7.31.2010
5.22.2010
Latest and Greatest
Wow. Really? 3 months since the last post on this thing? I personally blame Facebook. It's much easier to update that crazy thing than this one. When I say easier, what I mean is that I can be a whole lot lazier and throw up a couple of pics and a one-liner and call it good. On the blog, I have to go into detail and stuff. Man, that's hard to do. Well maybe not hard, just take up more time that we don't seem to have a lot of lately. So, I would again like to re-commit to our commitment of updating this blog. It really is darn cool. Just need to make it a point to do it. Hopefully I can "nutshell" a lot of our life for the past few months.
Bruin is of course the main topic of conversation. He is doing fantastic! Growing like crazy I tell ya. We haven't had him weighed lately, but I'll bet he's on the top end of 18 pounds or so. He will be 8 months old on the 28th of May. His personality is awesome. All around, he's just a chill, happy baby. The first few months of life were pretty strained and difficult, but he has really turned an awesome corner. He is content, and happy the majority of the time. He only starts to fuss when there is something wrong. Or if he starts getting hungry. I can relate, I also start to fuss when I get hungry - can't blame Bruin for doing the same thing.
Bruin is super mobile. I wouldn't call it crawling just yet. It is more of the army crawl thing right now, but he can certainly get to where he wants to go, and quick! he is currently most attracted to black electrical cords, and Payton's water dish. :) I think in the next couple of weeks he'll be full on crawling. He's has graduated to people food now. We still feed him his baby food, and formula - but he is able to put down some mashed up people food too. He is growing so dang fast! He is incredibly vocal too. No words yet, but he definitely like to hear himself talk! Lastly, he really likes the ladies (good job son). Whenever we're out and about, if he sees someone next to us or whatever, he is ALL smiles! It is hilarious!
Andrea and I are doing great! I finally finished my dang Associates degree. Yahoo! It only took me 16 years! Geesh! I'll start up the Bachelor's program in the fall. Andrea celebrated her first Mother's Day. I had pics taken of Bru and I and gave them to her. She liked them a lot. I had to be sneaky but accomplished my mission.
Outside of that, there really isn't a whole lot of stuff going on. We're just plugging away going to work and coming back home. We do still manage to have somewhat of a life by going out to the occasional dinner with friends, or having them over at the house. So, (as I'm knocking on wood) things are going really well for us. We are certainly blessed beyond what we deserve and we're just trying not to mess up too badly in any particular way. :)
Before the pics - you HAVE to take a look at the video we took of Bruin! Too funny - everytime I see it I laugh out loud!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BVcaPcpXnA
Bruin is of course the main topic of conversation. He is doing fantastic! Growing like crazy I tell ya. We haven't had him weighed lately, but I'll bet he's on the top end of 18 pounds or so. He will be 8 months old on the 28th of May. His personality is awesome. All around, he's just a chill, happy baby. The first few months of life were pretty strained and difficult, but he has really turned an awesome corner. He is content, and happy the majority of the time. He only starts to fuss when there is something wrong. Or if he starts getting hungry. I can relate, I also start to fuss when I get hungry - can't blame Bruin for doing the same thing.
Bruin is super mobile. I wouldn't call it crawling just yet. It is more of the army crawl thing right now, but he can certainly get to where he wants to go, and quick! he is currently most attracted to black electrical cords, and Payton's water dish. :) I think in the next couple of weeks he'll be full on crawling. He's has graduated to people food now. We still feed him his baby food, and formula - but he is able to put down some mashed up people food too. He is growing so dang fast! He is incredibly vocal too. No words yet, but he definitely like to hear himself talk! Lastly, he really likes the ladies (good job son). Whenever we're out and about, if he sees someone next to us or whatever, he is ALL smiles! It is hilarious!
Andrea and I are doing great! I finally finished my dang Associates degree. Yahoo! It only took me 16 years! Geesh! I'll start up the Bachelor's program in the fall. Andrea celebrated her first Mother's Day. I had pics taken of Bru and I and gave them to her. She liked them a lot. I had to be sneaky but accomplished my mission.
Outside of that, there really isn't a whole lot of stuff going on. We're just plugging away going to work and coming back home. We do still manage to have somewhat of a life by going out to the occasional dinner with friends, or having them over at the house. So, (as I'm knocking on wood) things are going really well for us. We are certainly blessed beyond what we deserve and we're just trying not to mess up too badly in any particular way. :)
Before the pics - you HAVE to take a look at the video we took of Bruin! Too funny - everytime I see it I laugh out loud!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BVcaPcpXnA
2.20.2010
Latest news from the Whitakers
Well shoot. You get constantly warned about not having any time once a little one arrives. I guess we're finding out that everyone wasn't just full of hot air. :) It is pretty amazing how quickly days go by now. Man, we wake up in the morning and the next thing we know we're putting the little guy down for bed and then relaxing ourselves for a bit before turning in. It has been a rather action packed couple of months since the start of the new year.
Bruin is doing absolutely great. He is still a really healthy baby. At his 4 month appointment he weighed in at 16.9 pounds and I think he was 26 inches long! Everyday is an adventure and it seems as the weeks go by he is just developing faster and faster. We aren't swaddling him to sleep anymore, we just have bath time and then get him ready for bed. We lay him down and then he's out. The night's are still a little interesting. He gets up one time to eat and that's about it. However, a couple of night's ago he did sleep for 12 straight hours! We were amazed! Of course, I did sneak in there when I got up at 4:30 to make sure he was still breathing. :) He is rolling over which is pretty dang cool and he is so interactive it's amazing.
We all went to San Francisco last weekend and spent a total of 4 days there. Andrea nor I had ever been before and it sounded like a fun place to go. This was our first family vacation and maybe our last for a little bit since Andrea is going back to work relatively soon. It was a blast though - the only downside was when we first arrived.
Bruin did absolutley great on the plane ride and the only question we had was how to get from the airport to the hotel. I figured we could take our chance at public transportation. How hard could it be right? We only had 2 - 50 pound suitcases, a carseat attached to one of them, and a stroller attached to the other, a backpack diaper bag/carry-on, and a 17 pound baby. Public transportation? Easy Peezy.
Well, we were able to drag, carry, hoist everything on to the train in San Francisco from the airport - no biggie. There was one stop that we needed to get off at to get to our hotel, we figured it out and were waiting for that stop. The stop came and we easily got off the train with our gear, oh and the baby too. We get off the train underground, so everything looks as it should. We calmly walk to the elevator to get above ground. Well, the elevator didn't go to the street, it went to one level below the street. Whatever - it's all good. We walked through the station a bit and found another elevator. Well , we found a broken elevator. No biggie - there's gotta be an escalator or something we can use. Yahoo! We found an escalator! Well, we found a broken escalator. So, you guessed it, we had to take the stairs with all of our gear. Andrea dragged one of the suitcases with Bruin attached to her front in a baby Bjorn, and I dragged the other one. Finally we were street level. Another couple of blocks and we can relax in our hotel!
Not so much.
Turns out we were about 12 blocks away from our hotel. Now in a normal, flat, city - who cares about 12 blocks right? No big deal, suck it up and do it. San Francisco is a different story. The first couple of blocks weren't terrible, a slight incline. However, the rest of them were just like the San Francisco streets that we all know and love. I happen to love them less than I did, say 3 weeks ago.
This is one of the hills we went up. Trust me when I say there were several blocks that looked just like this. I've never experienced looking up the street, and you are literally looking UP the street. I swear the street disappeared into the clouds, I know it did. So we just hunkered down and kept on going. Me dragging the 100 pounds worth of luggage, stroller, and carseat, and Andrea with Bruin. Talk about a workout.
Anyway, the rest of the vacation was fun. We went to Alcatraz, the Walt Disney Family Museum, the Painted Ladies (these are the Victorian houses from Full House), Golden Gate Bridge and all that kind of touristy stuff. While we were there we rode the cable cars, the city buses and did so rather well. It was a really fun vacation. Needless to say, we paid extra and took a cab back to the airport.
Outside of that, life is pretty chill. Watching Bru grow up and looking forward to Spring to do some work on the outside of the house, landscaping type stuff. Nothing too big.
Okay, some pice and then I'm done.
Bruin is doing absolutely great. He is still a really healthy baby. At his 4 month appointment he weighed in at 16.9 pounds and I think he was 26 inches long! Everyday is an adventure and it seems as the weeks go by he is just developing faster and faster. We aren't swaddling him to sleep anymore, we just have bath time and then get him ready for bed. We lay him down and then he's out. The night's are still a little interesting. He gets up one time to eat and that's about it. However, a couple of night's ago he did sleep for 12 straight hours! We were amazed! Of course, I did sneak in there when I got up at 4:30 to make sure he was still breathing. :) He is rolling over which is pretty dang cool and he is so interactive it's amazing.
We all went to San Francisco last weekend and spent a total of 4 days there. Andrea nor I had ever been before and it sounded like a fun place to go. This was our first family vacation and maybe our last for a little bit since Andrea is going back to work relatively soon. It was a blast though - the only downside was when we first arrived.
Bruin did absolutley great on the plane ride and the only question we had was how to get from the airport to the hotel. I figured we could take our chance at public transportation. How hard could it be right? We only had 2 - 50 pound suitcases, a carseat attached to one of them, and a stroller attached to the other, a backpack diaper bag/carry-on, and a 17 pound baby. Public transportation? Easy Peezy.
Well, we were able to drag, carry, hoist everything on to the train in San Francisco from the airport - no biggie. There was one stop that we needed to get off at to get to our hotel, we figured it out and were waiting for that stop. The stop came and we easily got off the train with our gear, oh and the baby too. We get off the train underground, so everything looks as it should. We calmly walk to the elevator to get above ground. Well, the elevator didn't go to the street, it went to one level below the street. Whatever - it's all good. We walked through the station a bit and found another elevator. Well , we found a broken elevator. No biggie - there's gotta be an escalator or something we can use. Yahoo! We found an escalator! Well, we found a broken escalator. So, you guessed it, we had to take the stairs with all of our gear. Andrea dragged one of the suitcases with Bruin attached to her front in a baby Bjorn, and I dragged the other one. Finally we were street level. Another couple of blocks and we can relax in our hotel!
Not so much.
Turns out we were about 12 blocks away from our hotel. Now in a normal, flat, city - who cares about 12 blocks right? No big deal, suck it up and do it. San Francisco is a different story. The first couple of blocks weren't terrible, a slight incline. However, the rest of them were just like the San Francisco streets that we all know and love. I happen to love them less than I did, say 3 weeks ago.
This is one of the hills we went up. Trust me when I say there were several blocks that looked just like this. I've never experienced looking up the street, and you are literally looking UP the street. I swear the street disappeared into the clouds, I know it did. So we just hunkered down and kept on going. Me dragging the 100 pounds worth of luggage, stroller, and carseat, and Andrea with Bruin. Talk about a workout.
Anyway, the rest of the vacation was fun. We went to Alcatraz, the Walt Disney Family Museum, the Painted Ladies (these are the Victorian houses from Full House), Golden Gate Bridge and all that kind of touristy stuff. While we were there we rode the cable cars, the city buses and did so rather well. It was a really fun vacation. Needless to say, we paid extra and took a cab back to the airport.
Outside of that, life is pretty chill. Watching Bru grow up and looking forward to Spring to do some work on the outside of the house, landscaping type stuff. Nothing too big.
Okay, some pice and then I'm done.
12.25.2009
Christmas Eve 2009
Christmas Eve was a very, very busy day but a fun one.
I had to go to work for a few hours while Andrea got the house ready for her family to join us. I got home around Noon or so and everyone was there already. Andrea's parents and also Jessica, Tim, and Bjorn were able to join us as well. It was a fun afternoon just having lunch and opening some presents that her parents brought with them. They all hung out for a couple of hours and then we were off to the Christmas Eve service at church.
The church was packed, it seemed like everyone had the same idea we did of getting to to the 3:30 service and then we could head out and do the family stuff later. This was Bruin's first experience being left in daycare at church. He seemed to do "alright". The ladies at the door said that a lot of the babies in the nursery started to have a melt-down about 5 minutes before the service was over. So when we picked up Bruin, he wasn't necessarily the happiest baby. The poor guy's schedule had really been thrown off. But it wasn't over yet. So we took screaming baby and all to Hillsboro to hang out with my parents.
Our Christmas tradition for the last few years has been to spend Christmas Eve with my parents and hang out at their place for awhile, then we would open presents. This year was no different. We got their at about 5:30 or so and ate dinner with everyone. Bruin did alright. Of course, he was polite enough to wait until we got to my parents to have a "blow-out". Andrea was well prepared though so we handled it like pros. :) Afterward, he was a little cranky just because it was encroaching on his bedtime. He ended up falling asleep at about 9 or so and the party was dying down. We did our gift exchanges with my parents and headed home.
We got home at around 11:30 or so and put Bruin to bed not knowing what would happen overnight. He'd been sleeping for a couple of hours so we were dreading that he would sleep till like 2 and then be up and rarin' to go. Is it too early to tell him that if he's awake then Santa won't come? He did end up sleeping really well and now I'm hanging out waiting for the family to wake up so we enjoy Bruin's first Christmas, and not just Bruin's first Christmas Eve. :)
I had to go to work for a few hours while Andrea got the house ready for her family to join us. I got home around Noon or so and everyone was there already. Andrea's parents and also Jessica, Tim, and Bjorn were able to join us as well. It was a fun afternoon just having lunch and opening some presents that her parents brought with them. They all hung out for a couple of hours and then we were off to the Christmas Eve service at church.
The church was packed, it seemed like everyone had the same idea we did of getting to to the 3:30 service and then we could head out and do the family stuff later. This was Bruin's first experience being left in daycare at church. He seemed to do "alright". The ladies at the door said that a lot of the babies in the nursery started to have a melt-down about 5 minutes before the service was over. So when we picked up Bruin, he wasn't necessarily the happiest baby. The poor guy's schedule had really been thrown off. But it wasn't over yet. So we took screaming baby and all to Hillsboro to hang out with my parents.
Our Christmas tradition for the last few years has been to spend Christmas Eve with my parents and hang out at their place for awhile, then we would open presents. This year was no different. We got their at about 5:30 or so and ate dinner with everyone. Bruin did alright. Of course, he was polite enough to wait until we got to my parents to have a "blow-out". Andrea was well prepared though so we handled it like pros. :) Afterward, he was a little cranky just because it was encroaching on his bedtime. He ended up falling asleep at about 9 or so and the party was dying down. We did our gift exchanges with my parents and headed home.
We got home at around 11:30 or so and put Bruin to bed not knowing what would happen overnight. He'd been sleeping for a couple of hours so we were dreading that he would sleep till like 2 and then be up and rarin' to go. Is it too early to tell him that if he's awake then Santa won't come? He did end up sleeping really well and now I'm hanging out waiting for the family to wake up so we enjoy Bruin's first Christmas, and not just Bruin's first Christmas Eve. :)
12.20.2009
Christmas already?
Well, so it’s been a little while since we’ve done any kind of an update about our lives or little Bruin. It turns out that I’m writing this by candle/flash light because the power is out. I’m using the laptop and typing this into a Word document and then I’ll just copy/paste a little later. So right now, the house is perfectly quiet and the family is still asleep. It’s incredibly serene – just Payton and I and that’s it. I wonder just how long that will last.
So, Bruin is 12 weeks old tomorrow. My goodness, it’s hard to believe that he is almost 3 months old! People say that the time just flies by and I’m sure this is only the beginning. It is awesome to see him change from day-to-day. I remember wondering when he would be able to focus on things and wouldn’t ya know it? He is totally looking around and locking his eyes on so many things! He’s even smiling deliberately! Yes, I’m sure it’s not gas! He’s gotten to the point that not only is he smiling, but he laughs too. It’s also so amazing to see his face as he’s focusing and concentrating on whatever. He looks so determined and deep in thought. Okay, so that may in fact be gas. But it’s cool to see anyway.
He is sleeping pretty well at night. He’s usually just up the one time. He sleeps for about 6 hours and then up for about 20 minutes, then back down for about another 3 hours or so. There have now been 2 nights that he has slept for 8 hours at a time. I have to admit, the first time that happened – I was the parent who sneaked into his room to make sure he was still breathing. Andrea and I went out on a hot date and left him with two great friends from work. We were just gone for a couple of hours and they said he did great. That was the first night that he slept for 8 hours. We told them that they definitely will need to babysit more often! The second time was just a couple of nights ago. My Mom wanted to watch him, so Andrea left him at their place for about 5 hours. Then he slept through the night that night when she got him home! Maybe there is something to leaving your child with someone else! She’s offered to watch him again on the day after Christmas. I think we’ll be taking her up on that.
We had Bruin’s 2 month visit and things are great with him. The doctor said he is in the 90th percentile for his length and weight. So he is just a really healthy boy. He’s probably about 16 pounds now, he’s just a beefy kid. But, he is healthy and that’s what is important.
Christmas is right around the corner and I think we’re ready. Andrea is finishing up the Christmas card. She is amazing to be juggling a newborn and still be able to create and mass produce our Christmas card. Pretty impressive. It’ll be cool to celebrate our first Christmas as a family with little Bruin, even though he probably has no idea what is going on. What do you get for a 3 month old? We’ll be heading to my folks’ place on Christmas eve and spending it with them. Last year we kind of got robbed of Christmas. This was the week of the big snow storm so I was working on a 12 hour shift rotation for about 8-10 days right through Christmas. It will be good to get back to normal and our Christmas tradition. Andrea and I have had the discussion of starting up our own Christmas tradition. That will be fun to do. Then on Christmas, I think we’ll do a whole lot of nothin’. Just relax and enjoy the day.
So, I think that’s all I’ve got. If we were to post more often – I’ll bet these wouldn’t be near as long! I’ll try to get a little better at that. No promises though!
The Whitakers sincerely hope that everyone reading this, and those that aren’t, has a Great and Merry Christmas! Be safe and do a little bit of extra lovin’ on your friends and enemies. Go ahead and let that guy cut you off on the highway, don’t get too irritated when someone jumps in front of you in line, and be the first to forgive. As cheesy as it sounds and as marketed as it is – don’t forget:
Jesus is the Reason for the Season. Sounds overplayed – but so very true.
This pic is of Bruin's dedication at church, he did really well:
This is the 4 generations of Whitaker, I'm really glad we got this pic at Thanksgiving:
So, Bruin is 12 weeks old tomorrow. My goodness, it’s hard to believe that he is almost 3 months old! People say that the time just flies by and I’m sure this is only the beginning. It is awesome to see him change from day-to-day. I remember wondering when he would be able to focus on things and wouldn’t ya know it? He is totally looking around and locking his eyes on so many things! He’s even smiling deliberately! Yes, I’m sure it’s not gas! He’s gotten to the point that not only is he smiling, but he laughs too. It’s also so amazing to see his face as he’s focusing and concentrating on whatever. He looks so determined and deep in thought. Okay, so that may in fact be gas. But it’s cool to see anyway.
He is sleeping pretty well at night. He’s usually just up the one time. He sleeps for about 6 hours and then up for about 20 minutes, then back down for about another 3 hours or so. There have now been 2 nights that he has slept for 8 hours at a time. I have to admit, the first time that happened – I was the parent who sneaked into his room to make sure he was still breathing. Andrea and I went out on a hot date and left him with two great friends from work. We were just gone for a couple of hours and they said he did great. That was the first night that he slept for 8 hours. We told them that they definitely will need to babysit more often! The second time was just a couple of nights ago. My Mom wanted to watch him, so Andrea left him at their place for about 5 hours. Then he slept through the night that night when she got him home! Maybe there is something to leaving your child with someone else! She’s offered to watch him again on the day after Christmas. I think we’ll be taking her up on that.
We had Bruin’s 2 month visit and things are great with him. The doctor said he is in the 90th percentile for his length and weight. So he is just a really healthy boy. He’s probably about 16 pounds now, he’s just a beefy kid. But, he is healthy and that’s what is important.
Christmas is right around the corner and I think we’re ready. Andrea is finishing up the Christmas card. She is amazing to be juggling a newborn and still be able to create and mass produce our Christmas card. Pretty impressive. It’ll be cool to celebrate our first Christmas as a family with little Bruin, even though he probably has no idea what is going on. What do you get for a 3 month old? We’ll be heading to my folks’ place on Christmas eve and spending it with them. Last year we kind of got robbed of Christmas. This was the week of the big snow storm so I was working on a 12 hour shift rotation for about 8-10 days right through Christmas. It will be good to get back to normal and our Christmas tradition. Andrea and I have had the discussion of starting up our own Christmas tradition. That will be fun to do. Then on Christmas, I think we’ll do a whole lot of nothin’. Just relax and enjoy the day.
So, I think that’s all I’ve got. If we were to post more often – I’ll bet these wouldn’t be near as long! I’ll try to get a little better at that. No promises though!
The Whitakers sincerely hope that everyone reading this, and those that aren’t, has a Great and Merry Christmas! Be safe and do a little bit of extra lovin’ on your friends and enemies. Go ahead and let that guy cut you off on the highway, don’t get too irritated when someone jumps in front of you in line, and be the first to forgive. As cheesy as it sounds and as marketed as it is – don’t forget:
Jesus is the Reason for the Season. Sounds overplayed – but so very true.
This pic is of Bruin's dedication at church, he did really well:
This is the 4 generations of Whitaker, I'm really glad we got this pic at Thanksgiving:
10.31.2009
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. :) ***
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. :) ***
10.05.2009
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.
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