~ Monthly Letter ~
Dear Adler,Oh sweet boy, your dada and I adore you! We seriously could not imagine life without you now. The past month has been nothing, but an absolute joy. A day has not gone by when your dada hasn't looked at you with his heart just melting. He just smiles at you with the sweetest expression and says, "He is just so cute", because he simply adores you.
You have had a million visitors who all want to meet you. All your grandparents, your aunt Stevi and uncle Clay, and a million of your mama and dada's friends who just adore you and have prayed for you for years!
Your dada got a whole month off, so he has been with us every day except his first 2 days back to work. And they were wonderful! You two have so many adventures in store! He calls you short stack and nackt fresh, which is naked frog in German.
You have changed so very much since your birth day.
You, my sweet boy, have been so very strong from the first day. When you lay on our chests you initially could hold up your head for about 5 seconds and now it is more like 35 seconds. And at 3 weeks, you were holding your head up all by yourself so well, I could pick you up under your arms with no head support!
And my you have grown! In length you have grown 1.5 inches, now you are 22.5 inches, 4 ounces shy of 2 lbs at 9 lbs 6 oz, and your head circumference has grown 3/4ths of an inch now at 14.57 inches which has made your soft spot bigger.
You get quite irritated when your hands are not up by your face as well as when you are naked, but mainly just because it is so cold when you are undressed. We swaddled you from the get go with your hands free, but lately you haven't needed that as much as your startle reflex is less.
You are in newborn diapers, both cloth and disposable. We only used disposable until your umbilical cord fell off and these days after your circumcision. Even if you do wet through your cloth diaper every 2 hours, which is so frustrating! We are figuring it all out though!
Your first few weeks every once in a while you have clicked your tongue while you sleep and it started after your dada did it to you. It was so cute! And you have been so very aware even from first days! After the first 2 weeks you are even more aware then before, really just taking in everything around you.
I have adored just holding you and letting you sleep on me, but after holding you non-stop the first 2 weeks, we decided to let you get a little time on your back to just take the world in. You definitely love looking at the black and white book and at the window in our bedroom first thing in the morning.
We have discovered that your skin is quite sensitive! You definitely had the little bumps from all the new bacteria, and you got a little rash from people holding you that their clothing was not washed in sensitive detergent. Combine that with baby acne and it is quite sad. But after your umbilical cord came off, you now do nightly shower time with dada and you love it! You just tree frog on his chest and take it all in! You lick you lips when water touches them and the water in your face doesn't bother you at all.
And you love to talk! At about 5 days old, you found your voice, which Neva said is quite early. But you talk to us all the time and within the first 2 weeks you also talk and grunt through the whole night! I have discovered that it is mostly when you need to work out gas or you are waking up and hungry.
You love being in the carrier and fall asleep in it very quickly. Playing the piano and bouncing you on the yoga ball also calms you down. And dada's sway is amazing.
You often have massive spit ups that even come through your nose. It is so sad to watch. But I learned that not moving you after you eat prevents that. And I also learned with so many visitors that you get very over stimulated and we try and keep that at bay with calm time of me just holding you. We have a night time routine which helps, but our 5-7 pm witching hour still happens most nights.
It took us a while to figure out your gassiness, but we have finally got it down and you are so much happier. Burping you mid nurse along with angling your body while nursing helps. When it gets really bad we lay you on your stomach over our knees and pat your back.
Your schedule tends to be sleeping from 7 pm - 8 am waking up every 3 hours to nurse and with 1 good wake up in there. You wake up for about 2 hours in the morning and if i don't mess you up, you sleep all day, again nursing every 2-3 hours! You wake up again from 5-7 pm where you fuss. We do your shower routine and start it all over again.
Two days before you turned 4 weeks, on my very first outing with you, you were circumcised by a pediatrician mohel up on Mercer Island. It was the first time I couldn't comfort you by nursing. It was so very sad. But we all survived and even made it back home.
The final thing that you have started doing your fourth week is tracking people when the come into your view point. You love looking at lights and out the window behind the couch when I am sitting there.
It has been a busy month, but I have also soaked up all the little moments. I just stare at you envisioning the little boy you will be. I can't wait to see who God has created you to be Adler. You are the perfect addition to our family. Your dada and I love you so very much.
Mama
~ Monthly Photos ~
And for all of you who wanted a ton of photos, here they are! So I didn't flood everyone who didn't want to see them. :) His first month captured in photos. Including his lips, his hair, his quizzical expression, gas smiles, his kimono, and his arms always up about his face. All the details.
And our mini photo shoot by our sweet friend Robyn.
And mine with your dada.
We love you sweet boy!