how's baxter?

A question that a lot of people have asked me is, "how's Baxter doing?," because everyone knows, Baxter is like a child to us. Spoiled and constantly loved on. At night, he slept on my head, or my pillow, or was the little spoon. He would lounge in the hallway for hours a day. But now that the baby is here, admittedly, life has changed somewhat for Baxter.

{day 1}

 

Our primary focus has shifted to all things baby. It's just the way it goes. I'm either nursing him, holding him, reading to him, changing his diaper, talking to him, or trying to get him to sleep. Rob too... well, not the nursing part. And Baxter's world has been turned upside down because he's not getting all of our attention.

To say I wasn't worried about him the month leading up to Christian's arrival would be a lie. I worried how he'd react to a baby crying. So I would play YouTube videos of babies crying. (Honest truth). And he'd immediately run away. Crap. We setup Christian's bassinet, which of course, Baxter thought was especially for him. So we had to train/yell/squirt/do whatever we could to keep Baxter out of Christian's future sleeping arrangements.

Now that it's been 6 weeks, I can offer a report on how Baxter is doing and adjusting. He's fine. At first, he definitely didn't know what to think of this... thing that makes a lot of noise. And when Christian started crying, Baxter would immediately exit the room. Now, he just kinda looks at him. And then looks at me like, "make it stop, please." For the most part, he ignores the baby. Of course he sniffs his head or his toes every once in a while, but that's about it.

Apparently Baxter has learned that when baby cries, Mommy or Daddy picks him up. So now, especially at night, if the baby even makes a peep, Baxter comes from wherever he is and wants to sit on my lap and be in my face. Yep. He's thinking, "well, if I just force myself onto her, she'll have to leave that thing alone." Sorry kitty. Also, when I nurse Christian, he most definitely wants to be on the nursing pillow with him, which he tries at least once a day to do before settling down next to me where I pet Baxter and nurse Christian simultaneously. A learned skill.

I do admit that I have ignored him more than I want to, especially at the beginning, but now I'm trying to love on him whenever I see him and my hands aren't too full. We don't keep the door open as much because it's just too much noise (and people walking by) to deal with right now. But occasionally we do. Now that I've temporarily moved my sleeping arrangements to the sofa, that has posed a small problem. There's just no room for me and a 15lb cat on the couch. But, he still tries, and usually I still let him. Unless I'm extra cranky. I refuse to let him on my pillow because there is absolutely nowhere for me to go, so he'll settle back into being the little spoon. He wants nothing to do with Rob, sleeping in the queen-size bed, all alone. Nope, nothing. He knows not to go near the bassinet because all we have to do is show him the purple spray bottle and he's gone.

Bringing baby home was a big change for all of us. And we're doing as much as we can to make sure Baxter knows he's still the number one kitty, we love him, and a part of this family just the same.

B is for...

Bob, of course!

one month

We have a one month old. Where has the time gone? No seriously, where? (Sorry, I'll probably say this every blog I write because I ask myself this everyday). It really doesn't seem like (over) a month ago we were on our way to the hospital knowing that we'd be meeting our little man later that day. (Birth story coming one day). Now 5 weeks later, we're slowly getting into the groove of being parents, learning the cries of our little guy, and being completely amazed at how much he's interacting with us.

At his one month appointment, the doctor was quite happy we made it the first month without a fever, which apparently requires hospitalization. Yikes. And yeah, he's growing like crazy. At the beginning I was worried I was going to have problems breastfeeding  because as natural as it may be, there is nothing about it that feels natural, especially at the beginning. And it's quite disheartening when on my 2nd day in the hospital the nurse tried to recommend that I supplement with formula. Well, I'm glad I shut her down, because he did not need to be supplemented thankyouverymuch.

Here are the "one month" stats:
Weight - 11lbs 2.6oz
Length - 23 inches

So yeah, we have a big boy. I'm completely convinced that he's going to be tall like his daddy. He's in the 90th percentile for length (height) and weight. Meaning that only 10% of babies his age are bigger than him. Dude.

{one month family photo shoot}

Our little grom has a seemingly mellow temperament. That's not to say that he doesn't fuss, because duh, all babies do, but it's becoming more predictable and a tiny bit easier to figure out why. Tiny bit. Very tiny bit. There's a checklist: diaper? time to eat? needs to burp? too tired? over stimulated? We just kinda go through the "checklist" and sometimes we find the culprit, sometimes we don't. And we do what we can to sooth him and eventually, whenever all is right in his world, he stops crying. I do feel quite lucky that he doesn't seem to have the dreaded colic.

For the time being I've moved my sleeping space out to the living room. We call it our cave. With me being up during the night to feed him, we decided there's really no reason for BOTH Rob and I to not sleep. I have to be awake, Rob doesn't. BUT, if he hears Christian crying, he's up asking what he can do - change the diaper? rock him? We started this when he had his first trip, I wanted to make sure he was well rested. Because, who wants a tired pilot flying your airplane? That's what I thought.

Even through the sleepless nights that sometimes include tears (both me and baby) and me asking, "will I ever sleep again?" I am loving every single second of being a mommy. Everyday he does something new, and as his parents, we think quite remarkable. He's focusing on faces more, he's smiling more (it's NOT always gas people), he's mimicking facial expressions, holding his head up, tracking moving things with his eyes and just being less of a blob. These might not seem like great accomplishments, but when he didn't do them yesterday, it's awesome. And please don't get me wrong, I loved the newborn blob phase, but it's amazing to see how much he's growing in such short period of time, including outgrowing his "newborn" clothes. This leads me to something funny (not really) and terrifying that Rob said yesterday as we were "getting rid" of the stuff he's outgrown. Rob: "Don't you think we should save some of these clothes?" Me: "Why??" Rob: "Well because... for when... we have another one?" Me: blank stare.

Dear Christian

I first saw this commercial while I was pregnant and immediately thought, "what a fabulous idea!" The gist is: a dad creates an email account for his daughter when she's born and he sends her emails documenting things/life/milestones as she's growing up and then will show it to her one day in the future. Well, life kinda happened and I completely forgot about doing this. But Rob saw the commercial the other day and created an email account "for" Christian. And honestly I don't really see it as emailing him, but more like journaling the little things that we tend to forget. Because Christian is changing and growing so fast!

Even though he's only just over 3 weeks, I totally wish we had remembered to do this sooner. Well technically, Rob did remember, but he ran into a kind of a funny snag. When he went to create the email address, he put in Christian's birthday and Gmail wouldn't let him proceed because you know, something about the law says you have to be a certain age to have a Gmail account. But when Rob tried to change the birthday to a later date all sneaky like, Gmail was having none of it and shut him down. So it got put to the wayside until just a few days ago.

I'll admit, watching this commercial now makes me a little teary eyed.

So here's my first letter to our son:

Good morning Christian,

Probably one of my favorite parts of the day is the morning. I love our first sunrise nursing session... the sun is coming up and God always blesses us with a spectacular show. Most mornings the sunrise fills the sky with pinks, purples, and orange just as the sun comes up over the ridge. You nurse with your eyes closed, but I know soon you'll be wide awake. After you're done eating breakfast we head to the bedroom where Daddy is and snuggle and talk. And I can't think of anything else in this world that melts my heart more than seeing you and Daddy together. Kid, we're blessed. You have an awesome dad. Snuggle time is also so fun because you're becoming more and more alert with every day, and we know you're listening to us and really starting to check us out. Yesterday morning was awesome - you looked in my eyes for so long. Melt. We see you looking around staring at certain things around the room - mostly the curtains. We think it's the contrast you notice with the dark curtain against the blue sky out the window. You do that in the living room as well. Oh, you also like looking at the bike wheel spin and the pictures hanging on the wall. Especially the one of Daddy surfing. Not to worry, you'll be out there soon enough and I'm sure our already extensive surfboard collection will grow. Little grom.

This morning we gave you a bath. Sorry buddy, it's been a few days. It's been extremely busy these past few weeks with family visiting. Everyone is coming out here - a long journey for most - just to meet you! Your Nannie and Uncle Kyle just left on Friday to go all the way back to Virginia. I know that Nannie wishes she could be closer to you and see you every single day. And I want that too. She held you and snuggled you and kissed you as much as she could in the short 10 days she was here. We're trying to convince her to move out here. Uncle Kyle is 21 years old and a guy. He doesn't really know what to think about babies, except they cry a lot, but he assured me that he loves you and even held you for a little while. We're already kind of planning our trip out to Virginia, which will most likely be your first ride on an airplane. It's going to be a doozy. Hopefully before the year ends, we'll make it out. Most likely sometime in December. Just be warned, the winters in Virginia are a little different than the winters in Hawaii... either way, I'm excited to take you to Virginia!

Yesterday your Auntie Christen arrived from California. She was so excited to meet you! I'm pretty sure I saw tears when she first laid eyes on you. She held and kissed and loved on you too. Christian, you're just such a miracle and you're our little angel. Everyone knows that and everyone loves you so so so much, especially Mommy & Daddy. We can't get enough of you! Yesterday I went with Mimi and Auntie Christen to the Hawaii Women's Expo and I couldn't stop thinking about you! Were you crying? Were you hungry? Is everything ok? But of course, when we returned home, there you were happy as a clam on the couch between Daddy and Papa. Hanging out with the guys just as happy as can be. 

This leads me to another new development. Your Daddy has so far fed you TWO bottles. He says you gobble them up! This is bittersweet for me - because even though I know you're still getting the ultimate nourishment from me, just in a bottle form, it makes me a little sad that I'm not the one giving it to you. But I completely realize that it's also a good thing because 1. you take a bottle with no problem or nipple confusion 2. Mommy can sneak away for just a little bit to do whatever she needs to do or 3. if Mommy & Daddy ever have a date night, then we can rest assured that you are not starving. 

Every day is a new adventure with you. You are changing before our eyes. Every single day. I'm trying as hard as I can to drink up these moments and take about a million pictures because I don't want to miss anything. Oh, you're holding your head up like a champ! I was so impressed yesterday how much you did it compared to the day before. And I've also noticed that a few of your Newborn sized PJs aren't fitting as well anymore! You're growing so fast! I swear they fit 2 days ago. And at the ripe old age of almost 4 weeks, I think we're using what will be our last pack of Newborn diapers.

Ok, so I couldn't be happier that you're growing and becoming more and more alert every single day, but man I wish time would slow down just a little bit. But since that's not going to happen, I'll continue to take 100 photos of you a day, kiss you as much as I possibly can, and enjoy every second.

Love,
Mommy

we went camping!

Christian and I had our first camping trip! Ok, so we didn't go to some far off place and pitch a tent, but we did make it as far as our living room. Today Rob is flying his first trip since Christian was born and everyone knows with a newborn, sleep is elusive. Our nightly routine includes me waking up anywhere from every 2-4 hours to nurse him and Rob changing his diaper. And that's if he's not fussy or crying... if that's the case, then someone (Rob) will continually rock him back and forth like he's about to throw a bale of hay across a field. No seriously. I actually get a little nervous watching this, but it's the only thing that'll calm him down.

Since I wanted Rob to have totally uninterrupted sleep, we brought Christian's bassinet into the living room. I considered this a trial run for when Rob is back to his normal flying routine and I'm home alone without anyone to help at night. Tonight my Mom is spending the night with me. But this made me feel confident that I can do it! Admittedly, I'm still a little nervous about the 5 nights he'll be gone later this month for SIM time in Seattle. 

All in all, Christian was the perfect angel last night and our first night camping was a complete success. No crying and no fussiness. This morning I woke up to his grunts and noises. I pulled him onto the sofa where we cuddled for a long time. I described the sunrise to him, told him how much mommy and daddy loves him, and smothered him with kisses. There really are no words, but this love is unreal.