waterbed, take 2

OK, so maybe Jason does retain twitting privileges. This morning I was the one to spill water in bed. But it was only half a glass and it was because I had a bad hold on it, not because I fell asleep. Surely there's something worse in spilling a full glass because you fell asleep, right?

Gavin has found his hands. When he is awake and not engaged in play with one of us, he is often found with his hands in fists held out in front of his face, his eyes crossed as they focus down at them. He stuffs them in his mouth now not in an instinctive sign that he is hungry, but to explore and learn about his hands. His arms flail around in a more deliberate way now as he discovers that he can control them and that they are part of him.

It's an amazing sight to watch so much learning happen. These things we take for granted - such as the concept of hands and arms being part of our bodies - have to be learned. That's something you don't think about every day. Having a baby makes you look at the world in a fresh way. It makes you realize just how far you have come as a person. After all, I know that not only do I have hands and that my arms are part of my body, but so are my legs and feet!

a house for a boy

We looked at close to 20 houses over the past two weeks, some of them total crap, most of them just okay, and a small number that stood out. We looked at the four that stood out again Monday evening, and then decided to make an offer on our favorite. We made an offer on Tuesday, and after going a couple rounds of counter offers, a middle ground was reached and we made the decision to go with it. As of this morning, the final offer is signed. It's official. We found a house! We're going to buy a house!

2 month checkup

Gavin had his 2 month checkup today, and oh my is he a big boy! He weighs 14 lbs 8 oz and is 23 1/4" with a head circumference of 16 1/8". His weight is off the charts, so is more than the 100th percentile, but his length and head circumference are both around the 75-80th percentiles. If he keeps growing at this same rate, we'll need a new car seat in mere weeks! And no wonder his 0-3 clothes are not fitting anymore! He also got his first shots today. That made him so mad, he screamed and screamed, which nearly broke my heart. Poor thing!

all smiles

Gavin has become so smiley and interactive over the past week. It wasn't until this week that he really started to smile and coo and gurgle and be really responsive to us. His little noises are so sweet. Between them and his smiles and playing with us, I'm all mushy inside so often these days. He has even started to ask to be played with. Just now he was laying on my lap staring around the room, happy as can be. Then a minute later he said "Nng-gooo" and I looked down and he stuck his tongue out at me and grinned. He loves to play the tongue sticking out game, where we (not surprisingly) stick our tongues out at each other. That just sets him to smiling like crazy. He also loves it when we immitate his noises and tickle him or sing to him.

He is also holding himself up incredibly well. He'll lift his head up and hold it steady and just gaze around for minutes on end. This morning he was laying on Jason's chest and holding himself up on his elbows!

We went to the zoo today. Gavin didn't care much for it - slept through, but we enjoyed it a lot. Got to see the new baby elephant and some baby bonobos. It was a good day for the zoo, warm but not too hot and windy enough to keep us cool.

water bed

We unexpectedly were given a waterbed this morning. Gavin woke up around six o'clock hungry, so I sat up in bed and started feeding him. Jason got up and got me some water in a large plastic cup. I held it and drank from it... can you see where this is going yet?... and then asked him to hold it for a moment while I scratched an itch. I forgot to take the cup back and dozed off a little. Several minutes later I heard a splash and started awake to see Jason arching up and looking extremely surprised. He had fallen asleep and dropped the cup. He's always twitting me about spilling water, which I do with a surprising frequency that I attribute to the quantity of water I consume rather than sheer clumsiness, but he can't anymore! (OK so he can since I still spill it a lot more than he ever has, but I can twit back just a little now!)

I had my six week postpartum checkup yesterday morning. I'm healing well and all looks good. Now I can start exercising for real and working on losing the many, many pounds I have to lose. I'll have to work up to any kind of intensity, though, since I've had nearly a year of zero exercise at all. Funny thing - You will remember that our OB, Dr V, was pregnant and due just a month after me? One of the nurses was cooing over Gavin and asked his name. I told her and she got this surprised look on her face and exclaimed, "Oh! That's Dr V's son's name!" It turns out that she had a boy and named him Gavin. We don't know if she had the name picked out before our boy was born or if we inspired her, but either way it's pretty nifty!

what a little time will do

I didn't realize how much things have improved in Babyland until tonight as I was driving to the La Leche League meeting. Pulling into the parking lot, I remembered that last month, I was just a day over two weeks postpartum. Emma had to drive me to the meeting because I was not comfortable sitting for very long, let alone driving. She also carried Gavin in his car seat carrier for me because I wasn't up to such weight yet. Last month, I was in extraordinary pain each time I fed Gavin and was quite miserable. This month I hopped into the car and drove myself and carried him myself. This month I'm feeding him without really thinking about it (except for when holding him makes my wrist hurt). Kind of funny what a little time will do, isn't it?

Changes

Gavin has been changing so much lately! When he is awake he is more interactive now. He gazes at us and sometimes seems to mimic our expressions. We can touch and tickle his face and make silly sounds and he smiles. Sometimes he almost seems on the verge of laughing. His smile continues to be the most precious thing in the world.

I didn't realize just how much Gavin has changed in appearance until I was looking at his hospital picture last night. His face is so incredibly different! So much fuller and more expressive. Of course, the 3+ pounds he has put on in the almost six weeks since his birth probably has something to do with that. He hasn't been officially weighed since he was 11 days old, but we weighed him on the scale at home the other day and he is measuring somewhere around 12 to 13 pounds. He's developing the most kissable fat chubby wrists. And cheeks. And elbows. His legs continue to be fairly skinny, but he's got a lovely second chin growing. It just thrills me to bits to see how well he's growing. His next well baby checkup in on the 24th, so we'll get to see what his official gain is.

The only problem with all this weight gain is of course that he is swiftly outgrowing his clothes and his diapers! I need to order more diapers so we're ready for the next size, since I suspect we're mere weeks away from switching up, but I have been holding back since we decided to try and see if we can get enough Fuzzi Bunz off of Ebay to make them our primary diaper, and then order just a dozen prefolds to use as backup. We really, really like the Fuzzi Bunz. They are so much nicer than prefolds. Unfortunately, so far lots of other people seem to really like the FBs too, as I have been having a hard time winning auctions.

In other news, we have recently taken a huge step towards a whole new level of adulthood. In addition to having a baby, of course. That would be, you'd think, enough of a big step for us to last a whole year or more, but we had to go and do more. We're going to buy a house. A week ago we found ourselves a buyer's agent and this week I started calling mortgage lenders. This weekend we're going out looking at houses for the first time. Wish us luck!

Baptized Boy

Gavin was baptized yesterday. The date just snuck up on us, too. I made the date with the church months ago, before he was born, and didn't realize it was Mother's Day, but it was fine. I didn't mind sharing the day one bit - after all, without him, I wouldn't be a mom anyway, so what better day for such an impotant event? We opted for an immersion baptism instead of the usual pouring water over his head. He didn't mind the immersion at all; so far he seems to really enjoy water. Unfortunately, once we were seated again the poor thing cried and cried - he was tired and hungry! We had a small party at Jason's grandmother's afterwards. It was nice to see everyone, but it wore us all out. The day was more activity and people than any of us - Gavin and I at least - have had in ages, so it was nice to get home again. My step sister Laura came down with Dad and Barb, too, so we got to see Laura again (always nice!) and to meet her adorable son Jasper, who was boen in February.

As for Mother's Day festivities, Gavin gave me a sweet little locket and a card. Jason assures me that Gavin picked it all out himself. We were going to out for dinner but decided not to because we were so tired after the baptism. However, after an hour or two of rest we felt better so we went anyway and had a late dinner of burgers at Red Robin. Yummy.

Catching Up

The boy is officially one month old today. Hard to believe that a month has already passed, even though it feels like the longest month ever. But we made it. There were times when I had my doubts!

We've managed to make it from day to day, enduring each trial as it pops up. The biggest trial, so far, has been with breastfeeding. I developed extremely sore nipples, to the point where near the end of the second week, I dreaded each feeding and gritted my teeth to the point where I feared they might crack. It got to the point where one morning I sat in my rocker bawling, while Gavin sat on my lap, hungry and bawling. I simply couldn't bear to inflict the pain on myself one more time. I hated myself because of what a bad mother that obviously made me, the fact that my boy was starving and I wasn't willing to do what it took to feed him.

Thank God for Jason, who called Emma, who I had previously talked to about the breastfeeding problems. Thank God for Emma, too, because she gave Jason a game plan that eventually got us through that time. On her advice, Jason went out and bought a breast pump (not a breast pimp, which is what I originally typed just there!), and for the next 30 hours or so, I pumped on the bad side and fed Gavin just on the good side -- "good" being a relative term, as that side also hurt like hell, just a slightly better version of hell than the "bad" side. That helped, and for a few days I was able to survive feedings again. Until the bad side got worse again. Another 24 hours of pumping helped only a little. I attended a La Leche League meeting with Emma, and the leader there helped me. From that point, I think it started to improve, bit by tiny wee bit each day. Then, last Monday morning I woke up and ta-da! I found that the pain was reduced to a level I could tolerate. I don't know what precipitated the change, but I'm not questioning it. I'm just glad that I can feed him without breaking into tears now. I'm actually starting to enjoy breastfeeding now!

Apart from breastfeeding woes, we've been having what seems like a pretty easy time of it. Gavin much prefers to be held and most of the time, complains loudly when I put him down. If it weren't for the sling, this would be a much bigger problem than it is. The sling is a fantastic, magical device. Gavin stays close to me and is held, but I have my arms and hands free. What could be better? We've even started taking him out of the car seat and carrying him around stores in the sling instead of the baby carrier, since he often got fussy in the carrier.

My own recovery from birth is nearly complete. I feel almost like my normal self, and with the exception of the gajillion pounds I have to lose and the Very Jiggly Belly, I even look a bit like my old self, too. Seeing how I haven't cried for no reason in days, I think it's safe to say the postpartum hormones have leveled off. Unfortunately, it seems that just as one thing goes away, another pops up to take its place. It seems that I have developed tendonitis in my wrists from carrying him and holding him. I saw the doctor today, because it kept getting worse despite my efforts at icing and wrapping and such. The doctor said it was tendonitis and said it is a common thing with new mothers. Not much to do but ice it and keep it wrapped and avoid using it as much as possible (ha!), and in a month or two, I should be back to normal. It's far worse in the right wrist than the left, which is good in that I only have ONE bad arm, but bad in that it's my dominant one. The joy.

It's hard to be completely bummed about the tendonitis, though, because every time I look at Gavin I forget just about everything in the world except how incredible he is. Over the weekend I noticed that he had changed. I couldn't explain it, but something about his face changed very subtley so that he looked much more mature one day than he had the day before. Sunday was a very big day for Gavin!