What a Difference A Month Makes!

Well, Bruin turned 1 month old two days ago. Everyone always talks about how fast time goes by, but it really does. It's weird to think that Bruin is a month already!

I figured I would jot down what the first month with Bruin has been like. It's not been as super crazy as I thought it would be, but it wasn't tame by any means either.

It's definitely been an adjustment for Andrea and I. She is still home from work and likely will be till April or so. I went back to work 2 weeks after Bruin was born. That was a little weird. While I'm at work, I just think about getting home and seeing the little guy and hoping Andrea isn't climbing the walls. She has been doing great with him. It's amazing to see her patience as he is screaming his head off, or fussy, or just down-right uncooperative. I admire the fact that she is able to keep her cool and just keep trying different things to settle him down until she finds the one that works. It's pretty awesome! I do what I can to settle him, and for the most part he does settle down - there are times when he is just not settleable (yes, I realize that's not a word). During those times, I kinda feel my blood pressure slowly start to creep up a little. Not too bad, I just need to remind myself that he is just a helpless little guy and he's not intending to be difficult - he's just telling us that something is not right in his world at that point in time.

It is crazy trying to guess what it is that he needs. For the first month - the majority of what he needs is food. THAT BOY CAN EAT! I am always a little surprised at how much he can put away!

The big question that people are always asking is, "How much sleep are you guys getting?" The funny thing is that they don't just ask the question. There is a slightly sarcastic tone and even a smirk at the end of the question. :) Surprisingly though, Bruin is sleeping really well (as I am knocking on all of the wood I can find within arm's reach). His regime is that he goes down for the night between roughly 9-11pm. We try to have him down by 9, however sometimes it takes till 11. Then he sleeps for an average of 5 hours or so. Andrea, bless her heart, gets up when he does at sometime between 2-4am, feeds him, then puts him back to bed. Then he's down for another 2-3 hours. Pretty sweet gig. We did move him into the nursery around week 3 maybe? He grunts and makes sounds in his sleep that caused both Andrea and I (more Andrea than me) to stay up and listen to each sound, hoping that he is staying asleep. So Andrea made the decision to move him to the crib in the nursery instead of the bassinet in our room. Good decison babe. Sometimes I do/did have the irrational fear that I swaddled him so tight that he stopped breathing. :) I think it's more my paranoia that anything.

During the day, Andrea definitely has her hands full with him. Since he eats so much, she is constantly feeding the guy. Not overfeeding, just feeding (to all of you concerned moms that think we're on the road to childhood obesity). He also doesn't like to be put down so much. He is so strong though - definitely the strongest baby this side of the Mississippi river. He can lift up his carseat and put in the car all by himself! Okay, well maybe not. But he is strong though. He has been lifting up his head and looking around almost since Day 1. We tried tummy time and he kept rolling himself onto his back. Admittedly, I don't think it was intentional by any means - but still impressive to see. He did it maybe 4 times in a row! I think he's gonna be a bruiser. Bruin the Bruiser. Kinda has a nice ring to it.

We've gone a few outings since he's been home from the hospital. We went to Costco about a week after he was born - he did great. Andrea has taken him shopping a few times. He's been to Target and stuff. The most notable achievement was this last Wednesday, Ocotber 28th. We went to go see Michael Jackson's "This Is It" with him. Talk about stressful. We went to opening night at Bridgeport. We took him to the 9:30pm IMAX show. He cried at the beginning before the movie was on when the theater was still pretty quiet. I'm sure each person in there was getting their projectile ready to throw in our direction. When the movie started, he was fine. Andrea fed him and he was awake for about 45 minutes of the movie, then he konked out. It was stressful though because the movie was broken into segments where each one of his songs was a segment of the movie. Between these segments, the movie screen would go black and it would get deathly quiet for about 4 seconds. Each time that happened I was just hoping that he wasn't going to pick that exact time to cry out. He did awesome though. We haven't taken him to work yet since it's flu season and there a lot of people out sick or working sick. So, we're not gonna try it for awhile.

This Halloween, Bruin is going to dress up as MIckey Mouse and we'll hand out some candy. We're going to try and make it to the neighborhood Halloween party, but we'll see where we are at the end of the night.

Overall, it's been a great month. There was only the one time that I was wishing I had some hair so I could pull it out. Kidding, kidding, kidding. It's been awesome growing with him and watching him grow. Incredible to think that God trusts us enough to give us this blessing. Really, really cool feeling to know that what Andrea and I do now for this little guy - will shape him into the man he becomes. Well at least until the teenage years hit. :)

Here are some compare and contrast pics from when he was roughly a week old - to now when he is a month old.

***For those of you that skipped the huge important post just to get to the pictures...that's cool. I'm good with it. :) ***

How was the first week of Bruin's life?

I don't plan on doing this weekly, but I thought it a good idea to just put down to paper (or blog) what our first week of having a baby was like, and how our lives have changed. In a nutshell, things haven't really changed all that much. We're still going out to dinner and movies, we're in bed at about 9 - and we get up at roughly 7am or so. It's hard to believe so many people with their warnings of "Get your sleep now". Seamless transition...

Yeah - not so much.

First of all - it's great. It's awesome to know that God blessed us with this great child. I mean, how cool is it that we have this little person to raise and teach the ways of the world? It's a little overwhelming to remember that we have to do our best not to break him. Physically, or psychologically. :) For the first week - mission accomplished, I think.

We were in the hospital from Monday 9/28 (Bruin's birthday) - Thursday 10/1. By the time Thursday rolled around, we were definitely ready to go home. The hospital sent us home with a meal for the night and we were on our way.

Overall, it hasn't been too tumultuous. Of course there is the lack of sleep. Andrea and I are averaging about 4 hours a night - sometimes a little more than that. At this stage, Bruin does a lot of sleeping. He wakes up when he's hungry and eats - then once he's eaten he goes back to sleep. Sounds kind of like me as a teenager. :) I'm a little bummed that there isn't a lot of "play with daddy and mommy" time. But I'm sure that's coming. He hasn't been particularly fussy or anything - except when he's hungry of course.

We continue to get lots of support from friends and family and neighbors too. Not that the neighbors don't fit into the "friend" category, I just felt that they deserved an honorable mention. :)

Payton is adjusting really well. While we were at the hospital our good friend, Greg Rood, stayed the nights at our house. He was here from Monday - Wendnesday night. We didn't want to send Payton somewhere while we were at the hospital. We both wanted him to be affected as little as possible with the new baby coming. There were a couple of days that I brought one of Bruin's outfits home and a hat for Payton to smell and stuff. Hopefully, this prepared him a little more for Bruin's arrival. Since we've been home, Payton is a little bit curious but not a whole lot. He has smelled Bruin a couple of times (he hasn't licked him yet) :) Otherwise, it's been pretty uneventful in that regard.

Around the house, I tend to like everything in its place. Clutter is one of my #1 enemies. I am very A.R. about that. Probably even OCD. I have been able to let that go just a bit. I still don't like clutter and things everywhere, but I do understand that some things are just better left out in the open as they are much easier to reach and use. The house is still in good shape and things aren't all over the place (because that would make me a little crazy).

So for the first week - things have definitely changed in our lives, and definitely for the better. It's cool to think that this chapter of our lives is just beginning. Who knows what week 2 will bring.