Moving On

What were we doing a month ago today?

I can't believe how big he has gotten in just a month. Not that he was ever really small to begin with, but he's even bigger now :(. Probably has a lot to do with him being such a good eater. This kid can put it away! And yet nothing is chubby on him. I always tell him, for being nine pounds (probably closer to 11 by now), you think I could get some cheeks or thighs or something!

To sum up the month: a whirlwind. My biggest adjustment has been the sleeping thing, or the reduced amount thereof. And it's not even as bad as it could be since both Mom and David are helping me, but I'm used to getting a solid 8+ hours of sleep. Not with a baby. However, it's not all that bad since he's been sleeping four or five hours at a pop. Also, I kind of miss going out and about on a whim. I have to consider Micah's eating and sleeping "schedule" before going anywhere or doing anything. Again, this hasn't been as big of a deal as it could have been without Mom and company here to help. I've gone out on little errands here and there since my first week home, which has been great. I couldn't drive for two weeks so Mom and D were carting me around everywhere I wanted/needed to go. The first thing I did was put together a big basket of tea/coffee mugs with tea bags, hot chocolate powder, coffee, and iced tea packets for the nurses at the hospital. D finally delivered it last night and they loved it. I tied a little picture of Micah to each wrapped mug with something like, "Thank you for taking such good care of us" with our name typed up on the back. I loved those nurses! OK, onto the good stuff.

Micah has adjusted to being outside my belly quite well. Not that he's supposed to yet, but he can: hold his head up and look around, make direct, sustained eye contact, smile in response to talking with him, and find and suck his (right) thumb. He has a lot of awake periods throughout the day, which means he doesn't nap as much as I thought he would. He took great naps for the first few weeks, but he has decided that now he has more important things to do. He falls asleep great for D, though, which is cute. I know "they" say not to, but since he can hold his head up already, we started (just today, actually) letting him nap on his belly. He seems to like it so much better and stays asleep for longer. I'm not comfortable letting him sleep at night like that just yet, but when we're all up and around during the day, I don't mind. He likes the pacifier at certain points of sleepiness. He'll take it when he first wants to fall asleep and then when he wakes up but doesn't want to eat yet, he'll take it to fall back asleep. The funny thing is, though, he'll spit it out all by himself after around five minutes...for which I am very grateful because he will not see his first birthday with that in his mouth. Oh, and we found out the trick of a successful bath time: two washcloths. One to cover up his chest and belly with and one to do the actual washing. The other day he cried when Mom took him out of the tub, instead of in. He looks so cute and tiny all naked. His bottom is actually three times smaller than what it looks like all day in a diaper!

I'm starting to venture out with him more. I took him with me to Babies R Us yesterday for all of forty-five minutes and he started getting fussy at the end of our shopping trip. D says that was just because we were shopping...you know, the whole guys don't like to shop thing. He fell asleep in the car seat on the way home, which he usually does in the car. We've taken him to church a number of times and a few times we've had to step out with him, but he's made it through a few services, too. Today I took him over Ryan and Yana's because everyone was going over for lunch and, while I need to feed him over there, he was passed around quite a bit and everyone was able to get their Micah fix. The running joke is that every picture you take of Micah is of Micah and my breast because the kid is an eating machine. And while I don't allow such pictures to be taken, I would agree that about 80% would be such a picture. Which is precisely why I don't venture out a lot right now! This baby eats so much that I already have at least five bags stock-piled in the freezer; and that's on top of pumping 4oz every day so Mom can do his first night feeding. He knows how to do his job, that's for sure!

Well, that about sums up our first month as a family of three and an extended family of what seems like a million :). We go for his one-month appointment early next week, so I'll give you the official stats then.