I have sooooo many thoughts and potential future blog posts banging around in my head, but I thought I'd start here because we officially have a one month old baby...the newborn-ness is gradually slipping away. So in order to remember everything from the past four weeks, I thought I'd do a quick update.
I don't know that I'll stick to this monthly like a few of my favorite bloggers do, but this seems to be the easiest way to write/document/remember all the stuff from this past month...so here goes in no particular organized order.
Maverick's favorite thing is probably bath time...which I find hilarious since that's also his daddy's favorite past time. I'm hoping this means he will also like mommy's favorite past time...swimming. He seems to enjoy his car seat and we try and take a small trip to Target, to visit dad at work, or go on walks at least once a day so he has plenty of time to get used to it. Our first 'real' road trip to Manson last weekend went perfectly both ways...he was awake, fussed for a minute, Jamie turned around to shove in the paci, and he slept the rest of the way. When we went back for the chili cook-off, he did the same thing. So far he's slept though both of his photoshoots, his doctor appointment, his first family reunion and three of the four church services he's been at.
He's gone through so many changes in the past month, it's already hard to remember! The first week was basically just eating, awake for five minutes, sleep, repeat. The second and third week included a lot more awake time, and this past week he has started to fuss a little bit more...but I just keep reminding myself of these wise words from Angie Carson, 'sometimes babies will just cry.' If his tummy is full and his diaper is clean, I do my best to ignore the fake crying. I was actually surprised how quickly I figured out the fake cry from real crying and Maverick is becoming a pretty good little fake crier...just like his mom was. So I WON'T be falling for that trick since I invented that game...just ask my parents (and poor Mary Jo). I also think being held non-stop last weekend had something to do with him being fussier when I could tell he was just really tired...this kid looooooooves to cuddle up and nap on people.
Mav likes shopping when he's awake as long as he's moving but doesn't love when we stop and stand to look at something for longer than five minutes. Most of the time being in his car seat puts him to sleep though. I know it's hard to tell at this point, but Jamie, Josh and I are all pretty sure that he loves music. When we turn it on he almost immediately stops the fake crying. Maybe all babies do that, I don't know. He's been so much more alert during his awake-time this past week and we can tell he's starting to look and focus on things which is fun. He obviously likes being held, but there are times when being held makes him crabby and he would rather just stretch out on the floor and kick his legs and wave his arms non-stop for a good 20 minute baby cardio-sesh.
He's doing really well eating on a three-hour schedule during the day (though sometimes he only makes it 2.5 hours before I give in if fake crying turns to the real cry). And breastfeeding seems to be going well, though I know things can change and go downhill really quickly in that department. I was told so many different things by different nurses in the hospital that once we got home I just ignored all of them, threw the satanic breast pump in the closet, and didn't look back for the first month (thanks to Kim Gazaryan). Now that we have one month under our belt I've gone back to pumping when it's convenient and I have time during the day and that also seems to be going well so far (we're only a week in...so the jury is still out).
Maverick has peed or pooped on Josh and Jamie the most, which is hilarious because I'm the one who does 95% of the diaper changes. He's has only spit up about three times in his little life so far, which means my clothes have stayed crusty-dried-spit-up free...so I'm counting that as a first-month-mom-win and he rarely burps, no matter how long we pat him for. He makes a lot of sweet noises with his mouth and tongue and lips and he's obsessed with his hands. They are just all over his face, but I do regular baby manicures so he hasn't scratched himself once (I prefer filing his sweet little nails instead of clipping them). I tend to pick at him a lot because I hate it when babies have dry flaky skin on their heads and faces...so all that junk gets a nice gentle scratching every time he eats. He's had two little white zits so far in his four weeks of life but mom took care of those too and he didn't even mind!
After our big crazy weekend, bae has had some trouble napping during the day (because he was held and cuddled for all his weekend naps!). So I've stopped laying him on the floor or in the swing for his day-naps and into his crib he goes. He fusses for a while before falling asleep but he seems to sleep better in there now...Plus then the fake crying is easier for me to ignore. ;) I usually try to get him to nap about an hour or an hour and a half after he wakes up to eat and that's the schedule we follow for most of the day. For this first month I haven't nailed down a strict schedule because it revolved around when he would wake up to eat at night (and I kind of just let him do what he wanted), but as of yesterday we are rocking and rolling on a (semi-loose) daily schedule. Up to eat at 9, noon, 3, 6, and 9...then awake for a little bit then bedtime. He rocked this schedule yesterday and rewarded me with EIGHT STRAIGHT HOURS OF SLEEP. Of course I know he will probably go back and forth before this is our 'norm' but with fewer visitors coming by and now that I'm feeling almost 100% I think we should be able to get into a good groove here pretty quick being that he is such an easy-going baby.
And yes, he is in his crib. For the first four days we were at home, I wasn't super limber...if you can believe that. So climbing in and our of our super-tall bed was...a bit of a (painful) challenge. I slept on the couch, Maverick slept in his little travel-bassinet beside me, and Josh (bless his heart) camped out on the living room floor on the love-seat cushions so I wasn't all alone for a couple nights. With Josh heading right back to work, this was not a feasible long-term solution, so I moved to the guest room (bed isn't so tall in there) for a couple nights with Maverick in the travel-bassinet so Josh could attempt to get some real sleep in our room. After a full week of not sleeping in my own bed with my own cuddly husband...as much as we love that little punk we were not about to let him ruin our nightly routine of cuddling and watching shows and movies in our bed. Once I could get in and out of our bed, Maverick started sleeping in his crib and it's worked out great! Plus we won't have a challenging transition a couple weeks/months down the road when we have to re-train him to sleeping in a crib. I've thought about it a lot and it wouldn't be that much more convenient to have him in our room since I change and feed him in his room every night...I think we're all getting better sleep because of it.
He has an adorable hairy-baby forehead that makes me laugh, plus little fuzzy baby shoulders. Josh is concerned that this means he has, in fact, inherited the hairy Boersma trait and he will be cursed with these hairy shoulders for life. As I mentioned in my last post, there is no denying he has Josh's legs, feet and toes and he's already gotten a fair amount of teasing for that...but that's character building. It's hilarious to us when people comment on who he looks like...it's about 50/50 and completely random. In the beginning he looked like me if his eyes were open and his hat was off so everyone could see his dark eyes and hair...but if he was sleeping with a hat on (which was most of the time), everyone agreed he looked like Josh. That changed to my family thinking he looked just like me as a baby and Josh's family thinking he looked like Josh. Well, scratch all of that because now my family only sees Josh and Josh's family all sees me...Occasionally he makes a face that I recognize from a picture of me when I was a baby...but in these 1-month pictures I don't see Josh or me...I just see a Maverick.
The farts that come from this tiny human would shock and appall you...and probably make his uncles very proud. I've never been around a baby who farts as loud or as long as Maverick. It's just shockingly hilarious. He makes these ridiculous farts in his sleep and we can hear them from our bedroom with BOTH DOORS CLOSED. And the calm faces he makes while he's working on a big one are just as funny.
Sarcasm in our house is pretty rampant, so the other day when we had the Today Show on and they were talking about how to not raise entitled kids, how to give allowances, etc. with the 'Parenting Experts'...they mentioned doing chores to earn an allowance is important, not just giving kids a standard rate each week regardless (there are parents in this world who do that?!) and Josh and I looked at Maverick (sleeping in his swing because he was approximately 10 days old) and said, "OK man, go empty the dishwasher, thanks."
Maverick gets a little crabby between 6 and 7 each night if he's fighting his evening catnap. He was swinging in his swing the other night, fed, changed, and fake crying and Josh looked at him and said, "Hey Maverick. Sucks to suck." Now you all think we're terrible people but at the time it was reeeeally funny. We kind of have to joke around because neither of us enjoy listening to him cry (especially Josh) so turning HIMYM on louder and eating the yummy meals people have been bringing us has made it bearable.
Overall he's just a really good, normal, happy baby...we haven't discovered any allergies to wipes, diapers, milk, soap, lotion, etc. Generally we're getting at least 6-9 (typically interrupted) hours of sleep each night depending on how lazy I feel like being in the morning. No colic or reflux issues so far...he's gaining weight, I'm losing weight (YEEYEEYEE!), and we just hang out at home cuddling, talking, watching hours of Gilmore Girls (seriously, it feels like all I do is sit, feed a baby, and watch TV!), and sending Josh cute videos of Mav being adorable throughout the day.
Last week I celebrated my one-month-mom-aversary with a spray tan and I'm feeling pretty much back to normal. A blog about my transition to being a mommy is on the horizon, so brace yourself.
MmB
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