That's how long it took for me to choose blog over sleep :) That's also how old my absolute favorite little miracle in this world is. We are just so in love with him... and so far it appears the feeling is mutual. I have always loved babies. And there are a few babies that I have really, really loved. That said, I had no idea going into this how it would feel to love one of my own. My good friend Libba has a 5 month old, and warned me about this very feeling. She said it is shocking how much fun it is to be able to love on them and kiss on them and know they are all yours. She was right! Between the two of us I would venture to say Hardin gets no less than 200 kisses on any given day.
Along with all the love has come an enormous amount of gratitude for this gift we have been given. I keep saying prayers of thanks, over and over and over. When I am not thanking God for our precious baby boy, I am promising I will never take him, or being a mama, for granted. While I am sure there will be many bumps in the road, my hope is that one day Hardin will be even half as thankful to have us as his parents as we are to have him as our son. We have really got our work cut out for us!
Hardin made his grand debut October 26, 2010, at 11:13am. He weighed 7 lbs, 15 oz, and was 21 inches long. He is absolutely adorable and nothing like what I had pictured in my head. I always assumed he would be a little mini-Jason, because his brother's son was a mirror image of Justin when he was born. He's actually quite a good mix of both of us. He's has Jason's eyes, ears and body, and my (read my father's) nose, mouth and cheeks. I never really thought a baby could look like dad, but it is so comforting that he favors him as much as he does.
We brought him home on Thursday the 28th, and so began the first week roller coaster! I have asked my girlfriends with kids why no one properly warned me for how you feel that first week. Overwhelmed, sleep deprived and crazy does not begin to describe it, but it's a start. It is amazing how much more confident Jason and I feel just a few short weeks later.
Little man had his days and nights mixed up for a solid two weeks. He slept like a log (a very cute log) all day and then partied all night! He was good, just awake. He did not get fussy unless you tried to turn the lights off and put him to sleep. So... we talked, and walked, and danced, and rocked a LOT between the hours of 11pm and 5am. Fortunately, he is getting into the swing of things now. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that he is just shy of 4 weeks, and we are able to keep him awake for longer periods during the day. We try to play or bathe him after daytime feedings and keep him up for a little while. At night we keep the lights down low and try to feed him and put him right back down. It works about 60-70 % of the time.
These two pictures pretty much sum up his normal expression. He's pretty serious looking most of the time. He's a very content baby, and rarely fusses for no reason, but is always serious. He stares at us with a very concerned look. He smiles in his sleep some and we can't wait for the day he starts smiling at us when he's awake!
Here's a picture of his first bath, he hated it! The boy hates to be cold. Combine that with the fact that his mama forgot to plug the tub so the water drained out while we were trying to bathe him, and you have one unhappy little baby. He's a little better now, but I am telling you what... you better have a warm towel and a warm outfit to put on him the second you pull him out of that water!
Finally, one with daddy. Jason has developed an extraordinary ability to rewrite impromptu lyrics for every television theme song to include Hardin's name in them. H loves when daddy sings to him... which is a testament to his love, not his ears :)
Thank you for all of the love, prayers, visits, food, gifts and calls over the past few weeks! A very special thank you to my wonderful friend Shauna who took his newborn pictures above. We love them!
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