Hiking on the Fells

Well, we're not taking on mountains just quite yet, but we are getting Dylan started on spending some time walking through the great outdoors! Last Saturday, we had a little outing over to Mike's parents house and took a hike in an area by their house called the Fells. Mike's Dad (and Dylan's middle name's sake), Mike and I headed out on the Fells for about an hour.

Dylan did very well in his carrier and I did pretty well carrying him in it, though it affects your balance a bit more than I expected. Also, it was a hot day and having a little hot baby shoved up against you made me feel the temperature a bit more, but all in all, it was a great little hike.

We ascended for a bit, checked out a waterfall (tried to stop for pictures but the mosquitoes quickly moved in so we moved on) then got to a rocky peak where we got a nice view of Boston in the distance one way and a nice view over the town Mike grew up in the other way. Dylan slept peacefully throughout the entire hike.

View of Boston (far distance), the Top of Dylan's Head and Me

A Bit of Dylan's Face

We had a nice time and are now trying to work out when we'll be making our first trip with the little guy to NH. It will be soon!

1 Month

Dylan is one month old today!

I know a few folks that measure their baby's growth (visually) by sitting them with a big stuffed animal. Well, I think it's a great idea and have now stolen it for my own!

It's been a very busy month getting to know him and learning how to take care of him. Whirlwind is definitely the only word I can think of to describe it! We've truly been blessed with this wonderful, good natured, adorable little boy and are enjoying every minute of parenthood. OK, maybe the getting up in the middle of the night's not ridiculously fun, but it's definitely not as awful as I thought it would be.

Happy 1 month birthday my sweet little boy!

(Note: I couldn't figure out a great way to get Dylan propped up beside it, but he'll be sitting beside it on his own in no time, I'm sure. Also, this is the outfit we brought him home from the hospital in. It was swimming on him then, but he's filling it out nicely now.)

Slowly Workin' (Out) Back Up to It

Several days after returning home from the hospital, I trekked 8 blocks to and from the parked car on a shopping trip. I had been feeling really good and took it slowly so thought it would be okay. That evening, I was incredibly uncomfortable! It was then that I realized I would definitely not be jumping back into my workout routine. I would be forced to take it slowly.

Since then, I started with walks around the block. Once I was sure my body was okay, I ventured out for longer, slow treks with Dylan in the stroller and sometimes joined by Mike. My distance and speed have gradually increased. Now, we're regularly taking family walks for about an hour several times a week. I'm ready for more!

Getting the pregnancy weight off is a top priority for me. I had been very happy with my physical fitness and body image pre-pregnancy and yearn to feel that way again. So, it's time to get serious and go for heavier workouts.

Yesterday, I made the big leap back to my weight lifting class at the gym. I hadn't been since early into my 8th month of pregnancy. I stuck with about the same weights I had been using then (a far cry from my pre-pregnancy amounts) and I made it through unharmed! Wahoo! I'm back!

Now that I'm confident my body is ready for more, I'm going to be setting a routine that I'll hopefully be able to stick to. Today, the family is going to go for a walk then play a little tennis. I also hope to fit in more weight lifting this week and possibly some yoga. Baby weight loss, here I come!

Little Party Animal

Our little man is already a very social little guy. During the first 3.5 weeks of his life, he's had numerous visitors and has been averaging a party for every week of his life. How many people can say that?

His first weekend at home, while my parents were in town, Mike's family came over and we had a big cookout to celebrate Dylan's arrival. The next weekend, a coworker had an impromptu cookout and pool party that we decided to go to for a while.

Then, last weekend, Mike's cousin's wife, Jessie, had a big 30th b'day bash, which was also a birthday bash for their son, Justin. Due to our very late arrival (because all of these activities are done in between his feedings), we missed the birthday boy. After diving into his birthday cake, he had a sugar crash and was napping while we were there. However, we did think to snap a few other pictures while we were there.

The Birthday Girl with Dylan

Cousin Leah with Hoodie Dylan

Family Photo

Now, to figure out where he'll be partying this weekend.....

Low Expectations

As a gal that generally prides herself on how much she can get accomplished in one day, I am certainly in new territory! Dylan's truly an "easy" baby and, with Mike and I both able to care for him, we are feeling a little bit spoiled of having an "easy" time with this parenthood stuff.

However, the easy in quotation marks means, as all of you parents out there will understand, that caring for a newborn is still very, very time consuming. As a mother who has chosen to breastfeed, giving this child food is, literally, a full time job. Sitting down for feedings that take 30 minutes to 1 hour about 8 times a day, with diaper changes before and after and burping alongside that....well you do the math. That's a HUGE part of my day! And, it's not like those full time hours come at one time. They're spread across 24 hours so it's not like I have tons of time to get things done in between feedings. During those times though, I try to hang out with him while he's awake as much as possible, comfort him when he's upset, have tons of diaper changes and try to catch some zzz's here and there....doesn't leave a lot of "me" time. I know, I know...that's what parenthood is all about, right? Fine and dandy...I'm ok with that. It's just that, as I said, not accomplishing much during my day is new for me and a bit of an adjustment.

Thus, my daily expectations are pretty low. Here's what I try to get done on a daily basis:

1) Eat 3 meals

2) Shower

3) Take a walk

I haven't taken an inventory of how many days I've actually been able to check all of these off my to do list, but I think I'm probably hitting 50% of days where I get all three of those done. All in all, not bad for a new parent!

Oddly enough, the one of those that gets accomplished the least is fitting in the 3 meals. Nap time seems to always occur around the time when lunch would be eaten. So, more often than not, I get in two meals a day and keep lots of snacks bedside to eat while I'm up in the middle of the night, starving, feeding Dylan. I'm sure these things will come easier with time, but for now, I'm pretty proud of being able to accomplish my low expectations of myself on a semi regular basis.

First Family Portrait

My dear friend Liza came to visit us in the hospital just after Dylan was born. I've known Liza and her family for a long time. In fact, they are a big reason why I moved to Boston. They were my next door neighbors in Dallas and I spent many nights at their house babysitting for Liza's 3 oldest children. Then she had twins and 5 was a bit much for me to handle!

While I was in college, their family moved to the Boston area. I have a big place in my heart for her kids and made the trip to Boston for her 2nd oldest child, Sarah's, bat mitzfah during the summer between my junior and senior years of college. That was (one of) the summer's in Texas with ridiculously high heat - over 100 degrees EVERY day for 3 months! Not being a fan of the heat, that was enough and I decided I was going to move. I fell in love with Boston on that trip....the weather, the architecture, the city! So, that's why I packed up and moved here after college.

I've remained close to their family since moving up here, though I definitely don't see them as much as I would like. They take care of me when I need it though! Since Liza is considered family to me she of course came to meet Mr. Dylan. She also brought along her camera for the event.

Then, several days later when we got home, she brought the twins by (her youngest kids who are now 17) to meet Dylan, bring us some food AND to give us our first family portrait. Now, maybe it was just the postpartum hormones doing their thing, but I was so moved by the gesture and the wonderful family portrait she brought us that I definitely got a little teary eyed! That picture is now sitting, with pride, on our mantel. It will be treasured!

Our Family

Hospital Trip for Both of the Boys

Today was an eventful day for our little family. On the schedule was Dylan's 2 week check up. So, we woke up and all started getting ready for that outing. The whole family got clean, showers for us and a bath for Dylan, and we started working on breakfast. Dylan's the only one that got to eat.

While Mike was slicing up fruit for a smoothie, he also sliced through a good bit of his thumb. Yikes! So, while he sat at the sink with water running over the cut (also quickly losing color and starting to sweat profusely), I hurriedly finished getting Dylan ready and in the car. A quick wrap up of Mike's wound, and we headed to the hospital. Good thing I remembered how to drive...it had been several weeks since I was behind the wheel of a car.

When we got to the hospital, I dropped Mike off at the emergency room (some of his color had returned and I didn't feel as if he would collapse on the way in) and parked the car. Since I was instructed not to lift anything heavier than my baby for several weeks, Mike has been handling all of the baby gear. So, I got a crash course in figuring out how to release the baby seat, set up our stroller and get Dylan into it. We met Mike in the emergency room and made sure he was all checked in. Then, Dylan and I headed across the hospital to the office buildings for his appointment, checking in right on time!

Dylan's appointment went great! The doctor checked him all out and declared him healthy and striving. Yay! I had a long list of questions that the doctor patiently went through with me. Mike and I kept in touch via text messaging and he let me know that he was getting stitches. After Dylan's appointment, we headed back to the emergency room to see how Dad was faring. Timing was, at least, on our side for the day as Mike was "released" about a minute after we made it back to the waiting area. He had received 5 stitches and came out with a bulky bandaged thumb.

So, everyone is doing well after their planned and unplanned doctor's visits. Mike gets out of doing dishes for a while and is still feeling well enough that he's planning on playing soccer tonight. I was happy to be able to look after both of my boys....do I get a gold star for being a great wife and mother today?