Back to Reality

This is what Ben thinks of the girls having to leave...


The girls were here for about 3 days. Three days of bliss. They came bearing gifts. They cooked up a bunch of awesome food. They helped me sort through and organize boxes and boxes of baby clothes. They helped me make a swing lover of Ben. They gave me tons of much needed advice. They got me out of the house for a little shopping. They took Ben at 6AM so I could get some sleep.

It was so great having them here. I'm now going through serious withdrawl. Andy and I dined on leftovers last night (no cooking for us!), but now it's back to reality. At least it's the weekend - Andy took most of Friday off, and has been entertaining Ben for the better part of this morning, allowing me to get some stuff done around the house. We have some shopping to do, and have a family gathering on Sunday.

My girls are coming!

My girls from MN are about 2 hours away right now! The 3 of them have flown out to spend some time with me and Andy and to meet our little Ben. I can't wait!!

Here are some pics in the meantime. (I have been having some problems uploading pics to blogger lately - hopefully these work out OK).



More of daddy reading to little Ben - I think he'll have this Richard Scarry book memorized before he can even read!

Andy's friends from Santa Clara hosted an awesome baby shower - AKA - keg party with friends, kids, beer and festivities. They have been having these "Old School" Baby Showers for many of their college buddies - This one was Old School #4. Many of his college buds flew up (with kids!) from California just for this event - How sweet of them! Ben did a great job at the party - lots of smiles for everyone - it was really hot here, but he was a trooper. Here are some of the attendees.

This is Riad with Dylan at 3 weeks and me with Ben at about 7 weeks. Already, I can't even remember Ben being as small as Dylan...

OK - weird story from last week. Andy, Ben and I went out and ran some errands on Saturday last week for a couple of hours. When we returned home, we found that our glass patio table in our back yard had shattered! There were no signs of a branch or rock or anything crashing into it - It just spontaneously shattered into a million pieces! Any thoughts as to what happened here?

Almost 6 weeks

We had a pretty good week. Ben has been smiling and happy in the morning and afternoons (but NOT as night...). He is pretty needy though - seems like he needs to be held and moved around all day to keep him occupied. This means that I don't get a whole lot done, which is hard for me because I am such a task-oriented person. I get great satisfaction from crossing something off of "my list". I guess I should add "enjoy being at home with your baby" to my list, so I feel better! Ha-ha.

On Tuesday, I met with a daycare provider that I really liked. Her house was neat, organized, well-kept, and she had really nice kids at her house that day. I know it's going to be so hard to leave Ben with someone else while I go back to work, but she was so great with him... I will be going back to school at the end of August when Ben will be 3 months old. My plan is to work 2/3 time - which means I would be done at school around 1 or 1:30, so Ben would be in day care for about 6-7 hours.

We didn't do much for the 4th - Just hung out at home and tried to do some spring cleaning around the house. Andy's been power washing the house and cleaning windows, and I've been tackling the piles of dust that seem to accumulate overnight.

Here are some pics of smiley Ben

If you can't stand the heat... buy an air conditioner

So we did. It has been blazing hot and we do not have central air. Usually, in Oregon, we get just a few days a summer where the heat drives you crazy - it is typically 80's and sunny from July-Sept. On occasion, like this past weekend, it gets into the upper 90's. Our house can stay cool if it's just 80's, but when its scorching, the house really heats up. Our bedroom and the nursery are upstairs, so it's even hotter! On Saturday, it was so hot, we had to sleep downstairs and Ben had a really rough night - Not much sleep at all - just fussing. So, Sunday we got a new window mount air conditioner for the upstairs. After much messing around, we (Andy) got it installed about 11:00PM, and then we were able to sleep up there last night. Yeah!

On the Ben front... He had a pretty big weekend.

He had his first bottle - Andy gave it to him when his family was over for a cook out on Saturday. Ben didn't even bat a eye - He downed pretty much the whole thing (3 oz)! Now I know to freeze more than 3 oz servings.

Also, we got Ben to show his first "REAL" smile.

Happy face and happy places

Yes, our days and nights have been a bit better. There are definite good ones and bad ones... Ben has had some type of rash that has progressively been getting worse over the past week. I wasn't sure if it was contact dermatitis from some detergent or soap, or baby acne or a heat rash, or something else, so I took him to the doctor today. The nice doctor informed me that it is a heat rash. Poor Ben. It doesn't seem to affect him too much, but this could be the cause of the fussiness from this week.

This is Ben's "happy place".

This is Ben's "happy face." Another of Ben's "happy places". (I know, he shouldn't be sleeping on his tummy, but he is so happy there.)
Ben's heat rash

Also, Ben weighed in at 9 lbs, 10 oz at the appointment today (at 4 1/2 weeks - again about 50th percentile) No wonder a few of the onesies have been getting tight. I'm happy that the weekend is here - Andy had to work very late several days this week - I didn't have a whole lot of "me" time.

Yup, I jinxed us...

After stating that we had "turned the corner", we had a pretty rough evening and night last night - I think I got a total of one hour of sleep in the bed and about an hour in the rocker with my neck all torked... Here's hoping for a better day today (with naps!).

4 weeks old!

Ben turned 4 weeks old on Sunday!

We had a nice weekend, and I feel like we have turned the corner on figuring out Ben's needs (although, I'm probably jinxing myself by saying this...) Lately, we've had a few good nights and days, too. We're just starting to see the signs of a pattern developing. He's now back to about 3-4 hours between feedings, with definite periods of sleep and alertness. It sure helps having Andy around on the weekend. We made a venture to Babies R Us last night to pick up a few remaining necessities (more burp rags! diapers, a mobile, some good socks that will hopefully stay on, etc.)

Here is Ben enjoying his swing (thanks, again to Jim and Deb - and Levi!) Look how tiny he looks!


Daddy reading Richard Scarry to Ben

Ben at 4 weeks
In his little slugger outfit (Grandpa Ron should be happy)

We thought we were getting the first signs of smiles from Ben, so out came the video camera... I don't think that they are "real" smiles yet, but based on what we've seen, he sure will have an incredibly adorable smile once they do come! We can't wait!

Congrats to Ami and Riad on the birth of their son, Dylan, last week - We can't wait to meet him!