Man! I never knew I'd be so busy taking care of a little baby! I'm trying hard to get used to the new man in my life, and he completely owns me. Partly because I'm nursing him, and partly because he's so cute and sweet....except when he decides he's really mad at me and screams without stopping for several minutes.
Let me think about some things I don't want to forget about the past month....
1. There was a mouse in our hospital room. Did I mention that in the last post? Well, our last day there, I was looking at David on the couch and I saw a mouse run under the couch. I told him, and he said I must be crazy because there wasn't a mouse. I began to wonder myself if I had imagined it, but I kept looking over there, and sure enough, it ran out from under the couch and across the floor. David finally saw it when he lifted up the couch, and we had about 4 nurses in there trying to corner it (sidenote: what would they have done if they had caught it?!) We ended up moving rooms.
2. I can't imagine having twins, much less twin boys. Taking care of a circumcision is NO FUN. It adds a lot to the diapering process, which, I might add, is also NO FUN. Especially with a little boy who seems to have an old faithful geiser, if you know what I mean. I haven't figured out quite how to keep it from getting everywhere yet...he always seems to surprise me.
The first couple days, he was so patient with us and didn't do it. He let us doctor his circumcision and was always completely calm and peaceful on the changing table. It was so nice of him. Then, it was like a switch turned and he decided we had figured out how to do that so he was going to challenge us. That's when he started leaking every time we changed his diaper. It was like he was testing us every time to see if we'd be ready. We never were, and I'm still not. I don't know if I'm a slow learner or if I just have a very sneaky little boy.
3. He has an awesome "fish face." He pouts his lips and looks like a fish, but sometimes he does his fish face coupled with some crossed eyes, and he looks like a little monkey. My little guy has perfect timing, too, because just when I think I'm going to lose it and start crying because I'm so frustrated with myself or the situation, he does his face and all I can do is laugh. It's too precious, and I hope he doesn't stop doing it anytime soon.
FISH FACE!
4. I can't believe I used to wake him up every two hours to eat. My mom kept telling me that it was okay to let him sleep, but I listened to all the lactation consultants and woke him every two hours to nurse. What was I thinking?!
5. My favorite thing to do with him is rock him to sleep. I love when he falls asleep on me and we can rest together. He is so sweet. He loves for me to sing a lullaby that I made up called "Go to Sleep." When I swaddle him and sing that to him, he is usually asleep in 10 minutes.
6. He's going to have the cutest smile! He's been smiling some, but I think it may be gas, but his smile is AWESOME! I can't wait to see more of it and know he's smiling at me because he loves me.
That's all I can think of right now as far as what I've wanted to note for the past month. I know there's more, but with baby brain I have a hard time remembering much past the last feeding. My mother-in-law is supposed to start coming over for a few hours every Tuesday and Thursday so that I can get out and run errands or get things done around the house (this Tuesday, I'm really looking forward to putting up Christmas decorations). I'm thankful that she is here and willing to help so much. She loves being around Robert Alan.
Oh yeah! Thanksgiving!!!! I can't believe I forgot to write about Thanksgiving. I'm so thankful for my husband and my healthy baby boy. I'm thankful for my job, and I'm thankful for my sweet parents who are going to be wonderful grandparents to my son and I'm thankful for my in-laws who love us all so much.
This Thanksgiving, though, was probably the hardest Thanksgiving I've ever had. I've always LOVED Thanksgiving, maybe more than Christmas, but not this time. We went to Fort Worth to spend the day with David's dad's side of the family. It was little man's first road trip, and it was so hard. He was PERFECT in the car. We timed it so that he would sleep during the 1.5 hour trip, but once we got to Dave's uncle's house, it was a rough time from then on. I guess it was the unfamiliar surroundings and perhaps the fact that there were about 40 people there and it wasn't exactly the calmest surroundings that made him cry the ENTIRE day. In fact, I hardly got out of the room we were staying in because I couldn't get him to stop crying and didn't want to ruin everyone else's day. I was so tired by the end of the day. So was he. He slept for 6 hours straight that night, an answer to one prayer that he wouldn't keep everyone up all night.
We came home Friday morning after stopping by Robert Alan's great grandpa and nana's house, and then my parents came in to see us and spend the weekend with us. We also went to David's mom's house for a late lunch on Saturday. All the excitement really wore on all of us. We are all now super tired and it's been kind of hard on David and me. We don't like for Robert Alan to be stressed out. That stresses us out, and then we take it out on each other, and now David is sick. I think we've decided that we're going to start saying "No" more often to each side of the family. It's too hard to try to see everyone, and then no one ends up feeling like we spent enough time with them and then we feel guilty. Hopefully, from now on, each holiday will entail us going to only one family event. If anyone else wants to see us, they can come to our house and visit. It'll be a shock to each of our families, though, because every year we've known each other, we've done a "Texas Tour" each holiday to try to get around and see everyone. Now, though, with a little one, it is way too hard to do that.
Starting tomorrow, I'm starting us on a routine (I started it on Wednesday before Thanksgiving, but you can imagine what happened to it during the traveling, etc.). I've read Babywise, and I'm going to incorporate some of the priciples (not the crying it out part, though. I think he's too young for that still). I'm excited about it. I'll let you know how it goes. I also want to tell you about our portraits session we did. I'm going to set a goal of posting every Tuesday and Thursday, or at least once a week. I think that way I'll be able to remember what I want to write about and won't have to put too much in each post.
Until next time, here are some pics of my little chunky monkey...
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Aunt Britt caught him at his chubbiest! (4 weeks old)
My favorite pic of RA. Daddy took it and it's awesome! (3 weeks old)
After his first bath...he LOVES the water! (2 weeks old)
Halloween night. He's having a blast, can't you tell? (1 week old)
