A First: We SLEPT through the night!

Yes, yes... you read correctly! Little Graham slept through the night for the first time last night. We were amazed. He officially slept from 10:30pm (after his last nursing) to 8:00am!!!

I woke up a few times and carefully listened to the monitor (Graham has been sleeping in his own room since Monday, 02.08)... I could still hear him breathing so I went back to sleep. When I woke up and realized the sun was up I kinda freaked out and went in his room to find him starting to stir. Man Oh Man was he a happy, restful baby and I was a FULL mommy!

He had a full day yesterday at Grammy & Pop's and the whole family came over. Big Graham and I played in the snow until we were exhausted and Little Graham stayed inside and was nice and warm with Grammy! We had dinner with everyone, came home, nursed some more, played, took a LONG bath, got a baby-massage and then got swaddled and ready for bed. I don't know what we did but I think the bath-time helped to relax him!

We know that we are SO blessed to have such an amazing baby. I don't officially call anything a "routine" until it lasts for a week straight... so we'll see if this was a one-time occurrence or if it lasts.

Happy Two Month Birthday, Little Graham!

Just some updates from our last month together....

1. Graham is growing by leaps and bounds... he's officially 23 inches long and 13.8 pounds, as we found out today from his pediatrician appointment. He's in the 90th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile for height. We all have a laugh when the pediatrician said that he's bigger around than he is tall (he was joking of course) but it made me think of my little one as a ball... or an umpa lompa. (Percentiles mean that out of 100 babies... only 10 would be bigger than little g and 90 would be smaller than little g.) His head is 16 inches... which is normal as the 50th percentile. We're not worried about his size... BOTH Big G and I were chunks too... and as soon as we started crawling we worked all of it off. The pediatrician is not worried either, of course.
2. He had his first round of immunizations today. We are so lucky to have found Dr. McGehee who believes in an alternative-vaccine schedule. Graham got the Biphtheria, Tetanus & Pertusis (DTaP) and Rotavirus vaccines. He got the Rotavirus first which was a simple-syrup that he could drink. The second was a spring loaded shot that was given to him in his thigh. I think the shot just shocked him.. he let out a small scream but didn't cry or anything... we all were impressed by how tough he is.
3. He can now turn over both ways by either leaning to the left or the right and with or without putting a rolled up blanket under him.
4. We bought him a play mat and he loves laying on his back looking at all the fun patterns. 
5. Tummy-time has always been a favorite and he's holding his head up for longer than ever now... he's even starting to sit up by himself. We're a little cautious about this though... it's a long way to fall over for a little guy.
6. TMI: The poopy diapers have, luckily, slowed way down. Now, he only has one HUGE blowout every two/three days. I seem to be getting the majority of these and Big G doesn't.
7. Big G and I got to enjoy a night out this month and Aunt Cheri & Uncle Matt got to enjoy him for a little while. We went over to a friends house for a potluck dinner... unfortunately for Cheri & Matt this was a blowout night!
8. He's stayed with a stranger twice now when I do my mommy yoga. My yoga teacher offers yoga in her home while her nanny watches all the little ones. We've only done this twice. The first time I was SO worried and he didn't even make a sound. The second time I was able to relax much more and enjoy it knowing that since he was ok the first time he would more than likely be ok the second time.
9. Morning time is our FAVORITE time of the day (at least for me)... We wake up about 8/8:30am and he's ready to eat. After he eats then it's time to PLAY! We have been having conversations with each other for weeks now... we laugh, talk, babble, coo and sing together. Then little g goes back to sleep at 9:30/10am. I love, love, love the full laughs where I can see his gums and his whole belly rolls like jelly.
   
11. Our schedule is now... 

8/8:30am: Wake-up/Eat/Playtime

9:30/10am: Naptime

11:30am: Wake-up

12pm: Eat

12:30pm: Sleep

3pm: Eat

3:30pm: Sleep

5:00pm: Wake-up/Playtime

6:00pm:Eat

6:30pm: Playtime

8:00pm: Sleep

9/9:30pm: Bathtime/Eat/Night-nite Time

3:30am/4am: Eat (That's right... 6+ hours!!)

8/8:30am: Wake-up/Eat/Playtime

We simply can't wait to see what this month holds for our little one...

A First: We LAUGHED!

Yesterday evening I left Daddy and Little Graham at home while I attended an AACWP meeting. My heart is always broken anytime I am away from my guys. When I got back home we brought Graham in to our room and were just hanging out at a family. We took his feet out side of his onesie and were tickling him when he let out a huge laugh! It was a total open mouth, belly roll, see-all-of-my-gums type of chuckle! So adorable...

Then when I woke up this morning Little Graham was already awake and was grunting to let me know it. When I got up and he focused on me... he gave me the largest, "there you are mommy" face... like he was so excited that I was up and that it was play-time.

For more updates, our schedule is starting to settle in at night. He is awake from about 4-6ish and then eats again at 9pm. Then he sleeps for about 5 hours straight, nurses at 2am, sleeps until 6am, nurses again, then wakes up at 9am. When he wakes up at 9am, he's normally not hungry until 10am... so we get to PLAY. This is my favorite part of the day. I wake up ... I pick up Little Graham from his bassinet and he's so happy and energized. We sing, tickle and babble at each other. It's so much fun!

A First: We ROLLED around!

I was just sitting here posting about our Materna-Tea and Daddy and Little Graham were spending some time doing tummy time together! Little Graham is doing SO great holding his head up and all of a sudden he rolled over!!!!!  YEA to our awesome little guy... so neat.

Materna-Tea

Today Little Graham and I took a trip to our Birthing Center to attend at Materna-Tea (an afternoon tea). The attendees were all of the women that had given labor in the month of December. The women one by one went around the room sharing their own birth story. It was so neat hearing everyone's unique and different birth experience. It's kinda like weddings... no two is ever the same and that's what's so fun about it (not that labor is as fun!).

At the end of everyone's birth stories we undressed our babies and put them on the floor in a circle of babies. It is so neat seeing the difference in all of the babies and I will treasure these pictures forever! No matter how painful it was... it's neat being a part of something like this. All of the women who were like-minded and the result of their hard work!

The bed little Graham was born in (with his little friend)! 

 

One of our friends and her son from our Bradley classes! 

Baby Language

 Our Little Christmas Moose!

We have interpreted the following baby talk/cries to mean the following:

Oua: Sleepy

Gee: Hungry

Okay: Somethings wrong/gassy/uncomfortable

Can't wait to hear more of him trying to communicate with us! It's so awesome.

Happy One Month Birthday, Little Graham!

Photo Credit: Nat's Photography

We are so loving being Little g's parents! Everyday he truly changes and we are trying to just stop and enjoy this precious time with him. It is absolutely amazing that he is already one month old. Here are some fascinating facts about his progress (yes, we are NEW parents and think everyone is as fascinated about our son as we are).  

1. He currently weighs in at 10.6lbs according to Baby Stats in our Wii Fit Plus.. haha.

2. He is holding his head up for quite a long period of time now... he enjoys about 10 minutes of tummy-time a day.

3. He is starting to be awake longer - after each feeding - for about an hour. We love this play time with him and he enjoys songs such as "I'm a Little Teapot," "Patty-Cakes" and "Itsy-Bitsy Spider".

4. He is nursing about every three hours but for 25 minutes at a time (instead of the 40+ as a new-newborn) and we are a happy-nursing couple together! I love spending this time with him.

5. We gave in and introduced an infant pacifier at 2 weeks -- we have had no problems with nipple-confusion - it helps with soothing during sleepy-time. Although sometimes it's falls out and re-wakes him back up... overall it's awesome not being his soothing tool all of the time.

6. We introduced his very-first bottle the other day (of mommy-milk). After instruction from our lactation-consultant we decided the best time to do this was 3 1/2 weeks. After pumping once, I had enough milk (5oz.) for his first bottle with Daddy! At first he was confused as to why Daddy had the milk but he quickly got it and they enjoy this time every morning at 7am (and I get to sleep in)!

7. He smiles when he finishes nursing and in his sleep. We can't get him to smile, so I guess he's still doing it uncontrollably -- but we think it's overly sweet.

8. He has some congestion (I can't wait until this cold weather is gone) so we're doing the nose aspirator, saline drops, humidifier and he's sleeping in his bouncy chair in his bassinet. What a pain... 

9. He is all BOY! He grunts and makes noise all of the time (even in his sleep). We heard this is because he is a boy and that girls are much quieter.

10. He is now super-grabby on everything. He grabs a hold of diapers when we change him (what a mess), our shirts, necklaces, hair, etc. It's so neat how much he has changed in such a short period of time!

11. His eyes follow us when we walk in front of him. This is really neat... he's also starting to move his head to see us when we talk to him.

Month one... CHECK! We think being parents isn't as hard as everyone says. But, since Graham and I are both the babies of our families... it's hard making our own decisions and not having some one tell us what we should do. Luckly, we told Little g that we're both new at this... so he takes it a little easier on us.