Have a Nice Day

Jude's been working on his smile for a few weeks now, but I've had a hard time capturing it on camera. No matter how amusing he seems to find us, as soon as I bust out the camera, he becomes super confused with the weird black thing.

But I was successful! Just check out this little guy! How can you be frustrated when you see this looking up at you!

2 Month check up

Today was Jude's 2 month check up and here are his stats:

Weight: 12lbs, 3oz - 50th %ile
Length: 25 inches - 95th %ile (!!!!)
Head: 15 3/4 incehs - 50th %ile

Our little guy is getting so big!

I got my finger back!

One of the many things I've learned in the past few weeks is that the wisdom on pacifiers is constantly changing. Rather than try to keep up on it, I know I just have to do what works for us.

Jude likes to suck even when he's not eating and he clearly finds it soothing, especially to go to sleep. The problem, however, is that Jude didn't get the message that pacifiers can meet this need. Jude has discovered that our fingers taste oh-so-delicious and he doesn't need any stinking pacifier.

What's great about the finger is that I can decide when he gets it. But the problem is that it's attached to me and as much as I'm around the Judester, I can't ALWAYS be where he wants me to be when he feels the need to suck.

After trying two different kinds, I'd given up on pacifiers. But the gods of the internets convinced me to try just one more - the MAM pacifier. And guess what?? Jude liked it! Ok, so I know I may have created a monster, but YAY! My finger no longer needs to look like a prune!!!!!

1st Easter

With just the two of us and no family nearby, we don't normally make a big deal about Easter in our house. But now that a kid is involved we have easter egg hunts and pictures with the Easter Bunny to think about.

OK. He's 6 weeks old. We don't really have to think about all of those things quite yet, but Easter is no longer just a good excuse for brunch. We did take Jude to have his picture taken with the EB this year and overall, I'd call it a success. And by success I mean he screamed the whole time. Isn't that what he's supposed to do? I mean, how else are we supposed to look back on this time and laugh?

Of course, Easter is a big deal to grandmas no matter where they live and Jude's did not disappoint! Check out Jude's first Easter!

The Schedule

I love Excel spreadsheets. I know - that's SHOCKING to those of you who know me. "Liz is a listmaker?" you say? YES. I love lists and I love to be able to sort lists. I love to be able to look for patterns and routine. So when we first brought Jude home, we wanted to be able to keep track of all the new baby things we'd need to take care of like feeding and diapering. I was also pumping exclusively for a few days, and we needed to track that, too. Lindsay and I both use Excel extensively for work, so, of course, Lindsay whipped up a little something. (Feel free to use this, if you're into that kind of thing).

We're at a point now where we don't really need to track all this stuff back any further than the last diaper change or the last feeding. While I'd love to be able to use something like www.babybix.com, it's not quite feasible for a non-smartphone-owning fool like me. Instead, I rely quite heavily on one of my FAVORITE mom tools, the Itzbeen timer. We registered for this little timer gadget and the fabulous Deb Taylor purchased it for us (THANKS, Deb!). It's about the size of a cell phone and includes timers that count up from the last feeding, diaper, and sleep, plus a bonus timer that I use for tracking time between pumpings. It also has a clock and a nightlight/flashlight, which is FANTASTIC when I'm getting up in the middle of the night and padding into the nursery.

So there you have it... schedule essentials for a routine-obsessed mom. Maybe you know another new mom who loved a good schedule, or maybe you are one. Either way, I hope this offers some practical help!

The Ugly Cry

Now that we are six weeks out, I can admit that week one of being a mom was not good good for me. I know I posted about how tough things were, but I cried. A lot. And in the weeks since, I've cried other times. Not nearly as much as that first week, but it was more than I've probably cried in the last 10 years combined.

So far, being a mother is absolutely the hardest thing I've ever done. Everyone said that it would be, but there just isn't anything that can prepare you for how hard it is to be a parent. No book, no advice - nothing.

In the middle of one of my very ugly cries that first week, my mother encouraged me to sign up for a new moms group. I found one through Amma Maternity, the same place where we took our childbirth classes. I signed up right away and am so glad I did. We meet once a week for two hours. There are 6 of us and all our babies are within a few weeks of each other. Though I'm only halfway through the six week session, I can't express how valuable this has been for me. Having the opportunity to talk with other moms who are going through all the same things has been more valuable than I could have imagined.

So from the depths of the ugliest of ugly cries, I know that I'm on my way to amazing myself.