When Three Become Four!: Liam's Cornicopia of Firsts

As a limp Liam is lying on my lap, I realize I really probably should be sleeping now too, not blogging. However, I couldn't resist!

First piece of news, that is completely unimportant to most people....I finally ordered a new computer! My old Apple G4 Powerbook will be replaced with a brand new iMac, that actually will have an Intel Duo Core and a Paralells program on it so it can even run Windows and be more PC-like than any of my previous machines. With the nice Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales, I also scored a free Epson printer so I'm not always using my wide-format 7-year old one for every little thing. This new computer will be my ticket to work from home if I find some good freelance opportunities. I'll only need to buy Adobe Creative Suite.

For Liam, the past few days have been full of firsts. It wasn't just his first Thanksgiving. It was his first road trip, first time visiting both grandparents house (and the homes of several other people in the family), first time meeting more members of his extended family (including the rest of the family pets), first time meeting people from the congregation Michael grew up in and getting blessed by the pastor, first time going to a restaurant, first time being nursed in public (if you don't count church last week), and first time being part of family traditions like going Christmas tree hunting. What a busy time!

Wednesday night we began our journey. I think the $1.50 gas (which no one ever expected to see again!) got everyone out driving as the roads were crowded and our commute was so slow. Liam slept the whole way, and I dozed off part of the time (going to sleep in a traffic jam, only to wake up in another one). We started our rotation visiting Michael's family, stopping to see Liam's aunt and uncle and cousins first, then having dinner at his great-grandparents' house. Though I was a little apprehensive, we did go to a Thanksgiving church service and to my relief Liam was the perfect little angel who slept the whole time in the Moby! I thought maybe with all this sleep he was going to be up all night, but no. He let Mom sleep for 3 hours before getting up briefly, and then sleep 4 more hours with no interruption! I snuck in 2 more hours and having a grand total of 9 really felt like heaven!

Thanksgiving started out with Liam sleeping in the Moby while I ate all my food and dessert. Once I took him out, I fed and changed him then let him be passed around a little with the bottle of hand sanitizer. I enjoyed being able to nurse him in the living room with the Cover in Style, even though several men were sitting around to watch football. A few seemed a little curious, but no one seemed uncomfortable so it was nice! He was so good the whole time for Michael's family.

He was also pretty good for my family. We caught up with my older teenage cousins, who haven't seen him yet, and my sister before they left. Christy and Jessi were particularly excited to see him, and after he was nursed they got to see him in his fun, happy alert state and watch me change the diaper. They loved trying to tickle his cute little feet, and seeing his round little belly. Both of them, and even their older brother, held the baby even though only Christy was more confident and excited to try. It was a lot of fun! Here are some pictures....

Thanksgiving
Liam and Aunt Katy

He loves staring at lights

The three of us (Liam would prefer eating right now)

At my parent's place

One stuffed little turkey

Father and son bonding time

We hung around my parents house to take part in Michael's family's tradition of going Christmas tree hunting at a farm in New Lebanon, Ohio. We really enjoy getting real trees, and the thrill of picking and cutting our own at a pleasant farm with very reasonable prices. Friday the most eventful thing was Liam went to a restaurant for the first time....Chipotle. We found a nice, corner seat but the little man slept the whole time and gave us no trouble! The rest of the day we just relaxed.

That night all the fun and gatherings slowly began to take their toll and little man wasn't sleeping quite as well. Of course, at this stage everyone has a theory of why they baby sleeps well or doesn't sleep well but no theories can really be proved and no one can know for sure. All we do know is around 3am Liam woke both Michael and I up and refused to be left alone or to sleep for at least and hour. We somehow managed to still get enough sleep to function, but not enough sleep to get to the tree farm on time. In fact, by the time we got there everyone else already found their tree and had it loaded up. Once upon a time when I had no baby I used to hold schedules close and was annoyed or stressed by tardiness. Now, I'm glad just to get somewhere no matter what time and get annoyed when pressure is on us to be on time.

My parents joined us just to help with Liam, but we were so late now everyone was free to hang out in the barn by the fire and hold him. Oh well. Afterward we joined both our parents at Bob Evans for lunch and I had to nurse Liam in public for the first time. At least he wanted to nurse after I ordered my food and finished before it arrived!

Christmas Tree Hunt

On the car ride to the tree farm

In the barn, where Liam hung out while Mommy and Daddy found the perfect tree

Hanging out with great-grandparents

On the long ride home getting sleepy...

Fighting it...

And he's out!

It took forever (well, twice the normal time) to get home with the tree atop our car on the back roads. Thankfully, Liam only needed to eat once. This was accomplished in a McDonalds parking lot where Michael also took a bathroom break and got a snack. After we got home, I made a point to keep Liam calm. He loves his baths now, enjoys the warm water! He was so tired though, that after a point he was just crying and fighting sleep. I was able to calm him down and get him to sleep, what a great victory. He then slept for four hours and I naively thought this was going to be a good night and I would have an easy time going to church this morning. Boy, was I wrong! Just before 3am, Liam woke up and wanted to be fed. This was normal. What wasn't normal before is, as soon as I started to fall back asleep he started crying again. It was usually to be fed, and this occurred every 30-60 minutes to the point I could never fall asleep. By 5am I was so exhausted I just moaned when he cried. Michael came to the rescue and went to change him. It meant so much to me. We then put him in the bed with us so I could just side nurse and still rest.

Somehow, I made it to church. Sleep-deprived. As soon as we got him out of the car, he started fussing. I spent the next hour or so walking between the fellowship hall and bathroom trying to comfort a baby that spent most of the time screaming with an arched back, whether in the Moby or not. I changed his diaper, nursed, repeated. Finally, he calmed down. But, I only caught the last line of the sermon, the last hymn and that was it. Sort of a waste, but at least I got to enjoy the fellowship hour with everyone; most of them commented on how good he was and how peaceful, that I should do marketing for Moby Wrap because of how comfortable he looked! He only makes my job look easy sometimes, trust me!

So, today Liam seems to be going through a growth spurt. He has been on the boob so much I really haven't been able to do much or finish anything I start...unless I figure out how to do it while nursing (like I'm mastering typing one-handed). It is so hard helping a little person grow, especially when they are so needy and you are so tired. I just hope we get some rest tonight. I am off to bed, and plan to just keep sleeping until I feel more rested even if I don't get up until noon tomorrow. I'll leave you with more pictures of what our crazy cats have been up to lately!

Cat Antics
Showing the bellies apparently loving the crib (note: Liam doesn't sleep in here yet)!