sleeping arrangement

We have a king size bed. I am not a restful sleeper so this has always been necessary. Ezekiel has TWO beds. One is a beautiful sleigh crib in his own bedroom (we haven't let him sleep in there yet because it isn't in our room and because we can't seem to regulate the temp in there and it is always freezing!) the other is an Arm's Reach Co-sleeper that I just needed to have so my sister Mandy paid the $130 for it for my babyshower. Here is a picture:



Notice how empty it is. This is because Ezekiel has decided he likes to sleep elsewhere:



yes - my king size bed. Sandwiched right between me and Marty on his own special cosleeper (it really is a cosleeper, just designed to use on a big-kid bed). That way, he needs only squawk when he loses his Nuk or needs his bottle, or maybe a diaper change, or wants to hold hands, etc..etc...etc.....

Christmas Eve and Christmas past

phew.

Thank goodness that is over with. Not that I don't like the holiday season, it was just really different and kind of rough this year. I'm exhausted. Marty is exhausted. Ezekiel is exhausted (and not feeling that great). And sometimes, it just seems like there is too much other stuff going on that we forget to appreciate the little things on the holidays (like, did Marty and I even get to stop and kiss each other once during those two days?)

Christmas Eve, we went to Marty's nana's for dinner. That was nice (very different without Papa there though). We got home a little after 11p. Ezekiel decided he didn't really feel like sleeping so we took turns trying to get him to sleep and then around 4am, Marty told me that one of us had to drive to my mom's at 8:30 that morning, so go ahead and get a few hours of sleep. I did...I woke up at 7:00 and Marty was able to grab an hour of sleep (Ezekiel still hadn't slept). I think I sleep-drove to my mom's. When I got there, I kind of crashed into a chair and didn't really do much talking (or moving - thanks for handing my gifts to me ). Someone walked off with Ezekiel and he was passed around and coo'ed over for hours so he was happy even if Mommy and Daddy sat comatose in the corner the entire time. I don't remember much of the morning (I do remember the mushrooms I put on my eggs - they were really, really delicious), but I do remember it was a nice Christmas. When we got home (after sleep-driving the 15 miles back), Marty crashed for a nap and I was finally able to get the Little One down for a while so I could nap too.

I don't have any pics of Ezekiel to post (we forgot our camera) but I'm sure I'll get some from my mom and then I'll post.

belly button!

Ezekiel lost his umbillical cord the other night - so now he has a perfect little belly button. It is funny, it is almost like his belly button can't decide if it wants to be an innie or an outie, so it is half-and-half.

He slept through the night two nights ago - unfortunately, I was such a nervous wreck wondering why he was sleeping so much that I only managed to get in a half hour of sleep. Last night he slept less so I was able to sleep a bit better :) I'm still a walking zombie though. He eats, eats, eats - then he sleeps..when he sleeps, I try to sleep. It is a weird feeling to feel so suddenly removed from society.

another, another pic

another picture. This one shows how exhausted Marty is and how unkempt he has become (I think I'm there too) ;)

Another pic

Here is Ezekiel being a little smooshface. We had sort of a rough night again last night. As he is a partial breastfed baby (the rest of his milk is pumped from me but not directly from the breast) he has to eat a "certain way" - meaning, he can't just lay back and enjoy the drip-drip-drip of milk from the bottle into his mouth. He has to sit semi-upright and work for it; otherwise, he gets lazy with his suck and he can't latch on. So, last night we went to my mom's and I was all together happy to let people take turns feeding him. I forgot to mention his eating style though. What this meant, was last night he just wanted the milk to dribble into his milk (and since breastmilk gets digested within 2 hours of eating it, he wasn't getting enough milk to satisfy his hunger....so we would have to start all over 15 minutes later). This meant a real lack of sleep for us. After his doc appt today - in which he met with the utterly fabulous Dr. Tony - we came home and I fell asleep. Marty (being Marty) took Ezekiel and entertained him for 2 hours so I could completely crashed. They took a "nature walk" through the apartment looking at the sights, played some video games, and did some serious hanging out.

Pumpkin Pie

Well, I've been discharged from the hospital but Ezekiel is still there. Talk about tough. He is a little trooper though - well, he is a little Big Trooper weighing in at a beefing 8lbs, 8oz.

Labor was as tough as everyone says. Mine was medically induced for 24 hours of hard labor w/out drugs as the doctor tried TWELVE times to get a spinal in me but all I got out of the deal was pain and bruising all up and down my spine. After 24 hours of labor, 8 cm of dialation, and tons of frustration, they realized that little Ezekiel was positioned in an inverted breach crazy position where at least his head was in the birth canal but there was no way I was going to be able to deliver him naturally. So, they did an emergency c-section with some local anethesia that still allowed me to feel my organs being plopped onto my chest. Then I heard E. cry. Then, I saw him being carried across the room in Marty's arms and every hurt flew away. I got to give him about 4 minutes of kisses, then he had to leave and I had to go to recovery for about 4 hours. It was so awesome to go upstairs and meet him and hold him though!!!

We are heading back in as they are going to board us while Ezekiel is still there..but here are a couple of pics.

Marty and Ezekiel yesterday; notice how yellow Ezekiel is.

finally..well, almost

Next week I'm going to be a mom. I keep going into these panics and being like 'wait, wait! I'm not ready. I just got married! I like being just a couple. I enjoy my freedom. I'm too young, I'm just a kid myself!' Then I'm like..wait...I've been happily married for almost 7 years; we are a good, strong couple and a baby isn't going to ruin that; we tried for this....for years...and I'm not young or a kid anymore (actually, I'm pretty old to be starting out on this). Thank goodness for Marty being rational. When I get really bad, he manages to squeeze in behind me in the bathtub, wash my back and talk me through my panic.