6 weeks and buying a crib

So as the days progress and Eli gets more awake and alive, its much harder to be on the computer! Our house is pretty busy and guests will be coming in/out for the next 2-3 weeks so thats all consuming! So my little Eli is 6 weeks today. His neck control is getting better everyday. He is def. more kicky and stretchy and moving his legs in a "I want to get up and run around" type of way. Hmm, he is super cute.

I get more grins/giggles when we have one on one time and I sing him our song. He is def. cooing and developing language skills. Nightimes are slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y evening themselves out. Night by night. I am working on giving him 1 feeding a night, then eventually none. But since he is only 6 weeks we are doing a fab job. I have tentatively decided that mid-August will be when I move him into his nursery. I figure he will be a little over 2 months and will have had some time to adjust. Its gonna be hard- and weird and all that sorts of stuff. I will def. be one of those mothers than runs in to check to see if he is breathing several times/night.

Also I bought him a crib today!!! And I say "wow, that is freakin' expensive!" You have to buy the crib, then a mattress, then sheets (haven't done the sheets yet) and I won't tell you how much it is. But I included a pic! Its a convertible one and its cherry.. So I will eventually use the crib for this child and future child (g-d willing) and then use the headboard/footboard for me b/c I like it so much! So I think it was well worth it. But I have no plans on putting him in the crib or even transitioning him into a crib until the High Holidays in late September, which means he will be abt 3, 3 1/2 mths.. So I feel slightly better abt it.

There are a couple of things on my mind that I might as well share w/the blog world. I am still worried abt the vaccines, I bought the Dr. Sears Vaccine book. Apparently Dr. Sears is to our generation what Dr. Spock was to our parents generation. He is due for his first part of his series on August 11th..

But on a lighter note, I can't decide whether to do family portraits of he and I before the high holidays or new years... Also I am starting to think of his halloween costume (which not surprisingly enough they were selling at babies r us!). So thats gonna be fun!!!!

Okie, tis it for now!

:)

stretching him out and cooing

So now that my little baby boy is 5 weeks old, we (meaning me) have started stretching out his feedings at night in order to eventually.. one day.. be able to sleep through the night.. Now he kinda wakes up around 2:30ish and basically chills in my arms till abt 4:30ish, when I feed him then he sorta goes back to sleep until 6:30.. However this morning he was awake and therefore I was awake. Around 5:45 this morning my son learned how to coo. I hear this low grunt, then it starts getting higher, then a cooooo, then it goes down again. It was very very very cute and I didn't mind having been up since 2:30- I just sat and listened to him.

So that was exciting. He is just my very cute baby boy. Have I said that yet? I need to work on getting that Dr. Sears book before his first shot appt in 3 weeks- eek! I need to do that tomorrow. I am constantly reading all my baby books to see what's next and what they say abt this and that. But I really think parenthood kinda comes naturally. If he cries, you see whats wrong and fix it. But I have to say having my parents here have been a big help, as my mother has over 30 yrs of child-rearing experience :)

I have soo much stuff I want to do in the next couple of weeks and months. I had a really relaxing day today though and I watched several tv shows (better get it all in before I tone it down perhaps??) and I swear each show I watched had a pregnant womyn giving birth! And now I can relate to them. Its cool.

Okay I have to go to bed now, but all is well..

Decisions

Well in the end we couldn't decide abt the baby nurse. My initial indecision rubbed off on my parents and after much bally-woohing, we decided (scratch that-- MY PARENTS) decided that they want to vacation locally and see the sites during the day that they haven't yet. I was perfectly fine with them going on vackay. I told them so, multiple times, but alas, they chose not to go on their vacation that was only 3 hrs from the house, and decided to stay local. Meaning out of the house during the day, back at night for like 3 days. *Sigh* What am I going to do? Force them out of their own house??

So I let them be big boys and girls and make that decision. Whatev. :)

I am going to move past it and beyond it, it will just take a little bit. Its not like I am going to be stopped by anything when I have my mind set to it. If I want to see the United States in a balloon, I will. Nothing will stop me. But parents are as parents are.

What else is new in babyland? I have already retired his 0-3 months clothes :( They no longer fit him. He had his 1 month appt yesterday and he is 10 lbs, 1 oz., 22 inches :) His next appt is his 2 months where he starts his series of vaccines which I have decided to space out over a period of time as he gets older. I think the 2 main arguments abt the links btwn autism and the vaccines are that there are so many so close to each other and that some shots are simply unnecessary.

This is all subject to change but this is what I am doing thus far-
1) Breaking up the main shot of DTap, Hep B and Polio (Hep B is only needed for daycare, so a 2 mth old doesn't need the shot now)
2) Only allowing 2 shots per visit, then doing 2 shots every 2 months.
3) Breaking up the MMR and going to wait until he is a year and a half or maybe even later as that is the big one.

Thimersol (mercury) is no longer in the vaccines, minus the influenza one, but there are aluminum in each shot and I don't want to for aluminum buildup anywhere. Also I said no to the Hep B shot at birth (it should only be required if the mother has it IMHO).

I plan to do alot more research on it, but for now I am at slight peace with it.

:)

my first grin and baby nurses

So I think I got my first bonafide non-gassy grin today! It was fleeting but super cute :) We have our 1 month appt check on Wednesday and we will see how much he has grown and what the latest and greatest is. He has started sleeping a little longer at night which is nice! His legs are long and thin and he is super adorable. I figured I am going to use this blog to mark his milestones till I have time to write it in his baby book..

So my support system aka my parents are going out of town for a week for a vackay for my mother's bday. So we interviewed a night nurse that can help out for 3 nights to take the baby while I am sleeping. But its hard. Really hard- I have to trust a total stranger with my baby. She came to the house today and we met her and she took the baby and the baby slept in her arms the entire time she was here. And I was alternatly thinking "wow it would have been so nice if I had the money to hire a nanny for the baby" and I was thinking "she has my baby!!! I want him back! NOW!".. So I am torn whether or not we should hire her. I mean I will be alone with the baby for 3 days- which is a nice thing but of course I will want to sleep and/or a break.

My mother said sleep on it and that is what I shall do. She has 3 kids of her own and I would say is in her mid-late 40s... seemed friendly and personable. Gave my mother and I a hug when she left. But I don't know. Sleep is a positive thing and lets me handle the baby better during the day.

If we don't use the night nurse, then a neighbor is going to come over around 6amish so I can get like 2-3 hrs uninterrupted sleep before the day starts. But if the night nurse comes I would get like 7-8 hrs of sleep. A luxury I haven't had in a while...

I don't know.. I will keep processing. Otherwise baby is good. Normal baby stuff- sleeping, eating, using the restroom, being cute.. Okie, here's another pic! Enjoy :)

stem cells and insurance- oh my!

So we just got word back today that the stem cell aka cord blood banking that we did during labor came back good. Meaning if I should ever need pure stem cells (g-d forbid) we have 'em on ice up in good ole' NJ!

Also, we got baby Eli insurance yesterday with Blue Cross Blue Shield- so thats another yay! I got his SSN in the mail on Saturday and now we are waiting for his birth certificate and we are GOLDEN. He will be legit- to legit to quit. And I started a college savings bank acct for him. So I feel that alot has happened in 3 weeks. We got him off to the right start.

Now its my turn to start putting the pieces together of what I want to do once Eli is old enough to go into daycare. Let the future begin!

:)