William LOVES to travel.

We went on our first trip via plane with William.

We were terrified of how it would go.

We were relieved at how well it went.

This child could not have been a better behaved boy if we had paid him. He was an angel on the plane (slept some, but in general was just awake and happy), slept the ENTIRE time on the drives to and from the Orlando airport to our destination (2 hours each way), and was in general, just a fantastic little baby.

He also behaved incredibly well in Florida - napping like a champ, cooing, smiling, and charming everyone in sight.

Hip, hip, hooray!

(Now, let's see if this was a travel miracle, a 3-month old turning point, or a freak accident!)

Love this...

"The riddle: If you need to keep the wine glass at a safe distance from the children, and you must be near the children at all times, how can you, in fact, enjoy a glass of wine?
The answer: Take your wine to the bathroom and chug."

From Ad Hoc Mom

PS - Yes, I've sunk to the depths of reading mommy blogs.

"Did Do"

So lately I've been feeling like my "to do" list is doing nothing but growing and growing and GROWING. So I saw on someone else's website that to make themselves feel better they started a "did do" list...instead of a "to do" list.

Here is my "did do" list for today:

• Nursed William for ~4 hours
• Changed a bunch of diapers
• Went to visit Claudia and Ethan (Hi, Claudia!)
• Cleaned the microwave and toaster oven
• Swept the upstairs floors
• Vacuumed the stairs
• Made dinner
• Showered!
• Updated this blog :)

Okay, so I probably did a few other things that I've forgotten about, too...but this is a start. It seems to be a better perspective on my day than ending the day not having accomplished anything off of my "to do" list.

Hooray! A shower! Complete with blow dried hair!

Today was a pretty good day, nap-wise. This is a big relief after yesterday's "I don't want to do the mother thing today" attitude that I had. (Don't worry, I did it anyway.)

William and I have been working hard on the nap thing. He is working hard NOT to nap. I am working hard trying to get him to nap against all odds.

Today he had two good naps and one so-so nap. I'll take it. I even got to shower and blow dry my hair during most recent nap - which is still going on.

Here is a shot of him smiling. (More naps = more smiles. Hooray!) He does have a bigger, open-mouth, squinty-eye smile, but I haven't been able to capture that one yet.

The cheeks lie. W is not a big boy.

His two month check-up yesterday proves it. I do not have a big baby. Even though he has the biggest cheeks on the planet, he is only:

~11 lbs (40th percentile weight)

~22" (25th percentile length)

~?? (20th percentile head circumference...although I forgot the actual measurements)

He also got 5 shots yesterday - 3 in one leg and 2 in the other...along with an oral vaccine. Yowza! The good part of it is he's been sleeping like a charm yesterday, last night and so far today.

Here we are after a lunch outing today with Stacey (thanks for lunch, friend!). He slept through the whole thing in his moby wrap.

And here is a quick picture to commemorate his 2 month "birthday". It is super blurry, but I had trouble getting a good shot. Looks like I need an SLR camera after all! (Okay, "need" is probably not the word I should use...maybe "want" is more appropriate!)

2 Months In

William is 2 month old today. We did it. Well, so far, we've managed okay. I wouldn't say I'm achieving "flying colors" in motherhood...but we're all surviving, which is certainly something.

He is smiling a TON, rolling over from his stomach to his back on occassion and trying desperately not to nap. Or at least not to nap for more than 30 minutes (almost to the MINUTE) at a time. I'm not sure if that is because he only wants/needs to sleep for 30 minutes at a time...or if he just can't get through to the next "phase" of sleep and wakes up...and then is awake enough to remember, "hey! I'm hungry!". :)

Either way, we'll figure things out eventually.

He's showing a bit more interest in toys, but still doesn't like being set down on his playmat...or his swing...or his bouncy chair. He much prefers being in someone's arms or lap. This is a feature that I'm finding incredibly frustrating now, but that I'm sure I'll miss when he is out of the "cuddle-able" phase and into little boyhood.

He has is 2 month check-up on Tuesday and he has to get a bunch of shots (I think 4 or so). Ouch. But it will also be good to check in on his weight, length, etc. and to make sure everything is on track. By the looks of his cheeks, though, I can already tell he is gaining weight.

Welcome, William!

Well, obviously I've had the baby by now. :)

However, I've been too busy living in "newborn land" (aka, "the land of very little sleep") to do much blog updating. But here is a little snapshot of where we are now:

William Michael was born on November 2nd, 2010 at 11:13 a.m. and was 8 pounds, 7 ounces and 20 inches in length. He was - as expected - born via c-section due to his frank breech position. (Turns out that he had an extremely short umbilical cord - which is possibly why he couldn't turn into typical head-down birth position. The doctor said that it was good he was breech because I wouldn't have been able to deliver him normally with that short of a cord anyway.)

The recovery from the c-section surgery has been relatively easy for me. I know I'm lucky to have had an easy time post-surgery - and I'm thankful for that.

The emotional/mental recovery certainly is taking more time. The freakish hormones readjusting + little sleep + learning about how my new life is going to function are much more difficult tasks than the physical recovery from surgery. But we're getting there!

William is proving to be a good baby - he is easy to soothe when he cries and is sleeping at night for 3 - 5 hour stretches (another thing I'm thankful for!) His biggest downfall is that he seems to really like to cuddle...often refusing to be put down. This is actually a plus - not a downfall - UNTIL I want to get something done. :)

The one thing that no one ever mentioned was that babies in a frank breech position have these crazy "breech baby legs" that pop up in the air whenever he lays on his back. This makes diaper changes very difficult and makes sleeping on his back near impossible (because he "topples" to the side once his legs hit the air!). So, for now he's been sleeping in his car seat, which seems to be a more natural position for him thus far. The "breech baby legs" are beginning to calm down and are looking more and more normal every day.

A few pictures: