Our Little Baby Blog

Twelve Days of Abe

It's day 12 of life with Abe and I can't believe how much our lives have changed already. I've been thinking about what I would write about during the past few days and I've decided that I don't have any particularly philosophical thoughts to share at this point. We're pretty much just in survival mode and I'm okay with that.

The haze of newborn-ness has settled in. Every day blurs into a night and every night blurs into the next day. Thankfully, Abe is a decent night sleeper so far, which means we're getting 3-4 hours of sleep at a time. It may not sound great, but it's amazing compared to some babies who have their days and nights mixed up and force their parents into repeated all-nighters. Not Abe, he seems to understand that night time is for sleeping and we end up waking him up to eat every few hours.

I wish I could report that we've figured out how to satiate his appetite, but we haven't. There just doesn't seem to be any predictability to when he wants to eat. We do know that he likes to eat a LOT and often. The difference between a small baby (Anna was 6lbs, 10 oz) and a big one like Abe has been immense. Abe is extremely strong, he chomps hard when I nurse, he kicks and thrashes and I think he could turn himself over (accidentally, of course) if he really tried. Whether it's frustration from hunger or just his natural temperment, Abe gets worked up VERY easily and he escalates from whimpers to screaming at the top of his lungs in a matter of seconds. We've been joking that he hasn't met an ear drum he couldn't pierce, but in all seriousness, it's feels like you're torturing him every time you change his diaper. He seems to be screaming, STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT, AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!

Abe's definitely a real cutie. He's still got that great reddish blonde hair. I'm not sure if it shows much in pictures and I'm going to try to capture it in hopes that cementing it in a photo will cause it to stay that way forever. I think red and reddish hair is so cute and I hope he hangs on to it.

We've been so fortunate to have family around since Abe was born. I don't know what we would do without it. My aunt did countless loads of laundry and dishes while she was here and Mike's parents have been taking turns rocking and burping Abe and getting Anna dressed and fed. Just having an extra set of hands to help with the diapers feels like a major score. The learning curve for changing boy diapers has been steep. There's a fair bit of strategery with diaper placement and capturing the spray. I've been peed on more times than I'd like to share, which means I've got to change my shirt, change his shirt, change his sheets and clean him off. I know this will get better, but to all you moms of boys out there, I salute you.

Posting will be sporadic as we continue to find our groove, but thank you to everyone who has sent well wishes and kept us in your prayers. Abe is amazing gift from God and we're so very happy to have him finally home with us where he belongs.