought a new pack of the small ones, so we might have to suffer through them for another few days. The other ones seem so huge (we have a huge box of them waiting in the wings!), but I guess he'll grow into them! Even though the changes I see in him are subtle, I can definitely tell he's changing fast. He's a lot chubbier than he was when he was born, even though he still looks pretty skinny. He's definitely more of a handful. I feel like I need to be taking more pictures of him because he'll never be this size again, you know? I just can't wait until he starts smiling so the pictures have a better chance of looking really cute. At this point he's got two looks--awake or sleeping--so the pictures are tough to make interesting, but I know I should be taking them nonetheless!

Speaking of which...he's getting fussy so it's time to go. Have a great day!

Busy Few Days

It was quite the weekend for Jacob. Craig was on the road for work so I took Jacob on his first roadtrip, down the thruway to Buffalo. We stayed with my parents on Friday and Saturday night. Jacob has his own crib there, in my old room. My cousin Lori came along with us. We had a good time hanging out with my parents...they just find him so fascinating! Friday night he got to meet his Great Grandma Ellman, and Saturday morning we went to the Canal Fest Craft Show with my mom, my aunt, and Lori. Jacob slept through the whole thing, thank goodness. We didn't have enough faith he'd stay asleep to stop and eat lunch there, but we got through all of the show before he started to fuss. After a stop at home, I packed him in the car and we headed out to Hamburg for his cousin Grant's first birthday party. He met his Nana and got to see his other set of grandparents, as well as his aunt, uncle and cousins. We had a nice time and Jacob was very well behaved, sleeping and being quietly alert when he was awake. On Sunday he survived his first church service. Luckily it was short. He slept through most of it, just piping up with a few of his grunts. They never lasted long. He started to cry once and I stepped out quickly, just in case, since we were right by the door, but he stopped pretty fast. He met two great uncles and a great aunt yesterday afternoon, and a friend of mine on the way out of town, before we finally came home. Here's our classic picture of the weekend, when he was sleeping in the boppy on my parents' couch...notice the almost-smile he's got on his face :)


This morning we went to the doctor. Everything looks good, and he is definitely a growing boy...he weighs 9 lbs., 10 oz.! Almost three pounds in a month! All of my questions came back as normal, so we're good for now.

We're also getting our central air today, so that will be nice to no longer worry about him getting overheated. Now if it could just stop raining...

Lunchtime for Jacob...and soon for his mother, as well :) Have a good day!

Looking back on pregnancy

Now that I'm nearly a month removed from it (yeah, a month...can you believe it? Jacob's four weeks old today, and a month on Sunday!), I've been thinking about the whole pregnancy thing a lot. My daily intake of baby-related reality TV has had a hand in that as well, I guess.

I know that I was lucky to have had a really great pregnancy. No complications, nearly eight months of working out, a cute little belly and a butt that stayed in check, and one less week of suffering in the crazy heat near the end. Jacob was never in the right position to kick me in the ribs, and I really wasn't that uncomfortable until the last month or so. I had minimal swelling and even got my wish of a nice, private water-breaking. I was truly blessed.

Do I miss pregnancy? Not especially, because I know it had its less fun moments, but there were parts of it that were cool. Watching your body change like that was really amazing and often entertaining, and although I'm not one for attention, it was interesting to see people's reaction to my big belly. Pregnancy doesn't last that long in the grand scheme of things, and all those pictures I have of me pregnant (though I don't have as many as I'd like, nor did I ever get one of my bare belly...darn.) are extra precious because I won't be like that again for a while...and next time it may not be as cute!

Although my summer maternity clothes were limited, I'm probably in worse shape now because so few of my old clothes fit. It's getting better because my belly continues to shrink, and I think my hips are finally shrinking a bit as well, but the nursing-enhanced chest still leaves most of my shirts too short to look nice. I don't miss having to go out and buy maternity clothes, but shopping for normal clothes really isn't an option at this point either because my body will continue to change.

I'm not sure if I miss work yet or not. I suppose I miss having intelligent adult conversation on a day to day basis, but I've been so busy at home that I haven't really had a chance to miss work. Despite being home all day every day, I feel productive if I get one or two things done that aren't directly related to Jacob. I can't believe I only have two more weeks left.

This may be bad to say, but I miss having a direct link to Jacob without having to be on call 24/7. It's obviously amazing to have him here, but it was nice to feel him move in my belly and not have to worry that it would be immediately followed by a cry and a half-hour feeding. It's not like we didn't sign up for this, but his needs are almost constant and that can get exhausting, particularly when you're already sleep-deprived or he's been extra fussy all day.

As much as I tried to savor pregnancy, I wish I would have done it even more. Losing that last week and a half probably prevented me from getting a few final pictures or preparing quite as much as I would have liked. It's a lot like when I said goodbye to my old car. While I knew the end was coming eventually and I was excited about it, the way it happened so suddenly (the accident that totaled my car compared to my fluid leaking a week and a half early) made the change happen much differently than I had anticipated. The final farewell was sad just because the mental preparation wasn't exactly how I had expected it to be. In the end, though, everything turned out for the better, in both cases.

It still amazes me to look back and think about carrying around that baby, how he fit in there and how awesome it is that babies form so perfectly with very little intervention from the outside world. Sometimes I still can't believe my pregnancy is over and Jacob's been around for almost a month. On the bright side, it's nice to sleep on my stomach again, wear some of my old clothes that I had been missing, eat and drink mostly what I want (still trying to cut down on the dairy...missing milk and cereal a LOT--but enjoying more things with artificial sweeteners and getting my fill of cold cuts!), and have my bladder back under my domain! And, once our house isn't so hot and we have a little more alone time on our hands, it will be nice to fit on the couch with Craig again! This whole thing has definitely been an adventure. Labor wasn't fun (I'm hoping to post more about that sometime soon, just to document it all for posterity, if nothing else), but based on my pregnancy, I'm able to look forward to doing it all again in a few years... :)

Unintentional Avoidance

Back when I was in high school, I used to have to get up very early to get ready for school. I hated it. The sound of an alarm clock that sounds like the one I used still sends shivers up my spine. I remember having a couple issues that prevented me from getting up promptly. First, there were times that I would integrate the alarm into a dream. There's still one dream I remember where I was frantically running all over the place trying to figure out what that sound was...and sure enough, my alarm had been going off all along. Second, there were times that I would dream I had gotten up and started to get ready. I'd be feeling good, and then suddenly realize, oh crap...I'm still in bed and haven't actually gotten up, and now I'm extra late!

Well, now that I have to get up at all sorts of crazy hours with Jacob, I seem to have picked up those bad habits again! Quite frequently I've been thinking I've gotten up, only to finally wake up and realize I dreamt it...and poor Jacob has been crying that whole time. I haven't incorporated the cries into a dream much, but I did last night. On the bright side, that happened at about 4:45am, and that was Jacob's first and only time up! I think he ate around 10:30-11, fell asleep around 11:30, might have made some noises around 3:30 that woke me up, but he stayed asleep and didn't start screaming until 4:45...at which point I apparently only half heard him and briefly experienced the cries in a dream. I think I figured it out pretty quickly, though, was up for an hour, then went back to bed until Jacob woke up again around 8:45. I didn't sleep that whole time since Craig was up and about, but it was still nice.

And here I thought I'd be one of those parents that hears a pin drop and sits right up in bed.
To be fair, Jacob makes a LOT of noise all the time. He grunts a lot as he's waking up, so I generally wait a few minutes to see if it turns into an all-out cry or if he eventually drifts back off to sleep. So I guess I don't react to every noise because some of it is Jacob "crying wolf"...but not waking up the second I hear him is throwing me off a bit. I don't want to unintentially neglect his needs with these dreams!

In any event, it was nice to only get up once in the night...and it makes me wish he'd start sleeping through the night more often, and start doing it soon! It leaves me more refreshed and in a better mood for a potentially long, hot day at home. Monday's central air can't come soon enough :)

Photo Shoot Rejects

Until I get a new picture of Jacob to post, here are a couple rejects from the many photo shoots I did to get his birth announcement photo...



I would have used the one below if he didn't look so much like Popeye. It showcases the infamous dimple and one of his little smiles that he gets when he's falling asleep. How cute is that?

General Updates

Today was a good day for Jacob. We got up this morning and went to the day care to get him officially signed up. Everyone there thought he was adorable, and they laughed at how his squeaky little cry sounds like a laugh. Of course, then he got really upset and did his usual thing where he stops breathing momentarily, turns red, starts clicking, then lets out a loud scream. That freaked out the one woman when she noticed he wasn't breathing. It doesn't exactly sit well with me either, but he does it enough that I know he comes out of it ok. May be something I have to ask the doctor about, though. But they're excited to have him (and our money, no doubt).

We had a nice day where he alternated between naps and adorable wide awake time. He ate every 3-4 hours (nice change of pace from the past few days) and we got a great nap in this afternoon together, which was nice. It killed my plans to take a walk in the nice weather, but we'll probably have to have some outside time the next few days to escape our hot house. We're getting our central air a week late, based on this week's forecast :-P Tonight he was a little fussy, eating in short spurts before falling asleep and waking up a few minutes later crying. I don't know if it was gas or what. The gripe water definitely seemed to calm him down these last few days, to the point that he could sleep a bit during the day. The last couple days I've skipped my usual cereal for breakfast in favor of a less dairy-filled option, and I think that has helped as well. I'm still eating other forms of dairy, but I figured ditching the biggest dose of it (in its purest form, no less) might at least help. In fact, I didn't give him any gripe water today until he got fussy this evening. I may have to try soy milk to see if he reacts to that, because I will really start missing cereal if I can't eat it until I stop breastfeeding. Every day is different, so we'll see how tomorrow goes.

When we have a good day like today, it's so easy to just fall in love with the little guy. He can be so cute, and each day he seems to get a little more aware of his surroundings. Days where he's a little fussier, obviously he's still loved, but it's harder to really get all mushy about it. I end up more tired and cranky, and I get a little too caught up in wishing he'd just go to sleep to think about how awesome he is. However, even tonight when he was cranky, it was nice when I'd pick him up and he'd immediately stop crying. Makes you think you're doing something right.

I'll try to post some new pictures sometime soon. We've started tummy time on the boppy pillow, and sometimes he falls asleep (supervised) in the cutest positions like that. Hopefully I can catch it one of these days...

Reality TV...post-delivery

I posted on this blog a while back about how reality TV has impacted the childbirth process. Having seen shows like "A Baby Story" for years, I had at least a slight idea of what the process would be like...more than someone would have, say, 20 years ago. Since I've been home all day every day and TV generally stinks, I usually just leave the TV on TLC for their daily run of reality TV shows. A Baby Story, Bringing Home Baby, Jon & Kate Plus Eight, What Not to Wear, 10 Years Younger, each for an hour...then the first four shows each get another hour, with an hour of Take Home Chef somewhere in there (I don't watch that. The guy is really cute, but I'm just not a cooking show person.).

Since giving birth, I have a whole new appreciation for A Baby Story. People think I'm nuts that I watch it, but having been there, I now understand so much more what's going on, what the couples are going through, and the emotions involved in it all. C-sections are still a little out of my realm, but I did have a moment mid-labor where the thought crossed my mind...when Jacob's head was stuck somewhere in my pelvis around the end of hour #2, I wondered at what point they'd have to opt for a C-section, and how I'd feel about that. After all the pushing it would have been a bit of a disappointment, but by that point I think I was pretty desperate to get rid of the massive pressure I was feeling so I'm sure I would have been ok with it. Anyway, I just find the show that much more interesting now that I've been through it and can relate to much of what happens.

Bringing Home Baby chronicles the first 36 hours having a new baby at home. It's mostly new parents, but they do feature some couples that already have kids and need to get their kids readjusted to life with a sibling. It's a lot of the same stuff, from sleepless nights to feeding problems to figuring out how to change or bathe or dress a new baby. This morning a couple was freaking out about swaddling their baby because the SwaddleMe (great invention) was too close to the baby's mouth. I did the same thing, though have since figured out how to avoid that. Again, I can relate to a lot of what the couples go through. Some are more experienced than others, though, so sometimes I feel a little awkward when I'm still having issues with something that a couple conquered in the first 36 hours.

Both shows have a little segment at the end that fast-forwards about 6-8 weeks to see how things are coming along. That is where I find myself back where I was before I went through this process--uncharted territory. By that point, most couples seem well adjusted. Their babies are pudgy and smiling, and they're taking them somewhere, be it their first swim, first trip to the playground, or off to a picnic in the park. Having stuck very close to home this whole time, that is something to shoot for...a life where the baby doesn't have me chained to our living room couch. I know it won't always be like this, that he'll get his immunizations, his schedule will get more consistent, and I will be pumping breastmilk so I don't have to worry about nursing in public. We'll see if we can get that plan in motion a little more after next week's one-month checkup at the doctor. I have an appointment tomorrow at the day care center we picked, and I am freaking out about taking him there...if only because he's still not on a consistent schedule and I haven't really had much practice getting up and getting somewhere on time yet. We have the doctor's appointment next week and I have a dental appointment a couple days after that, so I will be forced to get things moving a bit by then. It will be a relief, but yikes!

Anyway, I'm probably rotting my brain by watching this stuff all day, but for whatever reason I can't take my eyes off it sometimes. Having been there gives me a whole new perspective, and it never hurts to keep it fresh for next time ;-)