4 Weeks Old

    Our little guy is 4 weeks old today. We celebrated early by staying up all night. Cause sleep is overrated. I've been really bad about setting up a consistant schedule. I've just been letting him sleep whenever he wants to and he's mixed up his days and nights. Up until now we've been having him sleep in a pack-n-play in our bedroom but he slept in his crib in the nursery for the first time last night (early this morning). Not sure I'll be able to make that a regular thing. It's hard for me to not to have him close. But really, the nursery is right across from our bedroom and with both doors open he really is only an additional 10 ft away. I can still hear him and even see him. It's more of a concern to have the doors open because Luna might wander around the house at night and get into things she shouldn't. Once Michael goes to work I usually bring Emerson into bed with me so I can just roll over if he needs anything. I caught this gem on video this morning as he was waking up. Big smile!!!!

    He hasn't grown any bigger, he's actually still smaller than he was when he was born but he's so alert and interactive that he seems like an entirely different baby. He's having a little bit of a difficult time getting back up to his birth weight but we're getting there. He was 8 lbs 10 oz at our last doctor appointment. He has his 1 month check up on Friday and I'm sure he'll be back up to where he needs to be by then.
    Seriously just love this kid.
 

Momma Truths

Things I have come to learn as a new mother:
   
    1. People always say you should sleep when your baby sleeps. This is not realistic. Or even remotely possible. What people should really tell you is that you'll be lucky to get 4 hours of sleep (not always consecutively) in a 24 hour period. You'll also be lucky to get a shower.
    2. Babies don't need to constantly be held. And it's okay to tell family, friends and visitors that you'd rather your little one sleep in his crib for a while rather than in their arms. This is something I wish I had done more of. The first two weeks of Emerson's life were pretty much spent being held by visiting family and friends and now he doesn't like to be put down at all. Ever. I mean, EVER.
    3. Can I speak candidly? Breastfeeding - it hurts. Pumping- it hurts too. It's also discouraging to be putting yourself through all of this pain (engorgement, sore nipples, the let-down tinglies) to be told that your baby isn't gaining weight fast enough and you're going to have to supplement with formula until he's back up to where he should be. Feels like failure.
    4. Random strangers will come up to you and try and touch your baby. I mean, while I was pregnant I was accosted several times while in the bathroom at Winco by a group of asian ladies who wanted to touch my belly but this is different. Strangers carry germs. Germs that can harm your baby now that he's no longer in your belly. So you have to go into protective ninja mom mode and deftly maneuver your baby out of their reach while still appearing to be friendly and aimable. You don't know when they washed their hands last.
    5. Even though babies can sleep through anything you'll find yourself shushing your husband when he comes into bed because he's brushing his teeth too loudly. We installed new wood floors in our kitchen, dining room and office last week and Emerson slept through all of the hammering and sawing and loud, angry cursing but when it's bedtime and Michael is playing "monkeys on the bed" with Luna I totally freak out. "Don't you know how to be quiet?!" I realize that I sound absolutely crazy.
    6. It's really hard not to resent your partner as he sleeps peacefully in bed while you're up for the third middle-of-the-night feeding or when he gets to go out into the real world during the day while you're at home bouncing a screaming baby on the yoga ball and it's 4pm and you realize that you haven't even eaten yet.
    7. Babies really do blow through outfits faster than you can change a diaper. Sometimes literally. I know I was a little dismayed at the amount of clothing we received for our little man but I am sure grateful for it now. Just today I was on the phone with Michael as he was driving home from work (don't worry. we have bluetooth.) and I was telling him all about Emerson's cute outfit - how he just had to see it. Suddenly, I feel a warm sensation on my leg and look down and the little tyke had peed all over the both of us.
    8. Speaking of pee, they weren't kidding when they said that little boys tend to start peeing a soon as they feel air on their little man bits. I can't tell you how many times I've been changing a diaper and I end up being sprayed by my little son's old faithful. Watch out for that.
    9. Sure, losing 30 pounds in 2 weeks is awesome BUT it doesn't mean that all (or any) of your cute pre-pregnancy clothes are going to fit. You will have fat rolls where you've never had fat rolls before. And your stomach will be flabby and stretchy and you can grab it and pretty much make it wave hello at people if you wanted to. And you can't really justify spending money on transition clothes that you'll only be able to wear temporarily. So you have to stuff your weird new body into the same old maternity clothes that you've been wearing for the past 6 months and pretend that you're happy about it.
    10. It's all worth it.

Emerson's Birth Story

     I can't believe it's been a little over a week since we welcomed our little guy into the world. I don't feel like I just had a baby. I've recovered really well and very quickly. It's been absolutely wonderful. Labor and delivery also went really smoothly which is such a blessing.
     There were so many people who went into labor Friday evening that the hospital had no room for us to come at our scheduled time of 6:30am on Saturday morning. That was a really hard day of waiting. I didn't get much sleep at all. We finally got a call at 4pm telling us that they'd be ready for us around 6:30pm that evening. We dropped Luna off at Michael's aunt's house and then grabbed some dinner at Teriyaki & Wok on our way to the hospital. After checking in I was eventually hooked up to an IV and had Pitocin going and the whole process started at about 8pm. The nurse came in and increased my dosage about every half an hour. I didn't really feel that it made much of difference. It wasn't until my doctor broke my water at 2:30am that I really started to feel the contractions getting stronger, longer and more painful. At 4:30am I broke down and asked for something to help me relax since I had been there for 10 hours and had only dilated from 3cm to 4cm and I was really starting to get tired. At 6am I had had enough and I asked for an epidural. (To those of you reading who thought to yourselves "Big surprise. We all knew you'd cave" I'd just like to say BITE ME.) The nurses all said that I would be in labor another 12 hours at least and suggested that once the epidural really kicked in I should try and get a little sleep. I took their advice and slept for a little over an hour. My doctor came in to wake me up to check on me around 8am. To everyone's surprise, I was 10 cm dilated, 100% effaced and ready to push. The epidural and the short nap were just what I needed in order to relax enough for my body to get ready to deliver my baby. Really cool how that all worked out. I felt the urge to push right away. I wanted to start pushing even before my nurses were ready and assembled. Michael held one of my legs while I pushed and got a front row seat to all of the action. Between pushes they let me feel the baby's head. He had hair!!! I was so excited. I pushed for an hour and twenty minutes. The last 10 mins of pushing were kind of a blur. I had to get an episiotomy and so they moved Michael up by my head for that so he wouldn't get squeamish. Emerson was born at 10:03am on Sunday morning.

     As soon as he was born he was placed on my chest. I looked up at Michael and could see tears pooling in his glasses as he looked down at us. I don't really remember much else except looking at my son's sweet little face. I didn't feel the delivery of the placenta. I only vaguely remember Michael cutting the umbilical cord. I don't really remember getting stitched up either. In fact, I don't really remember much of anything except breastfeeding right away. Everything else is a blur. I remember eventually being able to get off the bed and get cleaned up. I remember being able to order lunch from the bistro downstairs (I was STARVING). I remember everyone leaving the room and it was just Michael and I for a while. Then I remember my sweet friend, who had been with us for most of the night before, coming in and holding Emerson for an hour so that we both could sleep.
     He was eventually weighed and measured. He was 8 lbs 15 oz and 21.5 inches long. Absolutely huge for being a week early. And absolutely perfect.
     We just love this little guy so much. It's been such an experience getting to know ourselves as parents and his little personality and preferences this past week. Luna has been really great with him. She's a very concerned big sister. Whenever he cries she needs to check to make sure that he's okay. The first couple of nights after we got home from the hospital all four of us slept in our bed together. We've moved Emerson to a pack'n'play which is still in our bedroom since we can't bear to put him in the other room just yet.
      I'm sure everyone will quickly get tired of all of the pictures I'll post of him but I just can't help myself.