Granted, Justin is pretty easy to look after, but I still go nutty being home with just him all day. I’m doing my best to get out and about, but I’m still pretty happy to see Chris when he gets home from work. Naturally, Chris wishes he could be home more because he feels like he’s missing out on time with Justin. C’est la vie.

Justin had a great night last night but for some reason I was unable to go back to sleep after the 2:00 feed, so it’s gonna be a long day (sigh). On the upside, Leslie arrives this morning and will be here all weekend, plus Chris is on baby duty for the next couple nights, so hopefully I can catch up on some snoozing.

Sometimes I just cannot believe we were blessed with such an easy baby. He’s perfectly content to sit in his chair or on a blanket and just look around at stuff, or have a nap, without making a peep. This morning he lay on a blanket in the hallway and watched me clean the bathroom — and he stayed there while I gathered up the laundry and took it downstairs. It’ll never be this easy to look after him once he’s crawling, but for now it’s pretty nice. He’s even sleeping for four hours at a stretch at night, so everyone seems to be getting enough sleep. I’ve been telling Chris we can’t ever have another baby cause it would just be pushing our luck. Justin is amazing.

It’s been a roller-coaster week of worry, frustration and tears, but things are looking up now. I’ve been taking Justin to a breastfeeding centre every once in a while to get him weighed and to make sure he’s feeding all right, and he just hasn’t been gaining weight the way he should be, so that was disturbing. We finally switched him to formula on Friday and saw instant results: he’s back to his jolly old self, we know exactly how much he’s eating and I don’t have to exhaust myself trying to feed him every two or three hours (Chris actually enjoys being able to give the baby a bottle!) At first I felt guilty about giving up the breastfeeding (society certainly expects mothers to nurse their babies), but it just wasn’t working for any of us, and when we finally decided to switch I got an immense sense of relief. My body still thinks there’s a baby to feed, though, so I have to go through the same engorgement I went through a couple weeks back when my milk first came in, but that should clear up in a few days.

Chris is even doing the night feeds on weekends, so I was able to get a full night’s sleep last night. Life seems good again.

Justin is a pretty good baby, bless his heart, but he seems to have a problem with gas pains, and the poor little guy has crying fits that aren’t easily taken care of. We discovered that he generally relaxes by sucking his thumb, but he hasn’t quite figured out a consistent way of getting it into his mouth (when he cries, he makes his hands into fists, with his thumb stuck inside). Someday he’ll learn where it is, but until then we all have to suffer.

Everyone keeps telling me how well we’re doing as parents, but last night I had a bit of a meltdown: Justin had been crying on and off for hours all day and I was too exhausted to deal with it. Fortunately, my parents volunteered to sit up with him to calm him down so I could go to bed and get some much-needed sleep. It turns out he slept from 8:30 last night to 6:30 this morning and only woke up for food twice. (And when he does a night feeding, he eats and goes right back to sleep.) So all is not lost.

We’re eight days into this parenting thing and I think we’re slowly getting the hang of it. Justin is actually a very easygoing little guy, and we’ve even had a few nights of decent sleep. We’ve already taken him out for walks in the stroller, and we’ve gone out shopping with him…I can’t actually lift the car seat, so Chris has to handle that end of things, but at least I’m getting out of the house (not bad for someone who had a c-section just last week, hey?)

We can’t decide which of our relatives Justin looks like. At first we thought he kinda resembled his uncle Greg, but now we’re seeing more of me and my brother Dave in him. Who knows. He sure is a cutie, though!

Justin and Chris are both napping, which sounds like a good idea to me…

We are very proud to announce the birth of Justin Michael Lee, born March 10, 2005 at 9:03 pm – 7 lbs, 8.5 ozs.

Mom and baby are doing great – expected to be home on Monday!

I’ve now officially completed 40 weeks (which, if anyone’s counting, is 10 months) of pregnancy, but this baby is apparently unaware of that fact. Chris and a few other people are getting impatient for this kid to be born, but it’s not like I’ve been holding out just to frustrate the relatives. No one wants this to happen more than me!

In the meantime, I’ve been making sure to get out of the house on some kind of excursion at least once a day. Chris gets nervous as soon as I step out the door, whether I’m walking or driving: he seems convinced I’ll go into labour while I’m out and will be unable to crawl to a phone to get in touch with him. It’s cute, actually.

On the upside, they’ll only let me go 10 days late, so the clock is ticking…

I’m on the second day of my maternity leave and it feels like nothing is happening. My official due date is six days away but my doctor figures I’m going to be late, so I have a fair amount of time on my hands. I can’t even apply for maternity benefits until I get a form from work, and it apparently isn’t ready yet. Ho hum.