Xander: Week 5

5 weeks old on November 28th.

I feel like we had a very active week with X turning one month old and all of our family in town for Thanksgiving. So not much to update in addition to those two big milestones/events. As mentioned, Mike's grandparents did come into town to meet their 1st great grandchild and celebrate the holiday with us. Here are a couple of pics:





Wish us luck for the week to come. I start back to work on Monday and am both looking forward to it and dreading having to leave my little man all day. But I know he's in good hands with my mom, so I'm just praying it's not too difficult.

xoxo -

V

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for this year. Most notably, Xander is here, happy (albeit occasionally fussy and loud) and healthy.

As is our tradition now, at least for the last few years, we "ran" the Alexandria Turkey Trot around our neighborhood. It's a 5 miler, and I really enjoy it. My dad and I walked with Xander (who had to stop and eat breakfast 1/2 way resulting in us behind at the end of the pack! oh well!), and while Letty was supposed to walk with us and Oscar, Oscar had different plans. He and Letty ended up running and finished the race in just over an hour. Thanks, Letty! My mom and Mike ran it. Running or walking, the Turket Trot provides a good excuse for an extra piece of pecan pie. And I've already told Xander that next year, we're running it. No excuses! Here X is with big bro Oscar and my Dad and Letty:



We had a full house at Tia Carmen's including our little family, my mom, Dad and Letty, Mikey & John, Carmen, Rock, Joseph, Tio David, Mike's grandparents and an Okie GW student named Justin.

The food was delicious, as usual, and we (at least I) had a fabulous time.

Not sure why we were bad about taking pics this year, I suppose we had our hands full, but here's one family pic.



xoxo - V

Happy Birthday!

Xander is one month old today! Happy One Month Birthday, baby bear! You are getting so big. :)



His uncle Jason is also having a milestone birthday today -- his 40th! Yikes! Happy Birthday, Jason! :)

On Sunday (22nd), we also celebrated Tia Carmen's birthday. Happy Birthday, Tia Carmen!



xoxo -
Vicky

Xander: Week 4

Week 4 (Nov 21st)-- almost one month old -- wow!

Last Sunday (15th), Xander went to his first bonfire with mommy and daddy at their friend's (John and Jill) house. We roasted marshmallows and made smores. I know that Xander is going to just love camping out and making smores when he gets older. We kept him warm for now in his teddy bear jumper. With mommy and daddy:



On Monday (16th), grandma Terri dressed Xander all by herself and made him look quite spiffy in his Uggs (courtesy of cousin Isabel). A bit Erkel-ish, but very cute. Do you like them? :)



On Thursday (19th), grandma Terri bought Xander a new hat. Isn't it cute? Perfect for momma's "baby bear".



He also spent lots of time with big brother, Oscar. Oscar just adores X. They're going to be the best of friends when X is older.



On Friday (20th), Xander got to meet Grandpa Tony. My dad arrived on Friday for Thanksgiving week. Grandma Letty was supposed to come as well, but she had to stay home to take care of Zeke, the doggie. Zeke, unfortunately, passed away on Sunday (Nov 22nd) and Letty will be arriving on Tuesday to celebrate Thanksgiving with us and meet Xander. Rest in peace, Zeke.

Grandpa and X got to spend lots of time together playing and napping...


Other thoughts:

Our lil' guy is becoming so much more alert this week. It's amazing to watch his eyes focus and wonder what he's thinking about or, in some cases, staring at...lights, reflections, contrasts.

I think Kate jinxed us. On Tuesday, Xander and I went to lunch with her and Matthew and she mentioned that he didn't have any baby acne. Basically, red bumps caused by my hormones working themselves through his little body. At the time, he didn't! Well, wouldn't you know that when we woke up on Wed. morning he had it! Seriously. Grr...It comes and goes, but seems not to hurt or bother him despite how it looks. Oh well! Should be gone soon.

Xander is in size 1 diapers this week. You may ask, "weren't you using cloth diapers?" and the answer is "yes"...BUT the disposible are sooo easy that they slowly became our "go to" at night and now even during the day. His newborn cloth diapers leave a heavy imprint on his little booty, so it makes us not want to use them. When we go up in size, I am going to try and move back into cloth. We hadn't bought the next sizes yet in cloth, so we have some time to figure out what we want to do.

xoxo -

Vicky

Xander: Week 3

Xander -- 3 weeks (November 14, 2009)

Our baby was three weeks old yesterday (Saturday). I can't believe it. To think that less than a month ago, Xander was still growing, safe and warm in my belly is just insane. Seems like he's been with us a bit longer. That being said, the slight sleep deprivation and baby haze still seems new, so it couldn't have been that long, right!?! :)

He's amazing! Everyday he does something else that makes me smile or laugh or just thank God for having such a wonderful, healthy, seemingly happy little boy who we will love and watch grow. While looking forward to every day and every year (and praying that time doesn't move too quickly), I can't help but start imagining about the lil' man he's going to become...

This week was a nice step toward getting into at least some sort of routine. Not so much for Xander (should be weeks before he has a "routine") but for us. Little things like learning his poo cry (which Mike picked up on so quickly) or his hunger cry or his gas wails. And they are wails. That was another new thing this week...gas! It is not our friend. Poor Xander gets such bad toots and just wails with each one...it must be painful. We've started giving him gas drops when it seems necessary, but it's not all the time right now. Thank goodness! I've read about Gripe Water and almost bought some this week at Target but held off because the packaging said to discuss with the pediatrician first. I figure if the gas gets any worse then I'll call the ped to discuss.

Still pumping, and it seems to be going well although it's a bit annoying to have to pump so often. I've been able to stay 5 bottles a head of him and any extra gets put in the freezer for our "stash" once I've collected 4 oz. I have 12oz saved so far. Not a lot, but I just started three days ago and am saving about a bottle per day. I think this is normal for someone who doesn't have an "oversupply" of milk, but who knows...I just thank God that I don't have an "under supply". While I'm willing to supplement with formula when necessary, I'll be happier the longer we can go without it. Wonder what heading back to work after Thanksgiving will do to my supply?

A few photos from the week:

In his walking suit

Good stretch!

Looking forward to this coming weekend. My dad and Letty get here on Friday for Thanksgiving week, and we can't wait to introduce them to the newest grandchild. :)

xoxo-
Vicky

Newborn Photos

http://asholders.photobiz.com/cart/

Above is the link for Xander's newborn photos. Click on "newborn" and then choose "Xander". The log in is my email vrh1977@gmail.com and the password is xander.

I think they turned out very cute considering he would not sleep at all. Not what I wanted/expected, but I still love that we captured him at this lil' age. I just know he's going to grow SOOOO FAST!

xoxo
V

Xander: Week 2

Week 2 brought with it plenty more firsts for lil' Xander. He's a busy boy. :) And he's keeping momma (and daddy) on her (his) toes. Seriously.

This week he met Tia Carmen for the 1st time, and he just loved her. You can tell when he's comfy, and she definitley made him comfy. Guess it's all the practice she has from work. :)


We were also lucky enough to have meals from church start this week, which was awesome since Mike went back to work mid-week and time is precious. We have 10 days worth of yummy meals being prepared daily by different couples in our FUN Young Couples class. What a blessing! Then again, it's also requiring me to start thinking about losing the baby weight a little later than I would have normally thought. But who can resist mexican casserole, chicken spaghetti and tons of homemade desserts. Yum! People have also been great about not needing to come in or hold Xander, etc. I'm guessing it's the current flu season, but people have been very respectful of our/his space.

Wednesday we had Xander's urologist appt. Basically, we didn't get him circumcised in the hospital because his pediatrician thought we should have a pro (in that area) look at his penis because the scrotum is attached just a smidge too high. Looks like lil' Xander will be fully intact until 6 months old when we'll have to put him under with general anesthesia so they can circumcise him properly. I'm a bit nervous about it, but the urologist assures me that babes do quite well being put under at that age. Lots of prayers please -- both now and in April. Here we are on the way to the urologist with monkey:


Friday's appt, which I discussed in another post, was a total success, and his weight gain is superb (8lb, 4oz). Here we are at the appt:


It was also recommended that we start doing tummy time with him to build up some strength. Now the doc assured me that he wouldn't like this at all and that we should just keep him at it until he begins to cry. Well, our little guy is apparently out of the norm because he fell right to sleep and didn't think twice about it. Whoops! Too cute:


This week also brought with it his first full bath since he lost his umbilical cord on Sunday and didn't yet get circumcised (we'd thought perhaps they'd do it in the office on Wed). He seemed to really enjoy it, and it became a family event with Oscar taking part, as well. How many people/canines does it take to wash one small infant!?! ;)






Lastly, we had his newborn photos taken today with Andrea Gayle. I'll post the link as soon as I have them available. The idea was to capture those wonderful lil' sleeping, naked baby photos where they scrunch up into a nice lil' ball. Well, Xander took it upon himself to stay wide (and I mean WIDE) awake for the entire 3+ hour photo shoot. But he was still totally cute, and hopefully she got some good photos. Andrea is awesome! She'll be doing his every 3 month photos for the 1st year of life. Can't wait.

Just a few additional photos of Xander for fun:


Playing with daddy on Nov 1st


Do you like my hair?

Hope everyone is well! Oh, and check out prior posts from this week -- I've added some pics. :) And obviously even more pics can be found on ofoto in the Week 2 photo album. :)

xoxo -
Vicky