2 Months and 2 Days

It's been 2 whole months and 2 days since Augustin was born. 9 weeks, to be exact. A lot has happened in 9 weeks. He holds his head up confidently. He smiles, especially after a diaper change, and sometimes to himself in the bathroom mirror. He seems to like being read to - also after diaper changes. In fact, I think he's simply happiest after diaper changes because it usually means that he's been fed and is now happily wide awake.

Auggie will eat at 10pm and then go until 2am at night, and then every two or three hours after that. Although the record so far is one night of eating around 10:30pm and then going to 5am - which I still didn't sleep through since I'm so used to getting up. :)

The Little Man makes baby noises and coos, and is far beyond just crying. And speaking of crying, he's no longer capable of just 'mmm-laaaaah' but can now do a full force wail. He bats at hanging toys, hates tummy time but tolerates it occasionally, rolled over from his stomach to his back twice (with a little help from Dad while laying on the bed), is an expert at wiggling his way out of a swaddle, and still naps in his car seat during the day. Have I mentioned that he's already been to Illinois's climbing wall twice in his short life? He slept through both occasions, but I'm guessing that won't last for long.

His pediatrician says his head shape is wonderful (who knew?) and that he's a champ. On his 2 month birthday Auggie weighed in at 13 pounds on the dot and 23 3/4 inches long. He fills out his 3 month clothes well, with his arms just a little bit too long for a few of the outfits.

Auggie had a visit from his friend Hannah yesterday (born 4 weeks after him), and they were hilarious laying on the ottoman next to each other. He wore blue and she wore pink - so cute!

I'm not sure yet how aware Auggie is of his big sister dog Stella, but she sure likes him. She'd lick him all day if she could. Stella knows that he's the 'chosen one,' as Dan puts it.

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As for me, I feel more like myself every day. I like to get out, and definitely get a little crazy in the head if I don't. (Didn't get out yesterday, this is fresh in my mind. :) I need to get into a work out regimine of some kind, but since the weather is so awful it's a little bit hard. Ideally I'll start running with the dog. .. Part of the motivation is for good health, part being that I'd like to fit into my clothes again.

As odd as this sounds, I appreciate the fact that days are so short right now. Originally I was dreading having a baby in the winter, but with morning light not showing up until nearly 7am, it buys me more offical 'nighttime' with Auggie. Meaning I can still put him back to sleep at 6:20am. But if he wakes up at 6:20am, then we're awake.

Work is surprisingly alright. I thought it would be horrible, but I like getting back into the swing of things. Meetings, proposals, getting creative.. It feels good to act like a grown-up again. (Not that I dress like one, even at the office.)

I have a hard time balancing everything, though. Never have I cooked a meal at dinnertime. I've discovered the joy of the crock-pot: early preparation with no thought at dinnertime except for setting the table. I still want to get birth annoucnements out. I have a gazillion thank you cards to write. Not doing Christmas cards for yet another year. (I'm doing my best with birthday cards throughout the year, and will hopefully work my way up to Christmas cards.) Dan is *amazing* and did some Christmas shopping. He keeps me sane. He cleans, puts away (mostly for his sanity), cooks, takes out the garbage, calls the dryer repairman, is an amazing dad, and simply rocks.

Well, that's all about Auggie at 2 months. I can't even imagine what the next month will bring. God is so good.

Eight whole weeks!

Auggie is 8 weeks old today. Wowie! He's growing like crazy. Just amazing.

When he was first born I was daunted by the prospect of breastfeeding a growing baby. As a newborn, Auggie was eating for nearly 40 minutes at each sitting. Logic told me that he'd have to eat for even longer when he's older to get enough milk to sustain, not to mention grow, a bigger body. Makes sense, right?

Apparently God planned this out much better than I thought. (Duh.) On the contrary, babies eat more efficiently as they grown and thus can down more milk in less time. Amazing. Auggie eats for 20 minutes or less now, maybe 30 if he's really hungry, and yet he grows and grows.

Here's a cool breastfeeding link, if you're interested. (The Le Leche League may be militant, but they're also helpful.) I have to admit that I've been lucky enough to have a baby who's taken to breastfeeding quite easily, a body that seems to like making milk, and no cracked/bleeding nipple problems. Not all women get away this easily.

Resemblance and work

We figured out who Auggie looks like! For the longest time the only family resemblance that Dan and I could see in the Little Man was that he looks like my brothers when they were babies. And maybe my lips, too. Well, that all changed when we went to Dan's parents for Thanksgiving.

Augustin and baby Dan are nearly identical! Funny that we hadn't seen pictures of Dan as a baby to know this until Augustin was 6 weeks old.

I'm curious to see how much Auggie will look like Dan now as he grows up because Dan and his dad are literally the same person 30 years apart. Their grade school pictures are interchangeable, and even pictures of Zack with baby Dan look exactly like Dan with Auggie. Clearly there must be a dominant male gene on the T side of the family, but only time will tell if Auggie's got it.

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Auggie was super cute this moring - he smiled at himself in the bathroom mirror. Aww..

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I'm officially back at work now. Actually, officially last Monday, but last week was ROUGH. I came down with an awful cold on Sunday and had it full blast through Tuesday night. Nursing was a nightmare of feeding and one-handed hand-sanitizing between snot-filled tissues. Ugh. Still getting over it, and Little Man has a stuffy nose now as well. :(

But work itself hasn't been bad at all. It's all very normal and strange at the same time. It feels normal to be in my office working, but strange to remember that I've left a new memeber of the family at home. Although leaving Auggie isn't hard at all since he's with Dan. It would be a whole other story if he was at day care. Plus I'm working from home for half the week as well.

Smile!

I captured a smile on camera! First ever, taken on Wednesday.

The little man found his arms!

It's about time that I start a blog for all our family (wink-wink, Alisa!) and friends who don't get to see Augustin every day. This will be an experiment for me in punctuation (notice the capitalized letters), consistency (there's no point in a blog if you don't write in it very often), and self-exposure (will I be transparent knowing that others are reading this? is this self-centered to begin with?). Only time will tell if this will even work... Let's begin!

Today's big news is that Augustin found his arms! Friends from back home bought Augustin a great play mat that has colorful, noisy, and shiny hanging toys (I hear that's a killer combination for kiddos.) Tuesday I set up the the mat on top of the dining room table (note: this will work only until the Little Man figures out how to roll) so that I can watch him while working on my laptop. He did alright laying there, but mostly just stared off into space or at me while I worked. However, today he discovered his arms! Augustin had a BLAST flailing his arms at the toys, and actually hitting them. My computer has a handy-dandy camera built into it, so I documented the moment! (I had to hold my computer upside down to get it, so don't mind the goofy sliver of my face.) This went on for a good 20 minute, and he really tired himself out.

In other baby development news, I read that you can do things with your face and hopefully your baby will mimic you. Auggie is most alert after diaper-changes, so this afternoon after a diaper-change I got him to open up his mouth *really big* and even stick out his tongue. Thank goodness no one was watching because I definitely looked ridiculous. It's just amazing to see him begin to react to Dan and me. Smiles are becoming more frequent.. Wow, I love it.. Pardon my gushing.

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Albuquerque is officially out of the picture now. Dan and I didn't feel like it was really the right place to go, and now I feel relieved to know that the decision is made. No selling our house in the winter; no moving even further from family. Definite relief. Exhale.. Certainly beyond doubt an answer to prayer. Now to keep praying for where He does want us to go. And I know our family is praying for us, and that brings me an amazing amount of comfort. Thanks guys.. :)

Little Man is starting to wake..

Over and out.