Pappaw, Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Chris and cousins Benjamin and Logan came for a visit shortly after Aiden was born. Mammaw was here for a little over 2 weeks and she went back with the rest of the family on St. Patrick's Day. Aunt Stephanie was so excited to meet her nephew. Cousin Benjamin couldn't have been more bored at our house since we had nothing for him to do! They did go to D.C. one day and he had fun.
Aunt Stephanie & Baby Aiden
Pappaw holding his 3rd grandson
Proud Mammaw and Pappaw - too bad we live 10 hours away :(
Mammaw and her grandbabies
It was really nice to have family here with us when we brought Aiden home. I was put to the test after everyone left and Jameson was back at work. It was just me, Aiden and Bedia. That first day all I did was cuddle my baby and watch TV. Since then I've managed to find ways to be productive as well.
2 weeks old - sleeping a lot
3 weeks old - still sleeping a lot
At 3 or 4 weeks old Aiden was pretty much sleeping through the night, but recently we've switched up his routine to make it more predictable. For all you Mommies out there, we're trying the Babywise approach now. We didn't start it until around 6 weeks, but he's doing pretty well. During the day he's very predictable, which is very nice for trying to be productive. We can better plan things around his schedule or bend it to fit around our needs. It's been a little frustrating because now he's not sleeping through the night like he was. He can go 8 hours, but he wants to go 7 pm to 4 am instead of 10 pm to 7 am!
Aiden loved his first real bath. He really loves the water and doesn't fuss at all. I still haven't tried bathing him by myself yet. That's my next goal. He has a little bit of cradle cap right now, but it's not bad. He gets a sponge bath with pretty much every dirty diaper. We've been fighting a yeast infection for a month now. It's almost all gone, but it's a stubborn thing. It doesn't bother him at all thank goodness. He also has a clogged tear duct that causes his left eye to get all goopy and glue itself shut in the mornings. The doctor said that it could take up to 7 or 8 months for it to go away! That's crazy to me, but I massage his little tear duct every day to make it unclog.
Until Aiden was 4 weeks old we didn't want to give him a pacifier, but he really liked to suckle to soothe himself. So, instead of using Mommy as a pacifier all the time he spent a lot of time sucking on Daddy's little finger. There were many an evening that Jameson would lose feeling in his fingertip from his son's strong suck. There are still times now that he would rather have Daddy's finger.
Jameson's moms came for a visit at the end of March and were able to stay for over a week. We hadn't seen them in about a year and a half so it was really nice to have them all to ourselves for a while. They couldn't have had a better visit as they got to hold and love on Aiden the whole time. He makes their 9th grandchild.
Grandma Jan's first time holding Aiden
Grandma Char's first time holding Aiden
Could they be any happier? :)
While they were here we made sure to take them around to see some sites. It's not that often that they'll have the chance to get to Maryland for a visit. We took them down to Annapolis to see downtown and the Naval Academy. Aiden did great on his first day trips and I think Jameson and I handled ourselves pretty well. We changed a couple of blow out diapers in the back seat of the car which was exciting. It was my first time nursing him in public and it went pretty well.
We were lucky to visit D.C. during the Cherry Blossom Festival. Jameson and I had yet to catch it since we've been here. They were stunning and we were there on their peak day. There were cherry blossom petals blowing all over the city from the breeze. It was a gorgeous day. Aiden did awesome as we toted him around in the stroller and in the baby carrier. Jan had never been to D.C. before so we went to some of the monuments but didn't even scratch the surface of those. They will definitely have to come back so she can see more.
Aiden had the most adorable Easter outfit that I couldn't resist. The Easter Bunny didn't visit this year, but we're looking forward to next year. Mommy had her fair share of candy though. I went through 4 bags of Starburst jelly beans in about 3 weeks.
It even has a cotton tail!!
Some of my favorite pictures are those of Aiden and Daddy sleeping together.
Occasionally there's a good picture of me with Aiden
Aiden has a lot of fun in his swing and on his activity gym. He loves to look at his "fishy friends" (as I call them) as he swings. He'll do tummy time on his activity gym for a little while and then he starts to get mad. I'll flip him over and he'll gaze at Mr. Butterfly who sings to him and lights up. He's had very good head and neck control since he was 2 days old and it's only getting stronger. When I'm burping him in the nursery he holds his head up and steady to gaze at the Minnie Mouse painting behind me. He also loves music. He loves to dance with Mommy and likes it when I sing to him. When I can't remember the words to lullabies, I just make something up!
April 15th was a big day. Not only were we trying to get taxes in the mail, but Aiden smiled for the first time at me. I had been trying to get him to smile for a week or so and there were times that I thought he had smiled but wasn't sure. On this day I was sure and I almost cried it made me so happy. I just melt when I see that toothless grin! :)
I can't believe it took me so long to take a naked baby picture!
So, all in all Aiden is just perfect and we're so blessed to have such a good baby. We're looking forward to my family coming to visit in a couple of weeks to bless him at church. Pappaw Tom is planning to come see us next month, and we're all excited for his visit. I'll do my best to try to update on a more weekly basis, because he is certainly changing quickly. I weighed him today at our breastfeeding support group and he is now 11 lbs 10 oz. I want to measure his length and see how long he's gotten. You can see in the last picture that he's a long, skinny thing.
