Henry: Week 1

Well, one week has passed since I gave birth to our beautiful son. It's so surreal to me to look at him, and hold him, kiss him, and just lay with him sleeping on my chest. This is our son! Wow! It's so, so neat. I also feel incredibly lucky that my c-section recovery has been relatively easy. I've been up walking and feeling pretty okay from day one, and now, a week later I'm probably at a 90%. I've still been taking it completely easy- not lifting anything heavier than Henry, and not going crazy getting things done, but I have no problem moving around, sleeping, anything. My incision is healing well. I know this is not the case with most c-section patients so I am feeling very fortunate my body is reacting well and bouncing back quickly. My post-op check up is next week so I'm looking forward to that.

Emotionally at first I was pretty up and down for the first couple of days. Not sad per say but just super emotional about everything. Henry would yawn or do something adorable and I would start to cry about how beautiful he was, or I'd start thinking about how scary it was to be a parent, all of the things that could go wrong. Lots of tears in those first days. But now I'm feeling back to my normal self and although I still have all of those fears, I'm not crying at the drop of a hat! Oh, hormones! I will say that it is pretty scary to be a parent. I feel like Hank and I are constantly checking to be sure Henry is breathing, and even if I get 3 hours of sleep, I spend a bit of that time checking to be sure everything is okay.

As far as Henry...gosh. What a darling, darling boy. He is the sweetest baby I've ever met. Granted, I'm sure I'm biased because he's my son, but I can just feel the kind, wonderful energy he puts out. I can't wait to see what he's like once he can start communicating more with us. He sleeps for about 3 hours at a time, he wakes up and I change him, he eats (I'm breastfeeding), then at night he'll go right back to sleep (last night he slept for 4 hours in a row!) and during the day we'll hang out a bit before he falls back asleep. I've had NO issues breastfeeding. He took to it from the first moment in the hospital and will usually eat for at least 20 minutes at a time. I've experienced no pain and no discomfort from it and I am so, so thankful for this. The boy loves to eat! At night he is sleeping in his pack n' play next to our bed, in his sleep sack, and like I said he will sleep for about 3 hours straight before he wakes up. If he needs to be changed he will wake up sooner but for the most part he sticks to about a three hour sleeping time. It'll be interesting to see how this changes as time goes on. We swaddled him at first, but after a few nights we found that he actually enjoys his sleep sack more. While he's sleeping he makes these cooing noises, and sometimes it even sounds like a little high-pitched yip. Seriously heart-melting.

I always imagined what it would feel like to meet my son and look into his eyes, but nothing could have prepared me for the overwhelming emotions I'd feel. I've never been happier. Hank and I are just beside ourselves with this deep, deep love for him, and for each other. We've been having the best time getting to know Henry. He's a very calm baby. Hank and I have had numerous moments where we'll catch ourselves doing something kind of funny that we wouldn't have ever imagined before. Case in point: high-fiving after successfully sucking a stubborn booger out of Henry's nose with the nasal aspirator. Yup. "Did we really just high-five to that?!" We've been laughing a lot and having a blast. We'll be getting our first professional photos of him done next week and I really can't wait for beautiful pictures of his tiny hands, and feet, and that little face.

My Mom has been here for the past week and it's been so nice to spend everyday with her, and learn all of her baby tricks and gain some knowledge and wisdom from her. Her and Hank are as close as can be, and we kind of want to keep her hostage so she can never leave! I'm so thankful for her.

Some other things I'm loving this week:

• nightly story time. Hank reads Henry a book every night before we go to sleep. I know he's only a week old but we've done this every night and I know he's taking it all in! :)
• breastfeeding. I love it. It's just the most amazing thing to know that my body makes everything that our baby needs. It's just so bonding and the way he snuggles up to me after he is done seriously kills me every time.
• sleep smiles. All of Henry's little facial expressions are adorable, but he makes this little smile in his sleep that is just super cute.
• watching Hank be a Dad. He's an amazing father and the love he has for our son is really, really beautiful.
• Henry's little koala hold. He loves to lay right on my chest, head in my nook and legs tucked up really tight.
  

Oh, and yesterday I also submitted my official resignation letter to the school district and now I am truly and officially a stay-at-home Mom. I am beyond excited for this chapter in life, and I'm looking forward to being able to be home with Henry every single day. A week in and I absolutely cannot fathom leaving him. I feel very fortunate to be able to do this. After sending the letter I got a little sad though because I do miss my kids a lot. It's hard not to see the people that brought so much joy to my life everyday. I've mentioned it before but this year has been the best teaching year of my life, with the sweetest kids in the world. I definitely miss it. But, life changes and goes on, and this is where I'm at now, happily.

Before I go, I wanted to extend a heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you who left such lovely comments and congratulations about Henry! My little family appreciates it so much.





my Mom picked out this onesie of course!


sprawling on Daddy's lap


Daddy/Henry nightly story time