Hold Your Head Up

Even with a nasty case of the hiccups. Isn't he getting so big?

Beautiful Day

Another beautiful day spent in bed. Mastitis is back. Which is too bad because it is gorgeous out today. It was my goal to plant some flowers I bought last weekend. Daddy got the garden planted on Monday and all I have is 5 or 6 measly little flowers - that I can't possibly get in the ground.

Yesterday was a big first for us - Ed Jr.'s first hike. It was lovely and cool out. Selma had a blast too. Unfortunately we forgot to take the camera. Ed Jr. slept through the trip - he is a very good hiker.

Ed Jr. is 5 weeks old today and if the sexist jerks at my workplace had their way, I would be going back to work next Wednesday. Could you leave this with a sitter and go to work all day? Didn't think so.

For the next six weeks Ed Jr. and I are going to be scraping by to fit in more work during the day so that I don't have to dump him in some creepy day care.

It is making me realize how much time has already gone by since he was born. 5 wonderful weeks. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this little boy. Even when he poops I think he is perfect. Sometimes when I look at him, I love him so much I feel like my heart is going to explode - in a good way.

I know how much you love them. . .

So here is a new video for you.

Good Nights and Bad Nights

I know it has been a long time. Since Ed Jr.'s grandma Shelia left, it has been hard to get near the computer. Thanks Grandma S for taking such good care of us. We all miss you!

Everyone asks me - how is he sleeping? Since we are breastfeeding, I pretty much have to feed him at least every two to four hours, so even in the middle of the night, we are up. At almost one month (tomorrow) we have had some good nights and bad nights. I would say that for every two good nights we have, we have one bad night. When I say bad night - this is what I mean, Ed Jr. likes to hang out for a couple hours in the middle of the night. He isn't screaming, he just wants to be held, walk around and occasionally nurse. This usually happens between 2 and 4 AM. He did have two screaming nights, but since his mom gave up dairy, that hasn't happened since.

Good nights are ones where we have to wake him up to feed him in the middle of the night. He goes about 4 hours between feedings, eats a bunch and then immediately returns to sleep.

Tuesday night was the worst yet. I got mastitis. It was basically horrible and we haven't gotten out of bed since. Good news for Ed Jr. every time he is awake, I am trying to get that kid to nurse to clear out the plugged duct. I think he is actually tired of nursing right now.

This week was also dad's first week back at work. And other than the mastitis Ed Jr. and mom are coping quite well. Dad misses us a lot and has a tough job right now, so he is not so chipper.

Ed Jr.'s god mother came to visit, which was very nice. He likes her quite a bit and was extra snuggly when she was here.

We get out quite a bit, other than Mastitis days, we go for walks, go shopping, and even attended a birthday party for his two year old cousin, Faith. We had an awesome time. The whole family plus a few friends were there to celebrate. What was her favorite gift? Bubbles. But even the bubbles paled in comparison to the birthday party highlight - a beetle she found outside. She carried that poor bug around for hours. It was alive part of the time. . . Sadly I don't have any photos of the party, but I got this one the next day. Honestly, I have never seen Uncle Ian this happy in years. He LOVES his nephew.

THREE WEEKS OLD!

And life for Ed Jr. is pretty sweet. He goes for walks, sleeps and eats. His grandma Shelia and his parents hold him just about 24 hours a day.

He is "supposed" to go 4 hours between feedings in the middle of the night - but he doesn't know the difference between day and night.

He is also growing as fast as the dandelions in my flower bed. Today to celebrate his 3 week birthday, I put him in the outfit he wore home from the hospital.

It is a little short in the legs. So the kid has some flood pants on today, doesn't make us bad parents, does it?

Happy Mothers Day - Belated

Sorry this is one day late, but a day late is better than nothing - or better than the invisible flowers and invisible card I got for my mom and better than the invisible chocolates I got my step mom. Ed got his mom the same. Oopsie.

What did I get for my first mother's day? The best present I could think of. One day free of diaper duty. Ha ha - I said duty. Ed and Grandma changed diapers all day - it was magical.

Oh and a bonus for those of you that claim that Ed Jr. looks a little like me. Behold. Ed Sr.



Ed Jr.



I guess we named him appropriately.

Head

Ed Jr has a big old noggin. This should come as no surprise to any of you who are acquainted with his parents. His mom has a large head and his dad. . . well, when he was a child, was nicknamed Head by his brothers because of he was a skinny little guy with a big head. Well, that name stuck and his brothers still call him Head or "H" for short.

Today the Dr. told us that he is in the 90th percentile for length, 95th percentile for head circumference and somewhere in the 70th percentile for weight. In other words, he is a tall skinny kid with a big head.

Head Jr.?

Anyway, I shot this video last night when trying to get Ed Jr. to hit the hay. Sorry about the poor image quality, but I didn't want to turn on the overhead lights, so we were working with lamp light. Turn up the sound so you can hear his hiccups.



How hilarious is that hat? Elf or Russian Prince?

Happy Camper

Ed Jr. is almost two weeks old. Two amazing weeks if you ask me.

It hasn't been all fun and games though, yesterday he got circumcised. He was pretty pissed about the whole thing and to make up for it, nursed for almost straight hour in Dr.'s office and in the truck in the parking lot of the Dr.'s office. They said that we could stay in the exam room and nurse him as long as we needed, but it was about 5:00 PM and I am sure they wanted to go home, so we hauled a screaming kid through the halls and finished up in the truck. He then slept through Bed Bath and Beyond and Costco.

Today was much much much better. Ed Jr. is very busy perfecting the art of sleepnursing. He would like to think that he invented it. It works like this. Start nursing, fall asleep, nurse while sleeping, wake up slightly, nurse, fall back asleep, get angry when removed from the breast, return to nursing, sleep, nurse, sleep, nurse. Nanna calls it camping out. If he is camping out, he is one happy camper. And other than taking up his mom's ENTIRE day with this sleepnursing, it seems to be working, he gained almost a whole pound (15 oz to be exact) in one week.

The other thing that Ed Jr. is very good at is tearing ass. Twice he has pooped with such force, poop has cleared the edge of his changing table and made it at least 3 feet vertical distance. The last such time, he pooped on his mom's leg as she was standing in the doorway to his nursery. Not just a little bit either.

I thought you all would enjoy a little Ed Jr. live. Warning - gratuitous spit up scene in the end. Out of the three takes, he spit up each time. I am going to try not to take it as "get the camera out of my face mom!".



You were warned.

I also thought that you would enjoy the many faces of Ed Jr. While he is awake, he is pretty happy until he wants to return to sleepnursing, then he gets pretty salty.

One Week

Ed Jr. is a little over one week old. He is completely amazing. He had a couple of bad nights, but also a couple of great nights. His Nanna was here all week, which pleased him greatly, and allowed his daddy to obsess about the yard. She left today, which made Ed Jr. and his mom quite sad, but no worries, his Grandma Shelia is on her way and his Strega Nona is only a few blocks away.



I have updated the Flicker photos and placed a permanant link on the right.

I would write more if I wasn't super tired. When he sleeps, I am supposed to sleep. Right.