first real bath...

daniel didn't lose his cord until we were at the hospital... at almost 6 weeks old so he had only been getting washcloth baths before that.

 we were excited to go home and use our little baby tub and give him a real bath.  he loved it! he sat so content in the warm water while i scrubbed him down... the only part he really hated was the end when we pulled him out of the cozy water and cover him in cold lotion.  sorry babe!

he and i also went to church for the first time (his first time, my first time in almost 2 months).  he looked super cute in his little church clothes.  and he was the perfect baby all through church and never cried.

he also randomly fell asleep on his tummy time/play time blanket the other day... it was too cute with his arms up by his head.  i love sleeping babies.. they are so sweet!

first hike...

chris was on spring break last week so we decided to take a day and go out to red rock and do a little hike.  it had to be fairly little and super easy considering i'm still recovering from surgery.  but we loaded up little man and drove up there and decided to just do a short hike around willow springs.  it was a beautiful day for weather and hiking.  the sun wasn't too hot which is good since i was carrying the baby in our bjorne.  he did super good and just slept the whole time and even slept the whole drive home which is awesome since it was time to eat.

we even found a little spring... and a waterfall... but we didn't take pics of the water fall..

daniel really likes to ride in the car and just look at everything around him.

we are really glad we went up there and will probably go again before we leave las vegas in july.

all a precautionary measure...

on thursday morning a couple weeks ago the baby woke up to eat, and when i picked him up i noticed he was kinda hot.  so i fed him and he was not very interested in eating... i took his temp and it was 101.  i called the pediatrician on call (cause that is what they told me to do with this newborn) and she had me give him tylenol and  come into the office when it opened.  we got to the office and see one of our pediatricians partners and after he checked him out he sends us next door to the summerlin hospital pediatric er  to do some testing and then observe him for a couple days, the fear being meningitis or the flu or something else that could be really harmful to a baby who is only 5 weeks old.

i walk over with my little guy and they take us back and immediately start doing a work up.  this was the worst part of the whole experience watching the baby get poked and prodded and squeezed.  he was a trooper but ended up with lots of bruises.  they did a little catheter to get some urine and they tried several times to do an IV for fluids and to get blood for blood cultures and what not.  daniel has sadly inherited my tiny non exsistant veins so they poked him 4 times before finally getting it in his arm.  they also had to do a spinal tap.  the curled him into a tiny fetal ball... and he hardly cried he was so wiped out by this point.

while waiting to be admitted upstairs he started getting really fussy, and when i opened up his blanket i panicked because his tiny little hand was swollen and huge and purple!  i ran out and got a nurse... after they did the IV the taped his arm to a splint to keep it straight and they did the tape too tight and it was cutting off circulation.  totally freaky.

they then took us upstairs.  this is where we spent the next couple days.   i originally thought it was only going to be one night, but when the pediatrician came by the next evening they said it would be a couple days till we got all test results back.  daniel only had the fever for the one day, so they were keeping us just to be sure it was something more serious than the virus they figured it was.  

they had him on iv antibiotics and one night the nurse was worried because little man was crying really hard as they went in, and she was like... thats not right.  so she took the tape off and looked at his arm... the left arm was twice the size of the right... the IV had not been in right the whole time and was just pumping fluid into his arm... so she took it out...  the next morning she tired to put one back in and another nurse tried and after that once more wanted to try and i said no!  we wanted to wait for the NICU nurse to come down and do it.. we heard he was the best and he does it on tiny 3 pound babies... so we would wait.  he finally came down and had no problem putting it back in.  after that it was never a problem again... but they wrapped it up real good so it wouldn't get pulled out or anything, looked like a giant club on his tiny arm.

this whole experience would have been more miserable if i hadn't had so much support from my mom and chris coming and spending time with me as much as they could!  and bringing me things from home.  my mom even stayed for a bit so i could run home and take a shower.  it was all bad timing since chris had his big licensing exam the same weekend we were in the hospital.  he did buy daniel a little get better gift.  super sweet little bear that says get well beary soon.

all tests came back negative and he was fine... just a long weekend with not a lot of sleep for me since people come in and out of the room every other second... not fun!  our room did have an awesome panoramic view of the city!!

one month...

that's right! daniel is now one month old.... does it feel like its been a month? nope! it has gone by so fast and it feels like so much has happened when nothing is really happening. we had his 6 week check up and here are his stats from the doctors today:

height: 22.75 inches (70th percentile)

weight: 9.5 pounds (20th percentile)

 he has gained 3 pounds since our first visit

yep... he's tall and skinny!! haha

this has definitely been the month for firsts.... obviously since it was the first month. ha!  but seriously here are some things that happened for the first time:

everyday consists of eating for about 40 min every three hours, being awake for a little bit and then napping for an hour and a half sometimes more and then starting the cycle over. eating is going really well and he's a hungry little guy. he's been gaining lots of good weight even though he's as long and skinny as can be! when he's awake there is a little tummy time, cuddle time, bath time, singing time, and mommy and daddy time.  when he's not awake or eating there is a ton of this going on:

and when i try to wake him to eat he does this for at least 15 min:  

he is the stretching king!  he grunts and cries and yawns and squeals the whole time!!

at night he's been waking every 4 hours to eat... hopefully that will stretch as he gets older.  i haven't been able to try crying it out yet.  one day we did it for a nap and i only last 5 min.  he still seems so little to let cry it out... but i'm going to keep trying till it works and he falls asleep on his own.  at night i'm so tempted to rock him to sleep cause he falls asleep so much faster and i don't have to keep getting up when cries after 10 min trying to fall asleep on his own.  i never thought i would be such a wuss... but i totally am!! 

some of my favorite things that he does:

- hiccups all the time!! he did in the womb almost every night so its no surprise me that he gets them almost once a day. 

- sneezes! it is the cutest face that he makes! and he usually sneezes more than once... and it looks like this:

- he also makes the poutyiest faces! anytime he's getting his diaper changed he puts on the poutyiest face.

- since he is such a newborn and really doesn't do a whole lot its easy to get excited about these few little things.  i also love his face right after he fully fed and he's wide awake... its a very alert and content face. 

here are a few more pics from when i was trying to take his one month pic.... its tough to get him to stay and not twitch or flop over and just scream cause he does not like it!  haha

visitors at the hospital...

since i had a c section we stayed in the hospital for a few days.... from saturday night to tuesday morning... although i was ready to leave monday night... we had to stay at least 48 hours and couldn't be discharged at night.  i couldn't get comfortable at the hospital and was tired and not sleeping well...

luckily we did have some fun visitors to keep us entertained.  one being my mom.  she came every day and stayed pretty much all day long.  it was so nice to have the company and the help.  chris stayed in the hospital with me the whole time and had his own couch bed and everything but it was still nice for both of us to have to company!

sam and meesha and gigi also came to visit.  first meesha came with gigi and gigi was so cute... wanting to look at the baby the whole time.  she came back with her dad the next night and was too cute climbing all over chris' bed.  it was really fun to have family come and oogle over our cute little guy.

my dad also came by and soon after he arrived my sister and the entire meyer clan came as well.  the kids were having too much fun checking out the baby.  amanda had a million questions and just wanted to touch and hold that baby.  they were fascinated by his hairy little back and little hands.  amanda loved holding daniel's tiny little hand and right at the end she even got to hold him on her lap.  it was really sweet.

pics of daniel with captions from chris...

since the baby was born chris has been sending out emails to his family with pics of the baby... and along with the pictures he adds captions... they are too funny and he is quite proud of them so i figured i should put them on here as well..

feb 5th: first shots of daniel:

first picture at home...

Feb 6th:

"a lot of this going on today"

"in the nursery 15 min after being born"

"chris changing the first diaper"

"mom and kid"

"mom loving kid"

"mom and dad ready to go home"

"and now.. the best shot ever... his first booger!!!"

feb 9th:

"if daniel had facebook... this is what he would post..."

"peeking out at Daddy from Mommy's lap"

"closer view"

"grandma karen giving him his first bath.. sort of... with a wash cloth"

"his pouty face! it's pretty darn cute so we don't ever take it too seriuosly..."

"and an accidental gas smile!! enjoy"

feb 10th: more daniel

well daniel had the hiccups again as i write this.  its about the 10th time today.  pretty funny.

"trying to wake up to nurse... which is going really well by the way!"

"big yawn!"

"not another diaper change! what a cruel world!"

"daddy kind of learned how to swaddle..."

"and the pouty face of the day!!"

feb 11: are you sick of him yet?

here are today's pictures.  mom and baby are currently sleeping and all is calm and well over here.

"look at his skinny legs!"

"pouty face of the day"

"with grandma slade"

"calm, alert, and awake!"

"and sleeping on mommy"

feb 12th: got some good ones!

"where's the gym?"

"our little ape man"

"tummy time!"

"i love you this much!"

"what?! daddy is a dentist??"

feb 15th: daniel's back!!

marilyn sent this picture to me during a tough day at school with the following phrase..

"sup dad... we chillin"

(it made my day to say the least!)

"for any of you who are fans of the show "Psych" like we are.  our baby is having a vision..."

"play dead!"

"just hanging with mom"

"hello world!"

feb 18th: daniel fix

"in a food coma and getting burped.. or getting a haircut??"

"my little man standing tall!"

"babies are so flexible!"

"that's where babies come from?!"

so it went like this: marilyn has deep, small, hard to find veins that gave all the doctors fits.  check out this gem of medieval torture:

"the last shot of marilyn as the doors close on her pregnancy"

"chris, not so patiently waiting, while the anesthesiologist tries 7 times to do a spinal block on poor marilyn! (and last pre-daniel picture)"

"the weigh-in for the light weight division"

feb 25th: daniel had visitors!

"bring on the visitors!"

"my family! cousins!"

"please, please, no paparazzi photos"

with "uncle daddy" and stevie

best attempt at getting a picture with grandma and three uncooperative kids:

all tuckered out after all the excitement!

thank you chris for those first emails letting everyone know what was going on... and for making the emails more fun and exciting with your witty captions :)  love it!