four weeks

Dearest Baby Boy Truman,


Four weeks ago today I had the privilege of meeting you and from the moment I saw your squishy baby face I fell madly in love with my son. It's totally cliche and it can't possibly make sense to anyone unless they've experienced it themselves, but my whole world changed the day you were born and it absolutely changed in the best possible way. How did I get so lucky to be your Mommy? I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that you are mine, that your Daddy and I made you, and that we get to keep you forever and watch you grow up a little bit every day. And boy, have you done some growing in the past four weeks.




Breastfeeding is certainly your favorite hobby and you showed off your instinctual skills for latching onto Mommy right away. Your Daddy weighed himself with and without holding you and we think you might be close to 10.5 pound already, which means you are still gaining almost a pound a week! Your cheeks are plumping up and your thighs are a little more meaty, and much to my dismay your newborn sleepers are getting a little too snug for my little peanut these days. I'm definitely going to be that mom who cries every time I put away another clothing size that no longer fits my munchkin because I just want to freeze time and keep you this tiny forever sometimes. Then again, your Daddy and I cannot wait for you to get bigger and more interactive with us because when you smile in your sleep it already melts my heart. I can't imagine how amazing it will be when you purposefully smile AT me which will probably be in the next month or so. I have a feeling you're going to have a lady-killer smile that will make all of us weak in the knees, possibly causing my head to pop off from love. Is that possible, I wonder?





Truman, you have experienced SO many 'firsts' in your first four weeks of life. We gave you the first real tub bath on 3.27 and you hated it with a passion:) Your Daddy gave you your first bottle full of Mommy's milk on 3.26 and you totally made his day with your adorable facial expression as you gulped down the milk like a champ. I guess you don't care where your milk comes from as long as we keep your tank full at all times! Your umbilical cord stump FINALLY fell off on 3.25, at 3 and a half weeks, and your little tummy is simply too cute for words. We've been cloth diapering your tushy now and it's going really well. I think you like the feeling of soft cloth on your butt and I personally adore your bulky booty full of cloth:)





Except for a few nights here and there, you've started to fall into a sleeping pattern that makes your Mommy a happy (and better rested) woman. Most of the time you will sleep for 3 to 4 hours at a time at night, nursing for about 30 minutes or more when you wake up, and you'll fall asleep fairly easily after each feeding with a little bit of coaxing from me. Sometimes you just want to be held and Mommy breaks the rules when she pulls you into bed with her and Daddy--but you just love laying on our big mattress in between your two favorite peeps (I'm assuming we are your favorites at this point, and we're going to go with it for awhile).

Becoming your Mommy has taught me more about life than I could have imagined. It's like all of the important things are blatantly clear to me now and everything else is just silly and insignificant. I'm surprising myself with parenting instincts that I never knew I had, and by making a few choices that I SWORE I'd never make when I was pregnant. For instance, you are sleeping right next to our bed instead of in your nursery (I swore that wouldn't happen!); I'm letting you run the show with your 'schedule' instead of imposing a strict time line on you for each day (I totally thought I'd like a set routine but find myself trusting that you know what you need better than the clock knows); and I find myself enjoying our little trips in the car to run errands and you've even been a social butterfly during coffee dates, a baby shower, and a few doctor's appointments. Each time we get out in the big bad world I feel a little more confident and you always surprise me with how well you do on our trips. You are certainly a laid back dude and I don't know why I expected anything differently from you. Thank you for being so kind to us rookie parents. It's greatly appreciated.

Each day I notice that you are a little more alert, you sleep a little less, and you are totally obsessed with lights and windows and looking up into our faces. Your personality shines through your numerous facial expressions and pretty much our whole family spends way too much time just staring down at you. It's just too entertaining to watch you be yourself and we can't get enough of it. Because you are the first grandchild on both sides it's safe to say that both your Wisconsin and your Missouri Grandparents are spoiling the heck out of you. Grandma and Grandpa H like to come upstairs each day and steal you away for a few hours just to 'play' with you. And Grandma and Grandpa B love to watch you on Skype each weekend, as you just light up their computer screen and show off all that you can do (sleep, cry, sneeze, yawn, and hiccup...that's about it right now) :) Your Missouri Grandma flew in to stay with us for a whole week this week and she is obviously head over heels for her grandson and who can blame her? I think both you and I are going to be spoiled to death while she's here and I'm not going to complain if you aren't!

Truman, I could go on and on about these four weeks we've had with you but I'll wrap it up by saying that you are the most precious gift we could have ever imagined. We love you more than words could ever explain and I'm trying with all of my might to stay in the moment and enjoy each second of my maternity leave with you. In some ways it's just flying by and in other ways it seems like it was a different lifetime when you were still inside my belly. I thought I'd miss pregnancy and there are a few things that I'd love to feel again, but for the most part having you on the outside is exponentially better than having you inside me. Getting to hold you each day is pretty much the greatest experience ever. I love you little T-man. Can't wait to watch you grow.

Love, Mommy



(yes, we are really sleeping here) :)

Who needs sleep?

Hello world.



I hear you adults enjoy a thing called 'sleep' but if you ask me, sleep is for wussies. That's right. I tricked my parents into thinking I was settling into a nice little sleeping pattern at night, going for 3-4 hours without needing to wake up. I fooled them for a good week or two. But last night I showed them my real agenda and decided to wake up at 2 am, 4, 6, and 8. OH, and let's not forget that I like to nurse for at least 30 minutes if not a whole hour each time so really, I let my silly parents sleep for one hour increments most of the night.

Again, I repeat: sleep is for wussies. Where's the party? Let's party.

much better

I'm doing much better after a few days of rest and antibiotics:) Thank you for your support, as always. As a reward to you readers for listening to my downer post last time I have four new Truman videos for you to enjoy.

First comes his first bath! We gave him this sponge bath when he was just 6 days old and I'm not going to lie, we haven't done it since. Does that make us bad parents? He just hated it SO much and it's not like he really gets that dirty...so I just wipe off his face and obviously clean his 'area' down below all the freaking time, and I figure that is good enough. I really want to give him a real baby tub bath once the stupid cord falls off so I've just been hoping that happens sooner than later. I hope he likes a real bath better than this...if you freak out over a baby crying, do not watch this one. It's so pathetic and cute, if you ask me:)


Then, he goes and gets all entertaining with some hiccups!


And to top it off, he even sneezes! And holds back sneezes, for that matter! I know, newborns are ultra interactive, aren't they? :)


And finally, he just LOVES him some Beyonce. When I sing him this song he usually calms right down so I'm convinced he adores all the 'single ladies' of the world. So freaking cute.


Enjoy! :)

Three Weeks

Truman is three whole weeks old now, you guys. I tried to demand that he stops growing but he hasn't listened to me and in fact, he is chunking out like a little porker. I am not kidding when I said the quote of the week to Nate the other day: "When in doubt, put this kid to the boob and all is well in his world again." If I can't figure out what's wrong with him nursing ALWAYS helps no matter what.





I'm glad we have that tool to use when necessary....he's always hungry and I oblige feeding little man when he demands, and since he's visibly gaining weight like a champ I know breastfeeding is working well for him. For me, however? A few issues on my side:

I called our Lactation Consultant and asked her about my lopsidedness hoping that she'd say it will even back out once I'm done breastfeeding but she could not promise me that. I know it's incredibly vain to say but I really don't want one A cup and one B/C cup for the rest of my life. I mean, I have pancake boobs normally anyway. Isn't that enough of a cross to bear on my chest? Do I really have to have one 'normal' size and one small one from here on out? I sure hope not and I found a few ideas online to help even out the sides. We'll see if they work or else I'll be walking around with my right shoulder hunched over from the sheer weight of big-ol-boobie. Attractive! I know I'm being shallow and superficial right now but I can't help it.




Then on Monday night I started to feel really crappy. My body was aching, I had the chills, a headache, and could not get comfortable. I chalked it up to just being overly tired at first but my temp was 100.2 and then I noticed my right boob (the big guy) was really sore and red and hard. GREAT! Sounds like a nice little case of mastitis to me! I called my doc and they agree that it sounds like a textbook case, so I am going to start antibiotics today. There is absolutely nothing like being so incredibly tired plus being sick with a fever and painful boob. It totally blows and caused me to have a legitimate breakdown last night to Nate. I think it's just the combination of everything and the fact that Truman is a good baby but I still feel exhausted and question my parenting skills all of the time. I know we are just doing our best but I can't help but feel down when I am physically ill and completely exhausted. Here's to the antibiotics working, me taking more naps throughout the day, and being grateful that Nate is home with me this week.






Besides a little case of mastitis, I had another little episode on Monday besides that. I had a dentists appointment (no cavities, despite the fact that I can barely recall if I've brushed my teeth most days!) and had a little episode before I left. The garage door wouldn't shut and we have our BOB in there, so I really wanted it to close before I left. Nate was also leaving at the same time and had Truman with him, so I called him as he pulled away in his car and he suggested that I use the remote and also pull the door down at the same time. I tried that but it didn't work and I was getting flustered because I was already late and just wanted to get it over with. So I went into the garage and pulled the rope to get the door moving, not knowing that this disengages the automatic feature of the door and makes it slam down quickly with gravity. I saw that it started moving REALLY fast and in a split second I made a break for it to squeeze under the door in time. I made it but got very off balance while sprinting and squatting down to avoid decapitation, and somehow I did the 'feet can't catch up to my head' fall technique and ended up sprawled out on our driveway like a total moron. I skinned up my left hand and hit my hip, right boob (big-ol-boobie!) and head on the way down. I was fine, mostly just embarrassed but luckily nobody saw me, and just had a bloody hand when I finally got to the dentist. I have a headache but with my fever it's hard to tell what is causing my symptoms now--the fall or the mastitis. Good times, I tell you!

One more thing about me, and then let's move on to the birthday boy, okay? On Sunday I had the most productive day of my entire maternity leave thus far. I packed up two baby shower gifts, went through my entire closet and our storage clothes and packed away all of my maternity clothes, wrote thank you notes, and also cared for my son:) I swear, getting a few things done makes me feel so much better! And I briefly tried to put on my old jeans but before I tried to button them up I aborted the mission, knowing they were not going to fit and it would just tick me off. But for now I have all of my old pants ready to go for that day when I feel brave enough again:) It's nice to have regular tops accessible, too, because although I loved being pregnant maternity clothes are not flattering on a postpartum body. See ya next time, maternity wardrobe!

Truman is definitely more awake since last week and is still mostly content when he wants to be:) He will push it sometimes and try to stay awake WAY too long and then he gets grumpy and the only thing that works to soothe him is nursing. It's fun to see him much more alert and he's definitely able to stare up into our faces now which totally melts my heart. His silly umbilical cord is STILL on, but I really mean it this time when I say it will probably fall off in a day or two. I cannot wait to try cloth diapering and also to give the boy a real bath so it really can't happen soon enough in my opinion. But besides that I cannot believe how big my baby boy is getting and with his growth, he's getting even cuter every day (biased opinion, I know).


Finally, I received a forwarded email yesterday that made me sob like a baby and put things all into perspective. You may have seen this before but if not, I suggest you go and watch the video and be prepared to ball your eyes out (especially if you have a sons). The gift of an ordinary day is a beautiful little video and I hope you enjoy!

tidbits

You know you are a new mommy blogger when you have to do a 'tibits' random post and it takes you days to actually compose it. Par for the course! :)


1. On Wednesday morning I decided to make my first 'worried new mom' call to the Pediatrician. Truman's left eye had been crusty for a whole day and then over night it was REALLY crusted shut. Of course I'd done my Googling research and figured it was probably just a clogged tear duct, since it's very common in babies, but wanted to call to be sure. They asked me to bring him in just to look at it and rule out an infection and sure enough---just a clogged duct. HOWEVER, the big kicker at the appointment was that Truman weighed 8 pounds and 10 ounces! That means he gained over a pound in a week since his first 'one week' appointment last Monday. The doctor was happy with that gain and it made me feel a lot better about breastfeeding....guess little T likes Mommy's milk even more than I thought!

Tummy time has begun as well:





2. Birth announcements have been sent and received, so I can share them here now. While I was pregnant I researched different printing companies that would allow me to design my own announcements and I went with Vistaprint for their INSANE prices. I used them back in the day for our wedding Save-The-Dates and forgot how reasonable they are but holy cow--I love this company. I ordered 100 'postcards' with free envelopes and free return address labels for $13. No joke. At first I looked at their 'announcements' but those were a lot more expensive and I couldn't tell the difference in paper quality or size of the postcards versus announcements, so I went with the postcard style and it turned out just fine. No, they aren't the most amazing quality in the world but they get the job done on a budget. I designed them one night in Photoshop, printed all of our addresses on sticky labels bought on Amazon, and voila....a quick and easy way to send out announcements that really took me no time at all. I don't usually use pre-printed labels for addresses but I figured this time people would understand:)


3. Nate is officially on spring break and doesn't go back to class until March 29. Yay for some Daddy and family time! And then right when Nate goes back to school, my mom comes to stay with us for a whole week and I cannot wait. Truman needs some Missouri Grandma cuddle sessions and I have a feeling she will be all over that one.



4. It's been gorgeous here with temps up into the 50s and even reaching 60 one day! Of course, it's supposed to snow on Saturday but whatever...we've been making the most out of the sunshine while we can. I've gotten comfortable putting Truman in the Baby Bjorn and taking Henry on a leash for a walk outside. Then in the evenings when Nate gets home we will sometimes put Truman in the BOB and Henry on a leash for a longer 'family' walk and let me just say---fresh air and exercise are two ingredients for mommy's sanity and Truman's nap time:) I can tell I'm extremely out of shape but I know I have to start somewhere and walking will be it for awhile!

5. I mentioned before I've started pulling out the 'mommy tricks' to get Truman to sleep and calm down now that he's more awake. One thing I registered for after hearing rumors of it's magical powers was the Soothe and Glow Seahorse and I'm glad we fell for the hype. It totally works to lull Truman into sleep, you guys. Plus Nate and I kind of like the peaceful music ourselves so it's a win-win situation:) I mean, it's not totally perfect because sometimes he'll still need to be rocked and shushed to help him snooze but a lot of times if I put him down after nursing at night and he wakes back up, I just turn on the seahorse and lay him on his side and that will do the trick. It's kind of fun to investigate different options to soothe little man...at least for now:)



6. I've been doing better with pumping and find that doing it once in the morning and maybe once more during the day is plenty for me right now. So far I have about 10 ounces total in the freezer and of course, my bigger right boob produces WAY more than my left. So weird! I'm getting used to the pump but it doesn't feel the best and kind of hurts after awhile so I keep my sessions pretty short. I figure that since I'm just getting started with my storage supply I can still be pretty low key with pumping and can always do more later. After all, little man isn't even three weeks old yet so I have plenty of time to build up a stockpile:)

7. After my nursery reveal post, I had a comment from a reader about featuring my nursery on her site. Well I wrote up a little ditty about the room, she picked out a few pictures and voila....the nursery is featured on her site! The link is here if you care to look. Pretty exciting!

8. I wonder if I should even include 'Truman' as a label for my posts anymore. Pretty much the whole blog is now about him, huh? :)

9. After our doctor's appointment on Wednesday, I took a risk and decided to push my luck a bit with Truman and we went to Michaels and then Babies-R-Us. I never know when he'll be awake and cranky for food but of course, he was a gem and slept the whole time. It's really kind of fun toting him around in the car seat and taking him on errands. Total new mommy mode for me to be running around with my little man and I love it. Just as long as nobody breathes on him...then? Game over.

10. Truman is still all over the place with his sleep/wake patterns and for now I'm okay with that. I've been doing a lot of reading about baby scheduling and although I felt pretty strongly about trying to get him on a routine while I was still pregnant, now I lean more in the other direction of letting Truman dictate what he needs, when he needs it. I think now that he's still so young it would be silly for me to follow a strict schedule and NOT feed him when he's hungry just because the clock tells me it's not time for nursing yet. Once he gets a few more weeks under his belt I will attempt to follow the eat-activity-sleep routine but for now I'm just taking T's lead. Sometimes at night he will go 3-4 hours without waking up and it feels DIVINE, and other nights it's more like every 1.5-2 hours but I think that has more to do with his growth spurts than anything. I know with time he'll be able to go longer without feedings and will be awake longer and then I'll have to be better about putting him down for naps at certain times but I think we'll wait a bit longer before we worry about imposing a schedule. Baby scheduling is certainly a hot topic out there and I'm sure some people will disagree with what we're doing but it works for us right now and I haven't gone crazy without a set routine just yet---who would have guessed that one? :)



11. In other news, Keri is ENGAGED!! Her fiance, Brian, proposed on March 14---which is the two year anniversary since her breast cancer diagnosis. Life is good in Keri-land right now. Her last scans were all clear, she doesn't have to follow up with her doctors in Kansas again so she's going to find new doctors in Indiana, she just bought a house and she's sporting a new rock on her finger. I'm so happy for Keri and can't believe how much has changed in the past two years. She deserves every minute of this special time in her life and I cannot WAIT to help her plan the wedding. I envision lots of pinks, oranges, and greens because she and I have very similar tastes:) She's going to be one HAWT bride!
12. And finally, March Madness anyone? I filled out a bracket based solely on uniform colors that I like and I'm not doing much worse than Nate---who actually researches this stuff. Gotta love my skillz:)

Lots of firsts

It never ceases to boggle my mind how NEW everything is to Truman. I mean, everything in the whole wide world is brand new to this little guy and that means he has lots of 'firsts' everyday.

(hello, world. You are so big)



Now that he is a whopping two weeks old, he's experienced quite a bit if you ask me.

(First time wearing his baby legs. And I think he's playing the flute here or something)


When he was 12 days old, Nate and I took my in-laws up on their offer to watch Truman between feedings so we could go to brunch. Of course, I was totally freaking out the whole time and could not WAIT to get back to my little man but in true Truman fashion he slept the entire time and didn't even notice I was gone. I told Nate to be proud of me for sucking it up and leaving my little man so early---I hadn't been away from him since he was born, so this was a big step for me. And I can admit that having a date with my husband was pretty awesome even if we did talk about Truman 80% of the time:)

(Bad Mommy for not wiping off his milk mustache! But don't his cheeks look fatter here? And those are Nate's hairy legs, not mine. My grooming hasn't gotten THAT neglected.)



When he was 11 days old, we took our first family trip to Target! Again, he slept almost the whole time while I shot death glares to anyone who looked like they MIGHT breathe on my little guy. It was pretty fun to get out and about with him and I was glad Nate was with us for that one, too.

(New hat from Etsy...LOVE it!)




He had his first fussy night where he protested sleep at 14 days old. That was a fun one for all of us but we survived and T-man was still a total gentleman in the process, avoiding the meltdown crying fit and instead choosing constant grunting and wiggling around like a worm.

(don't you love that swirly cowlick on his head?)


When he was just 7 days old he took his first real car ride to the doctor's office and blew them away with how well-behaved he was.

(love baby yawns!)


On day 13, Nate cut his little dagger fingernails without incident and I think our little guy might be a metro-sexual because he seemed to love the male grooming:)


(new hat from Great Aunt Dana in Texas...our little monster. Also, love this hoodie)


He's taken a few walks around the block in his new stroller, has tested out both a Baby Bjorn and Moby wrap for baby-wearing, has spit up, farted, burped, and projectile pooped off the changing table at least once or twice. He's peed through four different nightgowns in one night, somehow managing to pee up the back and onto his shoulders in the process. He's started to do that drunken post-milk grin that makes me just melt with anticipation of a REAL smile in the future. He's started to awaken more and sleep a little less and is definitely starting to look a little more chunky in the face. Just looking at his photos from the hospital shows us that he really is changing every day and I'm not so sure I want my little peanut to grow up this fast! I mean, both Nate and I are totally pumped for him to get a little older and be more interactive with us but at the same time there is nothing sweeter than my little newborn boy nestled up against my chest for the eleventh time of the day, staring up at me with a look of bliss. I know he won't always be this dependent on me and even if he can't play, or laugh, or talk to us he is still teaching us how to be parents every day. I am so thankful he's a patient little guy who is willing to wait on us silly first timers to figure it out:)