1 Month

As hard as it is to believe, Isaiah is a month old today. What a month it's been!! While each day is still filled with challenges, things are getting easier and somewhat more routine. I thank God for entrusting this sweet baby to us, and I look forward to each new day unfolding with his changes and advances.

Firsts in the past week: first real bath, first spontaneous smile while awake (can't seem to capture it on camera), first started tracking our movements with his eyes, first time at church, first trip to the mall (haha...I'm sure he wouldn't have minded skipping that one). During his 'tummy time', Isaiah is rolling from his tummy to his side pretty consistently...not much farther to his back. He's also moved up from size 'newborn' diapers to size 1--they're still quite large on him, but after a night of leaking out of every 'newborn' diaper we put on him and at least 3-4 changes of clothes and blankets, we had to try something.

Our friends Josh and Amy loaned "The Happiest Baby on the Block" DVD to us this past week, and I highly recommend it. Isaiah sleeps longer and more soundly now, and we have better strategies for calming him down when upset. Thanks guys!!

We continue to be blessed by meals provided by our church family every other night. It will soon draw to an end, though, and I'll actually have to cook something. I guess that was bound to happen sooner or later.

Here are some pictures from this past week:

Double Trouble

All dressed up for church yesterday. This was one of Uncle Jared's outfits as a baby.

Our sweet one month old.

Newborn Photos

I've uploaded the pictures from Isaiah's newborn photography session to Winkflash, and you can view them at lstarnes.winkflash.com and the password is "isaiah"

40 weeks

Hard to believe, but Tuesday the 12th was Isaiah's actual due date. I can't tell you how thankful I am to already have him here in my arms. This new role of 'mommy' has been the most challenging one I've ever undertaken, but the many sweet rewards make it well worthwhile. Here is my 40 week belly shot:

Since I last posted, Isaiah has started making tears (breaks my heart), his umbilical cord stump has fallen off, and some of his newborn sized outfits no longer fit. I can't believe he'll be three weeks old tomorrow!! What a whirlwind! Here's our cutie enjoying his bouncer:

Jan 6-11 Pictures

Mawmaw's last day with us. She stayed with us from his birth through Dec 31 and again from Jan 4-6. I don't know how we would have managed without her help!

Mommy and Isaiah after our first day of just the two of us. We survived!

Pastor Travis and Jenna (and baby Kara on the way) after bringing us a wonderful dinner.

Trying out our Moby wrap. He seems to like it.

Feeling Daddy's face. Two peas in a pod!

Our adorable little bunny after a bath.

Naptime

Updates

It's amazing the little changes that take place in the life of a newborn in just two weeks. I'll try to give some examples...
-Moro (startle) reflex: when Isaiah was born, he had an extremely sensitive startle reflex. Barely moving him caused his arms to flail out in opposite directions, and this really made sleeping difficult for him. After only 3-4 days, I rarely if ever noticed this reflex anymore. It's still there if you try to illicit it, but it doesn't interfere with his sleep anymore.
-Swaddling: because Isaiah so frequently startled himself out of sleep, we had to swaddle him really tightly (arms bound down to his sides) for the first week--poor child looked like a mummy, but he seemed to like it. After only a week, he could no longer stand for his arms to be bound down, wanting to have his hands close to his face. Now I just swaddle him loosely so he can freely move his arms.
-Sleep pattern: for the first week, it was very evident that Isaiah had night and day mixed up. He fell asleep immediately after every nursing during the day, and then at night his eyes would be wide open and he was ready to go. Needless to say, this was pretty challenging to our sleep schedules. We had to rotate between me, Chris, and Mom who would stay up with him after each feeding. While we've by no means perfected his sleep-wake-feeding routine, things are much improved. I just have to remind myself he's only two weeks old and I can't expect everything to be predictable.
-Hair: we all know hair grows--that's just what it does, though it's not usually noticeable over short spans of time. Well, Isaiah's hair growth was noticeable even over the first day or two of his life. It's definitely blonde on top, and the back is a darker blonde that sometimes has a bit of a strawberry tone to me. Also, when he was born, he had no eyelashes to speak of. They're getting quite long and lovely now.

You get the point--our baby is changing every day, and I'm doing my best to keep up with it. He had his first doctor's appointment last Monday when he was ten days old. I was disappointed that he had actually lost another 1/2 ounce since his discharge from the hospital, but the pediatrician wasn't concerned since he's peeing and pooping as much as he should. Dr. Pendergrass was impressed by Isaiah's upper-body strength--he said he has the strength of a two month old. You can imagine how proud his daddy was to hear that!

I'll post some more pictures this afternoon...time for the little man to eat now.

Isaiah and Frankie

One of the first things many people have asked us when inquiring about Isaiah is how Frankie is adjusting to the new member of our family. We were definitely concerned about how Frankie would react to attention diverted elsewhere, but so far, we've been pleasantly surprised. The most challenging time with Frankie was our first night home with Isaiah--every time Isaiah cried (which was a lot that night!!), Frankie pounced on our bed to check things out. Since then, though, Frankie has learned to sleep through Isaiah's crying. Frankie still loves to sniff Isaiah whenever he gets the chance, and though he's gentle, we have to watch out for where he sticks that cold, wet nose. Here are a few shots with Frankie:

See where Frankie started out during Isaiah's tummy time...

and where he moved to after about five seconds:

No family shot is complete without Frankie, and he will make space:

Barely enough room in this chair, but Frankie didn't care:

Dec 31-Jan 4 pictures

Daddy and his little look-alike

After his first sponge bath--I promise the whole experience wasn't this calm!

With Grandad

With Grandmom

Mawmaw and Frankie