5 Weeks Old

Gabriel is 5 weeks old this week.  Some interesting changes are happening...

• He now cries with tears!  For the first month or so, Gabe's crying was not "productive" I guess you could say.  It turns out that babies' tear ducts are not finished forming until about a month of age, so their cries until then are tearless ("crocodile tears" some would call them).  I never knew this, but suddenly he was crying with tears, which made his cries so much more sad to me, haha!
• Gabriel doesn't like being changed, but lately he is using his "mega-lungs" to belt out how much he hates being half naked.  This especially occurs at diaper changes before nighttime feedings, which of course wakes up Craig (and probably the rest of the neighborhood!).
• Gabe slept for a half hour nap for the first time in his crib the other day.  Getting him used to the crib has been on my list of things to do.  He currently sleeps in the bassinet section of a pack'n'play in our room, but eventually he'll move across the hall to his own room.  I've also been trying to get him used to hanging out without me for short periods of time - in the swing, on the rocker, in the vibrating chair, even next to me on the couch.  I'm worried he is getting to attached to falling asleep in my arms or just being there for comfort, but I know he's too little to "self-soothe" yet, so I try not to let him get too angry in these other places.  Luckily, he sleeps great in the bassinet.
• This week we've stopped formula supplementation!  I am excited to see his weight at the breastfeeding support group meeting on Thursday.  I'm a little sad though, because I've been using these bottle feedings to pump breastmilk to store for when I go back to work.  I'm still getting a little when I pump after each feeding, but it will take at least 2 days to get enough to freeze in a single bag.  Guess it's good that I still have a little over a month of maternity leave to bank milk.  (But so sad that it's only that small amount of time left!)
• Gabe & I went to city hall and picked up his birth certificate this week.  It's so strange - every time I get a new document with his name on it, he becomes that much more of a "real" person to me.  (I know he's a real person, but I'm still in that "shock" period that I'm a parent!)  The snap&go stroller has been a Godsend (thanks Zia Teresa!) - it is so easy to plop the carseat (complete with a sleeping Gabriel) in and go.  We try to get outside a little every day, even if it means just a little bit of time parked in the stroller on the front porch while I was putting up decorations.

Catching flies... I mean, zzzz's

Gabe & I decorated the house for Christmas (still need to remove the pumpkins!)

• Gabriel received a most thoughtful gift from our friend Father Henry this week - an apostolic blessing from the Pope for the occasion of his baptism!  It's beautiful!  (On a side note, Father Henry & Father Joe (may he rest in peace) had given Craig & I an apostolic blessing for our wedding, which was equally as beautiful and thoughtful.)  I need to get a frame to put it in for Gabriel's room. 

Gabriel's Papal Blessing on the occasion of his Baptism

• We finally put up our Christmas tree over the weekend.  We got a "selfie" picture with Gabriel awake in the Infantino carrier (Thanks Theresa!), which was only for about a minute - then he passed back out!  He loves being worn by mommy. 

Just put the tree up - time to decorate!

• Gabe has been smiling & "giggling"  (well, what you can call baby giggling anyway).  I got a short video of it - click this link 

Sticking his tongue out during a laugh

Great smile!

 Other pictures from the week:

Gabe loves being "worn" - passes out every time!

Practicing for World Cup announcer - "GOOOOOAAAAALLLL!"

1 Month of Happiness!

Gabe turned 1 month old this week.  Wow, time flies!  (I think that's my new saying!)

Getting older so quickly!

• This week Gabe is practicing his smile more frequently.  I love it!  Can't wait to teach him to smile at "Cheese!"
• At his 1 month pediatrician appointment, the doctor commented at how great his head control is for a baby his age and how alert & active he is (arms & legs always moving!).  He weighed in at 8 lbs even and grew a half inch longer since birth (now 21 inches).  His head circumference was 14.5 inches, but I have no measurement to compare that to, so more on that if she measures it again in the future.
• I am happy that Gabe's rate of weight gain has increased (from 13g/day to 17g/day) with changing the formula supplementation down from 4 to only 2 feedings per night.  I have hopes that dropping them totally in exchange for breast feeding directly will help that increase more.  So this week, we are down to only 1 bottle feeding per night (50/50 formula & pumped breast milk).  I'm pumping the same amount he's eating at that feeding, so I am hopeful that my supply will be just fine when we wean down to no bottle feedings at night.  I've stored quite a few bags of breast milk in the freezer, but I know that they won't last more than a few days without my continued pumping/storing once I go back to work in January.
• This week I have to go pick up Gabe's birth certificate from the City Clerk's office.  Good thing I paged through all the documents from the hospital, because a single pink sheet of paper told us we had to call to check that it was ready to pick up.  Different from his social security card that arrived in the mail on its own.  Seeing documents with his name on them makes it so real for me that he's a little person!
• Our boy loves to sleep in the most awkward positions!  Take a look:  

Time for some more pictures from over the week...

In conversation with Nonno

 

Smiling for Babcia

 

Quality time with Babcia

Welcome New Christian!

On Saturday, we celebrated Gabriel's baptism at St Brigid Church.  He was an AMAZING baby and slept through the ENTIRE thing!  The Deacon & I were joking that he should have added ice cubes to the baptismal font to get a reaction from Gabe.  All he did when the water was poured over his head was throw up his arms; he didn't even open his eyes!

Talking about our good little sleeper with Deacon Ron

Godmother Chelsea came over the house early to take some pictures of us putting Gabriel in his outfit, which was made out of my wedding dress by my mother's seamstress.  He looked so adorable (even though he cried a little while we were putting it on).  His Nonno & Nonna gave him a gold cross in honor of the occasion. 

Putting on his white outfit

Buttoning it up

His cross from Nonno & Nonna

Crying while I put on his cross

Babcia & Grammy soothing Gabriel's cries

(On a side note, I think I dressed my husband wonderfully well - do you see how beautiful his eyes look with that color shirt?)

Deacon Ron gave an incredible service - personal and heart-filled.  We really appreciate his willingness to accommodate our date needs.  Godparents Chelsea & Andre also did a wonderful job!

We had a photographer come to the church, since Chelsea was going to be otherwise busy with Godmother duties.  We're still waiting for her images, but she did share this one, which I am in LOVE with!  I can't wait to see the others, hopefully soon.

Photo by Jessie J Photography

We had a luncheon afterwards at Maxwell Silverman's Restaurant.  The food was amazing, and the (last-minute) cake was a hit, too.  They had even decorated for Christmas with some twinkle lights - these captured Gabe's attention the whole time!  After I fed him, he was awake and alert; he got passed around to many a relative and didn't cry but once!  Godfather Andre gave a beautiful toast to Gabriel.

Overall, it was a great day, though exhausting for Gabriel and his parents.  We were so happy to have had a lot of family and close friends from near & far attend this special occasion.

Gabriel's 1st Thanksgiving

This post will be a combination of what's happened this week and our Thanksgiving holiday celebration, with lots of pictures as usual!

• Gabe has a "poop face."  Usually it's accompanied by some grunting and leg flexing.  It's awfully cute!  I got a short video of it; it's hilarious!  Unfortunately, it's too big to upload to the blog, so you have to click on this link to view it.  Great ammo to show his first girlfriend, right?  Unfortunately, he was NOT finished when I stopped recording, but we have since learned to give him a few minutes before jumping up to change the diaper.
• Gabe started smiling this week.  (No, it's definitely not just gas, haha!)  He especially loves smiling for Auntie Debbie!

• We took a trip to the mall to get Gabe's first picture with Santa last weekend!  He was the youngest baby (3weeks!) to have his picture taken at that particular mall.  It took some time to get one without him crying!  He did request a new larger car from St Nick, but specified he did not want a minivan, haha!

Gabe looks so tiny in Santa's lap!

•  Boys pee through everything occasionally.  I'm not incompetent at putting on diapers, I swear!  Unfortunately, that meant that we needed outfit #2 for Thanksgiving just before we left for the family party!  Here's the "before" picture in the cute holiday onesie from Aunt Kristen (thanks!) and the "after" picture in the cute bow tie/suspenders outfit from Nonno (thanks!):

Outfit #1

Outfit #2, & 1st smile caught on camera!

• On the feeding front, we've dropped to 2 formula/breastmilk combination feeds from a bottle at night, with the other ones being back to direct breastfeeding.  I'm hopeful that his weight will be up at Monday's pediatrician appointment, at the same rate of gain or higher.  I want to see if she'll measure his length too, as that's another good indicator that he's growing well & he seems like he's all limbs!
• Our friend Nicole & her 6-week-old RJ came to visit earlier this week.  Both boys slept while their mommies caught up on each other's birth stories & swapped formula samples.

All dressed up to meet RJ

1st (sleepy) playdate with RJ

•  We are getting excited for tomorrow's baptism!  However, this mommy has "baby brain" now instead of "pregnancy brain!"  Remember how I was last-minute at booking a photographer?  Well today, while e-mailing the person count to the caterer, I realized that I never ordered a cake!  Luckily, the place I wanted to order from (Wholly Cannoli) was able to make it work & we will be able to pick up a yummy vanilla cake with cannoli filling first thing tomorrow morning.  Can't wait to share pictures of "Congratulations on Your Baptism Gabriel" written across the white & blue whipped cream frosting!

Here are some more pictures from the week:

Wake-up selfie, while mommy still had bed-head

Manly conversation with daddy

Checking out stage 1 of the exersaucer from Gina - we're not yet fond of "tummy time"

Enjoying Gabe's 1st snowfall from in the house

Sitting with cousins Chrissy & Hailey at Thanksgiving

Three Weeks!

Wow, time sure does fly!  Gabe is 3 weeks old today! 

Another snapshot of our exciting life in bullet style:

• On the 19th, Gabriel was up to 7 lbs 9 oz at his pediatrician appointment.  The doctor called him a "pokey gainer," which I took to mean that he was doing ok but not great in the weight-gain department.  At our breastfeeding support group, the lactation counselor said that equated to him gaining 13.3 grams per day on average, when normal is 20-30 grams per day.  Not terrible but not ideal.  I think he will be a tall string bean like his father, and at this point, at least he's gaining *something.*  I refuse to stress about it anymore.  So he's not like a lot of other babies and got back to his birth weight by 2 weeks of age.  Oh well!
• I need to start wearing my watch again, or maybe it's just baby brain instead of pregnancy brain now.  Thank goodness we are only 20 or so houses down the street from the pediatrician, because I was on the hunt for a baptism photographer online & lost track of time, so we ended up running late for our appointment.  I felt like such a terrible mother, but they were happy I called to let them know we were on our way.
• I did end up finding a photographer who was available on such short notice (I can't believe I let the time fly and waited so long to line up someone!) and at a reasonable price.  We all wish Auntie Chelsea was available to take photos at the church, but that's impossible since she is Godmother and needs to be in them, haha!  At least she will be joining us at the house to capture a few moments of getting Gabriel dressed ahead of time; then the photographer will take over at the church.
• Feeding plan:  The doctor wants us to continue formula supplementation in the same manner as we've been doing, but after a lot of thought, I don't see why this is necessary if I'm pumping the same volume of breastmilk and could be giving him that instead of the supplemental formula.  Not that formula is terrible, but there is that mantra of "breast is best."  So, in cahoots with the lactation counselor, I've decided to try dropping one bottle feed a night in exchange for doing a breast feed along with weighing him weekly at the support group meetings.  If he's still gaining at the same rate or faster, we'll try dropping another bottle feed for a breast feed until we get to all breastfeeding.
• Pumping has been going well - I have a stash of about 10 bags of 2-4oz each frozen already (the one good thing about supplementing with formula, I guess).
• Gabriel lost his umbilical cord stump on the 18th.  Thank goodness!  I swear, I must have been super-sensitive to the smell of it because I was so ready for it to be gone!
• Gabe got his first real bath (instead of sponge bath) since he lost the cord stump.  He *loved* being in the warm water!  Thanks to my coworkers for the bath sling that fits perfectly in our kitchen sink.  We are waiting to use the larger baby bathtub (thanks to my mom's friend Barbara for that one!) until he gets a little bit bigger, maybe back to his birth weight.

  

  Loving bath time!

• On Tuesday, Gabe & I took our first outing all on our own!  I'll admit that I was very nervous for several reasons:  I hadn't driven a car since October 28th (not that I forgot how but more like I was anxious driving with a newborn!), and I was worried Gabe would cry the whole time or nursing wouldn't go well while we were out of the house.  It turned out that I worried unnecessarily!  We went to the auto parts store, Stop'n'Shop, and Radioshack before a successful in-the-backseat-of-the-car nursing session.  Then we stopped over to visit our good family friend Father Henry.  Gabe was wonderful the whole time!  He slept a lot of the shopping part but was pretty alert for our social visit.  

  

  Trying out our Infantino carrier to go shopping - Thanks Theresa!

• My mom's seamstress Larissa finished Gabe's baptismal outfit, and we received it in the mail this week.  She made it out of part of my wedding gown, and it is JUST BEAUTIFUL!  I won't post pictures until the baptism because it would ruin the suspense and surprise, haha!  On a side note, it's not easy to track down white newborn socks, but I finally did it.

Sent this to my Aunties this week!

Chilling after feeding...

Big eyes!

 

Mama & her boy!

Captured his cute lips, nose, & eyes while sleeping - Awww!