Visitors!

Santiago's godmother/Ciocia (aunt in Polish) and godfather/Tio (uncle in Spanish) Agi and Dani came to visit this past weekend! We had a great time with them, visiting, introducing Santi, going to the zoo, on walks in the area, and hanging out. Santi enjoyed his visit, and having Tio Dani change his diapers, Ciocia Agi feed him and change him and all the snuggles he got from them!

Here are a few photos from the weekend:

With Ciocia Agi and Tio Dani when they first arrived

Going to the Japanese Gardens in the UW Arboretum

Ciocia Agi, Tito, Tio Dani and Santi in the Japanese Gardens

Japanese Gardens

Santi with his glasses :)

At the Woodland Park Zoo

Tito, Santi and I at the zoo

With Tio Dani

Having some lunch while Ciocia Agi feeds Santi

More videos!

I uploaded a few more videos of Santiago and posted them on Vimeo. This is the site I'll be using to upload his videos, so instead of posting them on here, you can just check this link to view them all: http://vimeo.com/user2821642/videos

Some videos

Santiago is becoming more and more interactive and can definitely hold our attention. He has also started mimicking our facial expressions! Here are some videos of Santiago over the past couple of weeks:

http://vimeo.com/10958536
In his swing, one of his favorite places to be



http://vimeo.com/10967007
Santiago today, on his one month birthday



http://vimeo.com/10967547
Another one from today

1 Month Old!

How did this happen? My baby boy is a month old today...we'll be celebrating tonight with his godparents Dani and Agi who will be here for the weekend! We feel so blessed to have this little guy in our lives and it feels as if it's been longer than a month already!

How your baby's growing:

Your baby may gurgle, coo, grunt, and hum to express his feelings. A few babies also begin squealing and laughing. Be sure to coo and gurgle back, and talk to your baby face to face. He'll enjoy holding your gaze now.

If you have things to do, your baby will still enjoy hearing your voice from across the room. And don't feel silly about using baby talk — babies are particularly attuned to this high-pitched, drawn-out way of communicating, which can actually teach your baby about the structure and function of language.

Santiago photos

Our friend Adrian is a photographer, and forever ago, we'd decided to use her for my maternity photos. After talking to Tito about it, we decided that we'd rather use her for newborn shots instead. With all the drama that surrounded Santiago's entrance into this world and the weeks afterward, we were a little late on these, but yesterday, Adrian came over and took some shots. We are so in love with our little boy and the shots she got of him are amazing...so please enjoy!

http://www.adrianbusse.com/SANTIAGO-GALL ERY/

3 weeks old!

Santiago is 3 weeks old today! It's hard to believe how much has happened and changed in the past three weeks! Three weeks ago, I had just met my baby boy, held him and had him wisked off to the NICU for an infection. Almost three weeks ago, I had my second surgery to repair the hematoma underneath my c-section.

Now, we're all home. We're happy, and recovering. I'm adjusting to life as a mom, and Tito's adjusting to life as a dad. I've had two full days of being a stay at home mom as Tito's had to go into the office. I'm proud to say that each day I've gotten laundry done, or some sort of chores, and taken showers and put on makeup. The one thing I have yet to do is go out with the baby alone. But basically that's because I'm still restricted on lifting more than 10 lbs. and that means not lifting Santi while he's in his car seat.

I've changed my share of diapers, wiped away my share of tears, fed my baby until I couldn't feed him anymore, enjoyed his scent, snuggled with my boy as he fell asleep on my shoulder, listened to more than my fair share of "baby tunes" in an attempt to get him to fall asleep, had many late nights, endured a few baths (without incident), saw my baby lose his belly button (so now he has a cute little outie!), and figured out that my boy fits best into newborn clothes and SWIMS in his 0-3 month stuff.

I've learned that the swing and the bouncer were, by far, the best purchases I made. That he loves being held (and we love holding him) and dislikes tummy time right now. That my cats are acting exactly as I thought they would (they get that he's something special to us, but aren't quite sure what he is yet. And when he cries and if we're out of the room at the time, one cat will always find one of us and let us know he's crying by making repeat appearances in front of us and watching to see if we're following her.)

And I've learned it's possible to love someone who I've known for only a fraction of time more than I've ever loved anyone before. And I've also learned that my husband is everything I thought he was and more when I met him. He's an amazing father. For someone who had never really even held a baby before ours, he's made strides in three weeks time that are amazing. He changes diapers, holds Santi when he's crying, loves cuddling with him, and learning his moods. And he's the best husband to me. Throughout my recovery from my surgeries, he's been there through the good and the bad. Literally from helping me walk to the bathroom or to a wheelchair in the hospital, to helping me put on my socks, pants, etc or washing bottles or pump parts in the middle of the night when it was hard for me to get out of bed. He takes the vow of "in sickness and in health" seriously, and I've certainly tested it with this pregnancy and birth! I feel so blessed when I look at my new little family, and so proud and happy to have my boys in my life.

And here's a few photos just because we love showing off our handsome little guy:

In his coming home outfit from the hospital - all UMaine gear (our alma mater!)



Burrito baby


In his bouncer - one favorite seat in the house


In his swing - second favorite seat in the house


Tummy time - not his favorite


Pirate face - arr!


Napping on daddy


Easter 2010


First family portrait!


3 weeks post partum - down 28 lbs so far...only 8 more to go to be at my pre-pregnancy weight

Our week

So this is 4 days late but - WE ARE HOME! :)

Our week home with our little guy has gone pretty well. He's on a somewhat normal schedule, and we've kept him sleeping in the pack and play in our room for now. It's just easier at this point. He's a fairly easy going little guy, and loves his swing and bouncer. He also LOVES to be held, so I think I'm going to bust out the homemade Moby wrap I made to see if he likes that.

The cats have been "introduced" however, they are a bit confused. They both just want to sniff him but Tito doesn't let them get that close. I do though, just so they can check him out. They are both so cute when he cries as they'll come to the door to make sure he's ok. :) They miss sleeping with us though since Tito won't let them in the room while the baby is in there. So they spend most of their time sleeping in the living room. My FIL sent me an email this week telling me that he doesn't want the cats in the baby's room because their hair will cause him to have allergies and they spread disease. We are not stupid, we're not allowing them full on access to the baby. However, it's inevitable he'll get some hair on him or his clothing. I told Tito I was worried that when he came to live with us that he would shut the cats in the bathroom all day or out on the porch, so we need to have a convo with him regarding that the cats are family members too, they are fine to be around the baby, and we have baby gates for our room and Santi's room to keep the cats out (they've worked so far.) They are curious and need to explore but after they explore they won't be so curious anymore and will pay no real attention to him.

I had my doctor's appt. on Tuesday to get my stitches out and I feel a lot better. The area was getting really tight and it was hard to stand up due to the way the stitches were in, so it was so nice to go in and get them removed and come out standing upright. :) I've still got some healing to do, but it looks good. I go back in 6 weeks for my follow up and clear for exercise, etc. I can't wait to get back in the gym, but as the weather gets warmer here we'll be going for some walks. I weighed myself and I'm only 8 lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight already. Which means I've lost 26 lbs so far. Which is insane to me. It seems as if the 8 lbs are all in my belly too and I'm going to need to do some serious cardio and ab work to get rid of that, so hopefully once I can go back to the gym, things will look better. For now they're a little scary with the belly and the scars (from the c-section and from the stitches.)

We went to the pediatrician's office for his first official visit yesterday. He now weighs 7 lbs, 13 oz (up just about a pound from his birth weight in 2 weeks.) The NICU nurses told us when we left that since he eats so much I might not be able to keep up with him and might need to supplement with formula. I am pretty dead set on that since when he drinks formula he drinks it like it's candy, and always spits up a TON. With breast milk he has a much easier time and is definitely full and satisfied after feeding. And I'm producing plenty right now. The ped said it was fine to keep him on breast milk especially since he's up a pound from his birth weight in 2 weeks time. Additionally, he's on a vitamin mix of A, D and E. They said it's common now for babies to be on a multivitamin, which I hadn't heard. They're liquid dropper form, and we have to give it to him with a bottle of breast milk. So it looks like we'll be doing at least one bottle a day to give him that. I guess here in WA especially they are pushing that babies be on Vitamin D supplements due to the lack of sunlight. So he's basically on them until he can take a chewable. Anyone else heard of/having their babies take these vitamins now?

Today is his circumcision. Apparently the whole thing takes about three hours with prep time, the actual snip snip and then observation afterwards. Hopefully he'll do fine. We discovered this week that our insurance covers it fully (which apparently most don't because it's considered a cosmetic procedure.) So we were happy that we don't have to shell out $308 for this procedure.

We ended up buying a wedge since he seems to be having a little spit up/reflux issues after feeding. The ped was surprised we knew what to buy as she was going to recommend one when we told her about him spitting up sometimes 45 mins to an hour after feeding and burping.

Tito goes into work tomorrow all day so I've got the little guy alone all day. Pretty sure I can handle it but it will be a taste of what's to come after next week when Tito's back at work full time.

And lastly, I thought I'd leave you with some photos of our little guy. The NICU nurses took a whole CD of photos of him while he was there and we just looked at it the other day. So many cute shots!



Poor little guy hates to have his hands swaddled so he scratches himself on a daily basis on his face because he loves to touch his face. I'm filing his nails daily but sometimes he still manages to get himself (or me when he's burping, he has scratched up my chest in a few places!)



Hungry, smiley boy!




One of our favorite shots...we think it looks like one of his senior portraits!



And just for some perspective and to stake my claim that I think he looks like me as much as Tito, here are two of my newborn shots I found the other night...





I keep telling people he has my lips, eyes and those bags under his eyes...as well as my eyebrows! Gotta run, hear the little guy making some noise!