Weight update

At one month, John was 11 pounds, 8 ounces, 57 cm. long, and still the cutest baby around.

I don't believe John is already three weeks old! This is going by way too fast. He's sleeping well at night, as long as he can sleep with mom and dad - he'll happily gurgle and doze for a four hour stretch. Not so while he's in his crib, but we're working to break the big-bed habit.

He can already creep - though he needs a little help some days, and can hold his head straight up for several seconds without help. He had his first really big gummy grin a few days ago - Mike was holding him up in a sitting position - I guess he liked what he was able to see from way up there! He says a-boo (a combinaton of vowels and consenants is the next stage in language development), but Mike doesn't belive me, because only I've heard it. But he's said it about five times already. We let him listen to the radio a lot - he likes the oldies station - so he hears talking all the time. So he's growing up pretty fast. I just wish he would stay this teeny!

In the beginning......

Our first picture of John - about a week old

I'm writing this in retrospect, which is why it's legible. The hormones have faded. I've rediscovered sleep. Life is good again.
I'll spare you the gory details of John's birth. It was induced, and it was 22 hours long. We went in at 7 p.m., after being up all day, and most of the night before, and he was born at 4:55 p.m. the next day. I don't need to write down any more. If you want to know, just ask - it has been permenantly burned in my mind. Always there, to recount at birthdays, first dates, weddings, etc... But if you hope to have kids one day, don't ask. Just one word from the wise - get the epidural, and don't let a resident put it in! You don't need to know the pure hell of the first two weeks, either. It was a dark and hormonal time. I apologize to all who recieved a hormonal rant in their e-mail in-box in those first bleak, sleep-deprived days. It was all a blur, so it hasn't been burned in my memory quite as deeply as the birth itself, which is a good thing for anyone hoping we'll have another. All I remember was bursting into tears every evening, as the realization hit that even though I was exhausted, and everyone else was getting ready for bed, I was going to be up all night...and all the next day...and the night after that....with no end in sight. Thankfully, those days are long gone as I write this four months later!
However, just to keep a running record of John's growth, he was 8 pounds, 3 ounzes, 50 cm long at birth, and happened to be the cutest baby in the whole place. That's not biased at all - he really was.