Family Pictures 2012

In hindsight, it may have been a tad bit over-zealous to think that it was a good idea is schedule Charlie's newborn pictures, Leah's 2 year pictures and our annual family pictures just three days after giving birth and the day after coming home from the hospital with a new stranger to introduce to a barely two year old.

Yes, over-zealous, indeed!

It was Leah's actual birthday, we were totally sleep-deprived, still adjusting to being a family of four, and Leah was totally and completely out of sorts in every way. Mommy and Daddy had been gone for three days... she was a bit sleep-deprived herself and her world was freshly rocked to the very core with this new little brother.

Over-zealous or not, we just had to go with it...

We literally have an entire disk of pictures that look like this... 

more or less...

After 2.5 hours of trying, we did finally get one (literally just ONE) picture where no one was crying and everyone was at least looking at the camera. Not perfect, but we'll take it!

***

This was as close as we got to a smile from Leah the entire day... as she was showing us the actions to "wheels on the bus"

I LOVE HER!

However, the more that I look at these pictures, there is a certain sweetness to her very evident sourness. These pictures all capture a real "event" in her life and I kind of love them.

In the midst of the mayhem that was our life, she was able to capture some very sweet and priceless pictures of our sweet baby Charlie. For that I am thankful...

And lastly, the one and only picture in which she acknowledged the "new kid"... 

{candy corns may or may not have been used in the bribing/staging of this photo}
{not sure he's too thrilled with his lot in life yet either}

Although so ridiculously far from perfect, these pictures capture a literal moment in time for our little growing family and I love them more and more all the time!

 ♥

one month

{oh dear... this post has been sitting in my drafts folder for nearly a month now, waiting to be finished and fine tuned. turns out, he's now only a handful of days away from being TWO months now. oh well, such is life these days...a bit behind. the good news is that we have in fact seen some good improvements since I started avoiding dairy and soy. kind of a good news/bad news deal... but more on that later. Just know that difficult or not...we are in fact totally and completely 100% smitten with him and we're totally keeping him}

Once again, I am in awe of the complexities of time. How quickly this first month has zipped by and yet, how long it has seemed. My chunky littleman is already a month old.

I'm not going to lie... it's been a hard month. He's been a hard baby. It's been a hard adjustment. Two kids under two is hard. Getting little to no sleep every night is hard. 

The good news is that his delivery was nearly perfect in every way, so different than with Leah. My recovery has been smooth and quick, which is something to be thankful for.

Although my recovery with LJ was awful, she was such an easy baby... very content, decent sleeper from the get-go and mostly happy....

Charlie is not yet any of those things. The poor little guy seems sad and uncomfortable most of the time. It seems as though he rarely sleeps more than about 40 minutes at a time and cries much of the time he is awake. So sad! We suspect reflux, based on many of the symptoms he has exhibited and started him on medication about 2 weeks ago. It has definitely helped a little, but has not been the magic solution we hoped for.

We had his one month appointment today and Dr Suzy suspects that he may also have some food intolerances and suggested that I start an elimination diet... beginning with dairy and soy to see if it helps. Turns out dairy and/or soy are pretty much in everything and most of the good things in life stem from butter, cream and cheese. Wish me luck... especially now that the holidays are upon us! Looks like Chris and I won't have to fight over all the Halloween candy that Leah scored last night after all. :(

In better news.... this kid is growing like a weed and packing on the lbs like it's his job. 

one month stats:

11 lbs 4 oz

22 inches long

And the best news of all is that he's ridiculously adorable. 

Seriously, he's as cute as they come... chubby cheeks, dimples to die for and a yummy double chin!

At least he's got that going for him.

{tie and sweater vest. dapper little fellow}

A little sampling of some of his newborn pics...

(more to come)

Daddy is likely not gonna be happy about me posting this last picture, but it shows how we feel right now.

Although he too is one totally dapper, handsome dude... those are definitely some tired eyes!!

I know that they don't stay tiny like this for long, but I'm realizing it might be because you couldn't do it for long.

Happy One Month Little Fellow

We made it!

♥