2 Months

Okay, first of all, whoever said shots were easy on kids LIED. Maybe everyone else's kids sleep all day after them, but mine SCREAMS. Sad. :(

Anyway, outside of that, the last week or so has been great! Eric's mom and sister were here for a few days last week, and Samuel had a blast getting spoiled. :-) He made his first outing to the mall for a whoppin' four hours, and did pretty good in the Baby Bjorn. He had to eat once while we were out and subsequently had a major blowout requiring a full outfit change in the JC Penney bathroom. But, all in all, it went well. At least I was prepared for said disaster!

He also went out to eat with us at Buffalo Wild Wings, and made his first out-of-town trip to the airport in Greensboro.

On Friday he went to meet his new friend Henry who was only one week old. It was crazy to me how HUGE Samuel looked next to a little 8-pound newborn! I know he's been growing a lot, but it's hard for me to believe he was that teeny just a few weeks ago!

We also made it through a second week at church, though we had to go to the 11 am service instead of our regular 9:30, and I had to take him out for a few minutes due to some serious fussing. It could have been worse though! We will probably try and take him to the baby class sometime in the next few weeks now that he's had his shots, but I'm still a little scared of sickness floating around... (our church has a LOT of babies). We will see!

  All dressed up for church. Notice the Sperry's baby boy is sporting! Thanks Gran-Gran!




I guess there haven't been any really major developmental milestones this week, just a lot more of our boy's silliness.

Samuel LOVES his playmat lately. I think sometimes when he's fussy, it's just because he's restless (Hmm... Wonder who he gets THAT from?). When I stick him on his playmat and he can kick and flail as much as his heart desires, he smiles up a storm! It's really funny to watch him. I have no clue what he's looking at half the time (light on the wall maybe?), but he LOVES whatever it is! I love that right now he wiggles a lot but doesn't roll yet. Don't get me wrong, I'll be excited when he does roll over, but I like that I can put him on the playmat and run to the kitchen for a minute or two without worrying that he's going to roll off into the fireplace or anything.

Baby boy also loves his HANDS right now - eating them, throwing them up victoriously for no good reason at all, and, unfortunately, occasionally hitting himself in the eye (or mommy... fun fun).

One sad but very funny thing that he has started doing regularly is sticking his lip out when he's fussing. He doesn't do it when he's really really upset (like after his shots today, for instance), but just when he wants you to know he's not happy. It's really cute, and I can't help but chuckle a little whenever he does it (and pick him up and cuddle him, because, you know, who can resist that??). This could be bad later...

He's doing really well sleeping: down at 8:45/9 for 6 to 8 hours and then another 3 to 4 after that. He's also doing a lot better with official "nap" time. The first several days I had to rock him to sleep, but now he is pretty much putting himself to sleep when I put him in his crib. We're doing a big nap in both the morning and the afternoon right now. The rest of the day I just let him snooze where ever.

He's pretty into fussing while he's eating right now (both nursing and bottle). Hopefully that will pass soon, but it's not a major problem. He's definitely still chowing down enough.

He also likes to spit up. Often. That's all you probably want to know about that though.

We also started reading books a lot more this week, as he suddenly seems really interested in the colorful pictures.

At his appointment today (pre-shots), the doctor thought Samuel looked great. He's starting to chunk up a little and get rolls on his legs and arms. So sweet. He weight 12 lbs. 7.5 oz, which put him in the 56th percentile, was 23 3/8" long, putting him in the 68th percentile, and had a tiny little 14 7/8" head, which was like 14th percentile. I was a little worried about the head thing, but doctor said it was fine, and Eric reminded me that he was majorly squirming during the measurement, so I guess it's okay. He looks normal enough, right??

Having Samuel around has been so much fun. We love this little boy more and more each day, and are soo blessed to have his sweet self around!!

7 Weeks

Look at this smiley guy! I feel like he doubled in size this last week!

Samuel's 7th week of life was a pretty exciting one. He went to the Y for the first time. That was, of course, a lot more traumatic for me than for him. I don't mind leaving him so much, but I don't KNOW the girls working in the nursery at the Y, and they don't know my kid (nor did they care when I listed the contents of his diaper bag to them. Haha.) 

It had to happen eventually though, and he seemed pretty content swinging in their uber-fancy swing. He slept the whole time. 

He also got admired (from afar) by a slough of toddlers who kept saying, "Baby! Baby!" I feel pretty bad for those kids' parents, because I'm pretty sure that's all they're going to hear about!

On Friday, Samuel also stayed with our friend Tricia for about four hours while we went to Match Day, and then our friend Nicole came over for two hours or so after he went to sleep so we could go to the Match Day party. He did well both times, thank goodness. 

Saturday night, Eric's mom and sister came in (after he went to bed), and Sunday morning we got up and Samuel went to church for the first time! It happened to be baby dedication Sunday, so we went ahead and participated (for fear that next time around he may be jumping off the stage)! We were pretty legitimately scared that he would spit up, poop, or scream, but he did none of those. What a sweet baby. :-)

After church, we ran home so I could feed him and then went to brunch at Village Tavern. He got a little fussy, but Gran-Gran was pretty happy to hold him after we were through eating. 

Samuel has been doing an awesome job sleeping this week! He has been going to bed between 8:30 and 9 and giving us a 6-7 hour stretch every night. He's usually up between 8 and 8:30 in the morning. While he takes a little nap between every feeding (every 3 hours or so), I've been trying to have him take a good morning nap in the pack-n-play and one of his afternoon naps in the crib. Usually the other afternoon nap is taken in the jogging stroller, the swing at the Y, the carseat, etc., as I have WAY too much energy to stay in the house all day!

The REALLY exciting thing to me is that this sweet boy has been putting himself to sleep. By that I mean that I can set him down in his crib awake at night and he will fall asleep on his own without fussing. Sometimes it's right away, and sometimes it takes 30 minutes of playing in his crib, but he's consistently done this for about 10 nights in a row, so I'm starting to feel like this might be his norm (I hope!!). Do I have an amazing baby or what???

Samuel's also been wiggling a LOT more (if that's possible). While laying on Eric's stomach this week, he's practically rolled off more than once. He also has wiggled halfway down his crib while swaddled, which I find pretty impressive! 

He talks a LOT, especially when he first wakes up, and has a new-found fascination with sticking out his tongue and with eating his fist. He's also started wearing a few 3 month outfits that aren't completely swallowing him. Seriously, I can't believe how big he's getting! Where did my little newborn go??

I don't know if it's possible, but I feel like I love this sweet kid more every day. 7 weeks in and it's hard to imagine life without him!!

Match Day

Oh, Match Day. After months and months of waiting, we finally got to go open that magic envelope. We'd been waiting, anticipating this day, ready to know what our future would be.

Sound exciting? Maybe a little, but really it was crazy nerve-wracking!

  (See all the envelopes sitting there????? We had to just LOOK at them until noon!)

For the last four years, we have been living in Winston-Salem temporarily. For medical school. We were moving at the end of those four years. It was a no-brainer. We're young. We're fairly adventurous.We want to see new places, put down new roots, try new things. We have the wanderlust, especially me. So we went on a lot of fun adventures to look at different programs. Eric had some great interviews. We had no doubt that Eric would match, and he did.

But we were pretty shocked (okay, more like flabbergasted) when Eric opened up his envelope on Friday and we saw he had matched at Wake Forest. Were we reading that right? That meant... we were NOT moving.

We knew it was a possibility. We had made it that possibility by ranking them (our fourth choice, and behind some pretty competitive programs, so we should have known this was a GOOD possibility), but I don't think either of us actually thought that it would happen. We chuckled when people talked about us staying, because it wasn't really an option. We were convinced we were going elsewhere.

God had other plans! We prayed throughout the whole interview process that we would be in the place where we would grow the most. Who knew that place would be right where we were?

We have spent the last few days changing our mindset. For months, even years, we have thought we'd be getting ready to move right now. Instead, we're settling in for three more years.

Please don't read this wrong, this is in no way a bad thing, just a surprising one. We like Winston-Salem a lot. In fact, I'd probably prefer to live here than most of the other places we ranked, and, the more I think about it, the happier I am. We have a happy little life here, a great neighborhood, church, gym, grocery store, etc. I'm really excited that I get to keep all of those wonderful things in tact.

And we have the opportunity to move again in three years if we want to. Three years isn't really all that long.

More importantly, Eric has a job at an awesome hospital, and he is about to be a doctor!  Wake Forest has been more than good to us. How can we not be happy to continue on here?

I do think that some changes are on the horizon. After all, we've been preparing for major life changes for the last several months. Obviously we've had the HUGE change of adding an extra person to our lives. I left my job to say at home for a little while with Samuel (sorry, I just can't put him in day care if we don't need to) and figure out what I want to do next (go back to school, perhaps?). Eric is about to finally finish up his 21 years of school and start a job where he gets a paycheck (yay!!). Maybe it's time to find a different house or get new furniture. We're definitely open right now to do doing something new.

I've loved the last four years, but these three need to be different, even better. We need to grow, to set goals and to be able to looks back three years from now and see that we have changed in a good way. I'm really curious and excited to see what residency will bring.

Here's to three more years as North Carolinians!

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!