Oliver Robert Weil

was born on July 2 at 8:27 am weighing 8 lbs 12 oz and measuring 20 inches long. David is pretty excited about being a big brother (often a bit too enthusiastic) and we are all adjusting to becoming a family of four. So far my hunch has been right on about this baby being much mellower than David ever was. I know that it may not last past these first couple weeks but so far I'm really enjoying it. Here's a few things so far that have made all the difference these past few days.

• Oliver will allow us to set him down from time to time. David never would, even while sleeping unless he was tightly swaddled. In fact merely holding him was rarely sufficient. He constantly wanted to be walked or driving in the car. Occasionally he would settle for being rocked or bounced. Oliver on the other hand happily cooed away in his bouncy seat this morning while I took a shower and dried my hair. Pretty amazing, huh.
• When he is fussy Oliver takes a pacifier to calm down. We never had to go through weaning David from a binky because he never took one in the first place. I know it might be a pain later down the road, but there's only so many ways to soothe a newborn and it's pretty convenient in the here and now.
• Oliver is a deeper sleeper. I know this is likely to change in coming weeks as he becomes more aware of his surroundings but it's nice at least for the time-being. David was a super light sleeper from day 1 but Oliver will sleep with other people coming in and out of the room, talking, and even David's tantrums.
• I feel better. For the first week with David I had a horrible spinal headache from the epidural. Not having that this time around has made a huge difference.
• I'm mellower this time around too. I've learned by now to trust my instincts as a mom and that most issues with infants are really just phases that will resolve themselves in time. It's a lot easier for me now to just relax and enjoy my kids without fretting that I'm doing something wrong.

At least in the first week of life Oliver is hands down an easier baby but fortunately David has so many perfectly delightful elements of his personality that make up for being a little higher maintenance at times. In fact as thrilled as we are to have Oliver joining our family part of me aches just a little bit about the fact that David can't be my whole world anymore and that Oliver never will be my sole focus as David was at his age.

Then and now

As most of you already know little Oliver was born on July 2 and I will be posting about that very soon complete with pictures. In the meantime I thought I'd finally publish this post I wrote a few weeks ago comparing the 2 pregnancies. I was waiting because I'd intended to have Derek take some pregnancy pictures of me so that I could post comparison photos but we were never able to get to it with all the last minute rushing around. I suppose that's another difference with this pregnancy. I don't have a single photo to document it. So here it is for all who were curious about how this last pregnancy went (probably no one, but I thought I'd better at least document it for myself). Without further ado:

I've posted very little about this pregnancy and figure that since we've only got a couple weeks left I'd make a note of a few differences between this and my last one.

With David I poured over pregnancy books, websites, baby books and anything else I thought might prepare me to become a parent. I had his nursery completely finished at the start of my second trimester and carefully compared strollers, cribs and various baby gear. All his little clothes were washed and put away months ahead of time. This time around the books are sitting untouched in the basement and we just got around to starting a nursery last week. I still need to find David's old baby clothes and get them washed and put away. The one thing I have done is to stock up our freezer with reheatable meals. Something tells me that might be more helpful than all the pregnancy books in the world.

With David I was more nauseous and seem to remember more aches and pains although I was way more exhausted in the first trimester this time around. I've been more active this pregnancy and managed to keep going to the gym up until about halfway through the third trimester (though it's been a very long time since I've done anything more than walk on a treadmill). I've eaten better this time and gained less weight (and hopefully will have an easier time losing it).

David never held still even in utero. With him if I even went 15-20 minutes without feeling him kick I'd worry that something was wrong. That held true after he was born too. David's always been very energetic and fairly high-strung and even in his sleep would continually thrash and flail. I remember watching him next to other babies his age and thinking that in comparison it looked like David was hopped up on caffeine. This little guy moves and kicks plenty but there are also stretches where I don't feel much movement at all. Also I haven't really felt him startle at things such as the shower water hitting my tummy which I remember happening all the time with David. Obviously it's really hard to get a sense for personality while still in the womb but I so far I seem be be getting mellower vibes from this little one. I'm really curious to know if that holds up to be true.

Finally while I am excited to meet this little guy it's tempered with a lot more apprehension. With David I obviously didn't expect parenting to be a cinch but was blissfully unaware of just how demanding and overwhelming caring for a newborn could be. Now I know better and even still have days where I feel like I'm stretched past my limits caring for one child. I certainly didn't feel this ambivalent with my last pregnancy and when I did worry my fears often centered around birth defects, complications with the birth or other catastrophic events. This time I'm so concerned about adjusting to a healthy baby I can't even consider the alternative.

Meal Planning Weeks 24 and 25

I'm adding week 25 onto this one simply because I plan not to do any meal planning or cooking that week. I'll be in the hospital for a good share of it anyway. I think that between Derek and his mom who's going to be staying with us for a few days they can probably sort out the cooking for that week. This week the goal is once again to keep it simple. I've hit the wall where even rolling over in bed feels like it takes way more effort than it's worth so there's no way I'm going to feel like cooking anything fancy.

• Sunday: Spaghetti and (frozen) meatballs
• Monday: Hot dogs
• Tuesday: Split pea soup (from a mix) and grilled cheese
• Wednesday: Frittata with tomato and asparagus
• Thursday: Turkey sandwiches
• Friday: Eat out
• Saturday: Hospital food

Meal Planning Week 23

With less than 2 weeks to go before the baby arrives (I'm scheduled for another c-section on July 2nd unless I go into labor before then) it seems like planning menus is the furthest thing on my mind. This past weekend poor David had strep throat (doing much better now thanks to antibiotics) and I've been going crazy trying to get everything ready for this baby. Then to add to the chaos it was a crazy weekend work-wise (my last on-call weekend before maternity leave!!!) with making visits from 4-7 am. Yesterday was a work day for me and by the end of it I felt like I'd just hit the wall for the level of exhaustion I can stand.

Unfortunately that's not likely to improve any time soon. Derek's out of town until Friday for some mandatory business training so I'm parenting solo this week. The timing's definitely not the best but I guess I'd rather he have to go right before the baby comes than right after and I don't think it's too likely I'll have the baby while he's gone. Needless to say meals will be less than spectacular this week (and probably in the next several weeks to come)

• Sunday: Sloppy joes (from last week)
• Monday: Too exhausted after work, ordered pizza
• Tuesday: Chocolate chip pancakes with fruit
• Wednesday: Tomato soup (from the freezer) with grilled cheese
• Thursday: Probably eat out after work again
• Friday: Scrambled eggs with toast
• Saturday: Celebrating Derek's birthday with a BBQ and cake/ice cream

Meal Planning Week 22

This week I officially fell off the wagon. After some deliberation I'd finally decided to leave David in his crib for the time being and put the baby in a bassinet or playpen until he was ready to give it up. Then last week he managed to climb out (falling over the side in the process) and plans changed. We told him we didn't want him "going bonk" anymore so it was time to move into a big boy bed. The weekend was a flurry of buying and moving furniture, painting, and reorganizing 2 bedrooms but at least our baby finally has a nursery and so far David's pretty happy with his big boy bed.

To sweeten the deal I managed to find a bright colored comforter plastered with all kinds of construction trucks (at least it's not Disney characters). I could have gotten a much more lovely and tasteful set for upward of $100 or chosen a more subdued generic theme sans gaudy vehicles but I know David wouldn't have been nearly as excited. In the end the $13 comforter and $8 sheets at Ross's were too tempting to pass up. And I do love the fact that this time we were able to decorate his room with a theme and colors that reflect his personality and tastes.

Anyway with all that commotion meal planning has been relegated to the back burner but hopefully we can get back into the swing of things. Something tells me though that the next several weeks are going to stay fairly chaotic though.

The African peanut soup was delicious though I did cut the amount of cayenne pepper in half. We served it over brown rice and I will certainly make it again. In the future though I'll only use legs and thighs and skip the wings. It's just too cumbersome to get the meat off those babies. Here's what we've got for this week.

• Sunday: Eat out
• Monday: Eat out again
• Tuesday: Turkey sandwiches
• Wednesday: Salmon burgers and sweet potato fries (from last week)
• Thursday: Baked beans and cornbread (also from last week)
• Friday: Spaghetti with salad
• Saturday: Sloppy joes with salad

Splash Pad!

 On Saturday we tried out a park we hadn't visited before. We hadn't planned on trying the splash pad as it was already around 7 pm and had cooled off a bit but David was so eager we decided to let him try it out. Fortunately we had an extra pair of shorts along but as it turned out he really didn't get all that wet anyway. Most of the water had already been turned off at that point and he focused more on stomping around in the puddles and climbing around than playing with the few jets that were still running. Maybe he even preferred it that way, but next time we'll be sure to pick a nice hot day and pack his suit and towel to give him a chance to compare. Something tells me we might be frequent visitors here this summer.

Meal Planning Week 22

Wow, this week really flew by it seems like. We have less than a month to get ready for our next baby and pretty much no time to do it. The baby's room still needs to get painted and we need to rearrange the furniture (although no crib for the time-being as that's still occupied by David). Since the baby will be sleeping in our room for the first little while we technically would have some time after he's born to get everything done. Experience has taught me though that if you don't have time to do something before a baby's born you REALLY won't have time afterward.

We managed not to spend any money on dinners out (though we were treated on Fri by my parents to some yummy Indian food) but once again I didn't make everything on the menu and we wound up eating leftovers an extra night or two. In past weeks when a recipe's made a lot more than we can eat I've frozen half of it to have in reserve after the baby gets here. Our freezer's pretty much reached capacity though so any leftovers need to just get eaten before they go to waste and I don't mind not having to cook.

Last week I made my own taco meat instead of using the seasoning packs you by in the store which worked pretty well. Instead of using garlic powder I just used a few cloves of garlic and I also added 1/2 t cumin and an extra dash of salt to give it a bit more zip. I'm not sure I saved any money as the recipe claims as the seasoning packs  cost about the same amount as the tomato sauce I used but it's probably healthier and didn't really take any more time.

The pasta with lemon, broccoli, walnuts and cannellini beans turned out okay but not great in my opinion. The flavor was good but it seemed a bit dry. Maybe adding a little milk or something to make it creamier would have improved it. Anyway, here's the plan for this week.

• Sunday: African chicken peanut soup (still haven't gotten to this one yet) with homemade bread and carrots/celery/cucumber sticks
• Monday: Spaghetti with salad and garlic toast
• Tuesday: Broccoli quiche (yep, another repeat) and fresh fruit
• Wednesday: Salmon burgers and sweet potato fries
• Thursday: Leftovers or eat out
• Friday: Baked beans and cornbread (When we were out camping my mom made some great baked beans with kind of an interesting twist. Maybe next week I'll post the recipe)
• Saturday: Turkey sandwiches and fruit