Friday, September 28, 2007

7 weeks (and a few days)

Why don't babies blink? Mal is in his swing just staring away at the red button on the side of it and not blinking at all. Do their little eyes not dry out?

Poor little guy got painful diaper rash earlier this week due to me drinking orange juice. It's an adventure figuring out what foods I eat affect him.

I went to my first class last night for Management of IT and was gone for 3.5 hours. I had only pumped enough milk for one bottle and Mal drank that quickly shortly after I left. Tony didn't know where the formula was for back up so when he got hungry again, Tony gave him water with sugar in it. I'm still not really sure why he put sugar in the water, but it made for one bouncy boy! Fortunately, it only kept him up about an hour later than his usual bedtime. My class was kinda boring. I really hope it gets more interesting. Maybe it bored me because it reminded me of work and I don't really want to think about work right now since they laid me off this week. Yes, a week before I was to return. And that's all I'm going to say on the internet. If you want more details, email or call me.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Smile!

I was finally able to catch Mal smilin' on camera today:


Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Update - Six Weeks

Six weeks ago today, lil' bean was born and we named him Malcolm. JoJo (my mom) arrived on his two-week birthday followed by PopPop (Paul) and Aunt Jenn. Shortly after their departures, Grandma (Tony's mom) arrived for a 5-day visit. A few days after she left, Granpa (my dad) and Nana (Carolyn) arrived and they just left today. Now I have two weeks to convince little Mal that he wants to eat from a bottle when I'm not around. I really don't know what I'm going to do if he refuses a bottle since my maternity leave is up and I have to go back to work on October 3rd.

He slept in today missing Nana & Granpa's departure so that means no morning nap. Right now, he's in his vibrating rocker being as cute as ever. His neck and leg get stronger every day and he's started to smile but we're not convinced he's doing it on purpose. The biggest unfortunate thing is that he suffers from uncomfortable gas and we're not sure how to alleviate it. One thing that calms him down is going up and down the stairs. I'm starting to think that he does this so we stay in shape. He has the cutest expressions but we can't seem to capture them in a picture to share with everyone.

These brief moments of having both arms and hands free are valuable and I usually spend them making food for myself, doing laundry or taking care of myself (peeing or taking a shower). As he gets older and we can establish a routine, I hope to update the blog more frequently. I also need to prioritize sending out thank-you notes for gifts from the baby shower (why oh why didn't I do that before he was born?!?) and birth announcements.

Oh yeah - school starts next week. I'm only taking one class this semester but can only do so if we can convince Mal to accept a bottle. I suppose that means we only have one week to accomplish this. Although my class is only 2.5 hours, he is still eating on demand and pretty much wants to eat constantly in the evenings. He's a hungry boy!

Be sure to check out the pictures from all of our visitors on my Flickr gallery.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Looks who's 4 weeks old!

4 weeks old:


2 days old:


He's started a new routine - awake and alert in the morning and grumpy in the evenings. He's stopped taking naps during the day and I think it's making him grumpy. He's still sleeping 6 to 7 hours straight every night and eating constantly when awake. I have no idea how I'm supposed to get up a supply of pumped milk for when I go back to work. We still can't get him to take a binkie and he won't take the bottle yet. We're going to try different nipples and hope that works.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

One Year

One year ago today, Tony & I got married at Smith Tower surrounded by family and friends. Since then, we went to Prague for our honeymoon, bought a townhouse and welcomed Malcolm to our family. I started the MBA program at Seattle University and we visited Atlanta and San Diego over long weekends. It's been a wonderful (albeit busy) year and it baffles me how much our lives have changed over such a short period of time. I feel so fortunate to have a supportive, loving partner and an amazing son. We have so much to look forward to and much to be thankful for.

Malcolm will be four weeks old tomorrow. 4 weeks! My mom came to Seattle on the 21st and Paul & Jenn joined her on the 25th. They helped out around the house and got lots of cuddles with Mal. Tony turned 36 last Sunday and we had several friends over for a birthday brunch. Tony's mom comes into town on Tuesday for a 5-day stay and then my dad & Carolyn come to town after she leaves. The consensus so far is that Malcolm is a very sweet baby :)

The last few days, he hasn't been sleeping for long periods of time during the day and wants to eat most of the time he's awake. I spend much of my time sitting on the couch and my body is starting to ache from the lack of activity! He will sleep for long periods of time during the night if he's sleeping in bed with us. I love having him so close, but I have anxiety dreams of him falling off the bed or getting smothered. We've been putting him in his cosleeper for part of the night, but that means I am up ever hour. When he's sleeping by himself, he doesn't stay asleep for longer than an hour and it's usually 30 minute stints. I had him in his cosleeper for about 4 hours last night so I am pretty tired right now. I started pumping breastmilk this morning so I put him in the cosleeper after feeding him, turned the monitor on and came downstairs. Shortly afterwards, I heard him making his little 'awake' noises and then he was quiet for the rest of the time. I went upstairs to see if he was still sleeping and sure enough, he was fast asleep but not in his own bed. Tony had picked him up and put him in our bed so they could both get more sleep. I almost crawled back into bed but decided to take advantage of having both of my hands free :)

There are pictures up on Flickr of the recent visit from family (thanks, Paul!)