Bath Time!

I've really come to love bath time.  It's pretty much my favorite part of the day.  If Simon gets a bath and swaddled, he'll sleep better.  He's been sleeping from about 9:00 to 5:00.  He always wakes up at 5:00 exactly.  Because it helps him sleep, I've been giving him a bath every night.  He loves it to no end.  He doesn't laugh tons, but he just looks at me with little smiles and is totally focused on my face.  He's also calm no matter how much he was fussing before he went in the water.  It's good on mom's end, too.  There's nothing distracting me... not the cats or the tv or anything.  Dad doesn't feel up to giving him a bath, so it's Mommy - Simon Time.  We totally bond and it's especially nice if I've been away from him at work all day.  I love being his mom. 

Father's Day

We had a really great first Father's Day.  Simon insisted we get Daddy a new tie which he proudly wore to church.  Then we came home for some quiet family time.  Simon was in a really good mood and Blaine took advantage.  He played with Simon while he was in his rocking chair and Simon ate it up.  Then we went to dinner with family and had a great time. 

I think Blaine would be the first to admit he struggled a bit the first few weeks with Simon.  It was an adjustment learning how to care for a newborn.  But since Mommy has gone back to work and the two of them get their alone time, they've really started to bond.  Then Father's Day and yesterday Simon was just so darn happy and good for Daddy it's all started to fall into place.  I had to get out the video camera on Father's Day because it was so neat to see Daddy and son have that much fun together.  There is so much love in our home.  It's getting really hard to go to work now that Simon is more alert and active and chipper.  He's such a blessing and a joy.

Pictures

I've decided that I need a much better camera.  It's so hard to get good pictures of my sweet little guy.  I pretty much have to use the flash, which I hate.  Also, if I don't make them black & white he turns out a funny shade of purple and I'm not good enough at photo editing to properly correct it.  Yep, B&W is my friend.  I also haven't gotten around to getting any professional pictures done.  I'm sure I'll regret that, but I've been a bit busy.  I have gotten a few shots I really like.  And I'm glad I have the Flip but I really regret not getting the HD version.  That said, here are a few of my favorite photos.  Enjoy.

4 Weeks

So, I had a baby 4 weeks ago.  He's a boy.  His name is Simon.  He's 4 weeks old today.  Today we took a walk to the office to get a package for daddy's 30th birthday.  One of these days I'll write all about my wonderful labor and stay in the hospital.

Oh, my achin body

So this is pretty much me all the time at night.  Junior seems to get a real "kick" out of squirming all over in the evenings to the point where it gets really painful in my pelvis.  So I lay down which seems to settle things down.  Then I wake up in awful pain in my hips from laying.  After a good many minutes I can get up and take my break from laying.  That's when I say, "Thank God for the interwebs."  Otherwise I might have to do something productive.  But to be honest, this is about as much as my brain can handle at 1:54 am.

I'm due Thursday.  Yea!  Sorta.  I'm really tired of the double takes at work.  People are so shocked to see that A) the baby hasn't been born yet, and 2) I'm still working.  I think when they ask when I'm due I'm going to start telling them August.  I hobble a bit more and avoid stairs as much as possible, but I'm still perfectly capable of working.  And when I don't get fancy benefits like "paid maternity leave" I think I'd rather take my time off after I have the baby.  It could be another two weeks before anything happens.

I had another dream that the baby was a girl.  She looked like Jim & Pam's baby, but with this crazy hair.  I was also hanging out with Robert Downey Jr. so I'm not sure how much credence the dream holds, but it was the third time I dreamed of having a girl.  Blaine thinks it's a boy.  I keep asking him if he'd like to make it interesting, but he never takes me up on it.

We have the nursery pretty well done.  It's the prettiest room in the place, for now.  Just don't open the closet.   We definitely need more storage.  But all the clothes are washed and put away along with the blankets, burp cloths, booties, socks, mittens, hats, bibs, etc.  Here's a photo of its humble beginnings.  It still looks like this, just with more stuff and the boxes hiding almost out of view are gone.

Now we just play the waiting game.  I think I'm just about done waiting.  It's kind of like ripping off a band aid.  It's gonna hurt but you just gotta bite down and rip it off.

Rolling in the Belly

Today at work I took a few minutes to just watch my belly undulate in waves.  It was a nice little diversion from work.  It seems that this is an innocent time.  I'm sure I have no idea what life will be like in a few months.  Right now baby is safely tucked away where little can harm can come.  I expect this will be my only pregnancy so I need to enjoy it while I can.  Life and especially work keep me so busy that it's easy to not notice sweet moments.  When the baby moves like that I try to figure out how the heck it's laying and moving and I have not a clue.  It just makes me happy that there is some movement and it's even better when Dad gets to see and feel.  He loves it as much as I do.  Maybe more so because it's a rare treat for him, where as I feel it all through the day when I'm lucky.

Nope, still doesn't feel real.

Well, I saw an interesting live show this morning.  Blaine and I went to be very early last night knowing we'd have to get up about 4am today for the ultrasound.  Good for us, because we both woke up around midnight wide awake.  After a couple of hours we decided we may as well be up for the day.  Lucky me had the day off from work.  Him, not so much.

We got to the hospital in plenty of time for good parking which is always a win.  Then we played our usual waiting game.  Our appointment was at 7:00 and I guess we weren't the only ones tired because the chick sitting next to me waiting was sawing some pretty serious logs.  Then, about 8:00 I finally got called back to the secondary waiting room where boys weren't welcome.  Got to watch a bit of the Today Show and see Robert "Twilight" Pattinson greet a million screaming fans.  Good thing Blaine wasn't there.

After some bubble-popping on the phone, the show finally got on the road.  They had a trainee do some of it, then the trainer.  I tried to look but couldn't see much of anything given the angle of the monitor and the fact that it's an ultrasound and therefore indiscernible.  That's okay because I was waiting for my baby daddy to join us.  I'd read in a book that it's good to go with a full bladder, advice which I took eagerly.  At only 18 weeks it's on the early side for an ultrasound and I wanted to see as much as I could.  Boy, was my bladder full. 

Then Dad joined the party and they did a few more of the organs and whatnot.  Finally I could kind of see.  I could see the heart (they said it has four ventricles - hope that's good!), the spine, and the fingers.  I also saw the bladder, which for some reason really stands out.  I sort of saw a face but I could never quite tell what part of the face and from what direction.  But I was assured it was a face.  There was also no indication if we'd "put the stem on the apple" which is good since we (I) don't want to know.

It's really mind-blowing to see that, the spine and fingers, and know that it's all sort of assembling itself and seems to be doing a pretty decent job of it so far.  We're just praying it gets my back, not dad's.  I still can't tell if I feel it moving.  Sometimes I think I might, but who knows.  It's my first so I have no clue.  Some day I'll feel something and have no doubt.  Some day I'll see a foot shape punching at my belly.  

They did have a few glitches with the machine.  I felt like suggesting they get a Mac ultrasound, but bit my tongue.  I don't have any pictures yet, unfortunately.  I hope to have some soon.  They said everything looks good, which is nice to hear.  I do get to have another one in about 6 weeks when everything is more developed.