Henry's Photo Shoot

We have the pictures from Henry's session with the photographer! You can see them in the slideshow below or individually by visiting the link under 'Photo Albums' on the left.



Note: if you ever want to download and/or order prints of any of the photos we have posted in the photo albums, Google has made it very easy for you to do so when you view the album. For this particular album, I would recommend not printing them bigger than 4x6, since the photographer has formatted them that way.

One Month!!!

Happy One-Month Birthday, Henry! In honor of the occasion, here's another toy that you are SO not ready for. And yet, I love it.

Famous Yet?

I think it's fun that a picture of my hand (and our wedding rings) is on the home page for our wedding photographer. We have two out of three pictures on the "wedding portfolio" page, too! I guess our wedding was just that awesome. :-)

http://jencarrollphotography.com/
http://jencarrollphotography.com/wst_page7.html

A New Friend

Henry received a new toy in the mail yesterday (thanks Christine and Jack!). He might be a little young to enjoy all the features, but he seems to like the monkey. For your viewing pleasure:

Who Needs Birthday Candles?

Yesterday was Matthew's 25th birthday (Happy Birthday!), so of course we celebrated in style. And by "in style," I mean in "we have a baby now" style. Meaning... after a night with less than 3 hours of sleep, I was still awake when Matt was about to get up for work, so I decided to make him breakfast. Which is why I was baking scones at 5:30am. Unfortunately, I managed to spill something in the bottom of the oven during the process (I'd like to blame that on the lack of sufficient sleep), which promptly began burning up and creating a lot of smoke. And we all know what comes next... the smoke detectors get set off! This is when we really love having these great 10 foot ceilings (that I can't reach even with a chair). Needless to say, Matt woke up. So did his brother Ben, who was visiting. (Sorry, guys) They managed to take care of the crisis for me while I made a mental note to clean the oven later so that I could bake a cake for Matt's birthday.

Um... I did clean the oven later, but I bet you can guess what happened. Yeah... I definitely ran the self-cleaning oven *without* opening up the windows and turning fans on. It was over 90 degrees outside, ok? But of course, this only managed to set off the alarms again. Fortunately, Ben was there to turn them off (I can't reach them, remember? and Matt was at work). The cleaning process took longer than I counted on, however, and it was really, really hot in the apartment for a long time.

It was still hot when Matt got home from taking Ben to the airport, so we were all uncomfortable. To top it off, Henry decided that he didn't want me to put him down. At all. So I cooked dinner and baked a cake and got the birthday gifts together all with the very warm baby in my very warm arms. Sigh. Dinner came out well, though, and the cake was yummy. And the apartment eventually returned to a reasonable temperature. Henry didn't change his attitude, but I guess we can't have everything.

Note: While our sleep-deprived selves were eating dinner in the overly warm apartment with a clingy/fussy baby, I asked Matt if he felt 25. He said no... he felt more like 30.

Exclusive Breastfeeding No More?

Henry got his first taste this morning of something that most definitely did not come from Mom. With mouth wide open mid-cry during a diaper change (what else is new?), he let loose a lovely little stream of urine aimed... straight at his own face. While he looked rather shocked, I gather that he must not have minded it too much; he repeated the performance this evening.

A Visit from the Flemings, and more

This weekend, Henry met his Grandma and Grandpa Fleming for the first time, along with his Aunt Kathy and Aunt Jenny. They drove down from Michigan for a short visit on Sunday/Monday. Henry enjoyed playing with everyone (or sleeping in their arms... whatever you want to call it), getting some new clothes and UofM gear, and being given a bath by Grandma. See more pics in the album/slideshow on the left!



After they all went home, we had another major event. A normal bedtime diaper change upset little Henry so much that he started peeing all over (not unusual). While I was catching the flow with a spare washcloth, Henry let out... this. If the wipes box hadn't gotten in the way, I don't know how far it would have traveled. We were so impressed we had to take a picture. All together now: "He's a super duper pooper..."

Like Father, Like Son

Ok, yes... Henry looks like his father.

Ready for his close-up

Henry was the star of a photo shoot this morning! We'll get more pictures back soon, but here are a couple of first looks. So fun!




Why did we do this? A couple of days ago, I saw an ad on Craigslist for a free newborn photography session. A local photographer, who just moved here from California, was looking for brand new babies to photograph (and add to her portfolio, presumably). We thought that sounded like fun, and free is free, right? So we took him over to her house this morning. It was pretty neat to watch. She took all his clothes off (which he doesn't always like...), but he was so good! She kept the room pretty warm and had a little machine that made "uterus" noises to make Henry think he was in the womb. I have to say it worked pretty well- he was sleepy and relaxed for almost two hours while she worked! I almost fell asleep, too, but maybe that's just because I was tired. This lady has four kids of her own and made me wish that I had some sort of talent like hers that I could use to work from home. What a neat job!

To see more of the photographer's work, you can go to her website: http://www.ingridkaslik.com/ Someday Henry may be a part of her website, too! (edit: I just checked, and he already made it a couple of times... as of now, the second and third pics on the "Babies" album are Henry!)

Another Milestone

Henry lost his umbilical cord stump today! Maybe now the diapers will fit better and leak less. I hope...???

Growing Boy

Update from the pediatrician:

We went for Henry's first visit on the day after we were released from the hospital. At all of 48 hours old, he had (oddly enough) not started gaining back the weight he initially lost after birth. I may not have a ton of experience here, but I didn't think this was anything to worry about. He had lost about 8oz. The doctor asked us to come back in the next day to check his weight and see if he was making progress. We were a little annoyed at this, because every time we go in we have to pay a copay, but we did it anyway. By Friday, he was up to 7lbs, 1 oz. This was good... half way back to his original weight. I told the nurse practitioner who was seeing him that my milk was for sure coming in and that he was eating well and all that, but guess what: I had to bring him back on Monday just to make sure. Grr... After a stellar weekend of eating and pooping (nice runny, yellow poop*, I might add), I was pretty confident that we had absolutely nothing to worry about. In fact, I nearly called on Saturday to cancel the appointment for Monday. But I didn't get around to it. Anyway, Grandma P. came with us to the office, since Matt was back at work. The nurse was shocked when I told him that I'd changed at least 8 poopy diapers in the last 24 hours or so, but when she weighed him he came in at 7lbs, 8 oz. So he'd put on nearly half a pound in three days. So good, in fact, that the doctor didn't even need to come in to check him out.

And so our little boy is healthy, growing, and generally doing very well. We couldn't be happier. You should all come to visit (soon!), because this little munchkin is amazing. Yay!

*The first non-black poop that came out, Matt proudly brought (ran) the diaper out to show me. Hehe. Ahh, milestones.

First Visitor

Henry met his Grandma Panning today for the first time! He was wide awake and happy when she arrived, which is great. He was doing so well that we all were able to go out to eat for lunch! Henry seems to like his carseat a lot and fell fast asleep as soon as we got in the car. It was nice to get out of the apartment for a little while. It was certainly the first time that I've left since we got home from the hospital on Wednesday night (except for a couple quick trips to the pediatrician, that is). In fact, we went to Panera Bread, which is the same place that I went to lunch just last Saturday with my friend Sarah. Only then, little mister Henry was snugly tucked away in my belly. It was funny to think about.

We are starting to settle into a routine here, of sorts. Henry eats and sleeps and poops and pees. On occasion he wakes up and we can play with him a little bit, but those moments are pretty rare. Rare, but very special. He's such a cutie. During the day, he seems to do well with the eating/sleeping routine. Enough so that we are normally able to do whatever we need to do during the day. Nights are a different story. For some reason, the little guy likes to nurse on and off all night long, with occasional naps that are just long enough to tease Mommy into thinking that she might get to sleep. But before she can, he wakes up again. So I'm pretty tired, but Daddy is doing pretty well.

Speaking of Daddy, Matt is really enjoying having Henry around. I love to watch them together. He does diaper changes and dresses him and carries him around. And he sure is proud of his little blondie. (Right now he's laying on the floor next to sleeping Henry and just watching him... so cute)

Check back again soon and I'll post a few pictures that we've taken with Henry at home and with his grandma this weekend.