One month old!

Judah William, you are one month old! This month has been the fastest one of my life, watching you change and grow before my eyes. It's also been the best month of my life... the first month with YOU!

A little one-month-old photoshoot.

(Thanks for the awesome stickers, Caden!)

"Maybe I'll play along and give them a smile..."

"Here it comes..."

"Oh yeah, they're gonna love this smile!"

"Phewsh, that smile was hard work"

Deep in thought.

Oh! We are distressed!

"Heh"

Taking a little paci break...

"This photoshoot business is hard work..."

How big you are: 
At two weeks, you were 9lbs 4oz and 20.5 inches long, and you haven't been weighed or measured since then. You were supposed to have your one-month appointment this week, but the doctor isn't in her office, so we have to wait until next week to find out how much you've grown! I'm guessing you're at least 11lbs by now... you are a little chunker!

Things you love:
You LOVE your bath time. As soon as you are put in the water, your whole body relaxes and you make happy little sighs and coos. We always make sure the bathroom is nice and warm so you don't get cold. You often fall asleep while we're bathing you!
You LOVE to be held, especially with your head on our shoulders. You love having your back patted. You are quite the little monkey, because you know that if you cry (when you're laying in your play gym or bassinet or something) we will usually pick you up. Most of the time the only reason you cry is so that we will pick you up, and you are as happy as a clam as soon as you are in our arms! We love it. Maybe we are spoiling you, but I don't think babies can be spoiled by being held... they just need lots of snuggle time. It must be quite the shock to the system to suddenly be out in the big wide world after being snuggled up in mom's belly for so long! Sometimes we fight over who gets to hold you :)
You LOVE your food - you are a very good eater (as evidenced by your very healthy weight gain!) I feed you every 3-4 hours during the day, and at night you go 4-6 hours between feeds. We introduced a bottle (of pumped milk) at 2 weeks, and you sucked it down like a champ. You get one bottle every day so you stay used to it. That way someone else can feed you if mom needs to go somewhere!
You LOVE to suck on things. I figured this out when you would nurse for up to an hour - really you were just using me as a pacifier! You suck on your fists, and you try to suck on anything that comes close to your mouth. So we introduced a pacifier and you love it. Unfortunately you're not great at keeping it in your mouth (and when it comes out you tend to get upset) so we have to keep plugging it back in, but you'll get it soon enough.
You LOVE music... and being sung to. Daddy makes up silly songs for you, and I often sing you to sleep. You love it when there's music on, you go very quiet and look like you're listening intently.
You generally like tummy time... it depends on what kind of mood you're in. You do love to sleep on your tummy, but we only  let you do that when we're awake and watching you.

Things you don't like:
You DO NOT like having your diaper changed. It makes your little bottom cold and you do not like anything cold! Anytime we touch you or pick you up with cold hands, you start crying! You will usually cry while we change your diaper (as quick as we can), and as soon as we are done and pick you up you are perfectly happy again.
Sometimes at night you decide that you don't like being alone in your bassinet (which is in our room), so we move all our pillows and blankets and put you on the bed with us. Then you can sense us next to you and you sleep like a rock! Little monkey. Being close to us makes you feel secure, so we don't mind.
There's really not much you don't like... you're a pretty laid-back baby!

What you've been up to this month:
It's incredible how much you've changed in just a month. You've gone from a helpless, floppy (but oh-so-cute) newborn to a happy one-month-old who can hold his head up for short periods, smile at us, and "talk" to us. You've figured out that your arms and legs are attached to your body and you kick and wriggle and wave your arms around happily. You like to put your fist in your mouth and suck on it.
You started mimicking simple facial expressions when you were about a week old. You can make "kissy lips", stick out your tongue at us, and smile :) You smiles are now becoming more purposeful and sometimes you give them spontaneously which makes us squeal with delight :) (OK, maybe the squealing mostly comes from mom, but it makes daddy very happy too!).
You get hiccups all the time, just like when you were inside me. Usually you get them after you eat. So far we haven't figured out how to get rid of them... they eventually just stop on their own. You are starting to get more annoyed with your hiccups as you get older! Poor baby... I would be annoyed too!
You've "talked" to us from the very beginning with your little body. When we talk to you or smile at you, your whole body starts moving, you mouth opens and closes, and your hands start waving as you try to communicate with us. More recently you've started using your voice to talk to us too... with little oohs and aahs and agoos. It's so cute. You've made grunting and squeaking noises since you were born... often in your sleep. Sometimes you sound like a horse and we laugh at you :)
You've developed a pattern of being very wakeful and playful from about 2am to 4am. You wake up to eat at 2am, and then you're wide awake usually for a couple of hours, and you just want to have our attention! We're working on getting you back to sleeping then, but we're enjoying the happy smiles you give us during that time. We just wish it was more like 2 in the afternoon instead of 2 in the morning :)

Oh, what joy you have brought to our lives Judah William! We love you so very much, and we are so grateful that God has chosen us to be your parents! We are excited to watch you grow (but not too fast, ok?) and explore and learn about this big wide world of adventures and possibilities.

35 - 39 weeks

This post is written in retrospect... Judah William is one month old already! At the end of the pregnancy I finally got off bedrest and we moved to a new apartment and I was just focused on baby, so this little blog kind of fell by the wayside.


How far along: 35 weeks (Jan. 12th), 36 weeks (Jan. 19th), 37 weeks (Jan. 26th), 38 weeks (Feb. 2nd), 39 weeks (Feb. 9th), and then Feb. 13th, 2012 - Judah William was born!!!

Baby size: When he was born at 39 and 1/2 weeks he was 8lbs 4oz! I had lots of extra amniotic fluid, so that was the main reason I was measuring so far ahead. He was definitely a full-term baby, which makes me think his actual due date was more like Feb. 10th or 11th like we originally thought when we found out we were pregnant.

Total weight gain/loss: +30 lbs by the end!

Sleep: Got more difficult as the weeks went by... when I got off bedrest (gradually after 36 weeks) I was feeling great during the day but sleeping was hard. When I hit 38 weeks I was just uncomfortable all the time! I was so huge!

Movement: Slowed down the further along I got...  poor kid just had no room to budge! He got hiccups right until the very end though. (And still gets them now!)

Food cravings/aversions: Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate... one night when I was feeling particularly discouraged that he was STILL inside me, I ate a whole bar of chocolate... one of those big block ones... yah. We tried all sorts of food to get him out...  spicy Indian & Thai food, Italian (eggplant parmigian!), pineapples. The night before he was born I made a spicy Thai noodle soup... I think it worked :)

Pregnancy symptoms: The famous pregnancy waddle was definitely happening those last weeks, especially once I was off bedrest and trying to walk him out! I felt all right until about 38 weeks, and then I was just DONE with pregnancy and wanted him out and in my arms. I was huge... carrying around an 8 pound baby and extra amniotic fluid. After my water broke and all came out on the day he was born, my belly was so much smaller!
In general, I was achy and unable to move very far or very fast. The usual for late 3rd trimester! But I was SO HAPPY to be off bedrest that I went walking every chance I got. It felt so wonderful to go grocery shopping again.
At 35 weeks, on Jan. 12th, I ended up in hospital again with contractions that wouldn't slow down. At that point I could have had the baby reasonably safely, but they decided to try and stop it so that I could have the baby at the birth center (they only allow you to have babies at 36+ weeks there). I was given an IV and two shots of Terbutaline... they couldn't give me the third dose because my heart rate had sky-rocketed. The contractions had slowed down a bit, so they sent me home with a prescription for Nifedipine, which is actually a blood pressure medicine, but it also relaxes smooth muscle... ie. the uterus. I took that until I was 36 weeks.
Ironically, once I hit 37 weeks the contractions that I'd been having since 30 weeks seemed to slow down... right when I was finally ready to have the baby, my body decided to take a rest. Haha.

What I miss: Hmmm... well, from the other side... with a one-month old... I actually miss being pregnant! I loved having him inside me and feeling him move. I still get "phantom baby" kicks sometimes that startle me and make me wonder if there's another one in there... haha.

What I'm looking forward to: I was so ready to meet the little guy by the end... so I was just looking forward to him being born! I remember feeling like he was NEVER going to come out.

Milestones: We made it to full term! And 2 and 1/2 weeks beyond!

Best moment of this week month: Getting off bedrest! And then meeting Judah William!!!

Pregnancy moments with the hubby: Thomas was so good to me those last few weeks. When I was still on bedrest he was my "warden" and didn't let me get up, and made sure I had everything I needed. We moved apartments when I was still on bedrest (36 weeks) and he basically organized it all. We had lots of help from friends to pack, move, and unpack... and Thomas didn't let me do a thing. When I finally got off bedrest, he still made sure I was resting enough. He had to help me get up basically every time I sat down because I was so huge, haha. He took me on a "last" date night before baby... we went to Red Lobster and just had the most wonderful evening talking and laughing and dreaming. And when it was finally time to have the baby, he was amazing throughout the whole labor and delivery.

forever changed

As most of you know, Judah William Congdon was born on the 13th of February and he has changed our lives forever for the better. I'll write a more detailed birth story over on his little blog soon, but I was blessed with a very short labor and delivery. My mom and I went into the birth center on the 13th for my weekly appointment (I was 38 and 1/2 weeks), and I was fully expecting to be back home within an hour. However, while the midwife was checking me, my water broke (at 10am). Contractions started almost immediately, and four and a half hours later, at 2:32pm, Judah was born! The midwives were all shocked... they kept telling me I would be in labor for 12-14 hours and it would take about 2 hours to push him out, because I was a first time mom. But happily, we proved them wrong!

A brief record of Jude's first three weeks:

Brand new family!

8lbs, 4oz... 20.5 inches long... perfect from head to toe!

 Holding Dad's thumb.

Staring intently at each other.

Not even 2 hours old.

Jude is 2 hours old, mom is all showered, feeling great and loving every second!

The new grandmother, who was there with us for the whole birth! Thomas was at work when my water broke at my appointment, and I'm so glad she was there with me. Thomas had to go home and pick up all of our stuff (which was kind of spread out all over the house, and while I knew exactly where everything was, my poor husband was running around frantically trying to find the stuff on my list!), so mom was with me through the first hour and a half of contractions. They started getting really painful right as Thomas arrived.

When Judah was 5 hours old, we headed home.

Our first night as a family in our own home!

Cute little bean in his carseat, going to his first pediatrician appointment at 18 hours old.

Snuggled with mom.

First little sponge bath... he LOVED it. We made the bathroom all warm and toasty for him.

 Hanging out with dad.

2 days old.

Talking to Nana :)

Love those chubby cheeks!

Little burrito.

 Thomas tried to put together Judah's links in a pattern with 6 different colors and 4 different designs... harder than it sounds.

Monkey butt!

Jude and his rugby ball from Grandad!

We think he's going to make a great rugby player... he already has the intimidating look down!

Sleepy newborn... won't stay awake for tummy time!

 Bear hug for dad.

My little 1-week-old snuggle bug.

Trying so hard to wake up!

At his 9-day-old visit (he weighed 8lbs 9oz!), Judah got his little footprints on the wall of the birth center along with the 3000+ other babies that have been born there.

First time napping in his crib (he sleeps in his bassinet in our room).

Going for a walk in our Maya ring sling.

"My Uncle Matthew is awesome!"

"My Uncle Daniel is awesome!"

(These onesies are how we told my family we were pregnant :) )

Getting ready for an outing.

Funny story... our good friends the Whitsons came to visit Jude, and while they were here he needed a diaper change. He proceeded to pee ALL over the wall next to his changing table while I was changing him, so the guys all came in, moved the changing table (because of course it dripped down behind it as well), and wiped the wall down with Clorox wipes. What good friends!

Nap time.

Thomas decided to join Jude in a nap in the middle of studying for a presentation for grad school.

 Just hanging out. We do that a lot. I don't want to miss a moment!

We are developing a little double chin! Love it.

Cutie.

Jude looks wearily up at me after a long photoshoot... "Are you done yet mom and dad? There will be plenty more opportunities to capture my adorableness!"

We've been blessed with an easy transition into parenthood. My recovery was quick and not bad at all, and Jude is such a laid back baby. Having my mom here for a month has been wonderful... very reassuring when we wonder if something Jude is doing is normal. She's a baby expert. I get to learn from the best. The three of us are going to be very sad when she has to fly back to South Africa next Saturday, especially because we don't know when we'll get to see her again.

For the first week or so, Jude was eating every 2-3 hours during the day and 3-4 hours during the night. It's now stretched out to 3-4 hours during the day, and 4-5 hours during the night. He's even "slept through the night" a couple times (6 or 7 hours). The first time he did that we were worried because he hadn't eaten all night, but he was just as happy as a clam (and then so were we!). He is certainly getting enough food because he gained a whole pound by his two-week appointment!

It's amazing how much he has changed in just three weeks... he is so much more alert now. He stays awake for 2-3 hour stretches sometimes. His face is looking more and more "grown up". Right from the beginning he has been staring at our faces intently, so we take those opportunities to teach him to do things like stick out his tongue at us, make "kissy lips", and even smile. He gets better at mimicking us every day. I can get a smile out of him almost instantly now. He loves music and being sung to, so we try to have music on, and we sing to him whenever we can. It's so fun to interact with him, and I'm sure it's just going to get better and better as he gets older. 

I love watching his little personality develop. He makes these cute little squeaky sighing/grunting noises when he likes something (like his bathtime... he LOVES baths). He gets a quivery lip and a pitiful little cry when he doesn't like something (like diaper changes... he doesn't like having a cold bottom!)... but as soon as you pick him up when it's done he's perfectly happy again. He does this little fast breathing/panting in anticipation thing when he knows he's about to be fed, and then sighs contentedly while he's eating. His little face is so expressive, and his hands are always moving when he's awake like he's trying to talk to us.

We are just loving every minute. It's going so fast already, I don't want to blink in case I miss something!