Week 6: So Much Fun!

Six weeks.  WOW.  I never thought that time could fly this fast, and that our little tiny baby would be this big!

One of the coolest and most heart-melting things this week has been TONS of smiles and little baby giggles and chuckles whenever we dance and sing and interact with him.  I know that last week was the beginning of the actual smiles, but there are so many more this week and my heart literally melts whenever I see him give us a big toothless grin!  The funniest part is that try as I might, there’s no catching it on camera just yet.  He’ll grin and smile and giggle all day long, but the moment a camera is pointed at him his eyes get huge and, although unbelievably cute still, he stops smiling.  I did manage to get the tail end of one though!

 

It basically just requires me and Nate acting like total goobers to get him to grin, but it’s completely worth it.  Baby smiles are seriously the best!

Wes is getting HUGE too!  We haven’t weighed him but he’s now 100% officially too big for his newborn onsies (sniff).  His feet are already at total capacity for his 3-month onsie pajamas (!!!), and the little socks that he wears when he’s going with the footless look?  They pop right off after about 2.5 seconds.  He’s getting so long and tall!  I’ve also started calling him a new nickname (besides the other thousand that I’ve already come up with):  Cheeks McGee.  His chubby cheeks are so stinking cute, I just want to nibble on them all day long!

 

I can just see him being totally embarrassed about me writing this years from now, but I don’t care 🙂  That’s what moms are for!

 

We also ended up having to remove the infant pillow from his swing because we were basically having to squish him into it for naps.  He seems to be a lot more comfortable now, although we’re waiting for an official weight before removing the infant pillow from his carseat.  With the swing we are right next to him at all times, but the carseat is obviously extremely important to follow the rules with.  2 more weeks and we’ll see how huge he’s actually getting!

One thing we’ve been playing around with is the idea of starting a bedtime routine.  He’s slowly starting to sleep for longer periods, but I’m a little confused on how to start setting an actual bedtime.  The schedule we feed with throughout the day typically means that his second-to-last feeding is around 8pm, and we’ve slowly been eliminating the 11pm feeding (which was the official last one).  Does that mean that we start the bedtime routine around 7:30 to get him in bed by 8?  Or does that mean that we start getting him ready for bed at 8 and start with a feeding?  I know it’s essentially up to what we feel is right, but any personal stories you might have would be welcomed!

 

The funny thing is that I almost kind of miss him feeding ’round the clock at times.  Sure, I love sleep and am very glad to be getting more of it, but those late night feedings (we still have one) are kind of magical.  They’re quiet and there’s no distractions – just me and him, feeding quietly and spending some cuddling time together before laying him down.  As tired as I get, I always look forward to that time when he nuzzles into me while I rock him.  It’s beautiful.

He has also started to really enjoy his play mat, where he lays for 20-40 minutes at a time while we hit the rattles and sing the songs.  It’s so cute how his eyes light up and he’ll smile and coo while watching the light on the musical part of the mat!  It definitely makes playtime more fun for me since I get to watch him learning. Other playtime activities include reading books, which he LOVES.  I have to say I’m so excited to see him light up and watch with huge blue eyes while I read to him.  Reading is so important to me (and just important in general) and to see him be so excited is great!  The other thing we do is listen to Jack Johnson’s Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies and sing and dance to that.  Well, I sing and dance.  Wes just watches me and laughs 🙂

 

I love that playtime is starting to become part of our routine…I look forward to seeing him grow and learn!

Just yesterday I broke out the Ergo carrier and put him in it around the house to see how it would go.  Yeah.  The picture below I’ve kind of got tears in my eyes and although you can’t see it, Wes is screaming into my chest.  I used the blanket trick from Emily’s blog since Wes isn’t big enough yet for the full carrier.  It’s definitely a work in progress; the way I see it is that it’s new and he’s getting used to it.  The first week and a half that we had his swing he would cry the entire time he was in it, and now he loves it; same thing with the Moby wrap I borrowed from my friend Jennifer.  Just a matter of time before he really enjoys the Ergo!

We did actually end up going out to the dog park by our house and used the Ergo there.  Granted he was dead asleep when I put him in it, but it was so nice to finally get outside and give the pups some time to run around!  Wes woke up about halfway through and started crying and banging his head against my chest again, but about 2 minutes later fell fast asleep again.  We got in a great walk and the dogs were so sleep by the time we got home!

I think they were grateful for the outdoor time – Bunker was sprawled out on the floor and snoring shortly after we got back!  I’m planning on getting out there and hiking with the dogs and Wes a couple times a week for all of our sanity!

In postpartum land things are going really well.  I got my results back from the endocrinologist and everything is back to normal!  I was so so SO nervous that the diabetes would stick around, mainly because I just wanted to assume the worst so I wouldn’t be surprised.  But my lab results were great and I was told that I wouldn’t need to go back in unless there’s an issue with a future pregnancy.  Y’all, I cried out of happiness!

 

I am still taking my food intake seriously though and trying to watch the portion sizes of the carbs that I eat.  I love carbs of all kinds and can get a little heavy-handed on them, and while I never ever plan to be carb-free by any means I am definitely going to continue to watch the amount of carbs that I do consume.  Having gestational diabetes puts me at a higher risk of developing diabetes later in life (which was already pretty high based on family history), so while it wasn’t any fun to prick my fingers 4 times a day I am glad that it brought awareness to what could happen with my health.  It’s basically going to just mean eating a truly balanced diet with lean proteins, lots of veggies and fruit, and whole grains.  Not too shabby!

I also had my 6-week check-up with my OB on Wednesday and have been cleared for all activity.  I’m definitely planning on taking it really slow getting back into working out, something I want to post about soon, but for now have started our walks again (slowly) and doing a very modified version of the fantastic WillPower & Grace workout.  It’s extremely low impact, focuses on barefoot exercise, and uses a ton of core strength – all things that I need as I start getting back into shape.  The only other thing that I’ve started to do is working on the 100 Push-Up Challenge (again, slowly) to focus on core and upper body strength.

 

I really want to work slowly back into shape so that there are no issues with my incision.  The doctor said that it’s very possible I’ll still feel soreness up to 6-8 months after the C-section, so go slowly but don’t shy away from exercising.  She said that doing core work is going to be a great way to help with the soreness as I start to build up strength, but I’ll probably be reminded that I had surgery for a while.  Either way, I’m extremely excited to be able to be active again!

I can’t wait for the weekend…to have Nate home, get some work done, and just hang out as a family.  Definitely my favorite activity ever!

 

Happy Friday y’all!