1 week old

Dear Bennett-

I can't believe that you are one week old already! I feel like time is flying by much too fast. It feels like only yesterday that I found out you were coming to join our family.

Ironically, today was your originally scheduled induction date, had you decided to stick around past your due date.

So some things about you at 1 week old:

• You are SUCH a good baby. You eat like a champ (constantly) but make up for it by going right back to sleep after. A couple times a day you reward us by staying awake and alert after a feeding or diaper change. So fun.




• You rarely cry - only when you're hungry or when we're changing your diaper. (Let's try to keep that up, okay?)




• You are trying really hard to suck your thumb, I think. You want to self-soothe but can't quite control your hand enough to get it in your mouth.




• You love baths, or at least the feel of the warm water running over you.




• You've lost your breathy-kitten cry that you had in the hospital and the first day or two at home. When you were really miserable your cries would raise about an octave for a high, breathy cry. It was really pitiful but adorable.




• You only like the pacifier the hospital gave you. You won't even take the ones we bought you from Babies R Us that, to me, look identical to your hospital one.




• You are great at feeding. I wish you would go longer between feedings (sometimes as little as an hour!) but at least we've got the hang of this. I am sad though because I know this will chunk you up far quicker than I am ready for!




• Daddy went to work today for the first time since you came home. At 10:22am he texted me a "happy 1 week birthday Bennett" message - so cute!



• You sleep in a laundry basket. When we brought you home we couldn't understand why you slept so well in the little hospital bassinet but won't sleep for more than 15 minutes in your mini-crib. Nana suggested that it's maybe because the crib is so much bigger than you. So we made a little bed for you in the laundry basket and you've been sleeping much better!

Belly Button

Dear Bennett-

Your umbilical cord fell off this morning! We had been watching it since yesterday since it seemed pretty loose - only barely still attached. Early this morning your dad went to help me change a diaper, and it was a good thing he did, because he was the one who noticed that your cord had fallen off. Except that we had no idea where it was (don't worry, at the next diaper change it fell out of your onesie). So now you have a cute little belly button!

This is the "before" picture - I thought it was really cute the way your skin puckered up around the cord.

This is the "after" picture - a little raw still but oh-so-cute!

First Outing

Our first adventure leaving the house was to go to Cal-Ranch to get Little Red some puppy stairs. Not very exciting, I know, but hey - we were out of the house for a whole half hour which was huge at the time.

Papa took us since he was here helping. It was very nice of him although I'm sure he was dying to get out of the house too!

I know you

Nana Rutkowski suggested I write this down so that I don't forget it, and I think it's a good idea.

Before you were born, I was very worried about what would happen after you were here.  I really enjoyed being pregnant with you and I was worried that I would miss being pregnant.  I was in love with the baby in my belly, and I was worried that I would have a hard time realizing that the baby outside my tummy was the same baby that was once inside my tummy.  But I loved you right away in the hospital, and a couple specific experiences these first few days have helped me really remember that you are the same baby that I've loved for the past 9 months too.

The first night we brought you home you had a hard time sleeping in your bassinet, but you would sleep nicely in my arms.  So in the middle of the night I decided to bring you downstairs and sleep on the couch with you so that Daddy could get some sleep.  You and I were both snoozing soundly when I was awakened by a familiar sensation on my belly.  It felt just like when I was still pregnant and you would stretch and push your little feet against my tummy.  But as I woke up more I knew I wasn't pregnant anymore so I was confused.  So I looked down and saw that you had lost one of your socks and your long toes were raking against my tummy.  It felt exactly the same!  It was even in the same area as your feet were when you were inside.  I was so excited.  I thought to myself, "I know you! I would know those poky little toes anywhere.  You are the same baby as the one that was in my tummy! I know you!"

A couple days later I had a similar experience.  The last few months of being pregnant with you, you used to get the hiccups all the time.  At least a couple times a day.  It was always really funny when I could put my hand on my belly and feel the tiny little hiccups coming from inside.  So a few days after you were born I told your Daddy that I thought it was weird that you hadn't had the hiccups yet.  Later that day you got them for the first time outside the womb.  The funny part was. . .I recognized the pattern!  The hiccups were the same pattern as the one you used to have in my tummy.  I had that same "I know you!" feeling all over again.

So I guess it's true!  The baby outside my tummy = the baby inside my tummy.  I'm so very glad!  I have loved you all along!

Due Date

Today is your due date!

I'm so glad to have you home with us already :)

On Changing Baby Boy Diapers

Dear Bennett-

Your daddy is having a harder time learning to change your poopy diapers than I am. This is totally legit since he's never really changed a diaper before. He is very willing to learn - his main problem is that whenever we open a diaper and see poop, he starts giggling like a schoolgirl. Yesterday you had a pretty impressive diaper and daddy went running out of the room because he was laughing so hard. And at the hospital you traumatized him a little bit because the very first poopy diaper we had to change ourselves (the nurse did the first one to show us how) we got you all cleaned up nice, high fived each other, and then as I was reaching to pull the dirty diaper out from under you, you pooped some more! We laughed and got you cleaned up again, only for the same thing to happen a third time! Pretty impressive, kid. We went through 3 diapers on that change, just trying to contain the madness that was your poop.

Today's poop adventure: We took you upstairs to the changing table and it was just a wee bit of poop so I asked your daddy if he was good to do this one for practice, and he said yes. He was doing great, but he forgot to leave the dirty diaper under you while reaching for the new one. So he already had pulled the old diaper out when he started freaking out because he realized you were peeing all over yourself and me! (I was holding your wiggly ankles up and was so distracted watching him that I didn't realize) So I looked toward your chest and sure enough, the pee was a'flowin'. Then I heard even more freaking out from your dad and looked back in time to see you pooping all over the changing table! Your dad was in absolute hysterics, which was making me laugh too. Except that I just had a baby 4 days ago so in between laughs I managed to say "you have to stop! I'm peeing myself! I have no bladder control right now!" which only made your daddy laugh harder. Anyway we finally got you cleaned up and have you wrapped up nakie, with only a clean diaper since we're going to give you your first bath when daddy and Nana get home from the store in a few minutes.

Now if I can only figure out how to break the news to daddy that I'm pretty sure I heard you pooping some more right after he left. . .