Our first 2 weeks as a family of 4

Matthew is a bit over 2 weeks old and I can not imagine our lives without him or before him. I have forgotten how much and how fast they change. I am going to try and wrap up a few memories over the last 2 weeks here, but hope to stay on top of the blog going forward to capture all of these precious times.

John's and Matthew:
* One of the funniest things that John has said about Matthew was when he told Nana and Da that we have to wash our hands AFTER we touch Matthew because he was going to be dirty! I think he got that turned around a bit! :)

* He is doing AWESOME with Matthew. He truly loves him and can not give him enough hugs and kisses. He "washes" (Germ-x, antibacterial stuff) his hands every time and then is super gentle with him. He does want to lean on him though, so we are working on that. One of my first and favorite memories that I will carry forever is the night that we came home from the hospital and Grammy, Granddaddy, Nana, Da and myself were at the table finishing dinner and Carl, John and Matthew were sitting on the rocking chair (John facing just the right way because he did not want to touch Matthew's feet at the time, weird?)...John sang "You are my Sunshine" to Matthew in a very sweet voice. Brought tears to my eyes!

* He has had some attitude towards Me and Carl, but totally understandable. We are trying to find the balance between patience/understanding/forgiveness and letting him run wild and form bad habits. We are getting there, but have some work to do; but what parent doesn't have some work to do?!?!? Right?!?!?

Matthew's routine so far:
* SLEEP! He sleeps so much that we thought there may be something wrong with him! John did not sleep this much the first few weeks. Grammie says that his choice to sleep over eat must come from the Jones side of the family! :) He is sleeping in our room in a bassinet. He is a pretty quiet sleeper. We swaddle him at night, but he does not fight to get out like John did, so he stays bundled up pretty easily.

* Eats....but not very well at first. I think it was the quick stay in the NICU during those crucial first hours out of the womb. We got off to a slow start and I was having to wake him up every 3 hours to eat. But we are going strong now and he wakes to eat about every 3 hours, give or take 30 minutes on either side.

* For the very little time that he is awake, we just hold him and love him. John likes to read stories during that time, or draw for him. John drawing on the chalkboard seems to be Matthew's favorite activity so far, he really does seem relaxed and appears to be watching (as much as he can anyway). He loves the sound of John's voice. So do I! :)

Matthew's appearance and personality:
* I am probably going to include a lot of comparison these first few months to John as I did not start this blog with John until he was 5 months old. I want to walk down memory lane a bit with John too. Matthew seems to be a laid back baby, he will lay there and take in the world in silence. I don;t even know he has woken up some of the times. John used to announce his awakening pretty loudly if I remember correctly.

* He will not look in my eye just yet. I know this is normal, but I really want him to!

* He has dark hair and dark skin (Carl calls him Mattito!), and I think his eyes have a chance of being brown, but too early to tell. Totally opposite from my fair-skinned, blond hair, blue eyed big boy!

* He is really skinny like John was, lots of loose skin to fill in!

* He has my toes (SUPER long) and my hair line (John had his Daddy's hair line very clearly).

* He has dimples on both sides and when he gets them both out, he looks like Grammie! I am not sure they are dimples that are going to stay though (can dimples disappear?).

Family changes:
* This is the first week that we are really getting back into routine as last week was spring break, but overall, things have not changed too much. Matthew just fits right into what we were already doing. The lack of sleep for me is the biggest change and I am still not accustomed, it is starting to catch up to me a little bit. When I nurse Matthew, it is all I can do to stay awake and then I crash about 2 or 3 in the afternoon.

* Carl was working from home last week and I have to say that it was the best thing EVER! It made the transition so much easier for us as a family. It really allowed us to work out some of those first few kinks that come with adding a baby to a family. And it helped me plan for when he is not here. I love him so much and am so blessed to raise a family with him!

* My WONDERFUL neighborhood play group is bringing dinner to us every night for 2 weeks! We are on night #2 and it is a true luxury! Seriously, taking out planning, preparing and cleaning dinner of the equation really makes the day a lot easier. And we get it for TWO WEEKS! I am blown away by the generosity!

* We our trying to spend separate and valuable time with just John which seems to be really effective. Carl and him went fishing one day already, and when Matthew is asleep or Carl is home, I make sure it is just the two of us for at least a little bit. I actually think it makes our time together more focused and fun this way.

Here are some pictures over the last couple weeks: