my growing baby!

Wow, can't believe my baby's already a month old..went by so fast! And he's already grown so much....he baby talks and smiles (on purpose) now, is getting more control of his arms and hands, holds his head more steady, pushes himself up on his legs when leaning on my chest...fun stuff. He was 3 ounces shy of 14 pounds when the baby nurse came over for his one month visit this week! And just about 2 feet tall. She brought over some clay and we imprinted his foot and hand, so cute.

It's time for us to start breaking out of our comfy nest :( It's getting time for me to start back to work. I've just savored these first 6 weeks getting to know my new little guy, we got to bond a lot. He coos and smiles at me, reaches out to me, grabs at me, stares at me....EJ always says "having another staring contest huh." He loves his baby massages. I love his grunts and growls, his enthusiastic full body stretches and growing repertoire of expressions. His stubby arms barely reach the top of his head, ah and I love his rolly polly legs. Poor my mom made two pairs of slippers for him already that are too small. She finally was able to get a good pattern off his huge foot and calf when we saw her in Ruby and I think is going to make some booties now.

We've only been separated one time so far. A few weeks ago I needed to go to the mall to get some nursing bras and EJ didn't want to come so encouraged me to go by myself to start detaching little by little. Man it was traumatic, baby got hungry and I couldn't get home fast enough..poor baby was all red and sweaty from crying, EJ couldn't console him. I felt so bad. I hadn't started pumping yet. But I got a few bags of breast milk in the freezer now and will start saving up more. We tried the bottle and he took it fine, so I'm not too worried.

Isn't it funny how a mom thinks nobody can love a baby more than she loves hers, and that hers is the most special, but really every mom feels that way. I just melt when he smiles at me. Sometimes it's terrifying because now I can't live without him. Haha I sound like a teenager in love. I guess that's what I am, a mom in the adolescent stage.

From Baby

For Juanita....baby's first jeans and skater shirt

baby's first trip

We drove to Fairbanks, and then flew out to Ruby. The drive took longer than we expected because he didn't tolerate his carseat for more than an hour or two at a time. He slept through the whole plane ride though..I was worried his ears would hurt. Quick trip, but we had a really nice time in Ruby. He got to get loved up by a bunch of his grandmas, aunties, and cousins, and see the river..the reason he's named Rio.



and some pictures...

Ruby

a few pictures

I tell EJ that he can't try to live his dreams vicariously through his son, but it's already starting, uh oh....says he looks like a point guard


my Buddha baby....look at those chubs!


in big boy clothes..already wearing size 3-6 months!

he's already so big....from the last couple days

haha this is what baby looks like satisfied after eating....milk drunk



he likes being on his tummy so he can bob his head around....like stevie wonder

some more video from his first week

a video we sent with my dad to Grandpa George


in his vibrating chair

Warm is not cool

basketball dreams

Dad couldn't resist

Mama's doing well too

EJ has been taking such good care of me-- making sure I eat, drink and sleep good, doesn't like me to try to use too much energy that I don't have. It took me a week to convince him to let us go out on a walk. That was baby's first time in the sling wrap. He looked so comfy. He just slept and purred the whole walk.
The first week was rough. The first 5 days we stayed in bed. It was hard, I kept wanting to get up and do stuff. Chinmayo came for home visits the whole first week and she finally got me to stay put in bed by telling me about a Chinese medicine theory that there are three times in a woman's life that can really make a difference in their health; first menstruation, childbirth, and menopause. If you take really good care of yourself around those times it can impact your health for the rest of your life. I don't want to keep being tired all the time so I tried to rest as much as I could. I had to be waited on hand and foot, had to have help taking a shower and stuff. I got weepy one day, all the hormones and stuff. I was frustrated that I couldn't do stuff normally (like go to the bathroom!), and worried about my tear healing all the way back to normal. I felt broken. Like I said EJ takes great care of me and convinced me that I'm not broken though. We also went to the clinic to get my stiches checked out, and they all told me there that I'm healing well and will heal all the way back to normal. Other people told me about their tears and how they've recovered. So I feel much better about that. All around I'm feeling better. Not really sore, can sit up on my bottom longer, am getting more energy...although I still get tired walking up the stairs and moving around too fast. I'll still be anemic for a while from losing that blood, so I just have to take it slow the next couple months.
But, I couldn't be happier with Laka. He's thriving, a vigorous and robust baby, so I'm happy that he's doing so well. I'm so in love with him. We are so attached. EJ's trying to convince me to start separating myself from him little by little so it's not so hard when I go back to work, but I don't want to!