A Bean Enters the World - the picture story

I put together a little photo montage of Ethan's pregnancy and birth. I wanted to add more pictures, of the shower and the pregnancy pictures that Mary took but I didn't really have room. Oh well. It's my first video, but it was fun so I think I'll make more soon...



See it on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxcHfVDcL1g

Six Weeks Old!

My little boy is six weeks old. Amazing. Six weeks ago, right about this time, I was working as hard as I've ever worked in my life, and knowing I was about to be face to face with the boy I'd been waiting for so many months to meet. How could I have known how perfect he would be? How could I have imagined how much we would love him and the way he would complete our lives? Even now, at least once a day I look into his face, be it smiling, sleeping or sad and think how unbelievable it is that he's mine. There is still a sense of shock surrounding this whole motherhood thing. Maybe that doesn't go away. I don't know.

Ethan is still an incredibly happy baby, although he's becoming more and more free to express his discontent. Cursed be the mommy who delays too long in coming to fetch him after he wakes, or puts off picking him up once he's made his desire to nurse abundantly clear. However, he's not one to hold grudges so generally as soon as his needs are met he's smiling and happy once again. He does sleep pretty well most nights, but every now and then (like last night) he decides that lying in the dark is not on his agenda, and puts up a protest until mom finally has pity on the sleeping dad and gets up. Usually a time of sitting in the dark living room or rocking in the nursery does the trick though. We still haven't established any kind of real routine during the day time.

He's getting so good at holding his head up that we got out the Bumbo chair yesterday. He needs to be a little stronger before he spends great amounts of time in it, but he seems to prefer it to his swing or vibrating chair, neither of which he has seemed particularly thrilled with. It's been a while since we tried them so I may introduce them again sometime this week.

And finally, he was the best Christmas gift we got this year:

Christmas!!

Christmas had to come early this year at the Hafer house, because Maddy and Bailey were going to be with their mom on Dec. 25th. So, we were able to call the parent hotline and arrange for an early drop-off. Deborah and Kendle were kind enough to come up and hang out with us from Monday afternoon until this morning. Tuesday night (our 'Christmas Eve') we made Christmas dinner and invited Dana and Tristin over to join us. Darrell's Dad had to work so he came over on Sunday night to exchange gifts with us.

After dinner we let the kids each open one gift, and we drove out to see "Christmas in the Park", the drive-through light display near the house. The girls could hardly manage to stay in their room and go to sleep, but finally around 2 am the adults got everything finished up and went to bed, after spending some quality time 'killing' each other on Call of Duty, Darrell's most recent video game.

Here are a few pictures of the festivities and merriment of the past few days.

Deborah and Kendle

Chilling with Grandpa

All ready to go meet Santa

Santa's little helper

Chilling in front of the tree with the dad

Making a Gingerbread House

Maddy and Bailey, opening a gift on "Christmas Eve" with Tristin and Uncle Dana



Daddy, Daddy, Wake up! Santa Came! --Thankfully Bailey waited until about 7:45 to get us out of bed...


Surveying the loot

Happy 4 Week Birthday, Ethan

And happy early morning to mommy.

In reality 7 am is not that early. But when you're fighting a wicked cold and used to sleeping at least a couple hours later it feels like the crack of dawn. Ethan isn't fussy or unhappy. He's just A-W-A-K-E. We spent the last two hours with him rooting around, taking the breast for about 4 seconds and then pushing it away. Finally when Darrell got up for work I decided that being upright would be better for my congested head and our nursing efforts. It hasn't helped the nursing much. Ethan is sitting somewhat contentedly in his boppy pillow beside me, staring around the room while I type. He's starting to get a little restless so maybe in a few minutes he'll be ready to nurse and I'll be lucky enough to have him fall asleep.

Honestly I think we'd better start working on a better schedule soon so that when it's time to go back to work it won't be too big of an adjustment. It's so hard though when Darrell is here and staying up later. I hate being the party pooper but he's always been able to thrive on less sleep than me and especially now that I'm waking up a few times a night to feed the baby.

Thankfully Ethan is starting to get better and better at finding the breast himself while I'm still half asleep.

The past few days have been pretty easy-going. Ethan and I did some shopping on Thursday. He was unhappy in the first store while I pushed him around in the stroller, even after I fed him in the dressing room. But when we went to Walmart I decided to try out my new sling (it's a Baby K'tan) and he liked that much better. He was asleep within a few minutes and I just carried him throughout the store. The only real challenges were loading a case of Coke into the cart, and reaching into the cart to get everthing onto the conveyor belt but I managed.

Friday we went to the La Leche League meeting. It was quite different going and talking about breastfeeding now that I'm actually doing it. Even though it's a small group (sometimes just one other person and the leader) I enjoy going.

Ah, Mr. Ethan has decided he's ready to nurse finally. More later.

3 Weeks

Ethan celebrated his 3 week birthday still trying to get over a cold. He also decided to share it with his mommy. He really is doing better though. While he is still a little sniffly I haven't even had to use the suction today. He's breathing just fine.

I'm so proud of my little guy, he's been holding his head up more and more each day. We won't be able to call him our little bobble-head for much longer. He's also starting to smile, especially at Darrell. I can tell the two of them are going to have a special relationship as time goes on. Right now, of course, Ethan thinks of little else besides the boob, but as that changes I think Darrell is going to emerge as Ethan's idol. And that's as it should be.

Sleeping was going well, the there have been a few nights, including last night, that someone decided he just wasn't tired when mom was. Last night I tried to take him to bed aroudn 10 but once we got all settled he would nurse, then pull away to cry for a while before trying to nurse a little more. And so it went. Finally I got up and rocked him to sleep in the nursery. I don't know what time we finally got in bed, but he did sleep until about 5 this morning, whereupon he woke up raring to go. He did the same nurse, cry, nurse routine for a while until I picked him up and held him. As long as he was upright and the light was on he did okay with only occasional fussing so I dozed with him laying on my chest, my legs or propped up against my stomach. We did that until about 7 when he finally went back to sleep.

We got up at 9:30 and all he's done since then is sleep and nurse. Little punk. I should keep him awake and show him how it feels.

I think I will try keeping him awake a little this evening to make sure he's actually ready for bed when I am.

Mr. Snorty Pants

Ethan has a cold.

Poor little guy isn't even three weeks old yet, and he's sniffling and snorting while he tries to breathe. It started Tuesday, I think and by Wednesday it was really concerning us. I called the doctor for some advice and they said to use saline drops in his nose and suction the mucous out, rub baby Vicks on him and that we could also get a humidifier. Elizabeth and Joanna came up on Wednesday so they took me to Walmart to get a humidifier. Also, they had some peppermint oil with them and we started putting it on a cloth near him. Apparently it clears the nasal passages.

Today I went ahead and took him to the doctor even though he appears to be feeling a little better. Thankfully they didn't make me feel stupid for bringing him in. (Normally I guess I wouldn't but he's so little still... I just don't want something to get started and end up getting worse.) The doctor even ran a test to check and make sure he wasn't developing RSV, which thank God was negative. She said it was just a bad virus and to keep doing what we're doing. I'm glad I took him if only so that if it doesn't clear up over the weekend we won't be worrying. Darrell has been almost beside himself and can barely sleep at night listening to our poor little boy. I know it may sound worse than it is, but sometimes it sounds pretty bad! Tuesday and Wednesday especially he sounded like a little piglet. Now I can tell he's stuffy but for the most part we're keeping it under control.

I hope it's better soon. Ethan is so good natured that he's taking it all pretty well, but I'm worn out dealing with it and worrying about him. I'm having him sleep either on my lap or in his boppy beside me on the couch because he needs to be inclined and I want him close to me. I think tomorrow we need to remember to take a nap before the championship game. (Boomer Sooner!)

Two Week Doctor's appointment

Ethan's appointment was at 11:30 this morning. The Doctor informed us exactly what we already knew. She proclaimed multiple times that he was "perfect" and "fabulous." Well duh :)

The great news is that he's gained lots of weight already. He weighed in at 10 lbs 8 oz, which is more than a pound over his birth weight. The boobie milk is working! His length measurement was 21 inches (it was 20 at his first appointment) so he's grown in length too.

This morning when we got up, Ethan's eye was all runny and gooey but Dr. Bowen said it's just a plugged tear duct and should clear up on its own. That was a relief to hear because I was worried that he was getting a cold or something. I'd have felt terrible.

After Ethan's appointment, he and I went to my 1:30 appointment. It was our first trip alone. All in all it went pretty well, but the midwife's office was unusually busy and I waited over an hour. That's never happened before, and it was a bad time for a first. Ethan got incredibly cranky. I had to feed him in the waiting room and change his diaper too. (Side question - is it inappropriate to change the baby in the waiting room on the chair beside you?) There was this cute little boy, probably about 4 or 5, who came over and watched the diaper change and talked to me about it. His name was Fezzi or something like that. I finally got the baby to sleep a few minutes before they called me back which was a good thing. I was nearly in tears because he is so rarely fussy and I couldn't help him. I was tempted to just leave and try again another day.

My visit with Ann was fine. She just talked to me about how I was doing and we discused recovery, the baby and the birth. It was helpful to talk it over with her, even though she hadn't been there. Little man woke up and was pretty fussy throughout the visit so it was hard to really keep my train of thought.

I weighed 160lbs, which is about 30 pounds more than I weighed when I got pregnant. I've definitely got some work to do when January gets here.

As soon as we were out of the office and changed his diaper again, Mr. Ethan was fine. He cried while we waited for the valet to get the car, but fell asleep as soon as we were safely inside and on our way home. Poor guy, I guess we just overstimulated him.

So, the big day is over and now Ethan is taking a long nap. I may wake him to nurse in a little while, but for now I think he deserves to sleep.

Some pictures from Thanksgiving

According to Daddy, Thanksgiving is all about Football anyway.

So just because he doesn't have a cool Turkey outfit like Justin doesn't mean anything.

The girls think Thanksgiving is all about the sweets.

Emily and Justin

Aunt Deborah and Ethan

Jerry and Justin

Uncle Kenldle with Ethan