What have we come to?

It happened. My husband called me on his way home from his hunting trip and asked me how things went for the last two days. The first thing I thought to tell him was "JJ pooped today!" and John was ecstatic. How very depressing. This was rapidly followed by a report of how much sleep I hadn't gotten (the little man decided 3am was a good party time) and how much breast milk I'd managed to express. The saddest part about all this is that I did lots of interesting adult things this weekend (met friends for lunch, cooked a birthday dinner for another friend), but the part I thought to tell him and I thought would be most interesting had to do with baby input/output and sleep patterns. I *really* need to get out more. I've noticed in my conversations with other people that they tend to interrupt me an unusual number of times. I suspect I must be just babbling on as I over compensate for not talking to adults all day long. I'm sure this will change when I get back to work - but it sure gives me a lot of sympathy for stay at home moms. How do they do it and still manage to hold intelligent discourse?!?!

And on the 8th day

Well, apparently my son is incredibly anal retentive, even at the tender age of 7 weeks. Today, finally after 8 days, he finally FINALLY pooped. It was, of course, copious. 8 days...I swear he's lighter.

Happy Easter!

JJs first Easter! Aunties Angela and Crystal and Uncles Scott and Mike came over to celebrate with ham, salmon asparagus casserole and baked sweet potato, followed by pumpkin pie and fresh blueberry pie. The egg hunt was great with Uncle Mike stealing everyone's eggs when they weren't looking. What a great Easter for JJ!

OMG - something's EATING the baby

Talk about funny...
We have JJ in a bassinet next to the bed (highly convenient for BFing). When you're laying down you can't really see him over the side of the bassinet unless you prop up on one elbow. On a regular basis, he'll wake up and start flailing his arms and legs around making all sort of crazy grunts, groans, coos, etc. Well, all we can see is the occasional arm or legs moving spastically over the crib top with all these sounds! John turns to me in mock horror and says "Oh my God - what's EATING our baby?!?!?"
LOL!

Finally worked out!

I had my 6 week check up on the 19th and the doc said I am good to go on all kinds of working out except abs - I have to wait for 8 weeks on those. So I plopped in my Shiva Rea post partum yoga DVD and managed to get through it uninterrupted (thankyou JJ for napping :) ) I'm feeling pretty good about that and hoping for a walk/jog later this afternoon. The weather is just beautiful and I can't wait to get out and about.

I can tell that my biggest challenge for working out isn't going to be the workout itself - it's going to be finding time when the little guy will let me workout or figuring out how to work out with him. Once he's not doing the whole bobble-head baby thing, maybe I can do baby presses! :)

The Poop Report

Once again, I find myself obsessing over my son's defecation schedule. It had been 5 days since he last had what is technically known in academic circles as a "poopy diaper". We were getting really worried after 3 days - so we called the doc and they said to give him 1 oz prune juice diluted with 1oz of water. So we did that yesterday, and then of course I read on the internet afterwards that babies can't digest fruit juice this early. ACK! And then I read I should give him Karo syrup or wiggle a thermometer in his rectum....apparently everyone has a solution for this. Finally, there were several sites that said this is totally normal and he's just getting better at processing his food. I guess no one really knows, but I found several other sites recommending the prune juice option, so I decided not to panic about possibly damaging my poor delicate little baby boy's internal bits.
Well, today he finally decided to let loose and my goodness had he been saving up! It was the consistency of peanut butter (GROSS!), and plentiful. Hooray for poop! (boy, I never thought I'd say that...)

40 today

Today both JJ and I turned 40 - 40 years for me, 40 days for the little guy. How cool is that?
I am so utterly grateful that we were blessed like this. I mean, he's healthy and happy, minimally fussy, we've been able to breast feed him (a rough start, but we made it), the cloth diapering thing is working out well, we got all kinds of cool stuff from friends and family so that he's stylin'...I couldn't ask for more. What a great way to turn 40!

Smilin' JJ

Check out that smile! What a handsome little guy :)

JJ started smiling (other than the little smirks you get when he's gassy) last week (at 5 weeks old). Pretty cool stuff!

Whazzup!?!?!?!

JJ is less than enthusiastic about his baths....:)

well, optimism and all that

It appears I was a bit optimistic in the whole "hitting my stride" thing. JJ has decided he's having another growth spurt, so I've been more or less confined to a chair/bed/couch feeding the boy nearly every hour (and every 2 hours at night). Exhausted...I'm glad he's thriving, I just kinda wish he could do it every 3 hours ;)

Clogged ducts - OW! (TMI)

ow ow ow ow ow!
I woke up this morning and one breast was hard and painful. After a little research, it looks like I have a clogged milk duct. Several, actually, that are presenting as rock hard, painful knots in the breast. The solution? Massage (ow) feed on that side (ow ow), and apply heat (ahhh). What fun (not).

4 Weeks!

JJ says "what do you mean I'm 4 weeks old already?!?!"

Starting to hit my stride

Well, slowly but surely, things are starting to settle down a bit. JJ is occasionally sleeping 6 hours at a stretch at night (although he doesn't want to go to sleep until about 1 or 2am - ugh) And I've been able to stay on top of landry and dishes. John's been good about taking care of dinner (thank goodness Mom made and froze so much stuff!!) as well as fixing all of the things that seem to have suddenly gone wrong with the house. I'm getting an occasional nap and hopefully I can start working out soon. I've got this post partum yoga DVD I really want to try... Tomorrow I'm hoping to go all out and finish my thankyou cards for all the wonderful baby stuff we've recieved - I've been overwhelmed by the generosity of friends, family, and neighbors. Everyone has been so good to us - we are truly blessed. And then I can get back on my dissertation work too! I finally figured out how to work on the computer and feed JJ at the same time, and my brain appears to be working again, so multitasking here I come!