Thursday, April 24, 2008

Surviving



I took this picture after Solomon's bath today. I thought we needed a picture to commemorate our first week together. We made it! I didn't realize how much learning would go on between Sol and me just in our first 9 days together. I've learned so much about his personality, about what he likes, his patterns, what he doesn't like, what works, what doesn't work. Its amazing. He's learning to be patient with his new awkward parents and to trust and love them. He turns toward our voices and looks for us when we speak. He's really amazing.

This week has been difficult, baby Solomon spent a lot of time fussing and crying as though he were in pain. It killed me to see him hurt and to not know how to fix it. Sometime he would spend his whole awake time with this scared little look on his face, like "Mom, why does it hurt?" With the post pregnancy hormones I was a mess. I took our sweet boy to the doctor this morning and they determined he had reflux. We got some medicine for him and already we're seeing a big difference. My little boy is back to his normal self. He's much calmer and so am I.

I'm glad to have the first of the first done with. It make me excited to know things will just get better and better.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Solomon's First Bath (at home)

Yes, I know, more videos, but we must appease the Grandmothers. Here are some videos of Solomon's first bath at home. Watch and see how extremely upset he gets that we would do this to him:







Sorry, the videos are a little smashed because we record them in widescreen and youtube converts them to the regular size.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

More pictures...

More pictures of Solomon, we have lots of family asking to see more. We're more than happy to share! :) He's doing so well! He eats great and sleeps really well. I hope he keeps it up. We're doing great! Being a mommy is so amazing.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

More Baby Solomon

We're home now and he's doing awesome. Here he is all ready for the trip:


Just getting home:


The trip wore him out and he just slept for the next hour:


Now that we're on our own internet connection I was able to upload some videos. Here he is just a few minutes after birth getting checked out by the nurses (and one murse):



Then they weighed him:



And here's Solomon's first bath, he hated it until she ran the water over his head, he loved that:

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Yeah Baby!!

So here he is! And we finally decided on a name, Solomon David Cook. We chose this name for a few different reasons. First of all it just fits him, it's also unique but not too unusual, it means "Peace" and we like that, and King Solomon was the son of King David so it's kind of a cool way to call him "David's Son."


He was born on. April 15th at 11:51pm. he was 7 lbs. 10 oz. and 19.5 inches long.

Megan went into labor yesterday morning at about 4:30am. She went most of the day with contractions about 5-7 minutes apart for 40-70 seconds each. We wanted to do most of the labor at home so we just hung out and took care of a few last things. We went out for lunch around 3:30 and when we got back her contractions increased. We got to the hospital and they measured her at 4cm at 8:50pm. At 10:25 she was measuring at 7-8cm and at 11:15 she was fully dilated. She started pushing at 11:30 and he was born just 20 minutes later. Keep in mind that Megan went through all of this without an epidural I was blown away at how tough she was and how well she did. Everything was just amazing and couldn't have gone any better.

He has been so good so far. Only fusses a little when he's hungry, but other than that he just lays there with wide open eyes taking everything in.

Now for the picture fest because this post is meant for Grandma's as well:

Monday, April 7, 2008

Is this the hill you wish to die on...

I'm cleaning up my cubicle at work, taking home personal things so that when the baby comes my cubie will be mostly cleaned out. I've had a little post-it note on my monitor for 3 years now that says "Is this the hill you wish to die on." Its a quote I heard from Dr. Laura, she was quoting a war general from either the Revolutionary or Civil War. I can't remember which. The battle was getting pretty ugly and it appeared this General's men were losing hope. He said to each of his men, "Is this the hill you wish to die on?" This simple statement gave them men the courage and strength to keep on fighting. They eventually defeated their enemy.

Dr. Laura used the quote to teach that several times in life we feel despair, we feel like giving up. It seems there is no way out of the situation we're in, big or small. But are these the circumstances in which you want quit? Is this really the last straw? Do you really want to throw in the towel? Is this the hill you wish to die on? My answer is always no. Not here. I can get through this. I can keep going. Remembering this little quote helps me to keep a good perspective.

It's never quite as bad as it sometimes feels. Heavenly Father loves each of us and always makes a way. :)

Have a nice day!