State of Our Household [Month 1]

You guys.  We have a one month old baby.  WHAT?  I know it’s cliche to say, but time is flying.  Before we know it, Kaiden will be heading off to college…getting married…having a baby of his own…ahhh!    I think it was Gretchen Rubin who said, “The days are long, but the years are short.”  Now I get it!

I need to calm down, I know.

With this milestone, for Kaiden and his mama and daddy, I thought I’d share a ‘state of our household’ type update.  These kinds of posts are fun [for me] to reread and reflect on, so humor me.

State of Kaiden

As far as the star of our household goes, he’s living life to the fullest!  Seriously, this little guy has it made – he sleeps, eats, poops, and does it it all over again a few hours later.  I’m hopeful (or naive…whatever!) that Kaiden will start to sleep for longer stretches through the night.  As a one month present to us, he slept for five hours on Friday night.  Woo hoo!

In terms of other developments, over the past month, Kaiden’s personality has started to evolve just a little through the faces and sounds he makes. It’s so fun to sit and watch him.  I could seriously do that for hours!  And apparently he can too!  When my mom rinses him off in the sink, he stares into the mirror with a curious look on his face.

Speaking of baths, he LOVES water.  Bath time is his favorite right now…probably because it starts with a nice little full body massage!  I hope he loves the ocean and the pool just as much!

His neck and head strength is spot on as well.  He’s been able to lift his head since birth, but now he keeps it up and can even move it from side to side a little.  Because of this, tummy time is growing on him day by day.  He’s got quite a bit of muscular strength in his arms and legs as well.  Vishnu claims this is due to him being a natural born soccer player!  We shall see…

Kaiden’s also more familiar with our voices now and even tracks with us when we hold and/or talk to him.

His cute gummy smiles and sweet baby giggles (I’ve heard 3 so far) are my favorite so far.  There’s nothing sweeter.  Although, don’t let his cute demeanor fool you.  His cry is loud and high-pitched…like a tiny pterodactyl!  Thankfully, we usually only hear it when he’s super hungry and/or gassy.

Even though he doesn’t understand a word yet, we’re starting to read books to him in the evenings.  It’s fun to watch his face scan all the pages.  I think he’s mesmerized by the colors.  Vishnu claims it’s because he’s a natural born radiologist.  I’m just hoping he loves to read!  We shall see…

State of mama

Oh man, I need to write a series of posts about the state of mama.  Overall, I’m doing really well…physically, mentally, and emotionally.  I’m slowly starting to let go of my frustrations about the whole L&D situation and my breastfeeding ‘struggles.’  It’s just so hard when you have a picture in your mind of how things should go…and then they don’t.  That’s life though.  As someone who believes God’s plans always supersede our own, I’m truly focusing on the bigger picture.  Kaiden’s healthy and thriving and so am I.  What more can I ask for?

Even though I’m trying to stay as positive as possible, I do get anxious about 100% made up situations in my head.  For example, what if something happens to Vishnu or Kaiden…what would I do?  It’s something I’m working on.

Hmm…what else?  There’s the whole sleep situation.  Believe it or not, both Vishnu and I (and my poor mom!) are adjusting to sleeping in 1-3 hour increments.  Those first few weeks were not easy though!  I’m hoping it gets a little better as we move forward.

My skin started acting up again a week or so after I delivered.  Not fun at all.  I’m trying not to overload it with different products hoping something works.  So far so good.  It’s taking a while but this whole KISS (keep it simple stupid) thing is working…slowly but surely.

Overall, I’m loving and embracing my new role with everything I’ve got!  Being Kaiden’s mom is fulfilling, challenging, fun, sometimes tiring, amazing, etc., and I’m so glad I was chosen for the job!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE my little guy and want to smother him with kisses all day long!

State of daddy

Vishnu’s that rock star dad where whenever he walks through the door his kid’s face lights up with pure joy.  Kaiden’s always so calm and collected with him.  I love seeing their bond and connection grow with every passing day.

Overall, he’s doing well despite having very full and busy work AND home lives.  This year of training is the most challenging in terms of his call and overnight schedule, so we’ll see how all that goes.  I must say, he’s doing an awesome job so far!

Due to the above, Vishnu wants to get Kaiden on a set sleep schedule (aka where Kaiden sleep 100% through the night).  I think it’s more out of desperation than anything else, but whenever he mentions this, I laugh.  We’re just not there yet!

Finally, I have to share that Vishnu’s also doing an amazing job at his husband role.  He’s so supportive and understanding, and I love that his goal is to keep Par and Vishnu a priority.  This means we still talk about our days, we joke around all the time (especially when we have no idea what we’re doing with Kaiden), we steal kisses whenever we can, etc.

I plan to write a relationship after baby post soon because both Vishnu and I have learned some great lessons in just four short weeks.

State of grandma

My mom’s still here with us, and I continue to claim she’s our savior.  Not only does she cook and clean, but she’s also amazing with Kaiden.  He loves his Nani!  They’s quite the duo. 🙂

If I had to sum up how my mom’s doing, I would say her heart is very full and happy.  With that being said, she’s also very tired, as she’s constantly running around after Kaiden during the day.  But as she likes to say, it’s a good kind of tired!

Kaiden and I want to soak up all the grandma time we can, as my mom will likely only be here for a few more weeks before she has to head back to Atlanta (and my dad!).

Bottom line – Kaiden is great, we’re all very happy (and a little tired!), and we’re looking forward to month 2 and all that it will bring. 🙂

Annnd…that’s a wrap!