4 weeks old

I have been trying (rather unsuccessfully) to get time to slow down! I can't believe that Nathan is 4 weeks old today. He has already changed so much it is making me sad! He is slowly becoming more responsive to things like his daddy's voice and face (he watches Curtis walk away whenever he leaves the room). He is constantly grabbing anything that he can get his hands on while he eats (which usually consists of my hair!) He also always wants to look up. His favorite thing to do is to be carried around sitting up with his head as far back as he can so that he can look up. Now that he is four weeks and seems to be gaining weight well (we will see for sure at his one month appointment on Tuesday), I have started to cut out the middle of the night feeding, which has been amazing! Nathan does pretty well sleeping, averaging about 7 hours a night. He is more alert during the daytime these days (but he still sleeps for at least half of the day). He likes to spend most of his awake time either laying in his bassinet looking around or else sitting in his rocker (a wonderful gift from his Aunt Becky) looking around. He is such a curious kid!
Unless, of course, Curtis is home, in which case he can usually be found in Curtis' arms or laying next to him.

(I love this picture because he is grabbing on to Curtis' shirt with his toes!)

He has become a very amusing sleeper, mostly due to his snoring. He also makes some of the funniest noises in his sleep. I stood by his bed with my camera ready to take a video of him making these noises but ended up with about 15 minutes of nothing but silence. He also sleeps with his hands in the air out in front of him like so:




The only time he doesn't sleep with his arms straight out is when I have him wrapped up tight, however, the second I unwrap him he stretches his arms and legs like a little body builder.





I can't even begin to imagine what changes are in store for the next 4 weeks...

On Our Own

The first two weeks of Nathan's life have been pretty easy thanks to the help of family and friends. My mom and sister took turns getting up at night with Nathan, I would just get up to feed him and pass him back off to my mom or Alli and go back to bed. Not only did they handle the night duty but they changed diapers all day long, made meals, went shopping for anything that I needed, and cleaned the house. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. On Sunday afternoon my dad and Alli, the last remaining vistors, headed back home, leaving me and Curtis to care for Nathan alone.

Once Curtis got back from dropping off my dad and sister at the airport, he had to head straight to bed to get enough rest before he went back to work at midnight. I was on my own. The first night was not one to remember, and the next day I was absolutley exhausted! I about broke down and bought a plane ticket to Utah so my mom could help me again. However, spending $500 on a plane ticket seemed a little extreme. I stuck out the first day and am now on day 2 which has gone much smoother! I didn't realize just how much my mom and Alli were helping me out until they were gone!

Alli saying goodbye to Nathan.

Grandpa saying goodbye.

Haha...I got it right when he was yawning...so cute!

More goodbyes

Pretty sure Nathan is already addicted to TV!

The importance of swaddling

Over the last few days I learned that a tight swaddle is the answer to a good night's rest. Nathan has been so good this past week, he rarely cries, and never wakes up on his own at night. In fact, I am sure that he would sleep the whole night through if I didn't have to wake him up to feed him. In lieu of this discovery, Arlena wondered whether or not swaddling would help HER sleep through the night. And so we created what we like to call the "adult swaddle."

Arlena sporting the adult swaddle

Nathan sporting the infant swaddle (though a loose version of it)

Alli captured Nathan's attention by making fish faces. What talent.

Though Nathan has thoroughly enjoyed his time with his Aunt Alli and Grandma Ashton, he was still waiting for one important visitor...Grandpa!

Grandpa Ashton getting to know his new grandson.

More pictures of Nathan...just because he is so darn cute!

Nathan's New Cousin

So Curtis' sister Becky just had her third child (all boys), Tristan Rush Lavallee, born on July 2nd, 2009. That makes Tristan 11 days younger than Nathan...

For the record, Nathan now has twelve cousins--four from his mommy's family (all boys) and eight from his daddy's. Aside from Tristan, he has two cousins pretty close to his age--Bradley Socci (about 10 months older), and Krisanne Hernandez (11 months older). And who knows how many more cousins Nathan will have that are just a little younger than him...

But we're excited for him to have some playmate/cousins and hope that all the cousins will know each other well throughout their lives.

1 week later...

It has now been a week since we brought Nathan home from the hospital and what a wonderful week it has been. While I am still recovering from surgery my mom and younger sister Alli have been here to help Curtis take care of Nathan. It is quite frustrating to not be able to take care of him by myself, I am still unable to stand up while holding him, or pick him up out of bed, or even bend over him long enough to change his diaper. I never thought that I would want to change a diaper, but right now I would give anything to be able to. I felt pretty helpless one afternoon when everyone was asleep and I was the first to hear Nathan cry, I went into his room and couldn't bend down low enough to pick him up from his crib without causing myself all kinds of pain. It was one of the worst feelings of my life, not being able to console my son as he lay there crying. I had to wake up Curtis so he could help. I am looking forward to being fully recovered, not to escape the pain, but so that I can change my own son's diaper. Thinks ARE getting better though, when I first came home from the hospital I could barely walk, so I am very grateful for the improvement since then. Crissy keeps reminding me to accept the help from others while I can get it, I will be able to change plenty of diapers soon enough.

Curtis is awfully cute with Nathan. He is very excited to be a father and takes every chance he can to hold his son. Anyone who sees him can tell just how happy he is to be a father. Here are a few pictures of Curtis with Nathan.

Naptime after church

My 2 handsome boys :)

Isn't Nathan so cute just cuddled up on Curtis?!? I love it!...mmmmm Whoppers

Nathan has proven time and time again that all of his bodily functions are working splendidly. We have come to believe that he shows his affection by peeing on you. (At least that is what we have to tell ourselves when we find we have a wet lap...again). I got the full blast at his doctors appointment on Monday. When the nurse asked me to take off his diaper so that they could weigh him, I knew that it couldn't end well...with a nice large wet spot on my shirt I quickly put a new diaper on him and handed him to Curtis, just in time for him to leak through his diaper onto Curtis' hands. Poor Alli has had to change pants a number of times as well. It seems as though my mom managed to make it through her entire visit unscathed, (but don't worry mom, I'm sure he still loves you). My good friend Arlena flew in today to help out as well. Nathan must have decided that he liked her quickly because a mere 27 minutes after she got here, she too had to change her clothes...what can I say? He's a healthy boy!

Arlena claims that this was Nathan's doing...but the positioning of the wet spot is awfully suspicious...

Aside from the water works, Nathan's doctor's appointment went well. He is already starting to gain a little bit of weight! He is now 6 lbs 13 oz, as opposed to his birth weight of 6 lb 12.5 oz. I was very relieved to hear this because I had no idea whether or not he was eating enough at each feeding, he has the bad habit of falling asleep in the middle of meal time. But thanks to grandma's willingness to tickle his feet (and even flick them occasionally...much to her dismay) it seems as though we were able to keep him awake long enough to get enough to eat. Nathan also had to endure another prick in the foot for his second round of newborn screening. I made sure to have Curtis hold him during this so that once he felt the prick and looked up he would think that his daddy was causing him this pain, not his mommy :) But Nathan handled it like a champ...either that or he passed out, I'm not sure. He cried for a split second and then fell asleep while they squeezed what seemed like a gallon of blood out of his poor little foot! After the blood test I felt it appropriate to go out to eat to reward Nathan's mommy for being so brave!

I already feel as though he is growing up too fast! I can't believe he is 9 days old! Before I know it he will be getting his drivers lisence. I have resorted to taking lots of pictures every day just to make sure that I don't forget one moment of his life. He is still as cute as can be and getting cuter every day. (Both his Aunt Alli and grandma will attest to that fact). Here are a few more pictures just in case you don't believe me!

Just chillin' with Arlena

I love his little frog legs!

I still can't believe that Curtis and I are parents. We have been blessed with the most adorable son in the world! I can't thank my friends and family enough for all the support that they have given us. This kid is so lucky to have such a great extended family, I can't wait for you all to meet him!

Even More Nathan

This is the first time that I have been able to post since I went into labor and I am glad to see that Crissy and Curtis have done such a great job at keeping everyone informed. I think we have tripled the total number of posts we have made just in these last few days. I can't help it though! I take a million pictures a day and want to share them ASAP! I am totally in love with this kid! I realized that most of the pictures you can't really see Nathan all that well, he is usually wrapped up, so I took a few pictures and videos of him while he was awake and unwrapped.
















(If you hear kids in the background that is because at the time I took the videos my mom was watching videos of a few of her other adorable grandsons!)

Here are a few more pictures of Nathan in his specially customized outfit, compliments of his Aunt Crissy.

More photos of Nathan

So we figured 'let's put some more photos of Nathan up for your viewing pleasure.' He slept really well last night, only waking up once. Grandma and Aunt Allison have had lots of opportunities to hold him and take care of him, which gives a break to Mama (and Daddy too). Karalee continues to improve. Hopefully, by the time her pain medication runs out she'll be recovered from the surgery.