Snuggle Weekend

Last Thursday, M flew from Omaha to see her godson and (not to speak too much for her) I'm pretty sure she fell in love with Joey. It's understandable, since he's such a cutie pie. M got the honor of being the first person besides his parents or doctors to snuggle him.





In addition to baby cuddling, we also did a lot of chores/shopping including getting a Sam's Club membership to help defray the cost of formula (and buy huge bulk tubs of pickles). ;) M and I even managed to go to the annual community street festival without bringing home whooping cough or swine flu! Auntie M will be back around Christmas to see Joseph at the crawling stage. I can't wait!

M wasn't the only one who experienced the joy of baby snuggling this weekend. We also allowed Uncle J to get to hold Joe too.



After this, though, we're back to our doctor's orders of keeping our little guy pretty quarantined until June 5th.

As far as an update on Joseph's development, he's been sleeping pretty well during the day and then keeping Joe Momma and Joe Daddy up all night. He's also been eating us out of house and home. We jokingly refer to him as the "bottomless pit". It could be just a few fussy growth spurt days. He'll have his next appointment with Doc H in about a week -- will he be 11 pounds? We shall see!

Joseph Loves Daddy

Happy Monday! I've got my final meeting with the folks at HLC today, but before I go I wanted to post a quick note. We had a wonderful weekend with M in town -- the weather was warm, there was a street festival, we did a ton of shopping and we got a lot of our chores done! Of course, Joe got to meet and be held by his Auntie M and also got a bonus snuggle from Uncle J. Details and pictures of all this will be posted soon. Also, our first out of town visitor was able to give us the verdict about who Joe looks like: apparently he is an exact copy of his father. In that spirit, here are some cute recent pics of Joe with his Daddy.

Slow down!!!

Less than 48 hours after trying out his surfboard mat, Joseph learned how to roll over on it! I witnessed the first time, ran to get Joe Daddy and had Joe do it again -- this time for his daddy and the camera. I'm pretty sure the first time took most of his energy, but after about 60 seconds, he was able to do it again. The poor little guy was exhausted after that.



Also, Joe has moved along to another new toy, his swing. He tried it out last week and was too small to use it. Now, it's one of his favorite things! He likes it for the entertainment, but usually falls asleep after about 20 minutes or so.



Slow down, Joey!!! You're less than three weeks old and you're already growing up too fast! Next thing I know he'll be off to college!

This might be my last post for a few days, because M is arriving tomorrow. Yay! It should be a really fun weekend! Plus, the weather will be in the upper 70s, so maybe we can take Joseph on his first outdoor stroll!

Oh, one last thing -- click here to view the "Baby Story - Part Two" photo set and captions that chronicle Joe's homecoming.

Workout

Joe is over two weeks old now and he's starting to stay awake a little in between feedings, so I decided to break out a couple of his toys to see how he'd react. Right now, he can last about 10 minutes workin' out on the tummy time surfboard mat trying to hold his feet up, push with his hands or lift his head up. It's so much fun to see him more alert! I love looking into his pretty eyes.



Speaking of working out, here's proof that I am in fact shrinking! Thirty five pounds down, about fifteen to go to get back to pre-preggo weight and if I feel so inclined, maybe I'll lose some after that too. It will help when I'm able to take Joe outside without worrying about whooping cough sneaking up on him or something. ;)



Last, but not least, it looks like I'm a go for the new part-time job! I am supposed to meet with the directors in a week to finalize everything.

Decisions, Decisions

I've been debating back and forth about what to do in regards to work, but I may have found the answer. I've got an interview on Monday to be a teacher at HLC. It's nationwide with a couple of locations near P-ton. I'm sure you've seen the commercials:



I would work "afterschool and on the weekends", which is when they are typically open. Nick can watch Joe during the 3-4 hours a day that I work and we'll pull in some decent extra money. Plus, my employment history won't have a big gap in it and my job will be something in my field. In addition, anywhere we move in the future is very likely to have an HLC branch nearby, so I can continue my employment if I want to later on. Most importantly, if I'm only working 3-4 hours a day, that leaves me about 20 hours a day to be with my little Joe-Joe and we won't have to put him in daycare.

It sounds like a good deal, but I still have to be hired first. We'll see what happens!

Next Week: Typhoid?

Today was kind of a giant mess, through no fault of our own. Last night, I had some pain on the left side of my throat and left ear. We figured it was an ear infection, so I went to the campus health center the first thing this morning. In the waiting room, I ended up seated nearby someone who had the worst sounding congestion I've ever heard. It grossed me out so bad. After getting checked out, we went back home and within minutes Joe Daddy received a "campus hygiene alert" via email that there is now a disease outbreak on campus. The disease?

Whooping cough. (Pertussis)

What?! How did that happen? Then I realized that I had JUST been to the health center and seated not too far away from someone who potentially had whooping cough. AHHH!!! Luckily, we had our pediatrician appointment already scheduled, so we went in and told Doc H what had happened and he said we should be ok, but for Joe Daddy and I to get vaccinated just in case and keep an eye on Joe for any cough/wheeze/cold symptoms that may come up in the next 14 days.

So, we got DTP vaccines (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis) and although our arms are sore, we hope that will help Joe avoid the outbreak. Unfortunately, Joseph is too young to be vaccinated, so we just have to do our best to keep the apartment and ourselves (and our limited guests) well sanitized.

The rest of the pediatrician appointment went great. Joe weighed in at a hefty 9 pounds 2 and a half ounces, thus surpassing his birth weight and showing Doc H that "he can gain weight at a good clip". Also, we were told that we could give him either a little bit of Karo once a day or prune juice to keep him "regular". I was happy to hear that we're doing everything right and Joe is looking great.

Here's to hoping the P-ton undergrads don't come up with more rare diseases in the next few months.

Poop and the Princeton Packet

We made the Princeton Packet! Joe Daddy bought up about 10 copies Tuesday morning.



In other news, we're having our first struggle with constipation. Joe deals with it quite admirably, but he went from having about eight poops a day to about one poop a day. We called our pediatrician who said that babies have varying poop schedules and also formula fed babies (especially babies fed formula high in iron) tend to get constipated. To help things along, I put a teaspoon of Karo Corn Syrup in his bottle about once a day and it seems to keep him from getting completely stopped up. Joe couldn't be happier when he gets his "special bottle".

We have our second pediatrician's appointment tomorrow for a growth check and I have an OB appointment in about a week for a shrink check. I lost 30lbs in 10 days! I can't believe it has come off so fast, but I am quite happy about that. :) Here's Joe relaxing during mealtime. Hopefully his umbilical cord stump will fall off soon so that we can give him a real bath!

Joe's Newborn Photo

Normally at UMCP, when babies are born, they are cleaned up and their picture is taken. Then the new parents are given a username and password that will allow friends and family to get to see the first picture of the new addition. Unfortunately, with Joe getting run off to the special care nursery, it never happened for us. So, when I was discharged, I asked about it and they said they'd take it for me that night. For days, I tried logging in, but to no avail. I decided to try one last time today before putting the login card away in Joe's keepsake box. Guess what?!



What a cutie pie! I'm glad I have this picture now. It's not exactly a "newborn" photo, because he was about four days old at this point, but I love it anyway.

In the Beginning...

Joseph is here!! He was born April 4, 2009 at 8:09pm and weighed 8 pounds 10 ounces. The birth story (with pictures) can be found here.

Joe has been home a few days now and he's doing wonderfully. Our schedule is something like this:
1. Feedings/Diaper changing at 3, 6, 9, 12 (am and pm)
2. Sleep whenever we can
3. See guests periodically
4. Do chores (baby laundry everyday!, paperwork, emails, birth announcements, etc)

Unfortunately, because Joe was in the special care nursery, we were told that if he gets any illness during his first 8 weeks, he has to have a full workup including spinal tap! So, our guests have to "look but don't touch" until Joe Daddy's birthday (June 5th) to keep our little guy from picking up anything. It's a little bit of a bummer, but I'm sure the time will fly by.

Joe had his first pediatrician's appointment on the 10th. The ped we chose beforehand was on vacation when I gave birth, so we got switched to someone else in the same office. He's amazing! Henceforth, he will be referred to as Doc H. Doc H is about 30 years old, has young kids himself and was just all around awesome. Joe weighed in at 8 pounds 8 ounces, had very slight jaundice (we were told to put him next to the window and it would go away soon), but was otherwise looking perfect. Joseph did pee on the exam table, but they say that's normal.

Doc H was cool with my revised vaccination schedule and also fully supported my decision to bottle feed. He actually said that it would have probably been impossible to breastfeed anyway after the c-section and Joey's 5 day stint in special care -- not enough nourishment for the baby and excessively painful for me, because I would have had to pump exclusively. I was glad that I had trusted my instincts, because apparently I had made the right decision both for my health and Joe's.

Joseph has another growth check on Friday and I will have an OB appointment soon to check on my recovery progress. I gained 50 pounds during the pregnancy (I know, I know, be nice). So far in the past week, I've lost 25 pounds, so I'm halfway done. I still probably have about 5-10 more pounds that will be lost in the next week or two that will be made up mostly of getting rid of the rest of my water swelling and finishing up the post-baby uterus shrinkage. Then that last 15 pounds will have to come off with diet and exercise, but I'm ready for that. Here's a pic of me at 5 weeks along, 39 weeks along, and 1 week postpartum.



My best friend M will be coming up here in less than 2 weeks and I absolutely can't wait. Other than that, I'm just trying to take in every moment and freeze it in my mind. I know he won't be newborn forever.

Here's Joe Daddy and the bundle of joy having a 'moment' together.