Adam's first days at home

Coming home:

The week prior to having the baby, our landlords (mostly the wife) would come running out onto the balcony, or shout to us from across the yard every time we were leaving the house. “BENE!?” they would ask. “Bene” means “good” or “well”, I believe they were asking if I was well and if it was time for the baby. We always shook our heads, nope, not time yet.

            As we were backing up our driveway, I mentioned to Troy that they would likely be waiting for us and want to see the baby right away. “Nah…” he said shaking his head. Sure enough, before I even had a foot out of the car door they were on the balcony putting on their jackets and shoes, shouting excitedly in Italian. I gave Troy the sideways glance. I love our landlords, but I had just finished being around loads of people at the hospital the past few days and was kind of hoping for a breather. They came in and sat on our couch and they held the little one till he started fussing.

            That night they came down with hot soup for me and gave me advice, but which felt more like mandates, of the things I could no longer eat now that I was breastfeeding. They basically said about half of the fruits and veggies are not good for me to eat. No carrots, zucchini, cabbage, etc. They also were very insistent that I eat no grapes, because they would ferment in my stomach and make the baby ill. I nodded as I added grapes to my mental list of “Foods not to eat around the landlords”. I have read in a few forums that there are some foods babies are sensitive to, but none were universal. The majority of blogs and articles I read implied that each baby is different and different foods will either get along with them or not and it’s up to you to figure out what your kid likes and what doesn’t sit well with him. (Which makes sense, don’t you think?) Regardless, I thanked them for their advice and the soup and they left, finally leaving me and the hubby with our little one. 

Baby’s first bath

Our drying zone, awaiting a clean baby!

      We were finally able to give him more than a wipe down because his umbilical cord fell off, meaning… bath time! In order to spare him future embarrassment, all bath pictures are going to be kept between my hubby and I, but here are the before and after pics I got. 

He didn't much enjoy the bath, but he was quite happy and clean after!
 

Then he was ready for nap time. Him and mommy both...

        For those of you who haven't seen him with his eyes open yet, yes, he got his mommy's blue eyes ^_^ though I know that can change over the first few months, right now, they're quite blue. 

         And a big thank you to his Uncle Abe, Aunt Summer, and cousin Brock for the cute little brown elephant outfit he's wearing! 

       

Cooking with the Parents

         My hubby and I love to cook together and eating healthy is a big part of our lifestyle, so naturally we wanted to show him our passions as soon as possible. 

       For those of you seeing the picture on the right and freaking out, don't worry! Whomever is carrying the baby is on dishes and vegetable prep only. We never wear the baby and work at the stove top or oven. ok? Just had to clarify because I know someone will contact me concerned... 

      Below is my hubby, cooking up a delicious pork roast on a bed of veggies while  talking with Adam. What a lucky kid, I mean, how many other kids get their own private cooking demonstration? 

Yes I know, my hubby needs his own apron. But he said he was secure enough in his manhood that I could post this picture of him in my apron online. Don't worry, I have an apron for him in the works ;)

Sleep and Noise Training:

       

          Troy and I both decided we wanted a kid who would sleep through anything. I know that noise training is controversial in the parenting world, and I’ve read many articles and personal mothers’ blogs for and against noise training, but my hubby and I decided we wanted to try it. I’ve heard people say that you can’t noise train children and one woman (who was a family therapist and sleep coach of 18 years) claimed that children who can sleep through noise are an anomaly. Well if that’s the case, we’re hoping to make an anomaly.

            For those of you not in on this debate, the main reason against noise training is that the quality of the sleep you obtain is up for debate. Some claim that you may be able to sleep through whatever noise or commotion is going on, but that you’re not getting the quality sleep you need. I can see this logic, and Troy and I both like a good nights sleep. He even purchased the thickly lined “black out curtains” in an attempt to block out all light. And while a nice dark quiet room at a certain temperature is ideal for sleep, life is not ideal and cannot always conform to our sleep needs. Thus we thought it would be a good talent to give him early.

From experience I can say it’s been quite handy. I can sleep through just about anything. During swim meets I’d fall asleep on the grass in the bright sun with the frequent shots of the start gun in the background. Perhaps this wasn’t “high quality” sleep, but at least I was able to get some sleep while my teammates suffered like zombies, needing rest but unable to fall asleep in such an environment. I’m convinced I was better off. I had roommates who simply could not sleep under such conditions and required dead silence and dark in order for them to get their beauty rest. I understand that at night, but during the day when everyone is on such different schedules and people are napping at odd hours, it’s a pain to tiptoe around and wonder if someone sensitive might wake if you fried a snack on the stove. Or there are those mothers with signs on their door saying not to ring the doorbell so as not to wake the sleeping infant. What a pain. 

Sound asleep in his bouncer

So during the day when he falls asleep we leave the lights on and keep him in a room near us. We’ll play our tunes on the speakers (which aren’t blasting by any means, but it’s certainly not quiet) and we’ll go about our business and rearrange furniture or cook foods as needed. So far it’s been great and he sleeps through everything. As the evening progresses we start putting him in the crib in his dark room and all through the night it’s very dark and quiet. If he needs quality deep sleep, he’s certainly getting it at night. Deep dark quiet sleep is nice, but in a world that can’t always offer this to you, we believe it’s good to have the ability to sleep through whatever it throws at you. We’ll let you know how this works out for us. 

Aaaannnddd one last picture for this post. I love his thoughtful face and the little moose outfit from the Wong family! Thank you for clothes!!!