My first month

         
Mama said we would write every day.  Or every other day.  Or at least once a week.  

Mama was wrong. 

Being at home after being born is so great but it’s tiring...there is so much to do.  We have to wake up, eat, cuddle, sleep, wake up again, change clothes every time I poop too much, sleep again, eat again, and cuddle for a long time.  The craziest days are the ones where I have to take a bath or Mama needs something at the grocery store.  Also it takes a lot of the day to make all the expressions I need to make.  I am exercising all my muscles so I can tell everyone all about me.   

              


                

Grandma Beth stayed for 10 days and we had so much fun snuggling and eating and getting to know each other.  We had a lot of late nights with no sleep and a lot of days that didn’t start until noon because Mama and I were so tired.  I learned how to eat  pretty quickly but it still hurt Mama for a couple of weeks.  She says she is so proud of me anyway.  I like to fall asleep while I eat, but Mama says I can’t.  She tickles my ribs and blows on my face and rubs my sternum to keep my eyes open.  While Grandma Beth was here she would bring Mama a drink every time that I was eating.  Grandma says drinking is VERY important, so Mama agrees.  

Grandma Beth also helped Mama get the nursery organized, and helped Mama go through all my clothes since we had newborn outfits ready and I was too big.  Mama says she is sad to already be packing away some of her favorite clothes.  While Mama slept or Daddy was at work, Grandma held me and sang to me and rocked me.  Grandma has a beautiful voice and it calms me right down. 

For about 2 weeks I slept in a “side car” right next to Mama’s bed.  She could reach over in the middle of the night and poke me if she was afraid I wasn’t breathing.  She could reach me easily when I needed to nurse.  But she also woke up all through the night any time I made a sound. So now she and Daddy moved me to their closet.  The closet is big enough to put me and their clothes and a recliner in, but it has a door so they don’t wake up every time I sigh.  That is a good thing.  Most of the time I sleep 2-3 hours at a time, and sometimes more.  Mama gets up with me most of the time, but if I don’t go back to sleep then Daddy snuggles with me.  Snuggles are my favorite.  

Gramps and Nana came to visit us for the week of Thanksgiving.  We made pies and sang together and played lots of games.  Nana taught Mama how to make a turkey and how to make stuffing and helped her cook all the dinner.  Mama loves her new kitchen and it finally smells like home after all the cooking she has done.  Gramps helped Daddy put together our pellet stove to keep our house nice and warm.  He also fixed our dishwasher and our bathroom fan and our deck lights.  The house has a lot of projects but we are getting them done one at a time.  My Daddy can do anything, he is so handy and strong.  My Mama is not very good at choices, which is why we have patches of paint on the walls that have been there for weeks.  

 

 

It’s hard to tell you everything about my first month of life, but here are a few important things: 

I love curling in my arms and legs and laying on Mama or Daddy’s chest.  Mama still calls me her “little tree frog” because I’m so flexible and squishy.  Sometimes if I get tired of being balled up, I wriggle and nuzzle until I fall into Daddy’s armpit or near the couch.  I love to be burrowed between two things.  

I love to be stretched out and arch my back when I’m awake.  I lay in people’s arms and crane my neck so I can see what is happening in the world.  I love to lift up my head, and I was strong enough the night I was born, but sometimes I can’t do it very long because it’s tiring.  I also like it when Daddy throws me over his shoulder “like a sack of potatoes”...It gives me practice holding my head up and I get to see the world from behind him.  

When I’m hungry I straighten out my whole body and throw back my head, and I have a raspy cry.  Mama says I sound like an alien, but I’m saying my first word, “mmmmmmaaah!!”  Roughly translated that is “mom why aren’t you feeding me?!?” Sometimes if Mama isn't ready yet, Daddy tries to trick me with his finger.  Fingers taste good, but not as good as milk.  

Mama loves to take pictures of me.  Her friend came to take pictures of all three of us, but then for several more days Mama was taking pictures of me and Daddy and guitars and wrinkles.  Daddy says it's OK.

I love to look at contrast...the line between the white ceiling and the dark wall in my bedroom, the lines on the couch, the slats in my crib.  

I love bath time.  The first time Mama and Daddy bathed me I pooped in the bath sling 5 seconds after they set me down. It was just so relaxing! They took me out, cleaned me up, put in new water, and set me back in, and then I peed immediately.  Too bad, they said, urine is sterile.  When I’m in my tub that Grandma Beth gave me I have lots of room to splash, and I love it! I have so many bath toys but they are still too big for me. After baths mom makes me put lotion on.  I don’t like goop but Mama says it’s good for my skin.  

I love my swing.  It’s huge and it plays music. It’s supposed to have a mobile but we haven’t attached it yet.  It doesn’t matter, I love looking at the handle where it attaches anyway.  

When I wake up in the morning or first thing after a nap, I stretch back my head, draw my fists to my cheeks and stick out my elbows and arch my back, and pout my lower lip. It makes Mama laugh every time, because she says I look like her.  When she has to wake me it takes so long for me to get fully awake and I make all sorts of funny faces...my arms hit me a lot as I wake up but I can’t seem to control them.  

I love it when Daddy sings.  Really I love any singing, but Daddy’s voice makes me so calm and happy.  We sing a lot of John Denver and hymns and Beethoven and Daddy’s current favorite band, Milk Carton Kids.  

I went on my first shopping trip last week because daddy needed new clothes.  Mama calls it "the mall" but it's a crazy place.  I helped Daddy hold all his shirts while he was picking out clothes.  Then I wet through two outfits and Daddy had to buy me another shirt.  We stayed for a long time.  I wasn't too impressed.

Mama says her favorite parts about me are the folds of skin around the back of my knees and the back of my head.  She also loves the downy hair on my arms and my legs.  Daddy loves my dark blue eyes and my forehead wrinkles.  Mama says it makes her laugh that I use my eyebrows for a thousand expressions even though I don’t have any brow hair at all.  I use them so much that my eyebrow muscles can be seen across the room.  I love it when people talk to me, and it quiets me right down if they look right into my eyes. 

Mama says I’m a good baby.  I like to sit and watch the ceiling, I don’t mind being alone in my crib, I’m a good eater, and unless my tummy hurts or I’m hungry I don’t cry too much.  

When I’m trying to do something or getting frustrated, I grunt a lot or talk in short mutters and scrunch my forehead and furrow my eyebrows. Mama says it sounds like I’m muttering under my breath.  She calls me “Mr Grumble Mumble” a lot.  

When I’m content, I like to keep my mouth open and taste the air with my tongue. Or sometimes I taste Mama’s shirt or Daddy’s neck.  It’s how I say “hi.”  

At my one month visit I weighed 11lbs 15 oz and was 24 inches long! Dr Greg says I'm growing like a weed.  Mama seemed to need to take a lot of pictures of me as a one month old.  Daddy says Mama is allowed.