A Happy New Year!

Ack, Gabriel is 2 months old!  We had a fairly quiet New Year's with a visit from Babcia; I say "fairly" quiet because Craig's quick trip to the corner store ended in a small fender-bender.  Craig & the other driver were fine, but there was some damage to my car's driver side front quarter panel because the guy cut Craig off by passing him on the left in a double-solid line area.  His fault, so hopefully our insurance will take care of the repair easily and without any increase in our insurance! 

Thanks for the New Year's onesie, Auntie Kristen!

Gabriel - 2 Months

We can't believe he's already that old and has grown so much since birth.  His face has changed quite a bit:

Gabriel - Day 1

• This week, we tested out our baby bottles (the real glass ones - thanks Chelsea, Ella & Olivia! - not the tiny newborn ones we got from the hospital to use for supplementing) and Craig got his first taste of feeding Gabe.  It's a lot to worry about - how to defrost frozen breastmilk & mix it (can't shake it or the proteins might get broken down), how to put together our complicated bottles, how to pace feed (basically meaning not letting Gabe chug the whole 2 ounces of milk in 1 minute but instead mimicking breastfeeding in both speed & effort on his part), making sure he has the opportunity to burp frequently, etc.  I was really sad - Craig did such a great job!  (While he got to cuddle Gabe during the feeding, I was in another room hooked up to a machine (aka the pump).  I was jealous!)

Daddy's a bottle pro!

He got cuddles & giggles after doing such a good job!

•  The plan is to continue bottle feeds at 10:30am (roughly) this week, because that will be one of my pumping times at work most days.  Next week we'll add in the 12:30pm one (both replaced with me pumping to get my body used to it), so that it should be a fairly smooth transition when I head back to work on the 12th.  (I'm even more sad about going back to work & leaving my baby!  Though I think I will be happy for the teaching & the adult interaction.)
• After he fed the baby, Craig was talking to Gabriel and said, referring to me, "We're gonna send her to work so we can do guy stuff."  Haha!  Then a conversation ensued about checking out ladies.  Do you know that "I pick things up; I put them down" gym commercial?  Here was the rest of our humorous conversation:

Craig:  "We're going to go pick up chicks."
Alessandra:  "Oh, really.  What are you going to do with these chicks?"
Craig (in the body-builder voice from the commercial):  "We'll pick them up.  Then we'll put them down."

• Pictures from Wigilia (traditional Polish Christmas Eve) as promised (thanks Chelsea & Andre!):

Check out Gabe in his cute sweater outfit!  So handsome!

Mama & Gabe

• Everyone is enjoying Gabriel's smiles & giggles these last few weeks!  Here's a link to view him on video.
• Great news on the sleep front!  On the 30th, Gabriel slept 6 hours and 15 minutes straight overnight!  At one point, I woke Craig to discuss whether to go in and check that he was still breathing; we were so shocked at the change from the previous night's being up every 2 hours!  On the 31st, Gabriel slept 8.5 hours straight!  Happy New Year to us!  On the 1st, he slept 7 hours, with one small wake at 12:30am that was easily remedied by popping his pacifier in and patting him a few times.  I should mention that all of these great sleeps were in his crib in his own room by himself!  Here's a picture of Mr. Cuteness on our monitor (amazingly, this picture was taken in complete darkness in his room!).  He is in a "batwing swaddle" to keep his arms from startling him (a baby reflex) and that's his pacifier on the bed in front of his face where he spit it out.  (And yes, I was really up at 2:20am taking this screenshot on my phone, as the picture shows!)

Thanks for the baby monitor, May & Hannah!

• Gabriel also started spitting up a little bit and drooling these past couple of weeks.  (He blows bubbles when he tries to "talk" sometimes, which is kind of cute!)  Thus, we have graduated to wearing a bib during the day to catch the messes.

Sporting a bib

Other pictures from this week...

Thanks for the teether, Chelsea, Ella, & Olivia!

Daddy & his 2 boys!

All dressed up for New Year's Eve

Mommy & Gabe selfie - he looks so bald in this picture even though he has a lot of hair!  And maybe he looks a little like my Dziadziu (may he rest in peace)?