Real Person Clothes, Rolling Over, and Other Milestones

Today I took Aaron shopping for the first time by myself. Real shopping, at the mall and everything. I was worried about taking the stroller; I wasn't sure if it would fit in any dressing rooms (it's one of those gigantic travel system strollers) and I was afraid I might be the only one there with a big baby tank. Silly me, did I forget that I live in Provo? Of course there were thousands of people pushing strollers around the mall--half of them much larger than mine (to accommodate multiple stroller-aged children). And, with a little finagling, the stroller managed to fit in every dressing room I used. 

Anyway, on to the point. I got real person clothes. That aren't maternity clothes. That actually fit. Including shirts. Granted, they're not exactly the same size as I wore pre-pregnancy, but they're real clothes. No elastic panels or bands in the pants, and the shirts are remarkably un-tent-like. I think they will do nicely while I work on getting back to my normal size.

After I got home, it was time for Aaron to have a little "belly time." He did his usual routine: lay there for a minute after I turned him onto his stomach, started wiggling and moving his head around while making little squeaks and grunts, then began getting upset and ready to cry by the end. I was about to turn him back over when he just turned himself over. He had been threatening to do it since we got him home from the hospital (he's pretty strong), but it still took me by surprise. It was quite exciting.

   

Sleepy Baby

Yesterday was not a good day for sleeping for Aaron. He usually has three substantial naps during the day; yesterday he had one and a half. Needless to say, by the end of the day he was exhausted and fussy. After having some food, a bath, and lots of cuddling, he finally went to sleep at around 11.

And he slept the whole night.

And not for just the four or five hours that people call "sleeping through the night"; he slept for seven and a half hours. Whoa. Not only that, but after a diaper change and a feeding, he went BACK to sleep--before we could even get a burp out.

Now if only he'd sleep that much every night. For the rest of his life. That would be awesome

One Month

Today, Aaron is one month old. I can't believe it's only been a month. I know babies go through big changes as they grow older, especially in the first few months / first year. But I was not expecting this. Here is a quick overview of his weight these past few weeks.

Day 1: 9 lbs 12 oz
Day 12: 9 lbs 2 oz
Day 31: 11 lbs 12 oz

Whoa! Two pounds in about two weeks. That is a > 20% increase in weight in just two and a half weeks. I wonder if you can feed newborns too much food. It's on my list of questions for the pediatrician next time we visit.

Anyway, here's the part you all wanna see. One month pictures:

A funny picture I caught

A smiley picture

Four Weeks

Today marks the four week anniversary of Aaron's birth. We can't believe it's already been four weeks!

On the other hand...has it really only been four weeks? Time seems to move very differently when there's a baby around (for one thing, the day seems a lot longer when you get up at 6 am instead of 10 am, ha). It started even before he was born. While I was pregnant, the weeks seemed to fly by--until I was 37 weeks along. Then suddenly it screeched nearly to a halt. It was as if the universe were making up for the previous temporal celerity, smushing months worth of lost time into just a few weeks, making every day feel more like two or three. 

After that eternally long three weeks and four days, when labor finally started, the progression of time only got stranger. Alex and I both agree that was the longest day of our lives; however, it passed differently for me than for him. I remember that the hours went by very quickly; several times I said something like, "wow, it's 10:00 already?" or "is it really 2:00?" Yet the labor seemed infinitely long. It was almost as if the hours were shorter than usual, but there were many, many more than in a normal day.

Then came the epidural. Once those wonderful drugs were in my system after 18 hours of painful labor, and about four hours of not-so-bad labor before that, things changed. For the first little while--and I really have no idea how long it actually was--I was in a state of endorphic euphoria where time didn't matter or even seem to exist (and Aaron was nearly named Rick after the anesthesiologist). Then when that had worn off, I was still comfortable and happy and suddenly I was pushing out an unexpectedly large and hairy baby.

I wonder if time will ever return to normal, although I'm beginning to suspect that there isn't really a "normal" anyway. Perhaps time isn't as absolute or constant as we think it is, or think it should be. I think it may be affected by our perception in a very real way, sort of the way sound frequencies can be precisely measured but in some ranges become warped as they are processed by our minds...

Anyway, in the interest of keeping the geekiness of this post to a minimum, I present: BABY PICTURES!

Second day home

Silly Face

Happy Face

Smiley Face (his first encounter with the mobile--he loved it!)

Now Blogging...

Hurray for the first entry of our blog!