a pinch of whimsy.: getting to know you

we blessed Oliver today!
not that i have any pictures of it or anything but it happened! so hooray! it was a nice day surrounded by family. we're prreeettty glad to be so close to everyone now. makes days like these a lot less work. and much less expensive. (no plane tickets, amiright?!)
anyway. oliver will be 7 weeks tomorrow and i feel like i finally know who he is as a person. or rather as a baby bc i don't feel like you know who they are as a person until they're like 18 months.

he had a few weeks where he was really gassy and constipated, and overtired from not sleeping because he was so uncomfortable, and he ended up just crying/screaming/fussing all. the. time. i had begun to think that i just ended up with a fussy baby when one day i fed him more than his typical 4 oz and he gulped it down! i was starving my poor baby! i guess i just could not fathom that a baby his age could want so much to eat but i guess you learn something new everyday. it didn't solve his gas problems though unfortunately. he wasn't screaming anymore but he was still visibly uncomfortable like 70% of the time. i felt bad for the poor guy so i finally posted a fb status asking people for help, -ANYTHING- to help with my poor, constipated, gassy baby. i got a lot of really great suggestions, and ended up switching his formula and using some special bottles and he is MUCH more content now. less gas, more poop (he even had his first blowout today at brad's parents' house. on their bed. oops). blowouts aside, smiles all around.

i've been able to re-read some of my favorite book on baby-sleep as well and it refreshed some great information. and now, since he's become more content, i've been able to get to know what he likes, what he doesn't like, how he likes to be soothed etc. and his day sleep has also been much improved. his night sleep has always been great. he's even started doing even LONGER stretches so basically for all intents and purposes, he's sleeping through the night. what can i say? i make great sleepers. during the day, he takes several naps at consistent times and intervals now, which is earlier than i remember bea falling into a predictable schedule. i love that he's more predictable now though, it will make toting him and bea around a bit easier. he likes to be swaddled and held close while falling asleep, while sucking on a pacifier. when he's ready to finally sleep he spits it out, i put him down, sort of on his side (but mostly on his back) and he sleeps wonderfully.

he's finally started to smile and coo a bit and i am loving it. i finally look at his face and think "how did i ever survive without you?" i'm not sure why it took so long to get to that place. i suppose it's just because i don't deal well with change. i had such a beautiful routine with just bea and i, and i think the break in it rocked me quite a bit; way more than it rocked her. she never once questioned that baby brother was ours and here for good. we had been talking and leading up to it for so long that when it finally happened, she was like "finally! yes!!!! i have a brother now! let's keep it!" whereas i was like "HOW CAN I LOVE TWO BABIES WHAT WAS I THINKING?! I AM A HORRIBLE HUMAN!" all of that has thankfully subsided and our family of four is perfectly complete.

i keep wanting to get family photos of the four of us, but i won't be happy if i immortalize myself at this size. call me vain but i don't want to pay for a photoshoot where all i'll see is how enormous i am. we'll get em done in october, when the leaves get pretty. (or as pretty as they get here. i will always miss my new england leaves. "fall foliage" if you will.)

anyway. i'm feeling better since my last post. i'm happier. i'm enjoying two more than struggling with two. and i know it will just keep getting better and i am just so excited for what our future holds. i love my little family!!!

and now some amazing pictures of my little loves from a spur of the moment candid shoot 2 weeks ago by a dear friend of mine.