Wednesday, June 11, 2008

One Week

We've survived the first week. It hasn't been too bad. Of course, Christoph had three days off work and my mom is here, so the hardest part is just the lack of sleep. Micah has his days and nights mixed up. During the day he sleeps like the dead, barely waking up to eat. Then at about 11:00pm he wakes up. He is happy awake, but wants to be held and nurse non-stop. When he does fall asleep he wants to be held, if you lay him in his bed he wakes up right away and fusses. I try not to do the whole co-sleeping thing because we have a waterbed and it's not considered safe, but if he's asleep on my chest and I don't roll over, I figure it's ok, just not very restful. Last night he actually slept in his bassinet for part of the night, so we're making progress. He's a sweet little guy. He only cries when he's hungry and getting his diaper changed. He manages his big sisters' lop-sided strangle holds pretty well. He gets the hiccups all the time. Without fail, if he falls asleep and I lay him down, he'll start hiccuping about two minutes later. We haven't had much success in getting pictures with his eyes open, they haven't been open very often. When he does have his eyes open he always gets this worried little old man look. I think it's because he sees these loud yelling blurs flashing by and he's afraid he might get sat on. Diaper changing a boy has come with a bit of a leaning curve. This kid has gone through more clothes in the first week then either of his sisters. He keeps catching me off guard and suddenly everything's wet! I just have to throw in here, that Christoph has only changed two diapers so far, scaredy cat.





I have been spending a lot of my day sitting on the sofa holding him. I can't get enough of all his little parts, fingers, toes, ears, skinny little legs, rosebud lips. Part of me feels like I need to be doing something more productive, then Katrina runs by and I know if I blink it will be him. These sweet halcyon days of cuddling are so short and I can't make myself put him down. I stare into his face and he is so innocent and undemanding. I'm not saying infants aren't work, it's hard not to sleep, but the work is so elementary. You feed them and change them and love them and that's all. There are no power struggles, no figuring out how to train without breaking their spirit, no back talking, no emotional drama, no making messes, no tantrums. I'm not saying there aren't many wonderful things about older kids, but for me the parenting they need is so much more involved and so much more exhausting then just losing sleep. So, I'm sitting, soaking in this baby and cherishing every second the best that I can, in-between giving the older ones the attention they need. Thank you again to Grandma for facilitating many more moments of Micah gazing and cuddling then I would have on my own.





The ring is from Christoph. He's given me one for each baby. :)


Some pictures of Emily at the hospital just before we went home. we just have video of her meeting him the first time.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

He's Here!

Well, our little guy has made his appearance. Micah Daniel was born yesterday, June 4th at 5:59pm. He weighed in at 8lbs, 10oz. It was a slow, long, labor, but we both made it through and he has been a little angel since. He is a snuggler and very sleepy right now. We'll see what the next few weeks bring. His big sisters were excited to meet him. Katrina couldn't get enough of cuddling her "baby brudder." I have a feeling she is going to keep me busy trying to prevent any unintentional maiming. I don't have much to say right now, but I wanted to post a couple of pictures. More will come!




Monday, June 2, 2008

It's the Final Coutdown

My brother Joel had the song, "It's the Final Countdown" on his cell phone for a while. I would hear it every time I would call him. I've had it ringing through my head for the past few days, pretty much whenever I think about this baby coming. Which is a lot, since he is quite large and it's hard to move without noticing him. The lyrics of the song can be applied to pregnancy in a weird sort of way, "We've got no one to blame, Will things ever be the same". Maybe I'm just losing my mind...

Anyway, I thought I'd do a quick post, as it might be my last chance during this pregnancy. I can't believe nine months have passed already. I started off this pregnancy with a bit of trepidation. Feeling like maybe Katrina was still too little and wondering if I can handle three kids, not to mention strange feelings that something was going to go wrong. Luckily, Katrina was keeping me so busy I didn't have time to dwell on that for long. Between feeling completely exhausted and nauseas, it wasn't much fun in the beginning. Then came the second trimester, when it was easy to forget I was even pregnant because of all the other demands on my time. Then those little flutters would remind me and I would feel very overwhelmed. Then the last trimester and the frantic concerns that things weren't ready and never would be. Now, it's the end. My mom will be here in five short hours and all the important stuff is in place. The house is fairly clean and I am telling myself to relax and enjoy the rest of this pregnancy, because it could end any time. I still wonder if I can be a good mother of three, but at this point, I'm in full baby anticipation mode, so I only think of it on bad days when I have no patience for the girls. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying that wonderful, indescribable feeling of a baby kicking, and putting in as much cuddle time with the girls as I can. We took some pictures of me last Friday at 39 weeks. I just have to wince a little when I see them, it's a little hard to see the beauty there. Then I remind myself how completely amazing it is that the human body can do that. I mean really! I don't enjoy having a poochy belly, saggy breasts, and too many stretch marks to count, but really, in the long run, who cares. Not Christoph fortunately. I've never been into two piece bathing suits anyway! :) Sorry if these pictures are too graphic. Christoph was having fun with perspective, and even though it pains me to look at them, I kinda think they're cool at the same time. Isn't it amazing how clothes can camouflage? I wanted to make some black and white, so they wouldn't be so stark, but I don't know how. =p Christoph has been too busy for that, maybe I'll change them tonight, if I'm not in labor...Five more days until my due date!