week 3

week 3 has brought us:

* smiles for mama.
* the worst baby acne i've ever seen.
* more awake time.
* more eating!
* already growing out of clothes
* baby hair as soft as a chick's feathers is starting to fall out in patches
* no more stump (actually fell out exactly 14 days after birth - same as mia)
* the beginnings of cooing and not just screaming
* swaddling at night - he still freaks out when asleep, flailing and punching mama in the face. good times.
* nicknames (for parents only!!). we agreed on his name with the condition that nicknames not be allowed. no "gid" or "giddy" would be tolerated. and then i started calling him "bubba" (what?! he's BIG) and then josh started calling him "bubba gid". you (yes, this means YOU) are not allowed to call him this. thank you :)

dimples for everyone!

i don't really think or care about who my kids look like. as a matter of fact, it annoys me to no end when people pick apart their features. they are their own people. they look like THEM. they have their own special mix of genes and don't really look like anyone in particular. they have their own very distinct personalities. they are awesome and they are all their own.

but. dimples.

one of the few things i have always liked about myself and secretly hoped my kids would have. mia has them on the back of both shoulders (as do i) and gideon has a deep one right in the middle of his fat little right cheek (mine is on the left). do they look like me? no. do they look alike? no. but they have the dimples. and they have each other.

mia logic.

mia: i have a question.
me: what's your question, mia?
mia: don't touch my stuff. what's my next question, mom?

mia: i have an idea.
me: what's your idea, mia?
mia: don't eat my snack.

bye, daddy.

today was josh's first day back at work. our first day without daddy around to play, change diapers and help out. we were lonely but it actually went ok. and we even had to leave the house.

my first time leaving the house with 2 kids and we all returned home unscathed. we went to a dr. appt. downtown (which required a whole parking deal and multiple trips in the elevator) and a trip to the park. all before lunch. we even all got naps in before we started on household chores. pretty successful, i think. maybe not so fun for mia - but not terrible, either.

and josh? well the last time i talked to him he said that yes, of course he missed us, but it was much easier to be really busy at work than be at home with me and the kids. duh.

breastfeeding & weights / measurements

i had been looking forward to breastfeeding again for the last couple months of my pregnancy. i enjoyed it so much with mia - the closeness, the quiet time, just her and i - and from the moment i weaned her at 15 months i wished i had waited a bit longer. there are things that she did just days old that she still does - it's pretty amazing to me how much she was already her own person (she used to grab my finger with her tiny hand and then make me hold her foot in my hand while she stretched her legs out - she still likes to do this 29 months later). that said, there are some things i had blocked from my memory. and they all came rushing back within the first day with gideon.

gideon latched on like a champ within 5 minutes. and didn't let go for 45 minutes. he ate and ate and ate every hour or so for the next 2 days. unfortunately, my milk didn't come in for 4 days. i had forgotten how quickly my nipples could blister, crack and bleed. and how long it would take for them to heal. as soon as it started happening it all came back to me, though. i was more braced for the pain and knew that as soon as my milk let it would be over. and it was. the last scabs (ew! scabs on my nipples!) fell off on day 5 and haven't returned since and it's been smooth sailing.

at gideon's 1 week check up they measured him at 22" (he didn't grow an inch in a week, they said the babies don't really stretch out completely at that first measurement and that this is his real birth measurement) and 9.1 lbs. - only 3 ounces less than at birth, which is great!

while we were there we had mia weighed and measured, too, and she came in (fully clothed) at 33" and 26 lbs. she finally seems to be really growing! of course gideon will probably be as heavy as her in no time at all.