Week Five: I'm a Real Boy!

Will is a month old! I can't believe how quickly the first month went by, and he's now turning into a real baby. No schedule in sight, although he does tend to take a lengthy morning nap and a long one in the evening when Emily goes to bed. He also seems to sleep better at night, meaning that he generally falls back asleep after nursing a bit, and he usually does this by snuggling with my, um, boob. This morning Ian woke up, looked at Will, and said "I think this kid needs a teddy bear". It's kind of cute, but really, would you cuddle up with your cheeseburger? And after my role as Emily's comfort object during her infancy, I wouldn't mind him being attached to something else (After all, my breasts can't very well accompany him to preschool and hang out in his cubby). And while he doesn't cry much at night, he is actually quite noisy, so none of us are getting a lot of sleep. He grunts, squeaks, snores, and of course growls while he's nursing (a viking already, no?). Will is really starting to interact more and be much more alert during the day. He likes Ian to hold him upright in his lap - it makes him feel like a real person I think. He seems to be pretty frusterated at being so small - Ian is convinced that Will is trying to roll over already, and he certainly does seem much less content to just be than Emily, but then again she was also unhappy for various other reasons.

I got an early birthday present from Will this week - his first smile! On Wendsday I was holding him in the chair downstairs after one of his many prolonged breastfeeding sessions, talking to him, and he looked me right in the eyes and gave a big goofy grin. He's repeated this trick a few times since then, but everytime it's priceless. He's still so serious most of the time, I can't wait for him to really start giving the big happy grins.

In other news, well it's not really news I guess (it's getting pretty old, actually), I'm still vomiting once a week. After trying everything including blaming it on pregnancy, hormones, stomach acid, eliminating dairy from my diet, it's only getting worse. I guess I should listen to everyone around me, telling me I need to seek real medical help, rather than just seeing my OB, before it gets worse. The truth is that I have a bit of a phobia of the doctor (as those of you that have read my pregnancy journal are well aware). Faced with a very real medical problem, I'm torn between ignoring the symptoms and suffering in silence and finding out that it's something really bad. Again, it's the whole loss-of-control thing. Ian reminded me of what happened last summer when I ignored an ear infection until I was in so much pain I could do nothing but cry. The result? A very expensive trip to the emergency room (and my ear was plugged up for the better part of last summer).

I got a new laptop this week, a graduation present from my mom, which means I've been playing World of Warcraft with Ian. It's nice that we can do it together, and we are quite a team - but the a thought crossed my mind while I was trying to juggle breastfeeding Will and getting to level 10 - I'm such a dork. I was addicted to the Sims when Emily was an infantl, so I should watch out, it's not like I have that much down time (So on one hand I feel like, hey I deserve this!). Needless to say I got nothing done this weekend.

In all, the first month has been better than I had imagined, and as Will turns into his own little person, I'm really enjoying being a mother of two (most times, anyway).