Posted by abigail on Jun 16, 2013 in Family, First year, pictures |
Letters to my boys on Joel’s first Father’s Day:
Dear Wesley,
Your daddy loved you long before you were born.
In fact, I think he let himself love you before I even could. He just could not wait to meet you.
He never dealt with many babies before and I knew he was nervous, but he took to fatherhood like he was born to do it. He was the first one to change your diapers.
The first night you were alive he stayed up most of the night with me just to stare at your face and make sure you were still breathing.
He so clearly adores you.
I’m pretty sure you adore him too.
I’m so proud of what an amazing father he is to you. If mommy’s milk doesn’t do the trick he puts you to sleep better than anyone, even me.
Your father is an amazing man who loves his family and would do absolutely anything for us. He is brilliant, creative, a hard worker, tender, loving and extremely passionate. He is my rock and I know he will be yours too. I hope you grow up to be just like him.
-Mommy
Dear Joel,
Happy first Father’s Day. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner to raise our son. You amaze me every single day. I absolutely could not do this without you. I can’t thank you enough for all that you do.
Nothing sexier than my man wearing my baby. I love you.
-Abigail
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Posted by abigail on Jun 9, 2013 in First year, Motherhood, pictures |
This week Wesley is obviously going through a big growth/development spurt because it was equally parts hard and awesome.
There is way more of this than I liked.
Well, let’s be honest, who likes any of that?
Still, there was way more of this…
and this
and this
than the screaming so I can’t complain too much.
This week he made a huge leap in his neck strength. It seemed like overnight he went from fighting the weight of his head to holding is head up for ages like it was nothing.
Part of what helped the neck strength I think was that I finally tried the Moby wrap for the first time. We looooove it.
I was so intimidated by it and now I can’t figure out why. It’s really not that difficult to put on and it’s really comfortable.
With the Moby we’ve been going on walks every night this week.
It’s a great time to talk without the distraction of electronics and it’s got the bonus of being exercise.
Wesley always seems to really love being outside.
he’s fascinated by all the sights and sounds.
Other milestones:
- Someone asked me to cover myself for the first time while I was nursing in public. We were at an event for a friend of the family and a grandma type lady wanted a picture of the group of us so she said, “Cover yourself, I don’t want anyone to think I’m doing pornography or something.” I sort of adjusted the fabric of my wrap slightly but I did not throw a cover over my baby. I mean, this is how much you could see:
So basically an inch or so of skin… I really don’t think she meant to be rude or ridiculous. She’s just old fashioned.
- Wesley finally discovered the mobile on the mamaRoo. It really shows how much more aware he’s becoming of his surroundings.
- Wesley’s starting baby gymnastics… while he nurses. It cracks me up how wiggly he can be or what awkward poses he twists himself into sometimes.
I can’t say I’m sad this week is over. I’ve been more exhausted and frazzled than maybe any other week. Thankfully as soon as I’m ready to just lose it either Joel steps in and gives me a break or Wesley turns it around and flashes one of his dimply grins at me. It’s impossible to stay in a bad mood when I get one of his smiles or coos.
Impossible.
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Posted by abigail on Jun 2, 2013 in First year, Motherhood, pictures |
This guy gets more and more personality each week.
This week we hit the big milestone of 2 months old. The official 2 month photo and stats are here but I thought I’d add some of the outtakes in this post.
Phoebe is getting a little more nervous of his grabby hands. I’m wondering how many more months I’ll be able to bribe her to sit next to him… and how many more he’ll be undistracted by her.
The faces I make to get this face….
Sometimes get a face more like this. Obviously he thinks his mom is crazy already. (He’s right)
With turning two months came a check up. Wesley is a happy healthy boy. There was one awkward moment that I have to share. Wesley is really fair skinned. Not surprising considering his parents. Anyway, while the pediatrician was examining him he was checking his diaper area. He pointed out there was a little redness down there. He said it’s not a rash, it’s just because his skin is thin so it gets red easily because of moisture.
Pediatrician- “Same thing happens to me sometimes.”
Me- blink blink
I’m sure he didn’t mean to immediately give me a mental image of his junk… but yeah. Awkward.
Also with the two month check up came shots. I’m positive they were harder on me than they were on him. It was especially hard because he was in a good mood and was smiling and cooing at me right up to the moment the needle went in.
The look of shock and pain on his face when that first needle went in will be forever etched in my memory. Horrifying.
I cried. Yup, I was that mom. It was awful.
Thankfully it only took a minute of nursing before he forgot all about it. Magic boobies, ftw!
He ran a bit of a temp for a little bit of the day and was extra cuddly but by the evening he was back to his old self and had obviously forgiven me for those mean old shots.
Mommy really does love you, little man.
Other milestones:
- I took Wesley out to lunch with friends without Joel. We only have one car so we have to specifically plan for me to have the car if I want to go places while Joel is at work. Wesley was great, he slept the whole time and I had a nice lunch visiting with a couple friends.
- Wesley’s baby acne has officially cleared up. I’m not positive that happened this week actually but this week someone pointed out that it was gone and I realized they were right. Yay for perfect soft baby skin.
- Wesley has started smiling at me while nursing. One of my first memories is looking up at my mom while nursing and smiling at her. It melts my heart to see my son do the same to me.
- Wesley is actually learning to enjoy tummy time. Or at least tolerate it. He still cries sometimes but it’s not the entire time anymore.
- Baby’s first tank top. Gah!
And just for funsies, one last picture of the look I get sometimes when I’m being extra silly.
Uh mom… you’re a weirdo.
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Posted by abigail on May 31, 2013 in First year, pictures |
Weight: 9 pounds 12 ounces
Length: 23 inches
Clothing size: Newborn for onsies still. His newborn sized pants are too short on him but the 0-3 month pants still look too big. He has grown into the rest of his 0-3 month a little more. They’re still big around the waist but he’s growing into them little by little.
Diaper size: Size 1.
Sleep: He’s awake a lot more during the day. He still takes at least one long (2-4 hour) nap during the day and several shorter (20 minutes- 1 hour). At night he usually falls asleep around 8, dream feeds at 11 or 12 when we go to bed, up at 5 or 6 again to eat and get changed and then is either up for the day around 7 or cat naps until 10 or so. Twice he’s slept even longer, once 7 hours and once 8 hours. I have zero sleep complaints. Zero.
Approximate number of photos I’ve taken of Wesley: 1,700+
Approximate diapers changed: 300+
He’s still our little peanut but he’s growing, healthy and is the happiest baby ever.
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Posted by abigail on May 26, 2013 in First year, Motherhood, pictures |
Wesley’s hair is finally starting to grow on top. Right now it’s just the finest of fuzz but it’s there. It looks more brown than blond to me but it’s hard to tell at this point. I’m so curious to see what color it ultimately turns out to be.
This week I danced a lot. Pregnancy and childbirth made me miss way more classes than I’m happy about. Unfortunately I got cleared for exercise just over a week before my studio took a three week break before the summer session starts. I got in as many classes as I could though and while I was gone Joel and Wesley spent some quality time together.
Speaking of sleep we had two extremes going on this week. One day 4am came around and Wesley decided that was a great time to be up, laughing and giggling.
If I have to be up at 4am at least I have a smiley kid to do it with rather than a fussy one.
Then the next extreme was Saturday night going into today. I dream fed him at around midnight, set my alarm for seven… and woke up when the alarm went off! All the exclamation points!!! It was positively wonderful. I don’t expect it to be a regular thing yet but oh man it was wonderful. As you can imagine we all woke up feeling great.
I love my little family.
Other milestones:
- Little guy was kind of extra fussy this week likely because I was working out an extra lot. My midwife warned me that might happen. He made up for it with tons of smiles though.
I can’t get enough of that sweet face.
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Posted by abigail on May 22, 2013 in Family, First year, Motherhood |
My first Mother’s Day was lovely and low key, just the way I wanted it. We started the day with brunch with Joel’s mom.
Wesley slept through the whole thing like an angel and woke up at the very end, just in time to let his Gigi hold him for a few minutes.
From there we went straight to hang out with my family. We had a little cookout and just enjoyed our time together.
It’s not easy to get this many people together, all looking in the same direction and still long enough to get a picture.
My mom gifted me this beautiful necklace.
It is a tradition that she started that she gifts us girls a necklace like this on our first Mother’s Day. It’s very special to me that I’m finally one of the mothers who gets to wear this.
The weather was a little chilly but sunny and gorgeous so we grabbed some outdoor shots.
All of us mothers.
My little family.
I really love being a mommy to this little dude.
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