Friday, June 24 marked Asa’s 5-week anniversary of taking his first breath on this planet. I am not going to lie… our second time around rearing a one-month old was not really any easier than the first time. However, I must say, I have had much more grace for myself (and hopefully for my whole family), because I really do know that this fourth-trimester time is a season, and in the scheme of life, actually a short season.
Matt was able to stay home from work for the first two weeks, and this period helped us adjust to being a family of four. Elleanna really is an amazing big sister. She is very protective of Asa, as in she always wants to know where he is, and the moment he makes a peep, she tells me to go and take care of baby brother. She also (for awhile) wanted to nick name him “juicie”, which I take as a term of endearment. She has been resilient and loving in the middle of all of these huge changes, and when she is frustrated, she has not yet placed the blame on brother. I am not saying this attitude will stay, especially once Asa is moving and wanting to “share” all of her things, but for now, I am counting my blessings.
After Asa turned one week, we took him to the doctor again for a second visit because he wasn’t quite gaining enough weight. I had major supply issues for breast milk with Elleanna, and guess what? I have them again. This time I am at much more peace with it (and trust me… I tried everything and continue to try all sorts of things to at least give him some breast milk). However, the main reason I bring that particular visit up is that it was one of our first forays into public. We went to lunch at Chick-Fil-A, and of course, Asa’s diaper exploded. And we didn’t bring any of his newborn clothes. We scoured the car, and finally found the 18-month boy PJs a friend had given us that her son didn’t need anymore, so into the PJs he went, and into the doctor’s office we went. You’d think the second time around we would be totally on top of having our car stocked with all of the necessities to handle a pooping and eating newborn… but, oh well.
When Asa turned 2-weeks old, Elleanna went to stay the night at mema and papa’s house. On our way home from dropping her off, we decided to swing into Sonic, because they have half-price milkshakes after 8 p.m., and I seriously wanted one. The drive is literally 5 minutes from my parent’s house, but one minute in, Asa was crying like the sky was falling down. We thought the car would help him nod off, but he sounded more and more like an abandoned little lamb. When we finally got to Sonic, a mere four minutes later, we parked and I got him out. I put his cheek against my neck, and he kept taking deep sniffling breaths and sighing. Some car rides have gone better since then, and some have not. While we are on the topic of crying, oh my goodness does Asa have the cutest little man cry! It is deep, and we call him a little car alarm.
Elleanna had quite a 3-year old birthday bash that weekend after Asa turned 2-weeks old. We had lots of family in town. And it was so delightful to see everyone, but I also think we totally overdid it. As in, our whole family got a cold, even Asa a little bit. So, that was a miserable way to spend over a week: fevers, coughs, newborn, trying to breastfeed full time. I actually am mainly trying to block that week out from my memory, because it was so crazy.
Another Elleanna note (and I guess that’s the unfair part of being the second child…the first child pops up into blog posts): She is so cute at pretending to breastfeed. She will get this neck pillow that we have and sit cross-legged like I do and use it like a Boppy with her baby doll. Melt, melt, melt my heart. She also asks me about pumping a lot. So pretty much all of the conversations at our house completely revolve around bodily functions now, with a few politics and cars thrown in.
This past weekend was Matt’s 20-year high school reunion. Let me tell you, Asa was the star of the show. At all of the events we went to, he calmly stared around the room and let people hold him. I am pretty sure we gave half of the women in the room baby fever. So, I guess we will see how many children younger than Asa show up to Matt’s 25 or 30 year reunion.
For our first 5-weeks of getting to know Asa, he is really very chill and sweet (when he is not hungry or has a wet diaper, of course). He is beginning to sleep a few longer chunks at night on his human mattresses, and this week he has started to realize that there is a big wide world outside of gazing at my chin. So even though this month has been crazy, I know from here on out he will be changing so much. In the blur of not sleeping, I am trying to engrave permanent memories of who he is right now on my heart. Oh sigh.
ohdeliciousdays 