One month old! (what?!)

 If you've been watching/following this blog for awhile, you'll remember that every month for a year, I snapped a pic or twenty of Milo next to his monkey.  It amazed/es me how quick these offspring grow in the first year! 

So here I am again, but this time with a duck, to measure Ari on his growing adventure, the monthly weed-like growth of an adventure:




"It's ok, Ari, mom made me do this, too! Every month for a year!"




It's hard being 3 days old.

 



3 days




1 month






I'm 1 month old!  ROCK ON!  Fist Pump!

 




Grow on with your bad self!
xox

 

Ari's movie: from EPT to birthday

on the breast

Due to tongue tie and a sleep deprived, impatient, and anxious first time mom, Milo was not breast fed.  So I took the road less travelled and pumped 7 times a day and supplemented with formula.   Yes, it was a major pain in the ass.  I knew with Kid Dos that I would not go down that ridiculous road again.  If Ari wasn't into it and I wasn't into it, then formula would be measured and poured into the loving arms of a sterilized bottle.

However, Ari has been a super champion -let me show you how it's done- feeder of the breast.  I now "get it" when other moms speak highly of breastfeeding.  I used to think they were lying.  And I will breastfeed until it no longer works for one or both of us.

Or until he turns 5.  Whichever happens first.  (haHA!)

In the past month, here a couple few things I've learned:

You know you're a breastfeeding mom when...

-You're not embarrassed to push on your breasts in public to see which one you left on.

-You here the catch phrase, "The baby is fussy...he wants some of that 2%."

-You feel the tingle/burn of your milk coming in and think, "He must be hungry." -AND THE BABY IS SLEEPING.

-When you tell people, "He drinks from the tap."

-You go visit your brother and need to nurse.  An hour later when you nurse again, you notice you're missing a nursing pad.  As you're leaving and saying your good-bye's you add, "I lost a pad somewhere in your house.  Sorry 'bout that."

-You leave the house sans cleavage and then develop amazing cleavage within hours.

-After nursing in the car you forget to snap your bra and pull down your shirt.  And then you walk out, in public, totally oblivious to it.

-You shamelessly re-snap or unsnap your nursing bra in public.

-You have perfected your hide -n- seek skills.

-You wake up at night to feed the baby and can't tell if your sweating or if its breastmilk all down your chest/stomach/sheets.

-When your toddler finds your pump and pretends to express milk from his own chest.

-You're out of reach of some nursing pads, so you use whatever towel/shirt/baby blanket to stuff in your bra.

-Your baby unlatches because he's choking due to a strong let down.

-"Crying over spilt milk" has a new meaning to you.

- You wake up in the middle of the night and see a pond of milk on the sheets, milk pouring out of baby's mouth and pooled in his neck, boob hanging out...but you're too tired to care so you just shift the both of you to the side and go back to sleep.

-You swear it's like 90 degrees in your house.

-You marvel at nearly every diaper change that this poo/pee came from YOUR milk. AWESOME!

-You love how accessible, easy, and FREE the milk is!  And maybe it's just me, but breastfed babies are just way, way cute:



Case in point

 


It doesn't get any more delish-ness.

 

A dash of relaxation mixed with equal parts work and volunteering

Life under the big top of baby/toddler parallel raising phenomenon.  It's about balance.  It's about not enough sleep.  It's about too much laundry and not enough wine in the fridge.  And it's about discovering new Apps on the phone to occupy your mind when all you seem to do is breastfeed and change yet ANOTHER DIAPER.

It's about super human powers really...




75 percent (estimated, because TIME?  Hell if I know...) of the time we're doing some version of this.

 


And I just keep on taking pictures.  Lots and Lots of pictures...
Because someday (soon) I'll be looking back on these early days and musing about how tiny he was and how far we've come...and Oh, those were the days...

 



the days when he would sleep anywhere...

 


anytime...

 


and Milo...

 



oh, Milo, my Milo...
(finding alternate uses with the Moby wrap when not in use)

 



He's just a carefree 3 year old.
Oh, those were the days...



"Hi!  I gave birth 19 days ago!"

My husband would argue that we're doing more of this than the other. And when I say "this" I mean cleaning/painting/rearranging furniture.
You know, all the shit the parenting police would be "tsk tsking" over.
Why aren't you  SLEEPING WHEN THE BABY SLEEPS!

 


Husb takes a break from painting our bedroom to change the young darling...on a side note, I had completely forgotten how many diapers a newborn goes through...SHEESH!

p.s. We haven't started the cloth diapering yet...but it's coming!  YesYesYes!

 


We headed out one fine Saturday morning to pick some potatoes with the first annual community havest to end hunger.



Well...the husb and I picked...Milo just wanted to hang out...

 


and hang out some more...

 


It was really rather ridiculous...

 


2 kids.
TWO!
Still a little weird. Awesome, but weird.
It'll be awhile before I get my groove with all of this...

  

the many faces (phases) of an 11 day old

I'm happy!



I'm intrigued!




I'm amazed!




I'm asleep!



the first beach



1st beach
9/10/11
15th day



Dad and Milo played while Ari and I...

snuggled and nursed (and nursed and nursed...)

Feet in the sand.
You will get used to this, Ari.





they would come back periodically...

and tell me stories about the missing swings on the pirate ship.
Closed up after Labor day.
Disappointed.

but we would quickly move on...

and get distracted by something/one else.



coming or going,
 telling stories or out to play...



we are where we belong

 


9/10/11
4:32pm

 

the first 2 weeks (the honeymoon)

The first 2 weeks of l'Ari (I've turned a French stone in my sleep deprived state of life) have been en liess!  Baby blues?  Not a chance!  (I credit breast feeding hormones.  Thank you oxytocin and prolactin!)  Broken sleep?  No problem (I've got the keen ability to nap...).  Aches and after birth pains? Pssht...handled (thank you Ibuprofen, Tylenol with codeine, sitz baths, and witch hazel pads!) .  Sibling rivalry? Nothing but love.  Dinner? On the table (thanks to my husb on paternity leave and my Mama's group for providing me with some frozen meals! Along with many other goodies!).  Cleanliness of the house?  White gloved perfection (or just too distracted to care at this point).

Breastfeeding issues?  Ari and I are a TEAM! It's like we're the poster people of La Leche.  Seriously though, I'm actually impressed with our ability to do this...for 2 weeks straight!  With every wet/poo diaper I pat myself on the back that I can breastfeed!  At Ari's 2 week appointment he measured at 23 inches (grown 2 inches!) and weighed 8lbs 9oz (gained just under a pound).  Making him around the 50th percentile for weight and above the 100th percentile for height.

No cradle cap. No baby acne.  No rashes, cuts, marks or boo-boos on this perfect creature...



We get about 3 hour stretches of sleep at night.  It's a start...
Otherwise I'm nursing every hour or 2...

 


So, you're the daddy 'round here?!

 



"To split yourself in two, is just the most radical thing you can do."
Ani Difranco

 



The other day Ari was fussing in his car seat.  I asked Milo to talk to his brother to help soothe him.  Milo turns to Ari and says, "It's okay, Ari.  Mommy's here.  Daddy's here. and Milo's here!"
It was a moment for me.
On the occasion that Milo wakes in the middle of the night -possibly from some bad dream or maybe a cat hacking a hairball from under his bed- I go to his room and tell him mommy and daddy are here.  I'm so glad that this not only soothes him back to his pillow to sleep, he remembers it.
And he used these words for his brother. Le sigh...

 

 


I live with these guys.  Me love lots.

  


and I wear my husbands boxers sometimes (I've lost all but 5lbs of the "baby weight!")...Classy Comfort for the "inbetween stage."

 


4 days afer birth, we took Ari to a check-in/up appointment.  His skin,when pressed, turned yellow.  So we had blood drawn.  His bilirubin was 16.3.  At 17 he would have been readmitted to the hospital for light therapy.  Instead we were able to go home with the instructions to feed-feed-feed so he can poop-poop-poop.  We also sat outside in the early morning/late afternoon.  2 days later his numbers were down to 13.  Doc says in his rough Indian accent, "We aren't going to worry about this jaundice anymore...."

 Yellow, yellow go away...




He doesn't remember how much he hated the swing when he was an infant.
Now?  It's a freakin' riot!

 


Psst...mama, I'm hungry!

 


Why, yes, that is my 3y.o. playing Call of Duty: Black Ops.  Probably not the most age appropriate game...
Probably.

 



This couch has gotten a lot of love.





Pretty much the best thing in the entire universe times infinity.

 

Taking Ari out at this age has proven to be a large case of "show and tell."  But me, de Milo and the husb must leave the house!  And with that comes alot of
"Wow, he's so tiny!" 
"You forget how small they are."
"How old is he or she?"
"Look at the little baby!"
"Now THAT is a newborn."
and one...
"In my day, we didn't take the baby out in public until after many months."



Burrito de Milo.
Milo has observed many swaddle sessions with his little brother.  So, one night, he requested the same.



Laundry is nothing short of Insane.  I'm impressed with the amount of clothing a newborn goes through, along with the 3 other folks that reside with him.  Milo enjoys "helping" out...



On Ari's 2 week post birthday -day, the husb and I took him out to dinner.  With white linen napkins and appetizers and salad and shrimp and scallops.  It was a fancy time.
Fortunatly we were surrounded by seasoned parents who didn't mind a baby in their fancy restaurant date night atmosphere.
Course, Ari stayed on the boob for most of the experience...





so far...so cool...