First Shots

Lucas had his two-month appointment on Thursday. He weighed in at a whopping 13 lbs and he was 21 inches in length.

He behaved splendidly throughout his whole appointment, not even crying when they stripped him naked to measure him. He just sat in Josh’s lap and looked at the doctor the whole time. It was adorable.

The doctor was super impressed with his sleeping habits (he had slept from 8 to 5 the night before), and we felt like were at least doing some things right. He fell asleep between the doctor leaving the room and the nurse coming in to give him his shots.

Oh, those shots. I sat where I couldn’t see the needles and cried a little. He gave out a pitiful wail and cried his little “this hurts” cry for about two minutes. I hadn’t heard that cry yet, and it’s definitely my least favorite cry of his. But, after those couple of minutes, he just fell right back to sleep. We congratulated ourselves on being awesome parents because clearly he behaved so well because of all of our diligent care and discipline. Clearly.

Right after the shots and right before the screaming commenced

He did fine until he woke up from his nap. And then we realized that our baby does not, in fact, walk on water. I was working from home and Josh was at his brothers helping to paint when I called him frantically to come home and hold Lucas. The poor little guy just screamed and screamed for almost two hours. I tried to nurse him and he’d nurse and then just stop and cry and cry. Heart-breaking. Josh took him outside and carried him around but nothing really helped.

We finally got wise to the fact that he could probably just use some Tylenol. Which he did. And then proceeded to go back to sleep and be his adorable good baby self. whew.

Shots suck. I think next time he has them, I will just have to schedule a very important meeting that I can’t possibly get out of :) and let Josh handle them on his own.

Newborn Photos

My friend Amaree came and took a few pics of Lucas a couple weeks after he was born. He looks so different now, I can hardly believe it, but I figured I would share a few of my favorites.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Happy Birthday, daddy! I love you and I love being your kid.

I can't wait to grow up with you as my dad --

We are going to laugh (and I'll think all your jokes are funny),

cheer on the Wolfpack,

make mommy nervous,

and dress up in funny costumes you make (Halloween will definitely be my favorite holiday:).

I'm excited for you to teach me sports and can't wait to beat you at basketball. It will probably be when I am seven because I'm awesome like that.

I can't wait to be just like you when I grow up. I love you and I'm glad you're my dad.

* Josh's birthday was a few weeks ago, and Lucas and I made the above slideshow for his b-day card.

When Mommy's at Work . . .

"Josh, what are you doing?"

"Making mustaches for the boy."

"Making what?"

Josh and d'Artagnan

Salvador Dali

d'Artagnan

Baby Brian Wilson

Something tells me they aren't going to miss me too much when I'm at work.

Prayer for Lucas

You are a precious child,
a creation of the Lord.
He has given you to us --
you are a rich reward.
He made you and He formed you
and he has a plan for you
may you fulfill your destiny
doing what He wants you to.

And we will love you
and we will raise you
to glorify the Name of Christ of our King.
Our God created you to fellowship with Him
and to His holy Name
great glory bring.
He is our King.

You'll be a man some day
but you'll always be His child;
He desires a servant's heart,
just like Jesus, meek and mild.
The things that you will do
be they great or be they small --
do them, son, with all your heart.
He deserves your best, your all.

And we will love you
and we will raise you
to glorify the Name of Christ of our King.
Our God created you to fellowship with Him
and to His holy Name
great glory bring.

He is the Great I AM.
He is the Holy Lamb
He is the Mighty One of Israel.
He gave His all for us;
We'll give our all for Him.
His presence dwells in us, Immanuel.
He is our King.

My dad wrote this song for my little brother Ben, but I sang it to Lucas the whole time I was pregnant and have found that it's the prayer I pray for him most often.

Meeting the Cousins

My sisters each have three fun, creative, well-behaved little offspring whom I completely adore. Around the third week of his life, I decided it was time to head west and introduce Lucas to all of his cousins. It was so fun to see them react to him in ways that just totally fit their little personalities.

Heather lives in Winston which is halfway to Boone, so I stopped there first. Her kids were super excited to meet the little man.

Kaitlyn (10) was interested in meeting Lucas, but probably more interested in just catching up on things. She's at a fun, awkward age right between childhood and teenagerdom, so she has lots to chat about and lots of fun questions and observations about the boy.

Eliana (6) was smitten with him. She wanted to hold him constantly and was quite impatient when anyone else had a turn. My poor sister could only hold him for about 2 mins before Eliana was ready for her turn again. It was adorable. I will gladly let her be a baby hog anytime she's around:)

Owen (4) was a little more reserved. He was fine with sitting next to Lucas, but didn't really want to actually hold him. Understandable -- that's not really a boy thing. But I am glad that Lucas will have at least ONE boy cousin to play with.

After Heather's we went up to mom's and saw Amber's kids.

Sophia (6) is Amber's oldest and was a lot like Kaitlyn -- interested in holding him, but also very interested in just talking about him and making sure I knew how to be a mom. In her sagelike wisdom, she observed that he held his head up pretty well and wondered if I'd started letting him have tummy time. I actually hadn't thought about that yet, so I was pretty glad she mentioned it.

Julia (4) was a lot like Eliana -- not really into sharing the boy, but very interested in holding him and petting him. He fell asleep in her arms which just totally thrilled her. She kept saying "when he was in your hands, his eyes were open, but then he came to my hands and now he's sleeping." When Sophia would ask to hold him, Julia would say "No, you can't, I make him go to sleep." She also kept saying "he's just so cute, isn't he?" adorable.

Isabel (19 months) definitely had the funniest reaction. She thinks that she is a six-year-old, so I think she was completely oblivious to the fact that she would probably be considered a baby as well. She started out holding him on Maw-maw's lap, but that lasted all of about 5 seconds before she decided that she was big enough to hold him herself. She can't really talk yet, but the entire weekend whenever she decided it was her time to hold Lucas, she would walk in and stop jabbering very bossily at whoever had him. Then she'd crawl on the couch, put a pillow in her lap, and hold out her arms, palms open, making little grabby motions with her hands and talking animatedly until you gave him up. It was freakin hilarious. If you didn't give him to her immediately, she would glare and get a little loud until he was in her arms. I'm glad he has a cousin close to his age to play with and am quite certain she will put him right in his place:)

Surprises

Megan W. asked me the other day what I was most surprised about with motherhood. My immediate response was "Laundry!" because holy crap, this kid makes a huge mess for someone so small.

Now that I've had a little time to think about it, here are some things that have kind of taken me off guard in this whole parenting business:

The dichotomy of the emotions I feel. I was surprised that I could feel so honored and blessed to provide nourishment for my son, but, at the same time, feel so frustratingly tethered to this responsibility.

Cluster feeding. WTF?! No one told me about this. seriously. There were many tears shed in the first few days and much complaining along the lines of "he can't seriously be hungry again. he just can't." but he was.

How incredibly unprepared I was. I thought I was going to know what to expect with this whole parenting thing. I thought I had my eyes wide open going in -- after all, I have 5 nieces, one nephew and almost all of our friends have children. But I had no idea. I just had no idea how much there is to know and how silly and feeble you feel when faced with the responsibility of forming and shaping a human being.

Sleep deprivation. I find it amazing that I can still function and be slightly cognizant when I've only slept a few straight hours for weeks on end. It's amazing how much strength you have when you swear you have no more.

How much I care about poop. No seriously. Before we left the hospital, they gave us a chart of pictures of poop to look out for. We tracked his bowel movements and pees for the entire first 2 weeks of his life and discussed them frequently. I hate when moms put things on FB about poops, but I get it now -- you spend an amazing amount of time and energy focused on pooping.

Josh. He didn't have much to do with babies before ours came along. In fact, he would often refuse to hold them until they could hold their heads up. But not with Lucas. He's so hands on and willing to do anything and everything to help. He's smitten and I love it . . . I call him the baby whisperer because he can make Lucas calm down when I can't and has the unending patience that I lack. I didn't know having a baby would make me fall more in love with my husband, but I'm sure glad it has.

And of course the love. Just the amazing feeling you have when you look at the little person who you helped create. Lucas doesn't do anything at all and yet every part of me just bursts with pride and adoration when I look at our little man. I get so proud when people say he's cute and just find myself looking at him and thanking God constantly for this little blessing.