Grandpa Resendes


He says, "thanks for the blue eyes, grandpa"

Christopher enjoying his nightly bath... I got a new tub because the one I had from Fisher Price was a real nightmare for the infant stage. You may have seen it around, its a very cute tub - it has this hammock with colorful fish on it. The hammock stage was great, but then when it was time for him to recline that tub just wasn't designed right. The seat was really shallow, so he slid down all the time and the seat was also positioned so high that even with the tub full, only his heels would touch the water! Anyhow, he likes this tub and if I put it over the sink like its designed for, it reclines a couple inches further and he's very comfy.





"Daddy, WHAT is that machine you're shooting at me?!"

Thought I'd post another quick video of Christopher & I chatting, sorry if the quality isn't too great - I'm just holding the camera over my shoulder so I can't see what I'm taping!

Showing off his first pair of sneakers my friend Jessica gave him!


Cousin Sophia


He's not ready to sit alone, even for a quick photo :0)


"Hey everybody"




Cousin Jacob


Auntie Jenn

Sporting his new muscle shirt...







We went to Newport for the afternoon and toured the mansions with grammy & grandpa. He didn't want to be underdressed in such a fancy place, and so he opted for his green polo.



Christopher will be 8 weeks old next Tuesday, and so yesterday he had a doctor's appointment. He weighed 12 pounds and got his 2-month shots. I didn't think they would be much of a big deal, I knew he'd cry when he got them but I figured that he would be over it in a minute or so. And he was, he was upset with the shots but the pediatrician did them super fast and he was calm within a minute. Then as I left she said I could give him baby Tylenol for the next 24 hours if necessary, and I saw my calm sleeping baby and thought, naah - this guy is obviously much tougher than most babies, just look at him peacefully sleeping already! So we went to Babies R Us to pick up a sling but when he woke up he was really upset and crying. We got some baby Tylenol in the store and he was fine. He didn't sleep at all last night, even with the Tylenol, and he was pretty unhappy today too, poor little guy. Tonight he started to seem like he was feeling better, so hopefully tomorrow he's all better from his shots.

Hope you have a nice weekend and stay cool!

Andrea

7 weeks









Our little guy is seven weeks old today, wow. He is sticking with his usual sleep routine but the past couple of days he hasn't been eating so great. Just not as much and more fussy when it comes time to eat. I wonder if he outgrew the dose of Zantac he is on for his acid reflux... we'll have to see. But he has enjoyed having Grandpa & Grammy here this week and going to the beach every evening for a walk or nap in the ocean breeze. Feeding him in public is a complete nightmare for me though, I really need to keep practicing because it makes me frantic - I have to manage to hold him with two hands while keeping some sort of blanket on me covering me up but still allowing me to see him. It doesn't work! So then he gets upset because I'm not holding him right and moves around, thus moving the cover off of him. I really hate feeding him in public. I know we'll get the swing of doing that eventually and it will end up being more convenient than bottle feeding because I won't have to make a bottle, but right now...oh my god!

Have a great week,
Andrea

July 26, 2007

Chatting with mom!

"You looking at me?"







Daddy cracks him up...



Our kitchen ceiling light fascinates him!



Today is Tuesday the 24th of July and so Christopher is six weeks old today. Its gone by fast and at the same time, it seems like longer than that, probably because even before he was born he was a big part of our lives with the pregnancy and the preparation! We were able to catch some smiles in the pictures, we even got a laughing session on video but I can't seem to upload it. I think its too large of a file, I'll have to figure that out.

The visiting nurse came today again and weighed him and he was just over 11 pounds and 1 ounce. So he is right on track. His eating is still every couple of hours during the day but in the evening, he starts the night out with a 6 hour stretch of sleep as of last week, then back to every 2-3 hours. Unfortunately for me this stretch starts at 8 p.m. and I can't fall asleep before 11:00, no matter how tired I am, so I still can't get more than 3 hours sleep at a time... but I'm excited he is sleeping longer and isn't confusing days and nights or anything.

The nurse said the same thing as the last time she was here which is that I should go to the breastfeeding support group and encourage other new moms who are having a tougher time. Although it is exhausting for me how frequently he eats during the day and being the only person to feed him all the time, we are very lucky Christopher is a good eater and is gaining a great amount of weight. I give a lot of credit to moms who breastfeed after doing it myself, it really is much harder than you would think!

Have a good week,
Andrea

5 weeks, 1 day


Dinga Lorie


Great grandparents!

So today he is more than 5 weeks old now and is doing great. Chris and I are getting to know his personality and temperament - but just when we think we've started to get his schedule figured out, he likes to change things around and keep us on our toes! Some of the things he likes are baths and looking out the window or over our shoulders, being rocked in his nursery or on the swing outside and having his face and hair stroked. Of course, he loves being held and cuddled with and looking at some of his toys that have lights & sounds.

Also some big news... he started smiling this week. It hasn't happened very often, but it is definitely a real "social" smile as they say and not just him smiling to himself because his tummy is full (also very cute). I haven't been able to catch it on camera, but every so often he'll smile the biggest smile with his entire face and it almost seems like he's giggling, it is just great and I can't wait for him to do it again.

Talk to you soon,
Andrea

3 weeks, 5 days old


Getting big already - hit 10 pounds last Friday at his doctor's appointment


Family photo from this weekend


Chatting with mom


Offered a pacifier this week for first time, before 3 weeks they say it can interfere with breastfeeding


Taking a nap in bed with me


Auntie Alyson visited from Arizona this weekend


Grandma Resendes helped with a bath

Have a great week,
love, us

And the winner is...

The winner of the baby poll is Christine Fales, who is a friend of Chris and I from NH. She was very close on all areas, guessing 7 pounds 12 ounces, 20 inches, the ONLY one to guess the correct birthday, and that he would be born at 3 p.m. Good guesses!

The next runners up are Auntie Carol, Andrea Paiva, Jenn Doucett, Tracey Rocha and Grandma Lavigne. Chris was 9th and I was 19th :0(.

Here are a couple pictures from this week...


He makes the funniest faces when he stretches. He raises his eyebrows, sticks his head back and puckers his lips out. Its really funny to see.



He has had 2 regular baths and he really enjoyed them!

Andrea

15 days old...

So our little guy is already 15 days old. The first two weeks went by very quickly, and not because we spent so much of them asleep! Christopher did, he's more alert now though. He has periods where he is alert for hours. He focuses on us when we talk to him briefly which is nice, and he looks over to the sound of one our voices sometimes.

Yesterday his umbilical cord stump fell off so today he will get his first real bath. I'm guessing it will not go very well if how he reacted to his sponge baths is any indication, but we'll see how it goes!

Also today a visiting nurse stopped by and weighed him and gave us pamphlets on things. Its a service the Dept. of Health pays for I guess. He weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces today, so he has gained 1 pound and 6 ounces since being born, putting him at + 1 pound, 4 ounces over his birth weight. Like the pediatrician did, the nurse commented on how good this is as she expected him to have regained only the birth weight lost at 2 weeks of age. I can tell how he is bigger already when I hold him!

Below are a few pictures from this week.

Take care,
Andrea

First week home...


Going for his first outing to the pediatrician at 3 days old. He lost only 2 ounces since being born which was lower than average. At his next appointment at 9 days old, he had gained 11 ounces which was higher than average, so the breastfeeding is going very well.


Taking a nap on the couch.


Hanging out with godmother Auntie Lorie


Big cousins Zach and Jacob


He loves napping with daddy.

Hello baby!


















As you probably know already, Christopher was born about a week early this Tuesday, June 12th! He arrived at 4:07 a.m., weighing 7 lbs. 9 oz. and measuring 20.5 inches long. Active labor, which is when the contractions are painful, started on Monday at 2:30 in the morning (contractions that were not painful started Sunday at 8:00 a.m. and came every 7 minutes until Monday). We went to the hospital around 4:00, but after an exam they said I was only 1 cm dilated and so they told me to walk around for an hour or so and then get re-examined. I did that and remained only 1 cm dilated, and so they told me to go home until I could not bear the contractions anymore, and that's when I should come back - so that's what we did. It ended up being 20 hours of painful contractions every 4-6 minutes before we were finally admitted, Chris and my sister Lorie were very helpful with back rubs and reminding me to breath. By the time we were set up in the delivery room at 10 p.m., that stage of labor was relatively quick as he came at 4:07.

The staff at Women and Infants were great, I really had a good experience there. I had a private recovery room that Chris stayed in with me. They had a lactation consultant come to the room and meet with us for over an hour to help with breastfeeding that was extremely helpful. The delivery went just as smoothly as the pregnancy.

So now we're home! He's doing great, he's eating every hour during the day, every 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 during the night. He already had his first appointment with his pediatrician and had only lost 2 ounces until that point, which is low so that is very good. Its all those feedings I guess! She said he's perfect, and his next appointment is next week.

Thanks to everyone who has been in touch with their congratulations, we are looking forward to everyone meeting him as soon as he gets settled in!

Andrea