Fearfully and Wonderfully: First Month

Taylor said that I should write a post about the first month. I can't believe Gabriel was a month old on December 24th. We had family over that night to celebrate Christmas Eve (I'll have to post some pictures of his first Christmas later too).

Taken 12/24/2012 (he was being a little wiggly)

I don't really know how to sum up the last month at this point. It's been dominated by getting in the routine of having no routine. Some days are good and some days are. . .challenging :)

For example: yesterday he was awake ALL DAY. He woke up to eat the night before at 1 am, 3:30 am, and sometime a little after 6. He would not take a nap, even though he seemed very tired. He fussed like crazy every time you put him down. There was just no pleasing him. It was a more difficult day to say the least. Then, last night, he slept from 11:45 pm until 5:45 am. I woke up wondering what had happened (and shocked by the fact that I ended up getting 5 hours of continued sleep). He's been snoozing on and off all day today so far. There's no predictability whatsoever. And I get that that's how it goes with a newborn, but it's just an adjustment every day. I like schedules. I like to make lists. I like to have a plan for the day. I can't do that anymore.

Don't get me wrong though. I may get frustrated with him, but then I have to remind myself that he's a baby. He's not supposed to come with a schedule. That's something that I need to give up for the time being (along with the hopes of ever really feeling totally rested). When he's a little older he can have some sense of a schedule, but of course it's not going to be like it was before he was here. And that's ok.

On a day he would not stop fussing.
We bundled up and walked outside for a bit.
He was shocked into silence

I could type about so many different things, but then this would end up being really really long, and who wants that? So, to sum up:

1) He's eating really well (we think he's over 8 pounds now. We'll go to the doctor again on January 8th).
2) He's pooping a lot (he's a baby, what do you expect?)
3) He's successfully left the house a couple times for short little errands/meals with minimal freaking out in public (we went to lunch on my birthday, went to finish a little Christmas shopping, went to Caribou for coffee, went to Waffle House on Christmas. We still have yet to venture out when it's just the 2 of us, but that's ok. I'm not sure I'm ready for that).
4) He's very noisy (who knew that babies grunt so much? I know they make poop noises and the like, but the grunting is something I knew nothing about. He sounds like a cross between a horse and a dolphin)
5) He's really cute (even though he's probably still smiling for no reason, it still just melts your heart)