The new guy is here!

Wow. It has been a busy, busy, busy time for us. I haven't posted for a long time because when I get stressed and/or busy, all non-critical things get dropped from my life. And as it turns out, for me, the last trimester of pregnancy was one of those times. For basically all of November and December, we spent tons of time doing things that needed to be done before the baby arrived, like birthing classes, getting the nursery ready, choosing names, baby showers, writing thank you notes, visiting family, doing "the last time before the baby comes" things, etc. (not to mention Christmas baking and shopping!) The first half of January was spent nervously awaiting baby.

Then, just 12 hours early, the little guy arrived! His name is Pax Jacob and he is amazing. :-D See the pictures for proof. Today he is two weeks old. Here are some of the things I adore about him:

• the super-cute baby noises he makes, (similar to the tired sounds you make as you go to bed at night)
• his long fingers that might be piano-playing fingers :-)
• the fleeting expressions that cross his face, lickety-split (from pure bliss, to rage, to horror, to peaceful sleeping--all in 3 seconds or less)
• how he can be totally asleep and nothing wakes him up. Sometimes. 
• the fact that the dogs barking doesn't startle him in the slightest
• no matter how many times he wakes me up at night, it still makes me smile when I see him
• how his arms operate totally independently of anything he wants them to do (sometimes an arm just pops up straight out in front of him and stays there until I move it :-))
• his Houdini-like quality of getting his arms out of the tightly swaddled blankets that Grandma made for him
• his wrinkly little bum!
• how cute he looks in Ben's arms (he looks even smaller when Ben is holding him)
• how cozy he is in the sling (he slept straight through his first hike last weekend at Deem Hills)
• his bright, blinking eyes when he's awake and alert in the mornings

Also, I'm attaching a link to the story of Pax's birth. I wrote it out in long form for my own sake, but also because I think it's something people don't hear very often. As Ben and I went through our birthing classes, we realized that we had absolutely zero knowledge of it, beyond what is seen in TV shows. Most people who have babies, the birth story for the general public goes something like this: "I was scheduled to be induced Tuesday morning. After 17 hours of labor, being induced twice and having an epidural, he was born." Or something like that. Hence, most of us go into the process of birthing a child with literally no idea of what happens in the mysterious intervening hours. That was definitely the biggest benefit to us in the birthing classes was simply knowing what to expect. Either way, for that reason, I wrote out the entire story of Pax's birth, in a fair amount of detail, mostly for people who have no idea what happens. Feel free to read it if you want, but consider yourself warned, it is most of 5 pages :-s 

I hope to post more regularly now that we are back at home and my brain is starting to unscramble. :-)