Just look at those cheeks and the double chin! Out.Of.Control.

Anyway.

We’re talking shop here. So back on track!

Here are two pouches – the one  on the left is felted and almost completed (just missing a button and a few embellishments!) and the one on the right is awaiting the washer to be felted.

These were made with the variegated wool I purchased a couple weeks ago.

Here’s the red one again, with a little green one. The green one was knitted on size 7 needles, so it’s smaller. Normally, I use size 10. It makes quite a difference! The green one just needs its final embellishments and closure as well.

And here’s all three together. I love the colors! Secretly, the green one is my favorite because it’s so small. It’s like 2×3 in person… kind of hard to tell that with the photos.

The only downside to using my washer/dryer to felt these pouches is that because I don’t have a central agitator (it’s a front loader), the stitches do not completely disappear. The pouches definitely feel and look felted in person, but in these pictures the stitches are a lot more visible. No idea why. I guess that’s my unique spin on the felting! I tried felting the red pouch in the sink first by hand and it actually came out looking more felted than the green one so maybe I should do that in the future.

I’m currently working on finishing up another red one and I started a pink one. I need to run out to the knit shop and pick up my own set of size 7 needles – the ones I used were my mom’s – so I can make a few more mini pouches. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it, but it’s just so darn cute!

We finished Ezra’s nursery two weeks before he arrived – perfect timing! Now that we’ve been using it for several weeks, I feel like I did a pretty good job anticipating how we would use it, though there are still a few touches I’d like to make here and there.

On my last update of his nursery, things were looking pretty bare. Now, they’re a lot more filled in and nursery-ish looking.

The walls are now painted Evening Shadow by Sherwin Williams, and we’ve got his crib all setup (featuring a giant yoda and sleep sheep). We added art work to this wall – little fox prints! We wanted foxes to be the theme, but we ended up not really having a theme per se… more just a color scheme. And the color scheme was pretty much any bright, primary color with a few muted shades tossed in for good measure.

This is the opposite wall from the crib. You can see the chair we use as a rocker (but it’s more like a bouncer) and the dresser we’re using as a changing station. My lamp I upgraded is tucked behind the chair and I hung up a mirror that I snagged from the garage. It had just been sitting in there for months with no place to call its home. Gotta love re-purposing cast-offs!

Here’s a shot of the same area, but with a better view of the bookshelves:

The bookshelves are a 6′ board cut in half, then stained and coated with polyurethane. The room is so small that we needed to add additional storage in the form of shelves for all of Ezra’s books – there was just no room for a bookshelf.

I think his shelves are one of my favorite features of the room so here’s a couple close up shots:

You can see this little Fox knit cap that one of my friends made for Ezra – he looks so adorable in it!! And a little further down the shelf is a picture frame (that I still need to fill in with his actual photos and not the stock ones!), his Scentsy warmer that doubles as a nightlight and his guest book from the baby showers.

And here’s the other side with Ezra’s book collection. He has quite the library. He also has a couple piggy banks, where he will soon start stashing his vast fortune that he will no doubt begin to accumulate.

We read to Ezra now, even though he has no idea what we are saying to him. He likes looking at the pictures and hearing our voices.

Directly across from the rocking chair is the room’s (tiny) closet. When we bought the house it didn’t have a door, just a curtain covering the doorway. I removed the curtain and it’s open right now. If we’re still in this house when Ezra’s a little older, we’ll probably add the curtain back or at least find a door. The boy needs a proper closet!

We added those white shelves to this closet when I used the room as my office. I used to sell Mary Kay and I stored all of my inventory in there. Now, the shelves are home to blankets and the Moby wrap, as well as two orange storage boxes from IKEA. One of them is Ezra’s “memory box” – something my mom did for both my sister and I. It’s full of little things, like his hospital bracelets, cards from showers, and other little mementos. The other box has crib sheets. The drawers in the dresser have all of Ezra’s clothes. We use the top two drawers for his current wardrobe and the bottom two drawers are what he will likely be wearing soon. My little boy is growing so quickly – he’s already into his 0-3 and 3 month clothing. He doesn’t quite fill it out width wide, but he’s definitely tall enough!

The final little detail in Ezra’s nursery is his artwork.

I really didn’t want to spend a lot of money on artwork as he might not like what I picked out when he’s older and can decide for himself. So, I left the Keep Calm and Carry On poster in the room and we purchased the three fox prints from Etsy. Second to the shelves, the fox prints are another favorite feature. They are just so adorable!

The last picture to share is in the vein of keeping things real on the blog. It’s how our changing station is actually setup on a daily basis. I loved the changing pad on top of the dresser, but it wasn’t practical. It slid around too much and just wasn’t safe. So, we have a strip of no-slip stuff that you put inside of kitchen drawers and cabinets, with a co-sleeper on top of that, haha! It isn’t the most traditional setup, but it works. We keep a stash of diapers, some wipes and bottom cream to the left of the co-sleeper to make diaper changes a little quicker.

And that’s Ezra’s nursery! There are a few other things I’d like to add to it, whenever I can find a free moment. On the top of that list is to put a mirror on the bottom of the shelf above his changing station so he has something interesting to look at while he’s laying there. For now, though, it works. It’s a cute room without being too over the top and I think it will transition nicely with him as he grows.

If you’re wondering about where we got things, here are our sources:

• Paint: Evening Shadow by Sherwin Williams, in Harmony Interior Acrylic Latex
• Crib: Davinci Jenny Lind Stationary Crib (we didn’t put the casters on)
• Dressers: Vintage, scored on Craiglist last Summer
• Co-sleeper: Summer Infant By Your Side Co-Sleeper that we use as a changing station
• Bedding: Treetop Friend set from Buy Buy Baby (comes with a changing pad cover, fitted crib sheet, bumper, crib skirt and comforter. We don’t use the bumper or crib skirt, but we’ll probably add the bumper in when he’s older)
• Nightlight: Twinkle Scentsy Warmer. We use the Newborn Nursery scent in the warmer.
• Storage Boxes: Orange Kassett boxes from IKEA. Looks like the orange color isn’t available anymore.
• Artwork: Keep Calm and Carry On poster from Dizzi Prints on Etsy (this isn’t where I originally purchased the poster from… I bought it almost 3 years ago and can’t remember where I found it) and three Foxies of Loxly prints by Loxly Hollow on Etsy

Just ignore the grody gardening gloves there.

Every May, I have always looked forward to flower shopping. For Mother’s Day, year after year, my mom loved going to pick out flowers for the garden and having us all spend time together to plan them. Some years I was too cool for the tradition and acted like it was boring…but I always enjoyed it. And I especially enjoyed looking at the flowers all summer long.

Now that Alex and I have our own house, the past two Mays we have planted flowers in the pots on the front porch. I’ve already mentioned how we attempt to fill our flowers beds, but that usually backfires and most everything dies. This year, I’m not worried about the flower beds. I just wanted flowers on my porch.

And now flowers on my porch I have. It only took about about 45 minutes to get it all together, but now we have something pretty to look at when we come home.

As a side note, we had a bag of organic potting soil in the garage from last Spring so that was what I used for planting. Let me tell ya, that soil was rank. Like, old rotten eggs kind of rank. Hopefully this doesn’t translate to more dead flowers.

I should have kept the markers for these because I can’t remember what they are called. The only thing I can say with certainty is the small white flowers on the right side of the pot in the picture above look like miniature snapdragons and smell like lilacs. They are my favorite.

I actually am missing one of my flower pots from last Spring. No idea where it went. I’m guessing it got broken or something. So, I’ll have to pick up another one at some point. In the meantime, there’s a giant gaping hole where it should be

What are your plans for Spring planting?

Be Gentle, Be Love is an e-course created by Amanda of Kind over Matter. I signed up for this e-course when it was delivered via a daily email to your inbox (which was back in May 2011!). You can purchase it now as an e-book. I saved all of the emails and have decided to go through them again. I’m missing Day one for some reason… so we’re starting with Day 2. I thought this would be a nice thing to do this May – one year later – as a regular feature on the blog.

So, without further ado, let’s get going!

Day two’s virtue is Wonder. There’s usually a writing prompt for each virtue, and for wonder the prompt is – When was the last time your sense of wonder was awakened? What evoked it?

Wonder is a virtue I don’t often think about and likely don’t often experience. I take a lot for granted, I realized, after looking up the meaning of ‘wonder.’ To wonder at something is to marvel at it. To be amazed, filled with admiration.

I don’t take the time to wonder.

But to answer the question of when the last time was that my sense of wonder was awakened, I’ll have to go the way of a cliche and say I experience it when I look at Ezra.

Almost a month later, I still can’t believe this small thing is my son. I can’t believe he is the perfect blend of two people. I can’t believe Alex and I were entrusted to care for him, that he was purposefully sent to us and that we all belong to one another. We are a family.

The feeling it gives me is that my life is immensely smaller in comparison to the vastness of everything, but that it’s more than I could have hoped for or dreamed of. I can’t possibly know what God has in store for me and the best I can do is to keep having faith and resting in the knowledge that He will bless me and my family. It reminds me of a game I used to play when I was young, when I was trying to fall asleep. I would think of myself and my family – our lives and where we lived and the things we did every day. Then, I would think about how crazy it is that we are alive and real, and living life… that it isn’t a dream. The more I thought about it, the more surreal it seemed and the smaller I felt. It felt like melting or floating – like life is so big and hard to understand, but it’s so wonderful and amazing at the same time. And as I would drift off to sleep I would thank God for placing me here and gifting me with life.

What fills you with a sense of wonder?

Well, I’ve begun the process!

Step one was not what I normally spend days/weeks/months doing: research, research and more research. Instead, I bought supplies and just started making.

I picked up these six skeins of Lambs Pride worsted yarn from my local yarn shop yesterday. I was so pumped when I saw them tucked among the other wool skeins! They’re absolutely beautiful and will look amazing as felted pouches because of their variations.

I started on a pouch when I brought them home but, unfortunately, chose the wrong needles – size 7 instead of 10. So it’s a micro pouch. That’s okay though. I think once it’s felted, it will hold a gift card or something.

I also setup an Etsy shop. It’s empty right now, but hopefully by the end of the month that will no longer be the case!

I had mentioned that in addition to the knitted pouches, I was also going to make camera lens covers. I’ve decided to focus first on the pouches, then worry about the lens covers. The covers will require a bit more time and investment and have a bigger learning curve for me since they will also require the use of a sewing machine… and, while I own a sewing machine, I’m not very good at using it.

So, in the meantime, I located my size 10 needles and have been knitting during nap times. It’s been a major stress relief. I forgot how much I missed it.

It just makes me happy to look at them  Can’t wait to see how all the pouches turn out!

So, not surprisingly, progress really slowed down in March and April. I read five books total, bringing my total up to 11. I have 41 books left to read. Eek!

In March, I read:

Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals was interesting. It was a quick read.

I think the authors (or maybe it’s the editor or publisher?) spent a little too much time on the layout/design of this book. It’s really cool looking… but sometimes that’s distracting from the actual text.

I took this book with a grain of salt. The authors would have you be a complete and total pacifist. I don’t think that that is wrong or a bad way to be, but I do think it flattens out Jesus’s personality – he is so complex.

The only other complaint about this book is sometimes the language is really condescending. This is completely on accident, I think. But it comes across sometimes as though the authors are imagining they’re talking to a small child.

I’ve read other books by Regina Leeds so I already knew how One Year to an Organized Financial Life was going to be setup and what to expect. Since I got this from the library, I didn’t have a year to read through it. I didn’t read the entire thing from cover to cover – instead, I skipped around to what applied to me and what I wanted to focus on.

I appreciate that Regina considers herself a ‘zen organizer’ which means she not only focuses on the actual act of decluttering your physical surroundings, but also on decluttering your mind/psyche as well and exploring why you got cluttered up to begin with. So the exercises where you explore your personal relationship to money was pretty interesting and I did enjoy that.

Overall, this is a pretty good book to get yourself in a solid position for understanding your finances. It’s probably worth purchasing, to use as a reference throughout the year.

Beautiful Outlaw by John Eldredge was a pretty good book. It has some controversy surrounding it, with some pastors saying that its theology is not sound. I didn’t read it for the theology, though. I read it because I was interested in how John Eldredge thought Jesus’s personality shined through in the scriptures.

I’m glad I read the book because it does give the reader an interesting look into how scripture displays Jesus. You learn to read things a little less flatly. So often I read things in the bible and don’t really think about the emotion behind it. This book challenges you to do that.

I would recommend it to someone who wants to add a little dimension to their understanding of Jesus and the scripture.

I had read parts of The Help by Kathryn Stockett last year and decided to give it another shot. I never finished it when I first picked it up because I just kind of forgot about it. I saw it on our library’s Quick Picks shelf and decided to revisit it and I’m so glad I did.

Like The Night Circus, this is up on my list of favorites. It was a little slow-going at first, but then I got hooked and finished it in four days. I was sad to see it end. I really loved the characters and wanted to just keep hanging out in their world with them.

A couple nights ago, we rented the movie and watched it. The movie was just as great as the book, I think. It was a pretty good adaptation. If you haven’t seen it or read the book yet, I’d read the book before seeing the movie.

In April I read:

My sister-in-law got me Bringing up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman back in February and I didn’t get around to reading it until the last week of March. Serendipitously, I finished it the night before Ezra was born.

I’ll admit that I was a little skeptical about this book. I thought “what could the French possibly know about parenting that’s any different from what I can read in an American parenting book??” As it turns out, they don’t really have special knowledge per se. They just have common sense.

I didn’t always agree with what Druckerman said or how she painted American parenting, but she did get one thing right – American parents are a little too involved. I think maybe we have too much information at our fingertips and the tendency is to go overboard.

We’ve been using some of the French techniques since day 1 and I think they’ve helped us not go too crazy. The main we use is ‘the pause’ and I 100% credit this to being able to understand Ezra’s facial expressions, cries and movements by the time he was 2 weeks old. The basic idea behind The Pause is to not pick your child up the second they make a sound. Instead, observe them and see what they’re doing. This has definitely kept me from snatching him up when he’s sleeping peacefully because he lets out a little grunt or squeal… and that means baby sleeps longer and so does mommy and daddy.

I would recommend this to parents just to get a different perspective on parenting practices. It never hurts to get a little more education

Of course I was reading What to Expect When You’re Expecting! I didn’t read a lot of pregnancy books but this one I kept by my bedside and read faithfully each week. A lot of people say this book freaks them out, but that wasn’t the case for me. I think the key is to skim the question section and read only the questions that apply to your current situation. If you read all of it, I can see how it would plant seeds of paranoia in your already pregnancy-hormone-adled brain (oh no! My leg twitched! I must have a blood clot! or OH EM GEE my arm is itching, I must have PUPPS!).

When I was in labor, I read the labor section and it was very helpful in terms of me understanding where I was at in labor. I read the post-partum section after we brought Ezra home and it was packed with great information about taking care of your baby in the first week, as well as taking care of yourself.

This book is a must-have for any expectant mom. Don’t get a library copy, either. You’ll want to have this whole nine months.

In May, I’m currently reading:

• What to Expect: The First Year by Heidi Murkoff
• Mom Incorporated: A Guide to Business + Baby by Aliza Sherman
• The BabyCenter Essential Guide to your Baby’s First Year by Linda Murray et al
• Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

Lilies in my flower bed last summer

I’m really happy April is over with.

This month has been one of the most trying, exciting, crazy, terrible, wonderful months of my life. Of our life.

I’m really looking forward to what May has in store.

My hopes for May are:

• Ezra keeps growing into a healthy, beautiful baby boy
• We all get a little more sleep at night (though 4 or 5 hour stretches are wonderful and I am so thankful for them, I’m looking forward to July or August when we can have upwards of 6 or 7 hours of sleep!)
• My foremilk/hindmilk imbalance works itself out
• I can scrounge up enough time to knit and sew
• We can finally get around to organizing the laundry room
• Alex and I can plan (and save up for!) a mini vacation some time this Summer
• We can get our front yard looking a little less depressing and a little more inviting

It’s been almost a month since having given birth to Ezra and I thought I’d do an update about my post-baby body.

Weight Loss - Throughout my pregnancy, I gained a total of 27 pounds. One week after giving birth, I’d lost 21 pounds. Since I’m breastfeeding, I don’t expect the remaining six pounds to come off any time soon. Typically, when breastfeeding, you hang on to 5-10 pounds of your pregnancy weight because your body needs the fat around.

It was pretty crazy seeing the scale go down so quickly. I lost 10 pounds, literally, over night. The thing is, with pregnancy, most of the weight gain is fluid, blood volume and actual baby. So it isn’t really surprising that it comes off so quickly!

Skin / Stretch Marks - I was very, very lucky and never got any stretch marks. I religiously used lotion on my belly nearly every single day, sometimes multiple times a day if I was feeling particularly dry. I primarily used Palmer’s Cocoa Butter and St. Ives Oatmeal and Shea Butter lotion.

My skin hasn’t changed much since having Ezra, either. It’s stayed really clear and smooth.

I’ve heard that breastfeeding and pumping can cause stretch marks on the breasts, so to combat against that I use Palmer’s on my chest. I sometimes also use Mama Bee Nourishing Body Oil if I feel like switching it up a little. So far, so good.

“Real” Clothes - I was back into my “real” jeans three or four days post-partum. Granted, I had slight muffin top… but I was still in them! I had measured my hips and waist and I didn’t really expand much in my hips – it looks like just a quarter of an inch. My waist is slightly wider but I also haven’t lost all the weight I put on. I tend to gain weight in my waist, hips and thighs.

I purchased a couple items to help re-shape my body. I made this choice after trying on all my pants and seeing how they fit me now. Everything fit for the most part, with the exception of two pairs of shorts – they are really tight in the hips right now. I purchased the Shinkx Hip Compression Belt and the Gabriella Abdominal Binder.

I really like both and saw almost immediate results with the abdominal binder. I don’t have the muffin top anymore with my jeans, even though I haven’t lost any additional weight. I wear the binder at night since it tends to scrunch when you sit and I sit a lot during the day. I wear the compression belt during the day since it isn’t effected by sitting. You’re supposed to wear the compression belt for the first 8 weeks post-partum. I got it at 2 weeks, so we’ll see how effective it is. The binder can be worn for as long as you’d like. I’ll probably wear it until the 8 week mark as well.

Aches & Pains – Pushing a baby out is hard work. I felt like I had completed some insane workout that focused on every major muscle group about three days after giving birth. But that pain went away after a couple days. I did have pelvic pain for a few days, but that could have been from the compression belt. It’s gone now.

I occasionally have pain where my epidural was. Usually this happens when I bend over and the muscles in that area are stretched. It’s not really a pain, it’s more like a dull ache.

As I mentioned in Ezra’s birth story, I did have a second degree tear. This is a pretty common tear for first time moms. I didn’t experience much pain during recovery, though. The stitches used on the tear were dissolvable and never gave me trouble, either. They’re long gone now and I’m pretty much healed.

Baby Blues – I definitely experienced the baby blues. The ridiculous swing of emotions due to out-of-control hormones is really difficult to deal with. One moment, I would be so happy and super pumped. The next moment, I was unbelievably depressed and could barely muster up the energy to do anything. I don’t think I’ve ever cried so much in my life as I did those first two weeks.

What helped me with the baby blues was knowing I am not alone – Alex and my mom have been the rocks that have kept me from losing my mind. I don’t know what I would do without them, honestly. Now that I’m almost 4 weeks post-partum, things are a lot better. I have the occasional moment where I don’t think I can keep going, but just getting an encouraging word from Alex or my mom helps me through it.

(As a side note, if you’re reading this and are experiencing the baby blues… just know that it does get better. My sister said something that really stuck with me – nothing is forever. It’s true, the blues will pass and become just a blip in your memory. However, if you’re still experiencing these feelings and it’s been 3 weeks or more beyond your baby’s birth, you might be experiencing post-partum depression, in which case you should definitely talk with your doctor.)

So, that’s where I’m at with my almost-one-month post-baby body! When I can begin exercising again at the six week mark, I’ll start back up with yoga. I’m not big into exercise, but I do miss yoga. Let me know in the comments if you have any birth recovery body-related questions and I’ll do my best to answer!

I feel like I’ve learned a lot in these last three weeks, but that I’m also completely clueless. In some ways, becoming a mom is not nearly as complicated as everyone made it out to be…but in other ways, it’s more complicated than I thought possible.

Anyway, since I used to share my bump progress on Saturdays, now I want to share Ezra progress on Saturdays. And what better way to start this out then how a typical day with a newborn plays out for us.

Of course, every day is different. But there are some things that stay the same. Here’s what our day looks like:

We start our days, every day, with an early morning feed – usually around 6:30 or 7:00am. I pick Ezra up from his Rock n Play, lay him beside me and let him nurse (the side lying nursing position is amazing when you’re laying in bed!). He usually will feed for about 25-30 minutes. When he’s done, I pick him up, flip on my back and lay him on my chest. We snooze like that until around 9:15, when Alex leaves for work.

When Alex heads out the door, Ezra and I let Aslan out of his crate and settle on the couch for his mid-morning feed. He nurses in the cradle position (love my boppy for that!) for 25 minutes or so and I check my email on my phone. After he’s finished, we go into the nursery for a diaper change and to get Ezra dressed for the day. Then I make myself oatmeal while Ezra hangs out, looking handsome as usual.

He won’t stay in that outfit, though. We usually go through about three outfits a day, thanks to either a spit up explosion, diaper leakage…or some mixture of the two.

Usually after eating, Ezra is awake for 30-45 minutes, just hanging out and looking around. We do different activities, like tummy time. He likes lifting his head up and looking around, then plopping back down. Although usually tummy time turns into fart time, since he’s on his belly. In the pic above, it was his first day of tummy time and Aslan popped down to supervise.

After those 30-45 minutes of activity, Ezra starts yawning which means it’s time to put him down for a nap before he gets too tired and starts belting out what I fondly refer to as the pig cry. Have you ever heard a baby pig squealing? If not, you should hear my son cry when he’s overly tired or overstimulated.

He likes to spend his morning nap in his Little Lamb Swing. He’ll hang out in there anywhere from one to two hours, depending on how much free time he feels like mommy should get.

During that time, I try to get as many chores done as possible. But if I haven’t gotten much sleep the night before, usually I just sit on the couch, take a shower or try to relax. Lately, though, I’m trying to build up a milk supply in our freezer since Alex has taken over some of the nighttime feedings. So, I try to set aside some time to pump while he’s napping.

The times that he wakes up before nap time is over, I pop him in the Moby wrap so I can get a few more things done.

Before he eats again for lunch, it’s time for a diaper change and, usually, an outfit change. Unless we got lucky and there were no major spit ups or other mishaps.

After his outfit change, Ezra eats for another 25-30 minutes. When he’s done, I make myself lunch and try to eat it without getting crumbs all over him. Once, I was eating chips and salsa and dropped a giant blob of salsa on his head. It didn’t phase him…and I didn’t feel guilty because it’s payback for the many instances of spit up down my shirt

I try to get out of the house at least once a day. Lately that’s meant taking a car ride. Ezra normally hates his car seat, so we’ve been working on trying to change that by having him spend time in it that’s fun and enjoyable. This picture is from Ezra’s first car ride with mommy – we kept it simple and went to the library to drop off a book in the drive through then headed over to Starbucks to visit their drive through so I could get a drink. I don’t have to watch my caffeine intake as closely as when I was pregnant, but since I’m breastfeeding I can’t go that crazy. But at least I can enjoy regularly caffeinated Starbucks drinks again!

On this particular trip, Ezra was an angel baby and napped the whole time. When we got home, he kept napping in his car seat so I left him there until it was time to eat again – usually around 3:00pm or 3:30pm.

After his mid-afternoon feeding, Ezra is usually pretty conked out. He will nap for about two hours. Sometimes I nap with him, but usually I take that time to work or write. I let him rest with me for about 20 minutes to make sure he’s good and asleep, then I carefully and slowly put him in his swing or Rock N Play.

This nap marks the end of good naps for the day, usually, but sometimes we get lucky. He nurses again around 6:00pm or 6:30pm and after that transforms into Mr. Fussypants. I read babies usually are fussy around this time of day because they’ve been stimulated all day long and just reach a breaking point with it. Ezra is usually like that for an hour or two, then calms down. It’s really not too bad … unless he decides to turn on the pig squealing cry.

Since I’m home with Ezra during the day, when Alex gets home around 6:30pm, it’s daddy time. Alex eats his dinner then takes Ezra so I can eat my food. After that, Alex and Ezra either go on a walk or play or do some other activity so I can have some time to do whatever I need to do that didn’t get done during the day. I treasure these couple hours to myself. A mom needs to take care of herself to be able to take care of her baby.

Around 8:00pm it’s bath time for Ezra. Until yesterday, this meant a sponge bath. Well, more like a washcloth bath. We had to wait for his cord stump to fall off (which it did at 2 weeks), and then for his belly button area to heal (which it did yesterday!). As you can tell, he isn’t a fan of bath time… yet. I really hope that he’ll enjoy it more since we can now immerse him in warm water. Yesterday was his first time in his little bath tub and he enjoyed it, until he peed and spit up on himself. Then he was done, haha!

With the bath done, it’s time for jammies and a story. Right now, Ezra has no idea what we’re reading to him. He just likes to be rocked and hear our voices. He gets one final feed before bedtime – around 9/9:30pm – then he gets put in the Rock n Play.

We keep him in the living room with us until Alex and I go to bed around 11:30pm. I try to dream feed Ezra at that point, then it’s back to the RNP with a prayer he’ll give us more than a 3 hour stretch of sleep.

Usually, he will feed and get a diaper change again anywhere around 3am-5:30am. I don’t know why it’s sometimes shorter or longer other than the fact that he’s a baby and babies are unpredictable!

And, before we know it, it’s morning and we start again! With Ezra going into being 1 month this upcoming weekend, I’m sure our “routine” is in for some changes, especially in the napping versus awake time. I’m looking forward to him being more alert but I’m also a little nervous. But, one thing I do know already just from these three weeks is that it will be a fun adventure

I loved my first set and I love my second set just as much, if not more! There are some really beautiful shots. Here are a few of my favs:

They’re all just beautiful! It’s surreal to look at these pictures now, while having my son with me.

You can check out the full set by clicking here!