6 Weeks/Match Week!!

Samuel is 6 weeks old today and I have to say... I am SO glad I'm not going back to work! There's no way that I could leave him already!

This has been a really great week for us. Granted, little man has definitely been in a fussy stage. His waking hours have consisted of eating, screaming, fussing, and then sleeping some more, sometimes with some happy minutes mixed in. But that is fine because this week he started SLEEPING at night.

I know it may not last... he's still really little... but Friday and Saturday night he slept for 6+ hours straight, and last night he slept for 5. On top of that, Eric and I moved back upstairs to our comfortable bed, which has been AMAZING. Friday and Saturday, Eric stayed up until Samuel woke up at 2ish and gave him a bottle, allowing me to sleep from 9:30/10 until 4:30/5 (!!!) Then Eric got to sleep until 11. Even with Samuel being fussy, it was a pretty great weekend. It's amazing what sleep can do!!

We also used up the last of our newborn diapers this week and finally bumped Samuel up to size 1s yesterday. They still look a little big to me, but I think they will do! We also retired my two favorite newborn outfits. :( Several of his newborn things still fit really well, but my two favorite sleepers are on the small side, so I guess it's time to put them away.

We are still getting lots of smiles, especially in the mornings, and I can definitely say that they are aimed at us now (though he still really likes smiling at the clock and a picture on the wall too...). It's pretty great to pick him up in the morning and have him give me a big smile.... at least we know he recognizes us now!!

I started running a lot more this week. Well, not a LOT. But I did do a few one milers and a two mile run. It's not that I don't have the stamina, it's just that my weight is, uh, distributed differently now... I'm still trying to adjust to that! Hopefully I can pull of 5K some time this next week though. I haven't pushed it super hard since I haven't been cleared by the doctor yet, but I have my 6 week appointment this afternoon, so hopefully I will be able to start working out for real later this week.

The BIG thing in our lives this week is the MATCH. Eric got notice a little while ago that he is definitely matched for residency (meaning he doesn't have to spend the rest of the week scrambling around looking for a program to take him -- one of the ones he interviewed at will be IT). So Wake Forest has a lovely little envelope sitting up there in an office, and on Friday at noon we are going to OPEN it and find out what the next 3 years of our lives hold!!

I'm a little nervous about Friday... Samuel will be staying with other people for a lot of the day while we do match day activities. I'm sure he will be fine, but we haven't been away from him for more than 2 hours yet, and we will be gone for 4-5 hours around lunch, and then again for 2 or so for the match party that evening. I just hope he behaves!!


Then Eric's mom and sister are coming on Saturday to spend a few days. That should be fun too! We have baby dedication at church this next Sunday... all in all, it's going to be a crazy, busy week, but I'm excited!!

5 Weeks

This has definitely been the most fun week we've had so far! Little man is growing by leaps and bounds and it's SO fun to watch him develop!

As of last Thursday, Samuel is officially 1 month old. Going to his one month appointment was probably the most fun I've ever had at the doctor! As of February 27, Samuel is:

22" Long (73%)
9 lbs. 15 oz (54%)
14 1/2" head circumference (38%)

He did SO well at his appointment and didn't fuss at all (even when we had to strip him down!). :-)

Eating-wise, we finally seem to have cut out that pesky third night feeding. Granted, I'm very aware we may have a regression coming up. But, out of the last week, I think there was only one night where he ate three times. I've been bouncing back and forth between 7 and 8 feedings per day based on when he eats in the morning, but trying to get him up for the day 7:30 each morning.

Of course, if it were up to him, he'd probably be up at 5:30. As great as he's doing with eating, sleeping is still a little crazy. The nice thing is he's not screaming all the time. The not nice thing is that, if he's awake, he's in his crib just making noises (because obviously we should be awake too). So our sleep has been pretty sparse between 5/5:30 and 7:30. We'll go to check on him if he seems particularly fussy, but usually by the time we get to his room (literally 10 feet away), he's asleep again. I can't lie, I'm pretty stinkin' tired. But this too shall pass, and it's worth it to have such a cuddly little newborn. I love love love his littleness!

Little man is pretty good with napping. He usually takes a cat nap around 9:30/10, a longer 1-1 1/2 hour nap around lunch, and a good 2 hourish nap in the afternoon, and usually another short cat nap before Eric gives him his bottle before bed. Granted, nothing is particularly established yet nap-wise (we just let him sleep where-ever), but we're seeing patterns and that's good!

In other big news, Samuel has started 1) "talking" a TON, 2) tracking objects (including his parents! yay!), and 3) smiling for real.

I'm pretty sure the smiles I got this morning were actually directed at me. I might be wrong... but I'm going to let myself think that anyway!

It's SO fun to actually "play" with him a little bit!

Eric and I also went on our first date sans-baby this week. Our sweet friends the Waltons watched him for an hour or so while we went to Macaroni Grill (we would have been gone longer, but the place was EMPTY on Thursday night and we got our food RIGHT away, and, even though we lingered, we still got in and out super quickly). It was nice to dress up and feel like a couple again and not just frumpy parents. :-) Leaving him was a little harder than I expected, but, hey, it had to happen some time! I love this kid to pieces, but we have to have our own time.

The last big thing this week was that I started taking Samuel out in the stroller! I probably would have done it sooner, but I didn't know that my stroller had a "lay back" feature that allows teeny babies to use it too. I also wanted the okay from our pediatrician first.

I also started running a bit again this week (though not with the stroller -- that might be a little too much! haha).

I'm a little nervous about the next couple of weeks. I know they say kids are at their fussiest around 6-8 weeks. I'm definitely expecting some tantrums (in fact, I'm getting one right now!). Hoping the smiles will outweigh the fussiness. :-)





Until next time!

The First Month

There is no way that I could ever list all the things I have loved about Samuel's first month of life: holding him for the first time, rocking him to sleep, learning all of his funny habits, seeing him change SO much in just a few short weeks. As I write, this little guy is talking and cooing up a storm at me! Here are a few of my favorite things that Samuel has done this month/ we have done with him... I'm curious to see how many of the little "habits" stick around!! (I know some of it is stuff all babies do, but it's still fun!)

Holding his head up -- he was seriously able to do this within 24 hours of coming out!

Snorting - only when he gets REALLY mad. Then he sounds like a little piggy. Adorable. :-)

Holding his legs like a frog (and this week trying to jump with them!)

Turning when he hears our voices - so sweet!

Holding his own pacifier in his mouth

Shaking his head when he gets really excited

"Rooting" - we have to really watch him here because he will propel himself over if we're not careful!

Peeing on his own face -- It's only happened a few times, but I'm sure it will happen again!

Peeing on the pediatrician - and her assistant.

Our first "poop-splosion" - oh so fun!

Skin to skin the first week or two

Watching Eric suddenly go from awesome husband to awesome daddy!

Learning to swaddle (we've only used regular blankets until this week)

Burrito baby! (when he's swaddled)

Cuddling this sweet little thing <3 p="">
Samuel's cute little rolls - on his forehead, on his neck, on his belly. I thought he looked kind of like a pug the first week. They're starting to go away and it makes me sad.

All of his clothes (and diapers) being waaay too big!

Random "smiles" when he's sleeping/eating/pooping.

"Zombie baby" - when he sticks his hands out in front of him for no apparent reason.

Bath time & tummy time

Grunting - it's his way of letting us know he's about to get fussy

Realizing we love this kid more than we ever thought possible!


There's so many more, but that's just what I wrote down one night while I was rocking him... haha.
I can't wait to see what the next month brings!

4 Weeks

It's hard to believe that little man is almost a month old already! I feel like I've basically spent February in hibernation. All my days seriously ran together there for a while... Still, in a lot of ways it feels like Samuel was just born. It's weird that he's not so "new" anymore!

This week I've been feeling a LOT more like myself now, and since Samuel's getting a little bigger, I'm feeling better about taking him out into the world. In addition to seeing some friends this week, we went to the doctor's office and Starbucks (and through the Chick-fil-A drive thru. :-) I also exercised for 30 minutes or so almost every day and started going back to the Y to get on the elliptical. I'm definitely NOT back to my pre-pregnancy intensity by any stretch of the imagination, but I feel like I will get there before too long. :-)

One really nice thing is that Eric's schedule has been super laid back this rotation. He's had to work, but has been home by 1 or so almost every day. That gives me a chance to pass off the kiddo and work out, take a shower, or, at the very least, just have an adult to talk to. That's been REALLY nice.

At four weeks, Samuel is still a pretty good baby. Don't get me wrong, we have some serious fussy/screaming spells. If you asked Eric right now if he was an easy baby or not, he would say definitely NO because he spent the majority of last night screaming for no apparent reason.

Still, that was an anomaly, and most nights he only gets up to eat and goes right back down until it's eating time again. (I should point out that last night he DID go right back down every time after I fed him, he just woke up an hour later every time and would NOT go back to sleep).

He's still been eating about every 2 1/2-3 hours, with Eric giving him a bottle for his last feeding right before bed (around 7:30). One night this week he actually only got up twice in the middle of the night to eat instead of 3 times. Unfortunately, while he went 4-5 hours without eating, he only slept in 2 hour chunks, and when I tried to adjust his feeding times so that it would happen again, it was a H-U-G-E failure. So we're back to the same old schedule. Bummer.

Samuel's happiest time is still first thing in the morning. He's usually super content to just lay on his mat or in his boppy in the morning, checking out what is going on in the world. I've been getting TONS of smiles during the mornings this week, though they are, of course, not directed at anything in particular. Still, it's really cute!!

We also got a new playmat in this week, so we've started doing more official "tummy time" a few times a day. He's pretty okay with it, though he usually gets mad about it after 5-10 minutes. I think he's just frustrated because he can't go anywhere. I guess I would be too!

One not-so-great change lately is that he has been spitting up a lot more.. It's never a lot, it just seems like it's really often. Maybe that's because he hardly ever spit up his first few weeks of life. I have to be honest: spit up is the grossest thing about babies to me. I had hoped that when it was my own kid spitting up I would be able to handle it better, but I'm still pretty disgusted by the stuff, especially when it's chunky. (EWWWWW!). However, I guess I'm just going to have to suck it up, because it seems to keep coming three or four times a day.  

Tomorrow we go to Samuel's one month doctor's appointment, so I should have an update then about weight/height, etc. According to the Wii, he's about 9 lbs. 11oz (roughly the size Eric was at birth!). I don't know how accurate that is, but he seems a LOT heavier to me the last few days! He's still wearing newborn clothes, but is definitely on the brink of making the switch to 0-3 month. He's also still in newborn diapers, but I may try size 1s out this week to see how they work (since I have about a million of those and have to keep buying the newborns!),

In non-baby news, Eric turned in his rank list this past week. That means we only have 17 days until we find out where we will be living for the next three years. Yikes! It's really crazy to me, because, with all the baby stuff, I kind of forgot about the fact that we are about to have this whole other huge life change to make. It just hasn't felt real, and I guess it probably won't until we know where we're going. Still, I've started trying to do some more research about our top choices so I won't be completely unprepared when I find out I have two months to get moved somewhere totally new!

That's about it for now, I suppose... Until next time!

3 Weeks

It's hard to believe Samuel's already 3 weeks old! Well, in some ways. In other ways, I've totally forgotten what it's like to be pregnant, to sleep through the night, to eat with both hands... haha. I just love having this sweet little boy around!

This week has definitely been the hardest so far. I started feeling bad last Wednesday afternoon, and within a few hours was running a fever of around 101. It was MISERABLE. Samuel had been eating pretty poorly on one side for the last several days and things were pretty uncomfortable over there, so I self-diagnosed myself with mastitis and popped some tylenol and tried to nurse him on that side all night. Eric's parents were still here, so they were able to help with Samuel in the interim while Eric tried to take care of me. Seriously, I think I felt worse during those 24 hours than I did during labor. 

I was able to get into the doctor pretty early the next morning and she agreed that mastitis was likely the problem and prescribed me an antibiotic. So Eric and I spent our Valentine's Day running to the OB and then to the store for him to pick up my medicine. Romantic, right?  Thankfully, the medicine worked pretty quickly and I started feeling better that afternoon. I'm still taking it and feeding a LOT. I go back for a follow-up this Friday, so hopefully things will be cleared up by then. Note to self for next time though: ALWAYS nurse on both sides. 

At 3 weeks, Samuel is still a relatively happy baby. He definitely has his screaming periods, but we can usually identify a cause (though not always). 

Baby boy usually gets up between 7 and 8, eats, and then is happiest and most alert for the next hour or two. He spends a lot of time just lounging in his boppy or on my lap or in the bouncer just looking around. This is nice for me because I can actually get some chores done (or blog :). Sometimes he takes a quick nap around 9:30 or so before he eats again between 10 and 11. 

So far we don't have any established napping patterns -- that may be something we work on in the next week or two. He usually dozes thoughout the day and then I may put him down in the crib or bassinet for an official "nap" in the afternoon. The rest of the time, if I can tell he's tired, I usually just swaddle him up and he fusses for a few minutes, then konks out. 

For the most part, Samuel has been really good about sleeping at night. We've definitely had some nights where that was NOT the case, but typically he will go down sometime between 8 and 10 and then only wake up to eat around 11, 2, and 5, going back down pretty easily afterwards. Occasionally he will surprise us and sleep a little longer, but so far 3 hour eating stretches have been the norm (though one day this week he went 4 1/2 hours without eating -- just not sleeping the whole time). I'm really thankful he's been a great little eater, but I'm definitely ready to sleep for more than 2 1/2 hours at a time! 

Let's see, what else?? We figured out we can use the Wii Fit to get a fairly accurate weight measurement. On Sunday, it said Samuel weighed 8.6 pounds (roughly 8 lbs. 10 oz.) We go back to the doctor for his one month appt. next Wednesday, so I'm guessing he will be over 9 lbs by then. Yikes! A lot of his weight seems to be in his length, though, because he is still in newborn clothes and newborn diapers. He did outgrow his first outfit this week, but it was totally just because it was too short! 

He and I went on our first outing yesterday as just the two of us. Thankfully, Samuel has fallen asleep every time we've gotten in the car (and stayed that way until we pull him out of the car seat). We went to a friend's house for a mini-baby shower and he slept for the entire 2 hours we were gone. Nice. (He even slept through me clumsily trying to figure out how to get the car seat in and out of the stand. That was fun!). 

I guess I'd be remiss if I didn't mention something that this kid LOVES: his pacifier. I really had no intention of introducing a pacifier right away, but it has kind of been a lifesaver. Sucking soothes him SO much, and it hasn't interfered with his eating at all, so we decided to go ahead and let him have it. We try not to use it at night so he doesn't rely on it for good sleep. I feel bad that half his pictures have this big blue thing sticking out of his mouth, but, hey, whatever works, right??

The other thing he loves is his HANDS. I could tell when he was in utero that his hands were always right by his face, and that has TOTALLY been the case. He'll suck on them, put them over his eyes, use them to hold his pacifier, etc. Pretty much the only time his arms are down are when he's sleeping. He also folds them together a lot (like he's praying). It's really cute! 

We also are starting to use a bottle this week. We gave him one Sunday and he DOWNED it and I realized it probably had a higher flow than what he needed. When I went to the store to get a different one, they were out, so I ended up getting this bottle where he actually has to suck to get anything out -- supposedly similar to nursing. Now I'm starting to wonder if that's really the best idea since we want him to be able to take a bottle any time and giving him that one only might limit what he will take later. I don't know, but I guess I need to decide soon, because we're going to try to give him one again tonight too. Hmm...

Anyway, there's tons more I could say about this sweet boy, but I probably need to get some stuff done today. Until next time!

2 Weeks!

So I've decided to switch back to solely using this blog since Samuel's birth blog is officially complete! (You can read his birth story here).

So my baby is officially 2 weeks old. Crazy! Even though we've been REALLY tired and there have been a few stressful moments, I have loved every minute of having this snuggly little boy at home! Everyone keeps telling me all these things he will be doing soon, but I have been just trying to soak up every minute of his sweet newborn self. I love having him be so tiny and sweet!

After Samuel was born, my parents were here for five days or so. It was SUPER nice to have extra help while I was recovering and while we were figuring out what in the world we were doing (not that we're experts now or anything. LoL).

We got a few days after that to just hang out and be a family of 3. That was nice too, especially since Eric was off work and we were able to just "be" for a few days. Our sweet Sunday school class started bringing us meals during that time, so we didn't have to worry about cooking much or anything. It was great to just be together and not have to stress about anything more than getting the clothes clean!

Eric's parents have been here since last Thursday, so Samuel has gotten to hang out with all of his grandparents now. He's been super spoiled by all four of them over the last two weeks. I don't think he's going to know what to do when he's stuck with just me all day!

Samuel had some trouble eating at first. He was much more interested in sleep (and sometimes still is). We actually had to feed him with a syringe once when we were at the hospital. I was worried we were going to have to force-feed him forever, but luckily he figured things out! He was born at almost 7 lbs. 4 oz, dropped down to 6 lbs. 13 oz. two days after birth, but by 4 days after, he was back up to birth weight! I'm really curious to know how much he weighs now. According to the Wii, he's a little over 8 lbs, but I don't know how accurate that is. I wish we had a little baby scale at home!

Little man did have an eating set back around 1 week. I don't know what the cause was, but he would try (unsuccessfully) to latch one or two times, then scream for about 20 minutes, try again, and then scream some more. It was pretty stressful, especially since he actually went a 6 hour stretch without eating at one point. I was almost to my breaking point, but luckily we worked through it, and he's been eating pretty well ever since (except when he decides he wants to eat for 10 minutes and fall into a coma. There are worse problems though!). Hopefully he will keep it up and we can add a bottle in next week (yay!).

Everyone told me the first two weeks are the hardest. In some aspects that's been true (recovery, learning to feed him, etc.), but I think this week might actually be harder since the lack of continuous sleep is finally getting to me. Samuel's really been a great sleeper over all. We've had one or two nights when he was fussy alll night long, but he's had way more nights where he only woke up every 3 hours or so to eat and then went right back down. He's not completely predictable or anything, but he's on somewhat of a schedule, and that's nice. Unfortunately, since I'm the only one who can feed him, I'm up every 3 hours too. So even though I've gotten 6-8 hours of sleep every night, none of it's been in more than 2-3 hour chunks (though there was one time when he slept 4 hours. Wooo!). Eric's been awesome about getting up if he fusses in between feedings, but since he's been sleeping well, there have definitely been several nights where it's just been me.

One thing that's surprised me is how quickly I've gotten back to looking like my normal self. I still have about 10-12 lbs left to lose (though I think some of that is, you know, milk weight), but for the most part I look really similar to my pre-pregnancy self. Yay!

(12 days post-baby)

I started walking a little last Tuesday. At first I could only go for about 2 minutes (like not even to the stop sign and back). But I've tried to go a little every day, and today I actually walked a mile and a half! Hopefully in another week or so I can start jogging again, but I'm not going to push it.

Anyway, I have a little list going of some of my favorite things about Samuel and mommyhood so far, but kiddo's going to have to eat in a minute, so I may have to wait and put those up later. For now, here's some pics. :-)

Until next time!

!

Freezer Meals

Last weekend I went a little nuts and finally made all the freezer meals I'd been stocking up for for the last month. (Feel free to read more about other baby-related items on the baby blog.) I've always been pretty good about freezing extra portions of soup, etc., but I've never spent an afternoon just focusing on freezer prep. Considering it was my first real try (and I didn't streamline as much as I could have), I thought it went pretty well.

I started off making my favorite Southwestern Bean Soup. Eric hates this, but I decided to make it anyway since it's packed with protein, low-cal, and actually fills me up. It's super easy to make, and if you don't already have a good southwestern soup recipe, you should totally try it:

1 can tomato sauce
1 can black beans
1 can red kidney beans
1 bag frozen sweet corn
1 can rotel
taco seasoning to taste

Mix all that goodness together and let it simmer on the stove for an hour or so, and you've got southwestern magic! Stick it in a microwaveable container and freeze, and it's good to go.

I then proceeded to make one big helping and two loaf-pan helpings of Mexican Shepherd's Pie. I basically got everything ready to cook so all we have to do is pop it in the oven for 20 minutes. Mmmm.

I also prepped a ton of chicken breasts for baking - mainly this Lazy Baked Greek Chicken from Rachel Ray that I absolutely adore (have I posted about this before? Because I should have). It's super easy, full of protein, and totally delicious!

I also prepped about 5 chicken breasts for chicken parmesan (basically rolling dipped chicken breasts in a parmesan-panko mix) so that all I have to do is bake and pour on some marinara.

I cut up about a bajillion more chicken breasts after that and got some bags together to pour in the crockpot to make the Italian Crockpot chicken that everyone raves about on Pinterest:

2 cans cream of chicken
1 packet Zesty Italian Dressing Mix
1 8-oz pack of cream cheese
4 chicken breasts

Hopefully I can just throw that in the crockpot then serve it over some noodles.

I also made a whole bunch of the Chicken and Spinach Pasta Bake that our familia loves so much. With two BIG servings and three loaf pan servings, I don't think we'll be short on that for awhile!

I also chopped and froze a bunch of mixed veggies for if I want to make veggie stew/pot roast/beef stew in the crockpot. And it seems like I did a few more things, but it's all a little hazy at the moment.

The whole ordeal took me about 3 hours (with some breaks in between since my back started hurting). However, I got roughly 20 meals out of that, so it seems like a fair trade in time. I may just have to do it again one day... we'll see!!