This morning, when I went to change Baby Bear, everything looked normal...from the outside.  Then I open up his sleeper and see his pants pulled down WAY low, showing off his D(iaper)-string and his belly button.  He's looking at me like, yeah...what up, mom?  I change him and put his pants back on like a proper gentleman.  Then the next time I go to change him, his pants are completely off and scrunched up at the bottom of him sleeper!!!  (btw, I admit that's not the most handsome of outfits...but it was a gift and it's comfy and easy to take off!!!)

He's getting much better at holding his head up and now prefers to be carried slung over your shoulder so he can look all around him.  For some reason, he tolerates it when the grandparents carry him in a cradle hold...but when I do it, he fusses until I carry him up over my shoulder.  He has Mama well trained.  Here he is practicing tummy time with Papa.

One of BB's great-aunt gave him two pairs of Air Jordan's during Thanksgiving dinner.  She has two boys of her own and they told her that was the cool thing to give hahaha.  We were surprised that he didn't get upset when we put them on since he's never worn shoes before.  They're still a little big and will probably never even touch the ground...but I guess he can look cool just lying in bed.

We survived our first major holiday with both sets of families.  Spending time with my family and his family is completely different.  Since we don't have any relatives in NYC, my holidays were always spent just the 4 of us.  It's always quiet and not very different from any other day except that maybe we'll eat something special.  I think the majority of PB's family lives in NYC/NJ and every major holiday, they all gather at someone's house to eat.  It's loud, boisterous and crowded!  I remember the first time I spent the holidays there I was totally overwhelmed.  I didn't know where to sit, if I should help out or what!  I think I'm still trying to get used to it! 

On Wednesday, we made it to Queens after crawling through almost every highway we hit.  The Van Wyck was at a total standstill, so we had to navigate our way through the local roads of Jamaica.  Fun stuff.  dinner was yummy...we had sukiyaki as usual.  And that was it...hahahaha.  We don't really do Thanksgiving at our house. Then A-Gong played the piano for Baby Bear and A-Ma just held and oogled him like crazy.  She was so thrilled that he smiled and "talked" to her.  (Motomamma....this may be the last holiday that BB wears that sweater...it is getting kind of snug/short on him already!!!  Look at the sleeves hahaha!)

Thursday was an entirely different day for BB.  Let's just say that he didn't sleep much on Thursday and he was not too happy about it either.  For most of the relatives, it was the first time seeing him, so he made his rounds from one arm to another hahaha.  Everyone wanted to hold "the prince".  One of PB's cousins asked if he's gotten a lot bigger since he was born.  We said yes.  Then she held up her hands about a foot apart and asked if he was that size when he first was born.  I just laughed....because I remember until BB, I always thought that newborns were teeny tiny also!  When we told her that he's only grown a few inches since he was born, her eyes got really big and then she declared that she was adopting.  hahaha.

We watched Wall-E, which was really cute.  Actually, PB and I only caught the end since we were trying to get BB to sleep, so we were like what the?  But now we totally want to see it for real.  And then Rock Band got busted out.  I had to rip PB away from the guitar at 10 PM so we could head back to Philly hahaha.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We will be busy bees the next two days.  Tomorrow, we're headed to Queens to see A-Ma and A-Gong...then Thursday, down to Jersey to see Puo-Puo and Gong-Gong (and the humongous extended family).  Baby Bear probably won't get a lot of sleep the next two days....so I'm trying to force him to nap all day today.  I almost got him to sleep on my chest for 4-5 hours this morning, except I had to go pee.  Stupid bladder.  So he only napped 3.5 hours.

My PT status got approved by the big boss.  So I'm all set for when I return in late December.  I'm a little nervous to go back....I know it's going to be SOOO busy because it's the winter and I'm going to be sooo rusty.  I hope I can keep up.  Hopefully they'll put me somewhere easy first to ease me back into things.  Then I have to figure out the whole pumping during work thing.  I don't think I'll get to pump any time other than during lunch time.  I don't have the kind of job where I can step away for 15 minutes and come back and resume my work.  It's all a big well-oiled machine in the pharmacy...if I (or anyone else) leave for that long, it screws everything up.  So we'll see...I may have to let myself dry up and go strictly formula after a while.  I know if I don't pump consistently during the day, my supply is going to go anyway.  We'll see how that goes.

So I finally remembered to upload some recent pics of Baby Bear.  It's funny how after a while, you look at the pics and think, why did I take this?

Here's baby Bear trying on the awesome hat that his cousin Isaiah sent him.  It's still a little too big...hopefully in a few months it'll fit!

Here's Baby Bear at his favorite spot...the changing pad.  As you can see, we've gone bare bones with the nursery.  The bumper was taken out after day 3 when we realized how annoying it was to change the sheets with them in.  The changing pad covers haven't been used for weeks after he kept dirtying it by peeing during diaper changes...we got sick of washing them every 1/2 a day.  So now, he wets it...and we just wipe it off.

Mr. Big Head's head has become too big for the headrest on the Sweet Peace...it totally folds his ears in half, so we had to remove it.  He's starting to become too big for the swing...his feet are coming pretty close to the edge.  Good thing we can just snap his car seat into it!

Baby Bear throws a fit every time you take the bottle out to burp him.  After all these times, you would think he'd realize he'd get more milk.  Nope...it's like the end of the world to him.

And this is Mr. Drooly...he can blow spit bubbles now too.  Nice.  (I think he looks so much like PB here!)

This is what happens when PB decides to play with Baby Bear....I think the first look he called Mr. Pilgrim...and I forget what the second look is supposed to be.  Poor Baby Bear.

PB is very happy to see that his hair is starting to grow in.  He was contemplating shaving it all off until he read somewhere that someone else did that and then the hair grew back in patches!  And look how nice his skin looks now!!! No more acne!

(What's the best and easiest way to edit home videos for free?  I just need to cut it at the end because some of them are too long)

I went to my ob/gyn last week for my 6 week post partum check up (even though it was only 5 weeks).  You know you've been there way too much when the receptionist greets you by name.  Anyhow, my ob/gyn asked if I was still bleeding...I was, a little.  She asked if it had stopped and then restarted...it hadn't.  She said hmmmm....I kind of got worried.  She palpated my abdomen and said if it was tender...it was.  She said hmmmm again and that she shouldn't  be feeling what she was feeling.  She said my uterus hadn't gone down as much as it should have, which is why I'm still bleeding.  She mentioned something about possibly having clots in there.  Then she wanted to do an internal, which sucked (I thought those days were OVER after the baby came!!!).

I was like, what else could go wrong...am I just not made to have babies?  First I had a rough L&D and now there are problems with the recovery?  So she sent me off to have an ultrasound done asap to see what was going on.

The weird thing is that at that time, I was still feeling some tenderness in that area if I put pressure on it.  So it kind of hurt to have Baby Bear lay on my chest and to wear certain pants.  But I thought that was part of the healing process...I actually thought it was my ab muscles that weren't yet fully recovered from being sliced open (because it would hurt if I did a lot of physical activity)...it never occurred to me that it was the uterus.  But as soon as I got home from the appointment, it started to hurt less.  By the time my ultrasound appointment came this past Friday, there wasn't much pain left.

I called in this morning for my results and the radiologist and the ob/gyn said that my ultrasound looked normal!!!  That they didn't see anything wrong.  I don't know if all the pressing and the stuff she did caused it to contract more or what.  So they said I was good to go and didn't need anymore follow up appointments!  Woohoo!

And we decided after a little number crunching that I would go back to work part time.  I haven't told my parents yet...I think they'll freak since according to their standards, we are not making enough money (according to them, anyone making less than 200K will not be able to live comfortably).  I hear that after 3 months, it gets so much better and the babies are so fun and are starting to move more.  I just felt sad that I worked to hard the first three months, only to barely have time with him afterwards.

I'm only dropping 8 hours a week, so it's not that much.  But that will switch me to working every other weekend instead over every 3rd...and that allows me two weekdays off each week to spend with him.  I don't really mind working weekends, since in general, the hospital is slower on weekends.  Since PB works three 12 hours shifts and has 4 days off and I will work four 8 hour shifts and have 3 days off, most of our days will be covered.  We will still need a sitter for the days where our schedules overlap, but it won't be that many days.

And if I were to work full time, both PB and I would be working every 3rd weekend, meaning, we'd need sitters every 3rd weekend.  But with me switching to every other, we would have coinciding weekends every 6th weekend.  And on the weekends, it would be the parents watching him, so it's easier.  It does mean less free weekends together though

And I think we'll be okay financially...we're not huge spenders anyway so it won't affect us that much.  And I can't even go shopping because I don't know what friggin size I am anymore!!!  I'm only 5 pounds away from my pre-preg weight, but none of my pants OR shoes fit!!!!  My stomach is almost flat but my my hips widened a few sizes!!!  I'm not sure if it's going to go back to the way it was or not.  My pants are still un-zippable by about 4 inches!  And all my shoes are at least 1/2 size too small.  NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!  I guess I will be wearing scrubs to work every day!

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Baby Bear hates tummy time...he'll only sometimes do it on our chests.  We know he can do it because when he wants, he has pretty good head control.  But he's just lazy and would rather just lay there and have us pat him on the back for hours.  But you can see how sometimes he just pants and licks like a dog tee hee!  (He is sooo bald now but he has a little hair growing in on top now hahaha)

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We finally started taping BB doing stuff...here he is smiling!  (Btw, his diapers have a monkey on them...we call him Abu...in case you're wondering who Abu is).  Sorry about the image quality...it was the midnight feeding and we didn't want to turn on all the lights.

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During one of my feeds yesterday, Baby Bear seemed to be happily guzzling down the milk...he was just sucking away at the nipple.  But when I removed the bottle to feed him, he still had the same amount left in there.  I put the bottle back in his mouth and he returned to sucking.  And after some time, I checked again, and it was still that same amount.  Finally I realized that the nipple was clogged and nothing was coming out!  But Baby Bear didn't act like anything was wrong, he was just sitting there sucking away as if he was getting all the milk in the world!

It is freezing outside!  What is going on?  It's colder now than it was at my wedding last January!!  It's still only the fall!

We're going to try to go to church this weekend with Baby Bear (if there aren't other people here visiting).  Eeeek.  The last time we were there was when I was 39 weeks.  There was another mom there...she had her 5 week old with her and he was soooo well behaved the entire service.  She also delivered her baby in 5 minutes and had no sign of pregnancy on her.  I know people said that about me at Chrissy's wedding, but that empire cut dress was quite forgiving. This girl was a stick...I guess that's what happens when you run marathons.  I remember after I met her, I told PB that I was inspired and considered running his annual half-marathon with him in May.  PSHAW!  I laugh at that notion now.

Anyway, I hope Baby Bear will behave too and he won't be that baby that starts screaming during the prayer...hahaha.

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Baby Bear has recently discovered that he has hands.  He is starting to reach out more for things.  There is this little stuffed spider than hangs down from the corner of his crib mirror.  It has strips of ribbon for feet and the other day, I found him grabbing the ribbons and swinging the spider back and forth.  At first I thought it was coincidental, but after he swung it once, he looked right at it and put his hands back on the little ribbons and did it again several times.

He's constantly grabbing at our shirts now when we hold him.  I usually feed him in our bed...and I prop myself up with my pillow.  So when I throw him over my shoulder to burp him, I can hear him scratching the pillow and at my shirt.  That also means that when he's mad, he claws and grabs at us.  He's already pulled mommy's hair quite a few times.

Now he's always sucking on his hands and licking everything...which means drool everywhere.  Tummy time anywhere means a pool of drool under his face after he's done.  And he started his habit of licking anything that comes close to his mouth. If he spits up and it come out onto his bib/burping cloth and we don't get him off that cloth in time, he'll lick it back up!!!!  So gross.  We call him out little doggie since he pants, drools and licks everything.

Last week must've been some sort of fluke...either that or he did tons of growing...because now the normal Baby Bear is back.  He's clamoring for meals every 3 hours, he won't go to sleep even though he's tired, and now even our tummy time method doesn't really work.  It's like he wants to be awake all day, even though his body is telling him it's time to sleep.  But his night time sleeping is still decent, thank goodness.  He'll get his last evening meal at 7 PM and will wake up at midnight-ish to eat and will sleep until 5-6 AM.  And after that, it's Baby Bear like he normally is....fussy!  I'm hoping this is just his 6 week growth spurt...and I hear that the fussiness peaks at 6 weeks...so hopefully this will be the worst of it.  Please please please!

But it seems like he grew so much the past few days.  He is now 11.5 pounds...I think by the time his 2 month appt rolls around, he'll be around 13 pounds!!!  He is one, heavy, wriggly monster.  It is SOOO hard for me to burp him now because he's all over the place.  And it's hard for me to control his head since my hands don't reach halfway around anymore.  All of a sudden some of his previously too big onesies fit him just right...and some even seem almost too small!!!  The pants that we brought to the hospital as his take home outfit was WAY too big back then.  Now the elastic is getting a little snug in the belly area!  He didn't even get to wear some of his newborn things!

He still loves his bathtime though.  Last night, he just lay there lounging in his infant net with all 4 limbs hanging out of the net, just resting in the water. We might just bathe him every night, even though they tell us not to because it'll dry the baby's skin out.  We'll just use soap every other day...and lotion up really well.

Somewhere, sometime this week, Baby Bear has learned to entertain himself and put himself to sleep!  He has always needed to be held anytime he was awake.  If we put him down, he'd cry within minutes until someone held him.  The parents all said, oh...you guys spoiled him...he's going to need to be held for the rest of his life.

Well this week, we would put him down...and hear silence for a long time.  We'd check on him and he'd be awake, just looking around.  We'd leave him there since he didn't seem upset.  A few minutes later, he'd be asleep!!!  So we tried it every time he seemed tired or even after feeds (we used to hold him until he was out and then sneak him into the crib) and most of the time he'd be able to do it!  Although, sometimes he'd need a pacifier to help him.  We couldn't believe it.  Out of nowhere, this happened!

But sadly, sometimes we'd try to lay him on our chest after a feed like we normally do...and he wouldn't want to!  He'd squirm around and cry until we lay him down by himself.  *sniff sniff*  In the early morning and late nights, he's too tired to protest, so I still lay him on my chest. tee hee.  But I try to get him into his crib in 15 minutes or so.  Plus, as much as I love it...he'd getting heavier and heavier by the day.  So when we do sleep for more than 30 minutes, my chest starts to hurt from the weight.

He also smiles and makes little noises when we talk to him now.  It's the cutest thing.  He does it especially on the changing table.  For some reason, he LOVES the changing table.  He will cry and if you put him there, he'll stop and start looking all around him.  That always puzzled us since there's nothing on the walls around the changing table...it makes us wonder what he's looking at.  A few weeks back when he was REALLY fussy all the time, we thought maybe it was the changing pad that he liked...so we put it in his crib and tried to get him to calm down that way.  Didn't work.  He has to be on the pad...on the changing table.

He's starting to be able to hold a rattle.  We have one with a really thin handle and if I put the rattle in his hand, he'll hold it for a little bit. He hasn't gotten to the shaking part yet...I do that for him...but he's getting there!

And his night sleeping is still good!!! Between 7 PM and 6 AM, he feeds only once!

Oh, and I found this AMAZING children's photographer in our area.  I've convinced PB to do a 1 year photo shoot with Baby Bear next year.  She's sooo good and captures kids so well!  http://www.joycesmithphotography.com