What a week

I might edit this later so I can write down everything I want to say because, not to be cliche, but I could use about 10 more hours in the day right now. When I realized this morning that it had been a week already since Timmy was born, I had that sort of sad feeling that time is passing way too quickly. I am looking forward to watching him grow and learn new things, but I really love how sweet and cuddly and simple he is right now. Even though he was a big baby, he is so small to me and fits in the crook of my arm and I love that. I want to remember how he is now forever. I can't believe how much I love him already.

The first few nights home were rough. We had tried to have him sleep in a pack-n-play in our room and he hated it. He basically woke up every hour and was inconsolable, but he would sleep great during the day, so he just has his nights and days mixed up. Once we moved him to the crib in his nursery, he slept 3-4 hours at a time. The challenge now is putting him down for the first time... our third night home it took 3 hours of really loud crying. We're starting to figure things out and I think I can thank the new mom high for not even feeling too tired. I sit there nursing him at 2am and just stare at his face and cute little body and can't believe he's mine. Breastfeeding is going really well thanks to the lactation consultants in the hospital. I tried pumping and kind of love it, but I want to wait at least until next week sometime for PJO to try feeding him a bottle so we can establish breastfeeding solidly.
We have had a few spray-the-whole changing table diaper changes, but I think we've got the hang of it. Swaddling took a little while but we got the hang of that too. Even the cats seem to have adjusted to the new addition to our little apartment.

He has this little snort when he wants to eat that makes us laugh. Sometimes when he's dozing off, he'll purse his lips and raise his eyebrows looking around and looking adorable. He already talks like an Italian, making good use of his hands at all times. When he snuggles against my chest, his tiny arms wrap around and hug me. He already has an adorable smile and sometimes I pretend like it's not just gas. When I rock him at night and he stares at me, slowly letting his eyes close, my heart melts. I love rubbing his smooth soft skin and all his little folds and wrinkles.

Overall, he's a great baby. I can't really believe that I only have 10 more days of just lounging at home and doing nothing but taking care of Timmy. For me so far, the hard part is having to scale back so much on what I accomplish in a day... my day revolves around feeding him, changing him and cuddling with him. There are very few minutes left for all the stuff I want to do. Sure more sleep would be great, but this is only temporary. My complete infatuation with my baby makes it seem like I am sleeping enough and functioning normally. I would love to have another week or two, but I think we'll be ok.

Some highlights:

His chubby, hairy arm



Heading home from the hospital



Smushed face



Already torturing him



Welcoming 2009



Exercising with daddy



Napping



Pondering things