A Week of Firsts; Weight and Length; Madison, WI

Micah had a busy week last week. He did many things for the first time!

He finally went into the sling without fussing for the first time. He fell asleep shortly after this picture was taken. I tried him in it later the same day and he got mad, but I still consider it a successful day with the sling. :-)


Next, Micah ate from a bottle for the first time. This is great because I am going to audit a class soon (African Christianity) and Micah will have to eat pumped milk with Daddy. He still won't take the bottle at the beginning of a feed, only after eating from the breast a little first, but I still consider this success with the bottle! At least he ate some from it and we'll work on taking it for an entire feed soon.


Another first: Micah is now fitting into some 3-6 month onesies. Whoa. The onesie in the previous picture is a 3-6 month onesie. We went to the doctor today for a wellness visit. Micah will be 6 weeks tomorrow. He weighs 12 lbs 10 oz and is 24 in long. He's in the 90-95th percentile for both. What a growing boy!

Micah took his first plane trip over the weekend. Brett, Micah, and I went to Wisconsin for Brett's brother's wedding. Here is Micah in the Detroit airport:


He did really well on the planes:


While on this trip, Micah met his aunts and uncles for the first time!
Here is Micah with Uncle Rob, my brother.


Here is Micah with Aunt Lauren, Brett's sister, and her boyfriend Jake.


Here is Micah with Uncle Cory, Brett's brother.


Here is Micah with his new Aunt Mai, Cory's wife!


Micah also met a Great Grandmother for the first time over the weekend. Here is Micah with Brett's maternal Grandmother.


Here is a four generation pic.


Yay for firsts!

First time at church; family picture!

We managed to get to church last Sunday. Granted:

1) We wanted to go to the early (9:30 am) service, but made it to the late (11:00 am) service instead.
2) We were 15 minutes late to the late service.

We were there in time for the sermon and some singing. Micah behaved quite well. He ate a bit, fussed a bit, looked around for a while, and then fell asleep.


Completely unrelated to church yesterday, I got a great picture of all three of us this evening. For the record, Micah complains less about family pictures than my brother and sister do.

Micah is one month old, also, he has silly sneezes

Life has finally calmed down enough to allow us to really start to "play," and so yesterday we broke out our camcorder and I figured out how to import and edit video on my laptop. Expect more video in the future!

Where this clip is concerned, I think the title pretty much says it all.

More Micah Again

Micah is just so cute!

Brett's parents, Bill and Nancy, have been gone for over a week now, but there are a couple pics to post of them with Micah.

Here, Grammy is showing Micah one of his toys. Of all of his little toys, he likes this one the best.


Gramps is holding Micah as he sports a tank top that his Daddy wore in his day. Aren't Micah's arms buff? Or are they beefy?


For the first two weeks of Micah's life he would nap like a pro in his crib. The third week he was a little more finicky about it. Once all the grandparents left, he would not sleep during the day anymore. Whenever we would get him to fall asleep on us he would startle himself awake the minute we would put him down. So, we've employed the towel method of keeping babies asleep. We just pack Micah in with towels so he's really snug and he can't wake himself up by accident. Daytime naps have resumed!


This is Micah's absolute favorite toy. He LOVES his mobile. We can set him down underneath his mobile and he'll be entertained for a good 15 minutes. The best part about the mobile is that we can set him down underneath it when he's crying and his cry will fizzle into non-existence as he realizes that there are shapes floating in the air above his head. The funniest thing about this mobile is that it's Baby Einstein and plays classical music so Micah watches apples and fish fly by to Clair de Lune. It's great!


The other day it was very cold and I gave Micah a bath. He was so cold as I was drying him off that I dressed him in warm clothes and wrapped him up and went up on the third floor without the AC on and warmed up. By the time he calmed down and I brought him downstairs, I set him on the bed to do something else and he fell asleep as his head hit the mattress. So, I decided to take a nap, too.


Here is Micah's wee little hand around Daddy's finger. So cute!

A Gentleman and a Scholar

He has no profession. He is a gentleman? -- Sense and Sensibility

You know your wife was recently pregnant when ...

(#1) you have a baby,
(#253) you find it amusing to quote Sense and Sensibility in your blog posts.

Today's question-- is Micah a gentleman and a scholar? Of course! And we have photographic evidence.

First, all gentlemen must have an appreciation for the arts. Here, Micah and I are listening to jazz.


Second, all gentlemen must love their mothers. This is obviously the case for Micah.


Third, gentlemen must uphold decency no matter the circumstances. Here's a picture from his first real bath!


Fourth, the scholar bit. Well, just see for yourself! Has anyone ever concentrated so hard on The Very Hungry Caterpillar?


And lastly? Well, clearly Micah has no profession, not unless sleeping, pooping, and crying count. He does smile occasionally, but he's not being paid for that either (though maybe paying him for smiles would inspire more of them).


The evidence is conclusive! Micah is indeed a gentleman and a scholar.

Third Time's a Charm

This is the third time we tried Micah in the Baby Bjorn. The first two times he howled. This time he fussed a little bit but I bounced him and walked him around the apartment until he calmed down. Eventually, Brett and I were able to go on a walk with Micah in the Baby Bjorn! I was carrying him and I'm not sure why I decided to carry him instead of Brett. I already carried him on my front for nine months...and now he's about 10.5 pounds! It was a little hard on my lower back, but still really fun. And maybe he calmed down because he's used to walking with me since he did it upside-down for so long. ;-)

Micah also decided that he's OK with his swing, another baby contraption that he howled in the first two times we put him in it. Brett was brave, though, and tried him in it last night, but we forgot to get a picture.

He likes his car seat/carrier and his bouncy seat. Next we have to get him used to his Maya Wrap and he'll be happy in all of his baby contraptions!

Thoughts on being a Mommy

Micah is fabulous! I'm so excited that he's finally here with us. It just feels right. I love being a mother. He's such a sweet baby and I love him SO MUCH. My Dad asked me what it felt like for me to be a Mom. It feels good. I thought that I'd be bothered by changing diapers and having everything take a million years, but I don't. I enjoy Micah being in our family so much and it doesn't bother me at all to have this huge life change. It's so wonderful! I do get cranky and sometimes I need someone else to change his diaper or hold him or console him, and I wish Brett could breastfeed, too, but then I take a nap or talk about it and I feel better. I'm so glad we decided to have a baby. Now that Micah is here, I realize that I was ready to have more purpose in my life besides vocation, intellectual accomplishment, and hobbies. Being a mother has put many things in perspective and I'm so glad to have this little boy in my life. Yay!

Birth Story

No pictures for this post. I think that labor and delivery are among those things in life that should happen and then be over without more than the foggy memory leftover.

My birth experience was good, as far as labor and delivery can be good. It was definitely painful, but I had so much wonderful support and I never stalled so it went really well.

Brian Gold brought dinner over for me and Brett on Monday, July 16th. This was such a blessing because Brett was usually very tired every night from working during the day and then making dinner at night that he was worried that if I went into labor at night he wouldn't have enough energy to support me. Since Brian brought dinner Brett was well rested. Thanks, Brian!

After dinner, Brett and I watched "Oceans 12" and I was having contractions 2-8 minutes apart the whole time. This had happened before so we didn't really think much of it. Before we went to bed, around midnight, they seemed to be more intense so we called our doctor. She said that we should stay home as long as possible so that we could be comfortable until labor had definitely begun. So, we went to bed thinking that we'd sleep through the night like all the other times I had contractions like these.

At 2:30 am, a contraction woke me up. When I stood up to go to the bathroom, my water went everywhere. For weeks I had been praying for a clear sign that labor was starting because I kept having contractions and never knew if I was finally going into labor or what. Well, God answered my prayers because it was clear that my water had broken and that it was time to go to the hospital. :-) We got our stuff together and called our doctor and our doula, Maria, and headed out the door. We called our parents on the way to the hospital.

I was all checked in and in a labor and delivery room around 3:15 am. My contractions came steadily and I dilated about 1 cm per hour without any stalling. I had arrived at the hospital 100% effaced and about 4 cm dilated so I only had dilating to do.

I wanted to have a natural childbirth just to see if I could do it. I got doses of narcotics three times which really helped to take the edge off the contractions and helped me get through most of labor. I also received fluids which helped to perk me up. At one point I felt like I couldn't do it anymore and had decided to get an epidural, but Maria encouraged me to wait and see how dilated I was and when Dr. Dintini checked me I was at 9 cm so I decided to forego the epidural. At 10 am I was 10 cm and could finally start pushing. I needed to have an episiotomy and a catheder to help Micah come out. Micah was born at 11:40 am!

I feel so good about the accomplishment of birthing Micah. I'm so proud of myself. I could not have done it without Brett. He was a fabulous support and never left my side (except I think he went to the bathroom once). I also could not have done it without our doula, Maria. She applied counter pressure to my back during contractions which enabled me to keep going (I had back labor). She also supported and helped us through the whole process in many ways. We also had a really great nurse named Sally who stayed with us for the majority of the time. Dr. Dintini was invaluable during pushing.

Usually, for every difficult experience in life I can find some sort of silver lining within the experience itself to share. Labor is not like that. It's really hard. I'm glad that I have had the experience of doing it naturally, but I think that next time I might get an epidural right away and not go through all the pain again. ;-)

"Are you a daddy now?"

Clara: Are you a daddy now?
Brett: Yes.
Clara: Do you go on the roof?

I do a lot of things now that I didn't used to. Going on the roof, fortunately, isn't yet one of them. For one, I spend an awful lot of time looking into the eyes of a two-week old.


I'm not the only one enjoying Micah's company. Here he is with Gramps (my dad).


Micah is getting more and more adept at keeping his fingers in his mouth. He was born knowing what his fingers were for, but on the rare occasion they paused in his mouth, he would get so excited he'd flex his arm, and off they'd go. Here he's managed to keep them there a bit longer.


And now just hanging out with Grammy (my mom).


This is Micah's new favorite position. Hold him any other way when he's fussy and he'll let you know about the great injustice you are perpetrating against him. Also, you must pat him on his butt. Neglect this at your own risk.


Baby toes peeking out of a blanket.


Cuddling with mom after eating.