Some firsts for Harv

So we're in to this parenting thing 17 days.  I think it's going pretty good.  The child is still alive so we must be doing at least some things right.  I'm surprised at how hard things can be.  I think the hardest part so far for me is just not knowing what to do when he's crying and I've tried everything else.  My brain wants there to be a reason for his crying and then it wants to know the reason so that I can solve it.  And it makes me really sad and slightly anxious/stressed out more than I thought it would/should.  The last couple days have been especially hard that way.  I need to lighten up and not worry about how abnormal he is or isn't.  He's adorable and he's growing and and we couldn't be happier that he's in our lives.  So with that being said, I'll share some things he's experienced for the first time, not necessarily in correct order of experience.

This was his first real encounter with Rozzi.  Samson has seemed mostly indifferent to him.  But the first week with him home the poor dogs seemed pretty depressed.  We boxed them out of our small living area and didn't pay a whole lot of attention to them.  Kind of a rough adjustment for them for sure.  It's getting better I think.  It will be much better when it warms up and we all can get outside. 

 This was his first bath out of the hospital.  He sure does not enjoy bath time. 

 This was his first bath with dad involved.  Still not stoked on it. 

 First encounter with Aunt Heather.  I love this picture. 

This is his first naked picture where he actually was happy.

 

First time in a moby wrap.  Super gross picture of me but he looks cute. I think he really likes it but I think it's a huge pain to put on.  Not at all as easy as they make it look on the online video's.  I need to practice a little more I think. 

We took him to the doctor at one week.  They said they like to see babies BACK to their birth weight by two weeks.  He weighed 7lbs 1oz when he was born.  At one week he was 7lbs 15oz.  Guess he's getting plenty of milk :)  I bet he turns out to be a chunk!  His cheeks are already getting much chubbier!  His pediatrician is Mark Olson.  Tanner has golfed with him a few times and he and I both really like him.  His brother works in the ER occasionally as well and they just are both great. So we were pretty happy when he was taking new patients and said he'd be happy to be Harvey's doctor. 

 First time sucking his finger.  Tanner sucked that same finger for a large part of his early years so it was pretty funny when we saw him do it all on his own.  He already has a lot of his daddy in him :)

 His first real outing (not counting the doctors).  We went on a little but super exciting tour of Williston since the majority of the whole week my sister was here we were just inside and she has never been here before.  We drove out to the confluence as well because they had some t-shirts that my mom wanted to get my dad.  Plus they got a little ND culture from the museums there. 

 Also while they were here Harvey had his first Thanksgiving :)  Giving thanks for Harvey! I had a turkey in my freezer from a year ago and used my mom's turkey cooking skills while she was here since I have none.  It was delicious.  Don't know why we don't eat Thanksgiving food more often. 

First exposure to some gaming.  Mexican Train.  One of Tanner's fav's...especially...or probably...because he always wins.

First time getting changed by dad.  He peed on him.  It was funny because he started peeing and Tanner didn't realize it at first and when he did he jumped to the side pretty fast. 

 He grins a lot in his sleep and it obviously is adorable.  He also will chuckle/laugh in his sleep occasionally.  That is my favorite!  This was the first time I actually caught a good smile with a picture.  The laugh might be trickier to capture.  But the smile itself is pretty darn cute if I do say so myself. 

And then, just because I can, here are a very small percentage of some of the MANY pics we have taken over the last 17 days.  I can shamelessly post as many as I want on this blog I think :) 

 These are some of his wide awake in the night pictures.  I like to refer to them as the calm before the storm pics.  Late in the evening he will be really content and happy for a little bit and then a switch gets flipped and he then goes from 0 to 10 in no time.  It's quite interesting how drastic the change is.  And then he will be mad for awhile and then fall asleep and do pretty good the rest of the night.  He's only had a couple really bad nights where the mad phase lasts a really long time and he doesn't do awesome the rest of the night.  Hope those bad ones stay really infrequent!

 

 

 I have to say that this moment was really special for me.  He was only a few days old and I was holding him just like that and he was just staring up at me for 30 minutes or more.  Just so content and perfect.  We just looked at each other and my heart felt like it might burst with happiness.

It's still kind of weird to me that he's turned us into a Mom and Dad, just like that.  And he's our son.  Forever and ever.  It's pretty darn awesome.