The Mole

I try to get the little bug out as much as possible, but being born in the winter can make that a little tough. Fortunately we've had some mild weather recently, and I've been able to get him out a few times. He's still pretty resistant to going out in the daylight, like a little mole. He squints his eyes so tight most of the time that he looks like he's asleep. BUT, I refuse to give up! He will enjoy the outdoors as much as I do before long :) Here's one of his trips to the back yard last week...
















Being outside is sooooo taxing, we spent a little swing time :)






I love waking the little bug up from a nap. He looks like a sleepy little caterpillar with a fuzzy head sticking out...until you open the swaddler, and then he blossoms out like a little butterfly!






Hanging out with Daddy today...














Today I decided it should be our first family visit to a park. We were going to be carrying him in the Bjorn instead of the stroller so I wanted to dress him warmly. I looked in his drawer, and one of his outfits that actually has pants was his cute UT outfit from his Great-Nanny. It's still a little big, but he makes one freakin cute Longhorn!
(His bottom half looks quite large in some of these photos; that's because we started cloth diapering yesterday, and they're pretty thick!)








I have an actual picture of him being carried around the park, but it's on our little point and shoot. Who knows when the heck I'll remember to unload that thing, but we had so much baby stuff for that short trip that I couldn't justify carrying around my big camera, too.
If I had my big camera then I might have been able to catch Anthony gut-checking this dog on the trail that tried to jump on the baby :) The dog just wanted to play, and Anthony certainly didn't hurt him...but the dog yelped pretty loud nonetheless so with his owner right behind us we thought we might have offended her. She was understanding and said that we should have done just what we did since he tried to jump on us. Would have made an interesting picture with Anthony and Anthony (in the Bjorn) and a dog flying through the air forward and then WHOA, backward!
(No dogs were harmed in the making of this blog...)

Shannon and Jamie

Brace yourself, 2 posts in one day! Actually 3 for me considering I had to post on the Whitney Lee site, too. Here's a snippet of Shannon and Jamie - view the rest on the WLP Blog!

One Month!

Oh boy, the little bug turned one month on Saturday, January 16th. Which was also one set of his grandparents anniversary, (woowoo!)...a day of celebration!

This month has seemed never-ending in some ways (i.e., when I can't get him to calm down, when I'm up for the millionth time that night, and when I start zoning out all day but can't sleep b/c the sun is out...). In other ways, it feels like it flew by. My mom visited this weekend, and she was amazed at his size (he's at least 10 pounds now!) and how much he keeps his eyes open. Indeed he stays awake a HUGE chunk of the day, and that blows my mind b/c I thought babies slept more than that. Take today for instance, it's 1:40pm as I type this, and he has slept approximately 30 minutes since he woke up this morning. Cranky? Yes. Hungry? Always.

But I digress. I started thinking back to when we first brought him home. He did sleep almost all day, sometimes had to be woken up for feedings, and people got super excited if they got to see his eyes b/c the sleepy little thing hardly ever opened them (oh boy those were the days!).

Tomorrow the squirt-bert will be 5 weeks old. I like to keep count of the weeks because 1) that's how they count their first growth spurts, and I like to know when they're coming and 2) they come faster than the months so it makes me feel like I've achieved more!

Here are some pics of him playing last week...including a smile finally caught on camera!!










A picture of his Granny holding him on the big one month!

The Little Bug

Is there anything cuter than a sleeping baby?! A sleeping baby means the house is quiet, he is content, and I have a chance to grab a quick bite to eat! Sleeping babies are AWESOME.













Here's my poor child laying on his changing table (next to the vitamin drops I spilled!) wondering what his name is. He's been called Anthony and AJ by different people. What he gets the most of is either "little bug" or "squirt bert", and there's the occasional "little guy" and "milk monkey". So when the baby books say they should respond to their name in a couple months...what name should he respond to?!

Back to Work

Well, I don't know if I'd say I'm "back", but I'm easing into it. Yesterday I went on my first post-baby client meeting. I know my little guy doesn't always nap for 2 hours so I broke up my getting ready into multiple stages. One nap - shower. Second nap - dry hair. Third nap - put face on and pack my bag. I definitely didn't get dressed because I knew the minute I did that he'd get me all filthy...dressing could wait until Anthony got home.

The day started off with him having volcano poop that came out of his diaper all over me, him, blankets, and the boppy. I had to carry all of these things carefully across the room at the same time while hopping on one leg because of the puddle of runny poop threatening to roll off my pajamas onto the couch! Peg-leg poop pirate!

Ahem, anyway. Once my hair was fixed it was time for him to wake up and eat. When I was burping him he decided to have his first projectile vomiting episode. Nice. All into my clean hair...I'm SURE that's what the client wants to see and smell. It got all over me and went across the room so I just stripped down in the living room and used my shirt to mop up the floor before the cats got the idea to help me clean it up (ick!).

And I fed the little babe one last time before I left that afternoon so he'd be nice and full while I was gone. He decided to let down all the milk and then let go, but my fire-hose like milk producing abilities were out of control! My only clean bra ended up completely soaked right before I had to leave. JOY! I smiled all through this day for some reason, it was so comical...what else could go wrong?!

I walked into the meeting place and saw a girl who I thought might be my potential client. She didn't seem to respond to my inviting smile so I sat down to wait and get set up. Eventually she came over and asked if I was Amanda, and I said yes. She said some magical words to me, "I didn't think it was you because you said you just had a baby, and you definitely don't look like it!" Needless to say she's now my best friend ;) I'm still fighting about 9 pounds and a mommy pouch, but I don't feel too bad for having a 4 week old.

In honor of getting back out into public yesterday and wearing make up and talking about something other than baby bodily fluids for a couple of hours, I decided to get back into work blogging today so I can really push on and move further back into society as I figure out how to balance work and motherhood. During a baby nap I managed to eat my lunch AND make a post, which will be up tomorrow on Whitney Lee Photography.

Here's a tidbit of Rachel and Tim

Going It Alone

It was so wonderful to have my husband and mom there when my son was born. Thanks to Christmas, my parents were back at my house soon after my mom had left from the birth. Anthony was able to take 2 1/2 weeks off work total to spend with me while I adjusted to being a mom. All of that was so nice! My mother-in-law even came over the first 2 days this week while Anthony went back to work, and she made sure I was all caught up on the household chores before I was left completely alone. As I said before, generosity has been plentiful in our household this season!

But the real test for me was going to be Wednesday (the 6th). It would be my first day to be ALL alone in the house with the kid for more than about 2 hours. And since Anthony had been working this week, I was also not asking him to get up in the middle of the night (though I know he would) so he can be rested up for his transition back into the real world. It was all me! Our little baby also turned 3 weeks on our first day alone, and I had a doctor's appointment with my OB. That meant not only would I be alone with the kid, but I'd have to leave the house with him, too. That meant remembering everything I needed to bring, remembering how to drive (it had been a month since I'd done that), and figuring out my stroller.

Of course we came through just fine, and the day I had dreaded and been anxious about is now looked back on fondly because (as Leah told me) you get to start your new normal. This is how things are going to be; just me and the baby. Nobody to hand him off to because I really need to go to the bathroom or I'm really hungry or really sleepy. But it also came with a sense of empowerment. For 19ish hours of the day, this guy is solely my responsibility, and I did it! Without losing my sanity!

I'm still pretty tired these days. For all the friendly advice from people on "sleeping when the baby sleeps", I just can't sleep during the day. And sometimes I'm so wound up from not sleeping that I don't even sleep when it's night. I know, I know, but my body doesn't work like yours!

Here are some photos of Anthony playing on one of his mats (which involves his tolerance and his tears)...








And here's the little guy when we got back from our first trip out alone into the world

First Bath

Little Anthony had his first bath when he turned 2 weeks. He lost his umbilical cord a couple of days before that, but the pediatrician said to go ahead and wait another day or two before moving to big boy baths. The cord falling off was a little bit of a surprise. He had fallen asleep on me in our big chair, and when he woke up I stood up and heard this plastic sound hit on our tile floor. I looked down, and there was the stump! It had worked its way off of him, over the diaper, and out of the onesie!

Ahem, on to the bath. It went pretty well. We warmed up our bathroom in advance so he wouldn't suffer too much of a shock (it's been freakin cold here lately). I didn't take any photos of him actually in the tub because I was trying to make it quick and painless, and it's pretty dark in our bathroom. But I was sure to take some photos of the aftermath where he wore the gigantic duck robe his Granny bought him :)







Whoa, this is cold! Where are my clothes?!