Week 8: The Cutest

I really can’t imagine life without this little smile now:

I mean really, what did I even do with myself before Wes came into our lives?  Who was I?  I don’t even remember, and the best part is that I just don’t care.  He’s such a stinking cutie pie that I find myself giggling about his little personality all the time.  I look at him and can’t believe the amount of cuteness that radiates from him.  I just can’t believe how much our lives have changed over the course of 8 weeks.

 

Earlier this week we took him up to work to say hi to all of our co-workers and I would say he was a big hit.  He was pretty exhausted when we got home though!  Hanging out with friends sure does make a little man sleepy.  While we were there we weighed him on the Fedex scale (classy, I know) and according to it he was almost 12 lbs!  I keep meaning to break out the tape measure and see how long he is, but we’ll find out the official measurements next week at his 2-month (2 MONTH?!?!) appointment.  I’m a little scared about the vaccinations – just that he’s going to cry a lot and stay fussy – but it’s nothing we can’t handle.

One of my favorite things that Wes is doing these days is “talking” to us with his adorable cooing, grunting and cries.  He smiles and chats with us all the time and I think it’s so funny how I’m willing to make a complete and total fool of myself “talking” back to him, but there’s no way I’d have it any other way.  I never realized how much fun babies could be until he came along.

 

I remember the days only a few weeks ago where I was yearning to be able to interact with him more, and while I do miss those days of snuggling and sleeping all the time, I have to admit that being able to communicate with him makes everything so much more fun.  He’s such a fast learner and already so strong!  We are still working on tummy time and having him hold his head up, but he’s making progress every day.  You can tell he’s learning when he’s able to hold his head up for a bit and realizing that it’s more fun to do that than to cry into his mat.  Honestly at first we weren’t that diligent about it, but now that he’s older and can hold his head up steadily and look around while we hold him it just makes more sense to do tummy time more often.  I can’t believe the next step from there will be rolling over though…I am 100% going to freak out and cry when that happens!

One thing that cracks me up is how much of Nate I see in him.  Since he’s always changing so much it’s hard to say that he DEFINITELY looks just like only one of us, but I see Nate’s hands and feet, his ears, mouth, and eye shape.  I feel like the only part of me that I see in him right now is my eye color, but since he’s going to be different again tomorrow I’m not going to say that’s it just yet.  Not that I mind though – I think my husband’s the most attractive man on the planet 😉  Fine by me if our kid looks like him!

Today I’m planning on packing up all of Wes’s newborn clothing (sad) along with the remainder of my maternity clothes that I’ve been putting off putting away.  With all of the little cute outfits we go through now we have to make room in his dresser!

 

A lot of you have commented about his little faux-hawk, and I have to admit that while we do brush it up I would definitely call it a “natural” look.  Why?  Well, Nate told me from the very beginning that when the doctors pulled him out of me he had a little faux-hawk, and then when they took him to be washed off the nurse just kept the style!  A few weeks ago the hair around the middle fell out, leaving him bald in front except down the middle, but now he has the cutest little blond hairs growing in around it.  I don’t know what I’ll do if he loses the hair in the middle, but it’s so cute to see his hair growing in already.  Nate and I were both strawberry-blond babies and I’m excited to see what Weston’s hair holds for us!

During our play time I’ve been doing a circuit of sorts with him playing on his play mat, me dancing and singing and moving his legs, tummy time, and reading to him.  My mom got us these great books that are all based on John Denver songs, and I have to say those are his favorites!  The colors are big and bright, there are TONS of shapes and patterns, and they even come with CDs which means he gets to listen to the song too.  He LOVES music and singing – in fact that’s when we get the biggest smiles out of him – and I love that he’s going to be able to associate music and literature and (hopefully) love them both.

“If I had a wish that I could wish for you,”

“I’d make a wish for sunshine all the while.”  So so so true.

In postpartum land things are going well.  I’m slowly getting back into shape (my first body after baby post is here) and will be updating the fitness part on a weekly-ish basis, mainly for the accountability.  With eating I’ve been trying to have a salad every day this week, something that I’ve been meaning to do for a while and just never could force myself to do.  It’s not that I hate salads anymore, but mostly because I refuse to buy lettuce mixes since they never look fresh enough to me and am too lazy to cut it up on the spot.  The best solution I’ve come up with is to cut a TON of lettuce and spinach all at once, get it nice and dry in the salad spinner, and then leave it in the spinner in the fridge so that all I have to do is dig out some big handfuls and toss the other veggies on there.  In short it’s made a big difference in the amount of fresh, raw veggies that I eat!

 

Physically I’m able to fit into all of my pre-preggo clothing, and I’ve noticed that the little pooch of skin above my incision is flat now.  It’s weird, I don’t know if that was from swelling from the surgery and just took 7-8 weeks to finally go down, or if it was because of the weight gain and now my skin is finally reacting to the weight loss from having a baby.  Either way, it’s a lot more comfortable and looks a lot better than before!

 

Nate is doing great too; he is such a good father and we are so lucky to have him.  It’s been a lot more fun for him to be able to play with Weston; I think he was sad that the only interaction he could have with him at first was rocking him to sleep and changing diapers.  I know I said it last week, but I have a feeling I’m going to have two troublemakers on my hands very very soon!

I’m feeling stronger, healthier and more content every single day.  Wes is growing and learning and getting bigger every single day.  And our little family of 3 humans and 2 pups is getting more and more used to one another every single day.  In short, it’s amazing!