Firsts

We've had a bunch of firsts here this past week - first stroller walk, first bath, first toys, first diaper blowout where poop ended up between his toes. Pics to illustrate (except for that last one, I'll spare you the grossness....)

Movie Fun

Enjoy some footage of Little A!
We also do Skype if anyone wants to see him in real time. Let me know.

Bookworm

Newborns can see about 8-12 inches in front of them, and do best with high contrast. He seems to really like this black/white animal book! We're happy to start him early with reading; have quite a few books in the baby library already.

Baby's First Christmas

Christmas Eve is the big celebration around here. It was a night full of fun and gifts. Andrew received goodies like books, hats and toys from Nana and Pop Pop as well as some family friends.

He was a good sport - slept through the first half of the festivities in his crib, cried a bit during the middle, then went back to sleep on Pop Pop for the rest. Probably a bit overstimulated with the music etc! Seems zonked out this morning.

Cutie Pie!

two and a half weeks old

Nursing Funnies

What Andrew is up to these days:

Furrows his brow after nursing, looking quizzically at me while presumably wondering where the milk went.....

Trying to nurse from people's shoulders, his own hands....

Thrashing his head around trying to figure out where the milk is (headbanging?)...

All in all nursing is going really well. I was prepared for the worst, but he latched very quickly (within an hour of being born) and stays on for 1/2 hr - 1 hr at a time. My milk came in a bit late so he went from 8 lbs 9 oz at birth to 7 lbs 7 oz a few days later. Now he's back up to 8 lbs and we're aiming for birthweight at his 3 week appointment. He eats every 3 hours which doesn't bode well for my sleep schedule but as long as he's gaining I'm willing to forgo the z's.

Who needs sleep?

I was surprised to find out that the #1 most popular question posed to this new mom was: are you getting any sleep? I haven't figured out the angle of the question. Perhaps from new moms its a gesture of sympathy and understanding. From the non-parents a gauge to see how bad it really is? From the empty nesters it probably brings a bit of smugness (how glad to be done with THAT!)

So I suppose my answers differ depending on who is asking. Here are the facts, make of them as you will....

I am indeed sleeping. I fit in a series of naps throughout the day that are about 1-2 hours long, while Andrew is napping. So I probably get at least 6 hours of sleep per 24 hours and so far I've remained fully functional, have not dropped the baby on his head etc :)

Big Brother Bosley

As you can see, Bosley has taken well to the new baby. When the baby cries Bosley doesn't make a fuss. When Bosley barks, Andrew doesn't seem to care. We're trying our best to pay extra attention to Bos, but I'm pretty sure he thinks he's getting the short end of the stick...The first photo is Shawn's Dad (Pop Pop) with his buddies. Yeah, life's tough for Bosley...

Editted to add: Uh, maybe things aren't so great with Bosley. Last night he peed in our bed (definition of "pissed off", and poo'd in our bathroom (at least he was near the toilet?) Am going to work on paying him more attention, and taking him out more often....

Papa Shawn

I haven't quite figured out why Dads get so little attention during pregnancy and the newborn stage. Especially when the Dad is as fantastic as Shawn. He continually amazes me with his ability to calm Andrew, his willingness to change middle of the night diapers, and sense of humor when things aren't all that funny. This photo is one of my favorites.

Life with Baby

Life with Andrew has been lovely thus far. I have mainly been hanging out at home, happy to not have to deal with the cold temperatures outside, and watching the snow fall out my window with a sweet smelling baby napping on my chest. I stare at him for hours at a time, still in awe of this new little person. I'm feeling well despite my lack of sleep -am getting 1-2 hours here and there. My day goes something like this: nurse, soothe, eat, sleep, repeat. Its the first time that I'm not keeping a day planner, my schedule is wide open. And surprisingly I like it!

So what's he like?

Since so many folks ask but aren't close enough to stop by and see for themselves...

Andrew is a happy, easygoing baby. Very alert - spends alot of his time quietly awake in our arms, just looking around. He grins in his sleep....and sleeps at 1-4 hr stretches. Has all sorts of funny faces including "the pirate" where he only opens one eye at a time :) He's a champion nurser and enjoys eating, much like his mom.

Physically he's a big boy, tho lost some weight this past week. He has a tanner complexion than S & I do which is amusing since we're so pasty. He has peachfuzz for hair, of the red variety we think - perhaps some kind of strawberry blond or light auburn. Blue-gray eyes for now.

Its a BOY!

Andrew Ryan was born on December 7th, 2009 - at 40 weeks and 5 days. No rush to leave the warm womb - must be that he inherited his Dad's laid back personality. Vital stats: 8lbs 8.8 oz (8 is a very auspicious number in Chinese culture by the way), 20-21" (he was very wiggly) and got 9s on his APGARS.

If you want to hear the birth story, read on. If not, I suggest you stop here.

I went in for an OB appointment on 12/7, figuring the topic of the day would be to schedule an induction. Lo and behold, the midwife did an exam and found me to be 5 cm dilated! I had no idea. No pain at all. In fact the previous day I was out and about walking downtown for a while, feeling very well. So I was sent right up to the hospital. This is around 2pm.

Once there I was hooked up to the monitor only find out that I was having contractions 4 minutes apart....and didn't even know it. So my water was broken and I just waited things out. Shawn and I did crossword puzzles. I walked up and down the halls....not in pain, but rather to get cell phone reception to let family know I was going to have the baby. In fact things were so non-eventful that Shawn left the hospital for an hour to run errands around this time.

I finally started feeling a bit crampy (pain scale 4/10) around 4pm so they did another exam....this time I was 8 cm dilated! For those who don't know, you start pushing at 10. Everyone was just amazed at how little pain I was in. Perhaps we all spoke too soon, by 5pm I was hurting pretty bad.

There were about 2 hours of contractions, I was able to ride them out drug-free by staying in the hot shower and cursing like a pirate (the latter according to Shawn)

By 7pm I was pushing. Pushing felt better, but wasn't quite the smooth ride labor had been. The problem being that baby was a lot bigger than anyone supposed. Midwife said maybe 7.5 lbs, but this kid's shoulders were not fitting through very well and with each push, his shoulders sucked him back in. So I was given an episiotomy and out he came after 30-45 min. of pushing.

Shawn watched the entire birth from the south end of the table, and cut the cord. He was such a help to me - distracting me with crossword puzzles, giving me positive feedback and so forth. And he's such a natural with Andrew. Far more graceful than my fumbling attempts to maneuver him!

I was held in L&D for a little while to stitch me back up, deliver the placenta (which was stubborn, I needed a pitocin drip to move things along). Plus I felt quite dizzy - turns out I became anemic at the end, problem solved with some iron.

Then we moved over to our own private post partum room and admired our new little lawSON :) Visitors & gifts galore!

We named him Andrew for 2 reasons. Andrew is Shawn's middle name and oddly enough one of the only that he and I agreed on of the hundreds we must have discussed over 9 months. Also, my mother Audrey passed away this summer and to honor her we chose a name that also began with A. In fact, Andrew and Audrey are quite close" AxDREx". And yes, I'm that much of a geek that I care.