Moving On

I won't tell you that I dressed Micah all up in his Halloween outfit yesterday fully believing that yesterday was Friday, therefore Halloween. My Grammy and I went out shopping with the little man and I even showed the cashier his Halloween outfit. Oh well. And if that wasn't bad enough, he had an overflowing diaper which created quite a mess on the outfit-that-had-been-worn-a-day-early. Fortunately I had enough laundry to make a full load and Micah is now (re)dressed in his Halloween outfit on Halloween. It's a candy corn shouting, "I want candy!"

On Friday, Dad, Mom, and I were going to go over Ryan's house. I had just fed and changed Micah, but desperately wanted a shower. Not wanting to wait around for me, they took the baby and left. When I arrived over there not an hour later, I was greeted with these pictures:

My child is an overachiever already. We went for his one-month check-up yesterday and here are the stats:

Weight: 12 lbs. 4 oz.
Height: 23 3/4 inches

Let's break it down. We were at the doctor's exactly one month ago where he was 9 lbs. 4 oz. and 21 1/2 inches. That means he has gained THREE pounds in four weeks and grew 2 1/4 inches in the same time frame. The doctor and nurse practitioner were very impressed with how strong he is and the doctor said that he is ready for tummy time. I didn't mention that not only does he have tummy time, but he's been sleeping on his belly at night now (he slept a five-hour stretch last night). He was such an angel the entire time. I had to strip him down for his weight and he didn't mind at all, matter of fact he was flirting with the nurse and the nurse practitioner. The doctor experienced the same affection and I was getting kind of worried that he likes older women...already! Oh, and the doctor mentioned that his blue eye color would more than likely stay that way. Again (I thought the baby would look more like D) I was hoping they'd be D's hazely color but again I am wrong! No shots this time, for which both Mom and I were grateful; he was in too good of a mood to have it ruined by a silly shot. The doctor and I discussed other things: the vitamin D drops make his belly upset so she suggested organic drops that are sold at Whole Foods. I would have gotten those to begin with, had I known about them. I told her I was using these homeopathic drops for gas relief and she said he should be growing out of that soon. It's true, we haven't had to give them to him nearly as much as a few weeks ago.

As Mom, Micah, and I were walking out of the patient room area, we ran into Ryan and Yana. Ry was there to see his doctor and as chance would have it, we were walking down the same hallway at the same time. And who was waiting in the parking lot when we got down there, but none other than my dad. He was passing by the building on his was to food shop, so we said hi to him. Mom asked a good question, "Who else gets to see practically their entire family at that point in the day, time or place?" It was fun, whatever the answer.

Micah and I went to Target where he decided that he didn't want the bottle I had pumped for him, yet he still wanted to eat. So we were sitting in the car for a few minutes while he nursed and then we were good to go. He was great and let me do all my shopping.

Later in the afternoon, in the midst of a good nap, his afternoon guests arrived. Yana's two grandmothers wanted to meet the little man, so we made arrangements. They are some of the cutest grandmothers I've met. They don't speak a lot of English so either Yana or Rita had to translate what they were saying to us...but they came bearing food and gifts and had such a good time holding Micah. He was talked to in Russian or Armenian and he was talking back to them in Baby, it was the cutest thing to see. One of the grandmothers bought him a bathrobe and a few summer outfits, the other pulled out a $20 bill and gave it to him! We all had tea and some of the desserts they brought over: a pound cake and baklava...yum! I wasn't sure how Micah would behave, considering I had to wake him up, but again he was an angel! After being passed to Yana, the grandmas, Rita, Ryan, and back again, he decided that he wanted to eat, thus ending our visit.

I found the following clip in my inbox yesterday. I guess Dad had found a site where this is possible and of course he used our Micah-man as the star of his film. The site is actually pretty cool and I can see myself using it in the future, but for now this is what Dad came up with...

Well the near future was nearer than expected. I just put together this "Sleepy Micah" video using just a few of the many pictures we have of this man sleeping. Which is kind of ironic because he hadn't been taking good naps when most of these were taken...but he is now :)

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.

This is Micah (at 3 weeks) deciding to tell everyone about the big, bad bath that his Mommy and Grammy just gave him. He makes direct eye contact and will respond with his cooing when talked to...I can't keep up with this kid!

These photos were not staged. He was in the middle of feeding and for some reason he found his thumb more appealing...

Micah is a big fan of his daddy. If I didn't tell David that Micah has periods of fussiness like when he wants to eat or be jumped up and down to sleep (almost literally...), then D would think he was absolutely perfect all the time. Basically, Micah likes to make a liar out of me. I know, it's only the beginning. After being on-call Sunday into Monday (and with only half an hour of sleep), D came home to one happy baby. D read him a book while Micah ate and then he changed his diaper and socialized with him for a good half an hour. Then Micah decided that he had had enough and wanted to go to sleep. We wrapped him up tight, made sure he was warm, and D started the bounciness that this kids likes to go to sleep to (I didn't think I was that bouncy when he was in utero...). Not two minutes later, this was the state of Micah:


A few things about this picture: if you want to know the face D makes while he sleeps, there you have it. I'm not sure why these guys feel the need to concentrate on sleeping, but both are very intent on it. Another thing: Micah l.o.v.e.s. his hands. They are his toys and no matter how tight you swaddle him, one or both will soon make an appearance. In my 38 week ultrasound, we saw his hands up by his eyes and they were making a waving motion. Guess what he still does? It's fascinating to watch him do the exact same thing in real life. And yesterday, for the first time, he found his thumb!!! He still pokes himself with the other four fingers because he hasn't found a way to curl them down yet, but he definitely found the thumb and put himself back to sleep. I saw him trying to go for it again this morning, but everything was curled up so his entire fist ended up in his mouth...the opposite problem from yesterday! He's a great source of entertainment!

I've been given the not-so-subtle impression that I'm crazy for absolutely loving and thoroughly enjoying every single minute I was in the hospital...post partum. The nursing staff was outstanding, the meals were delicious (I could order as much as I want off of the menu they provided), the visitors were entertaining and never stopped coming, and Micah was (is) such a good boy.

I have to take a moment to give David his much-do credit on his role as both husband and father. He was with us the entire hospital stay doing everything that I couldn't do for both the baby and me. He never complained, was always there for us, and was such a big help that I couldn't have done as well as I did without him. I was so grateful that his resident decided to give him the entire week of paternity leave then instead of a month later. Not only was my man supportive, he was so kind and loving and the all-around awesome guy I knew I married and the wonderful father that I knew he would be. He even changed those first few diapers, which, as you may know, are really quite...messy. And not that his help has stopped there because it hasn't, but working 80+ hour weeks can slightly impinge on good help.

On top of David being there constantly, we had a never-ending stream of family, friends, and church family stopping by to see our is-he-here-yet? baby. When I say never-ending, I am not exaggerating. Our visitors would start coming around 10am (and that's just because I said I didn't want anyone there any earlier) and end around 8:30pm. Every single day/night. I didn't take one nap while in the hospital...there wasn't any time. But it was a lot of fun and I wouldn't have had it any other way. Our Micah-man got (and is continuing to get) so much stuff, including some boy-looking clothes, which he is probably very thankful for. His yellow and green wardrobe is steadily becoming more and more blue/boyish.









Each night, we sent Micah back to the nursery so we could get some sleep. He is such a noisy sleeper and all his grunts and squeaks would keep us up. The nurses would bring him to our room when he needed to eat...it was great. And speaking of great, the nurses were absolutely fabulous. They were so attentive to both my and Micah's needs. They would go out of their way to make sure we had what we needed and that we were comfortable. The morning after Micah was born, they came to get me up out of bed (mind you, he was born at 7:49 the previous evening). That wasn't the most fun I had during my stay there, but it was necessary. Tuesday and Wednesday I took it easy, just walking around the room. Finally, on Wednesday night, D told me I had to walk the halls with him. We left my mom with Micah and I finally stepped out of my room for the first time! He showed me where the nursery was and I also found out that our room was right across from the nurses' station. By Thursday, I was up and around much more and when we left on Friday, I was completely comfortable walking and doing things for myself. The doctors and nurses would check my incision multiple times daily and each time they saw it, they'd comment on how "beautiful" it looked. I found their word choice kind of funny, but was glad it was doing well.

Friday morning was check-out and Mom and Dad came to video/take pictures of the entire event. Before we left, the food service people brought us a goodie bag filled with dinner ingredients that we could make together at home.


Then we got all this free stuff for Micah: a diaper bag filled with goodies and all the diapers and diapering items in the isolate. I noticed, at one point, that Micah's diapers were suspiciously labeled "size 1" and asked the nurse about it. She said, "Oh yes, he's in size one. We put our six- and seven- pound babies in newborn diapers." I asked if the newborn would still fit him, to which she replied, "They might, but they'd be bikini on him." And she was right...so Mom and I are making a few diaper wreaths for several of the ladies who are pregnant at church. Also, I'm not using wipes at this point. They were using gauze at the hosptial because babies' skin is so sensitive, but I didn't want to keep buying gauze. Another nurse suggested dampening face cloths, which we are doing and it's working out great. I was looking into something other than wipes before the baby was born, but hadn't settled on anything. Another way the nurses were so helpful!

To wrap things up, you might notice that Micah's going-home outfit doesn't look like the one I had previously posted. That's because Mom brought the one we had to the hosptial and we measured it against the baby. You guessed it, it (size 0-3) was too small for our nine-pound baby. I was actually very happy that it didn't fit because Mom was able to go to the store and exchange it for the one I really wanted in size 3-6 months. So this blue and gray stripped outfit was the one I had originally wanted :)

Dad posted these Welcome Home, Micah Andrew signs all over the house. He's such a grandpa already! Now we're home and getting in the swing of things. We still have lots of visitors and everyone says the same thing, "He's so beautiful. You have to say all babies are cute, even if they're not, but your baby really is beautiful." We're kind of partial, so we agree, but I tell them not to say it too loudly otherwise Micah will get a big head. We love you, little man!