Windy

Today I was looking at my homepage to check the weather when I noticed something strange...do you see anything peculiar?

 

Let's zoom in.

The temperatures are pretty normal for right now. Cloudy, check. Humidity, check. Please note the wind speed. NW at 303 mph?!  For real!! I don't know a ton about weather, but I'm fairly certain if the wind was blowing at three hundred and three miles per hour then we would be demolished.

Explosion in the night

Sleeping with a newborn has been...challenging, to say the least. I will state now, I recognize that I have a very mellow baby (so far) and that he generally does quite well at sleeping. But it is still a huge change in how we used to sleep. I used to sleep through the night. Now I wake up....frequently. Peter is usually pretty good about eating and then falling back to sleep pretty quickly, but it is still exhausting to wake up and feed the little wildebeest and then put him back to sleep.

Most recently, we are trying to keep Peter up a little longer at night (and not let him take a nap from 8-10pm) in hopes that he will sleep longer than 2-3 hours if he is more tired. So there we were, wrestling a little baby, keeping him awake, and feeding him. He was still fussy for food after I fed him and it was late enough that he could go to sleep, so we decided to try to give the babe some formula...maybe he would like it, or at least maybe it would fill him up enough so he would go to sleep.

So, we made a little bottle of formula and let Peter try it out. He was not a fan. He tasted it and gave a face and stuck his tongue out. I tried to get him to eat some more. He ate maybe a milliliter of it, then we gave up. He didn't like the taste or using a bottle. I went back to rocking him and he started to spit-up. It was just a tiny dribble so I grabbed a pair of Peter's pants that were on the table (there wasn't a burp cloth around....you grab what you can) and wiped his mouth. Then, all of a sudden, there was a deluge of milk pouring from the baby's mouth. It looked something like this...

But instead of a fire hydrant picture a little blond baby, and instead of water, milk. It was incredible how much milk was inside that baby and how fast it could all come out. All of a sudden, the little pair of pants that I held in my hand was laughable. There was no stopping this. It was disgusting and hilarious at the same time. It looked like something from a movie. I just held him and screamed-laughed. Jonathan commended me on laughing instead of breaking down. I was glad he was there so I would have someone to corroborate my story. Within seconds, the baby was absolutely covered- head to toe- in milk and there were milk puddles that had collected in the blanket that was on my lap- thank goodness it was there, I was mostly protected from the gushing milk. Peter didn't cry at all, which was good. We took him in the bathroom and stripped him down and into the bath the baby went. The blanket, his clothes and my clothes took a quick trip to the washing machine and soon we were all clean again and smelling pretty.

After everyone was clean again, Jonathan held the baby and watched an episode of American Restoration and I went to bed. I told him to wake me up once the baby was hungry. I figured I'd be awake in 5 minutes. Peter would have to be hungry fast, there was no food in him...because he had thrown it all up on his clothes. I went to sleep around midnight and I woke up at 6am. I looked to my left and there was no husband. I looked in the crib and there was no baby. The only emotion I remember feeling was confusion. Where was my husband? Where is the baby? Is it really 6am? What is happening? Why didn't I wake up? Did I wake up? Did I feed the baby and just not remember it? I walked out into the living room and saw Jonathan sitting on the couch, holding the baby, still watching American Restoration. Confusion continued. Jonathan looked up and said, "The baby is starting to get hungry." Turns out, Peter had slept for 6 hours straight and Jonathan had stayed awake for 6 hours straight. He told me that he didn't want to move the baby for fear that Peter would wake up, so he just kept watching episodes of American Restoration and held Peter still. I fed the babe, and then we all went to sleep for a couple of hours. Then Peter and I went into the living room and let Jonathan sleep until noon. Good thing church didn't start until 1pm that day. I still can't believe that Peter threw up as much as he did or that he slept for as long as he did. Hopefully, Peter will eventually make the 6 hour sleeping thing a habit...that would be lovely.

For your viewing pleasure: cute faces that Peter makes

Son, Brother, Husband, Dad

 One of my favorite things about having Peter in our lives is watching Jonathan interact with him. Jonathan is one of the best husbands in the world and it is awesome to watch him become a fantastic father as well. He is so crazy patient with Peter. There are days when I am done with the kid and Jonathan takes him, laughs with him, plays with him and makes me happy again. It is adorable to hear Jonathan talk to Peter. He talks to him like he is a real person and he listens to Peter's grunts and squeaks like it's real talking. Jonathan will rock and bounce Peter when my arms are dead.

Also, that husband of mine is the diaper changing king. He will change that baby anytime I ask him to- even in the middle of the night, which is a huge blessing for me. It doesn't matter if Peter is crazy stinky or anything, Jonathan will change him. When Peter pees all over when being changed, Jonathan can laugh about it and get him all cleaned up.

When we go to sleep at night and I am feeding Peter, Jonathan finds calm music to play for Peter. In the middle of the night, Peter wakes me up, but usually Jonathan sleeps through his little sounds. One night, Peter started coughing, and I rocked him and said in a quiet voice, "It's okay buddy. It's okay." Jonathan turned over and half awake exclaimed, "It's alright! He's gonna be fine." He was trying to comfort me...only, I wasn't upset. It made me just laugh. There are many mornings that after I feed Peter, Jonathan will take him into the other room and rock him and let me sleep a little bit longer.

 

 

 When Jonathan was playing with Peter during "tummy time" he found that if he put his hand behind Peter's feet, then when Peter would kick out his legs, he would move himself forward. Jonathan had Peter move across his whole blanket doing this. He was super proud of his strong baby.

Jonathan loves to play with the babe-ster. We practice making Peter hold his head up and be so strong. 

 

 Sometimes they just cuddle.

 

Jonathan is a great dad.

Peter the Great loves to sleep with his Pop. He found his teeny little fist and loved to keep it in his mouth during his nap. Cute.

4 Weeks Baby

We have had Peter as part of our family for 4 weeks now. Here are thing we love about him and things we have learned about him.

• Hiccups- During the last month or so of pregnancy, Peter would get the hiccups every night. Without fail, Every. Single. Night. I could feel the twitch in my belly that was a consistent beat, not the same as when he would wiggle. It was a strange, sometimes obnoxious feeling that would leave me wondering if he would continue to have the hiccups when he was born. Now we know, the answer is yes. Peter has the hiccups 2-4 times each day. There have been a few rare days that he only gets them once, but it is usually multiple times a day. I've found I can usually get rid of them quickly if I hold him like I'm going to burp him and just rub his back. He likes having his back rubbed...but don't we all.
• Peter likes to sleep with his hands under his chin or next to his face. When he was first born, he would often have his little fingers interlocked right under his chin. I began to refer to this as his prayer hands. Our kid is the most reverent kid at church! Also, on a similar note, Peter loved to be swaddled...for about 2 days. Then, he found his hands and decided they must be free! If you try to swaddle him, he will squall and thrash about until his hands are free, then he is at peace. He is a natural Houdini at getting his hands free.

 

 Peter and his prayer hands.

 

• Milk Coma- most times after I feed the babe, he will cough and throw his head back and his arms up above his head and remain entirely motionless for a few minutes. He usually closes his eyes or at least half close them and just sit without moving. Sometimes he falls asleep like this.   

 

Peter in his milk coma.

• Peter found his tongue a few days ago. Now he will frequently poke his tongue in and out...it's like we have a little snake/lizard baby.
• I always said my kids would not have pacifiers. I didn't want them to be dependent on them and I didn't want to use them. It took 2 days before I gave up on that. Peter has a green binky that he uses most days, but he has a strong love/hate relationship with his binky. Every time we give it to him he fights it for the first 15ish seconds, and then it seems like he remembers that he actually loves it and then he is at peace. He also likes sucking on his fists if he can get them in his mouth...usually he just hits himself in the face...no muscle control.
• This baby makes the most awesome faces. He will sometimes just stare with huge eyes, looking terrified, but is really calm. He smiles sometimes- not usually at anything in particular, just a toothless smile to the sky. He has crazy eyes sometimes, which makes us laugh. 

Cute sleeping smile.

 

Peter "Crazy Eyes" Nelson

Plus One

On 11 January 2013 at 6.31am, we got to meet this little guy for the first time...

 

 

Introducing Peter Benjamin Nelson! He weighed 6lbs 13oz and was 19inches long at birth.

First family picture! Mom, Dad and Peter. We are parents now...it's kinda weird, but also good.

Peter has a bunch of blond hair. It sometimes looks a little red, depending on the light. All of the nurses raved about his hair and would take his little hat off to show the other nurses all of his hair.

 Mama and baby moments after he was born.

 

Peter had lots of visitors at the hospital. His Grandma and Grandpa Nelson, Aunt Erica, Cousin Charles, Grandma Gleaves and Uncle David all came. We spent one night in the hospital and the next day after Peter passed all of his tests, we went home.

Here is Peter a couple of days old. He is now 3 weeks old! Peter, we are glad you are part of our family. Thanks for being so dang cute...it helps when you keep us up at night. We love you.