Most Difficult Week

This year hasn't gotten off to a great start.  Last week was just plain awful.  It started with a phone call on a Friday night at 11:30pm from my father-in-law.  We immediately knew it was bad news.  Steven's brother passed away unexpectedly.  That was just plain shocking and horrifying.  Then things got stressful, as people wanted different things for the funeral, and my husband and his siblings had to help mediate. 

Next, Alex got his 4-month vaccinations at his check-up.  (He's now 14 lbs. 7 oz. and 25.5 inches long.)  He broke out in hives, which completely freaked me out.  He spent the next 4 days lethargic, feverish, and cranky.  Miserable for all of us, especially as he started waking up again in the middle of the night during that time.

And to top it all off, Doogie was diagnosed with cancer.  On top of his kidney disease.  I cried for hours after I got off the phone with the vet. 

Sometimes life really does give us lemons. 

But Alex is better now.  Doogie stills runs around and gets into slap fights with Ninja.  He's really not aware that he's sick, so we're hopeful that we'll have a decent amount of time left with him. 

And through it all, God is faithful.  If nothing else, we prayed more last week than usual, and that's never a bad thing.  

Alex's Uncle Keith loved Batman.  We expect Alex will, too. 

Doogie and Ninja love to wrestle and fight

The Toxic Zone

It's not news that our cats don't like the baby.  They think he's loud and unpredictable, which are two qualities that cats detest.  But I've been getting a laugh out of what we're now calling the Toxic Zone.  Here it is:

It's nothing more than a quilt on the floor, but if you look to the upper left, you'll see a basket.  We keep blankets in there, and Doogie likes to sleep in it.  If he's in his basket, and I put Alex down on his quilt for tummy time, Doogie will hop out and run off.  Every single time.  Makes me laugh as I'm apologizing to the cat.

But what was even funnier was when I tossed a toy for Ninja (his beloved tab off a jug of milk).  He was all excited and poised to race after it... until it landed on Alex's quilt.  Ninja just sat there and stared.  He wouldn't touch it!  I picked it back up, tossed it further away, and Ninja took chase.  That quilt is now associated 100% with That Screaming Thing, as we're pretty sure the cats think of him.  They want nothing to do with it. 

This doesn't bode well for future baby/kitty relations.

Alex's First Christmas

Alex was absolutely clueless about his first Christmas, but we got some cute photos. 

All dressed up for his first Christmas Eve service:

What you (thankfully) can't easily tell is that he was screaming his head off in the picture.  I wanted a photo of us all dressed up, and he didn't want to cooperate.  Steven took several pictures in an attempt to get one where he doesn't necessarily look as unhappy as he felt.  (He was hungry.  It was dinner time for him, but we had to get to church so I could practice my solo.  We're mean like that.  But don't worry; he was fed as soon as we arrived at church.)

Reindeer jammies given to him by one of our former youth:

A a few pics from his time at Grandma and Grandpa's house:

It was a nice day for Alex's parents, too, as my parents kept telling us to go take a nap.  So we did!  Sleep is the best gift you can give to new parents! 

Merry Christmas

I've had a few emails from folks, as I haven't updated my blog in two months.  We're alive and well, just insanely busy.  The few free moments I have each day are spent doing things like making dinner and making sure we don't live in squalor.  Wow.  I had no idea just how time-consuming babies truly are!  But life is good.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Happy Halloween

Diapers

Even though we had no expectation (or even necessarily desire) of becoming pregnant, I'd read people's blog posts about cloth diapering with interest.  (I'm weird like that.)  So, when we found out we were pregnant, I decided we were going to cloth diaper.  Steven wasn't too on board with that until we signed up for a registry at Babies R Us.  When the clerk helping us spouted the statistic that babies go through approximately 3000 diapers in the first year, Steven saw the wisdom of cloth. 

Whenever I mentioned to people that I planned to use cloth, I received a lot of negativity.  A few friends were supportive, but most people seemed appalled.  My youth group acted thoroughly grossed out.  (What does that say about a generation that has been brought up with everything, including electronics, being basically disposable?)  People seriously think using cloth is crazy.  I don't get it.  What's the big deal about washing diapers, especially seeing as I love doing laundry? 

I chose a couple of different all-in-one diapers, and we're all set to use them.  Just one problem: Alex isn't big enough yet!

He needs to gain a little more weight and get fatter legs! 

It was painful to drop several hundred dollars at one time on diapers, but now that's looking downright cheap, seeing as the cloth diapers will last until potty training.  In his first 5.5 weeks of life, I think we've spent nearly $100 on disposables!  Now that's crazy! 

One Month Down

Yesterday was Alex's due date.  Seeing how big he is now, coupled with the fact that I wasn't allowed an epidural during birth, I am so glad he came early!  (Since he was healthy and all.) 

This was taken on his one-month birthday:

Isn't that superhero sticker the cutest?!  A friend gave us a stack of those at one of our showers.  There's one for each month of his first year.  Great way to track how much he's changing from month-to-month!

I'm also glad he came early because now we've got the first month behind us, and we're that much closer to the day he finally sleeps through the night!  (I am way too old for this interrupted-sleep business!)  Right now I do all nighttime feedings during the work week.  Then Steven takes over on weekends.  Let me tell you, I live for Friday nights now!  Come Friday, I'm pretty punchy from the lack of sleep. 

Steven and I originally planned to alternate Sundays while Alex is in his staying-home phase (doctor prescribed), meaning, Steven would go to church one Sunday, then I would go the next, and so on.  Instead, my husband has been gracious enough to let me go every Sunday.  He goes to work 5 days a week.  I go nowhere, and he saw how much happier I was after that first Sunday of church.  Isn't he great? 

I attended my first music rehearsal in a couple of months last week, and I sang on the praise team again this past Sunday.  I missed it so much!  And it's funny how we can make plans, then they all fall apart to be remade into something else.  I'd intended to finish out the month of September on stage, then drop out for the entire months of October and November.  I was getting too hot on stage in pregnancy with the glaring lights.  What happened instead is that Alex arrived 5 weeks early, and I didn't even get to finish out the month of September!  And now I'm so ready to sing again, much earlier than I'd anticipated. 

Speaking of singing, our little man loves music.  We knew this even when he was in the womb.  I'm not kidding when I say that there was at least one Sunday he was kicking in time with the music at church!  He always became quite active whenever I sang, and that's served us well in his short little life outside of the womb.  I can (usually) calm a crying fit with some singing.  The cats appreciate that quite a bit! 

It's been a challenging month for us, but mostly enjoyable.  I'm constantly amazed at how much I, a non-baby person, actually love this little guy.  I couldn't believe it when a strong feeling of possessiveness overtook me the other night when we were at the home of friends and people kept taking Alex from me. 
I never understood why people always want to hold other people's babies, and frankly, I still don't get it, but I totally want to hold  mine.  (Good thing, huh?)  But there I was, getting flustered inside because someone else wanted him.  Go figure!  The mothering instinct continues to surprise me daily. 

Oh, and that swing he's sitting in for his pictures?  My new best friend.  I totally didn't want one because swings are just so big.  But I broke down.  We went to Kid-to-Kid and bought probably the largest one they had!  And even though it's huge and totally doesn't go with my living room, it's been the best purchase so far.  He loves it, and I finally was able to start doing basic things like cleaning house and cooking dinner.