Proof he talks

The worst thing that ever happened to my son? His parents buying a DVD camera.

Because smiling wasn't enough

Just a few hours after my last post, Andrew decided to up the ante a bit. We were rocking in our glider with him laying in Momma's arms when he started grinning at me like crazy and then...

He laughed.

Yep, Andrew's now smiling, laughing and talking (well, baby babble, but still...). My little guy is growing up.

And we have a smile...

About two weeks ago Andrew began truly smiling. Now he will happily smile anytime someone he knows well talks to him and smiles at him. It is absolutely adorable. When he smiles, his eyes smile too and he glows. I may be biased, but the boy is absolutely gorgeous when he smiles.

Capturing said smile, however, has been a little more difficult than getting him to smile. As soon as I pull out the camera and get ready, the smile is gone. It has taken quite a bit of effort to get a picture of Andrew in all his smiley glory and I have the evidence to prove it!

Finally, we struck gold

Getting bigger and bigger

After doing a fantastic job of napping in his Pack 'N Play for two hours at a time when he was only 2 weeks old, Andrew went on strike. Not only was he not napping in the Pack 'N Play, he wasn't napping for longer than 20 minutes at a time and only when in someone's arms or in the car. Not fun for a mother who still has a house to take care of and a holiday to prepare for.

He also decided that when he went to sleep for the night it would only be when laying beside Momma. Daddy wasn't good enough for that task.

Tonight, we've done a little bit of growing up and have, so far, slept for an hour in the Pack 'N Play.

The downside is that I will need to remove him from said Pack 'N Play which resides in the living room and take him upstairs for bed, but I will take what I can and do whatever tasks I can while he's sleeping to get something accomplished.

Things people never tell you

No one ever mentioned to me that I could have an unmedicated, pain-free childbirth due to prayer and faith. No one ever told me that motherhood could be a task you slip into easily. No one ever said that the best sight I'd ever behold would be my son's peaceful, sleeping face knowing that the milk my body made created that serenity.

And no one ever told me that pregnancy and childbirth can completely trash your gall bladder! I have read dozens of books on pregnancy and childbirth. I've read hundreds of articles online as well. And I've talked to everyone from a doula to a midwife to an OB and not a single person ever mentioned that you may wind up with a cholecystectomy within the first six weeks after delivery.

Guess what I had done yesterday? Yep, my gall bladder was removed due to attacks I've been having. Three of the attacks occurred during the pregnancy and then cleared up on their own and never created another problem until I was a week post partum. They came back with a vengeance, bad enough to send me to the ER twice with pain.

All went well. Actually, it went much better than I expected. I was disheartened to learn I'd need general anesthesia not the la-la land twilight stuff I was hoping for. The main part of general anesthesia that bothered me was the whole intubating thing. I didn't like the prospect of having a tube shoved down my throat, but my anesthesiologist was a great one and made sure I was extubated before I even woke up so I never knew what was going on.

Everyone at the hospital was great actually. They had no problems with Scott, my mom and Andrew being with me every step from pre-op to recovery except for when I was in the OR for the surgery. They never made one comment about me having Andrew with me and were very considerate with my breastfeeding needs pre-operatively. The doctor also gave me post operative pain medication that is breastfeeding friendly.

I am recovering. I expected it to hurt more in some ways and didn't expect it to hurt as bad in other ways, but overall it is pretty bearable. The worst part is only being able to nurse on one side especially with a son who likes to dictate which side he eats on. We are coping though.

Poor Scott now feels the entirety of his "in sickness and in health" vows since I can't do much with Andrew other than nurse. The incision in my belly button makes it difficult to sit upright and play with him and the incision that is right at the bottom of my ribcage in the middle makes it uncomfortable to hold him in a cradlehold. Scott has been wonderful and waited on me hand and foot and doing an awesome job of caring for Andrew. I don't know what I'd do if I was on my own with a baby and four incision sites. I am so thankful to have a husband who is a very hands-on daddy as well as a considerate husband. The fact he had the same surgery and remembers the pain it caused helps as well, I am sure. ;-)

One Whole Month!

Andrew is officially one month old!!! I can't believe how fast the time is going and how fast my little man is growing! He had his first professional portrait session with our friend Pam who is a fantastic photographer. I can not wait to see how they came out as they were awfully cute to watch!

And then we did our very own photo shoot at home for Christmas cards. After 30 minutes and lots of crying (from both Andrew and his Momma) we still didn't have a picture good enough for Christmas cards, but some cute shots that I just love.

Christmas Dinner

Andrew went to his first Christmas dinner on Friday night... and quickly went to his second the very next night! The cuteness was quite overwhelming as he looked like an adorable little preppy college boy. :-) There were shoes to match, but they were quickly kicked off.

Here we go Stillers*

We brought the Steelers luck a few weeks ago by wearing our adorable Steelers outfit:

And this week Daddy and I brought them LOTS of luck in an unusual way... by sleeping through the game!!!!

*=Spelling is correct if you live in Western PA :-)