I cannot believe that two months ago today, this little guy was still living inside of me. I cannot believe that two months ago today saw two extremely nervous we don't know anything about babies people check into the hospital to be induced.
You always hear parents say, "I don't know what I did before my baby was born." I'm not in that camp. I know EXACTLY what I did before my baby was born. I did what I wanted. We would decide at 11:00PM that we wanted to go out. We would eat meals together without a fussy boy reminding us that he was hungry too. I could go to the grocery store whenever I wanted. Hell, I could go to the bathroom whenever I wanted. And sleep. You glorious sleep. I've forgotten what it is like to sleep for more than 3 hours at a time. All that to say, I wouldn't change a thing. We wanted this baby for so long, long before he got here, and long before we got pregnant. It's all worth it. He's awesome. I would do it all again in a heartbeat; even the throwing up every 30 minutes through 14 hours of labor.
Some nicknames: Bird, Ball, H Dubs.
I call him Ball because he's a long chunky baby, but sometimes, if you catch him right, he'll contort his big ole self into a tiny little ball and my heart melts. I always say, "hey Ball."
Bird is another nickname. I started to call him Shit Bird after he had a pretty bad diaper. And I tried to change it, and then realized I was covered. Oh the joys of parenthood!
H Dubs is another nickname, which I think is a bit more obvious than his others. H for Henry, Dubs for the W in Wallace.
Up until about 6 weeks old, if Henry was awake, he was screaming :( It was horrible. Since I don't produce enough milk for him, he gets both breast milk and formula. We tried every different formula that our Wal-Mart sells, nothing helped. Until finally, after talking to several doctors and nurse practioners, we put him on a different formula and at the suggestion of two doctors, started adding a teaspoon of rice cereal to his milk/formula. Y'all, it has made all the difference. He now sleeps for longer stretches and when he's awake he so fun to be around. He giggles and coos and kicks and looks around. And it's magical.
The other day, while laying in bed watching the Big Bang and feeding Henry and dreaming of McDonalds breakfast, a sudden memory jumped into my head. The hospital we delivered at had more tv channels than we currently had at home. So we took the opportunity to watch a Big Bang marathon...and we didn't cut the TV off for delivery. So our son was born to the Big Bang theory. I can't remember exactly what episode (I was a tad busy), but I do remember looking at the TV and thinking, "I'm having a baby to the Big Bang theory."
And another random memory from delivery day. After Henry Wallace was born, we had to stay in labor and delivery for a few hours so the doctors and nurses could monitor my blood pressure. I wasn't allowed to be transferred to our room until my blood pressure went down :( Henry Wallace was born at 9:11PM, and I don't think we got to our room until after 1:00am. Once we got there, I was STARVING. I sent Tay to McDonalds. He arrived about 15 minutes later with food. Oh you glorious food, I missed you. We sit down to eat and continue to watch the Big Bang...It's crazy what happens after you have a baby. I thought I loved Tay, but I had no idea how much I did until I had his baby. Going through labor and delivery as a couple is something that cannot be described, it bonds two people in the most personal and loving way.You see your partner as you've never seen them before, as a parent. And you see each other at your absolute worst and at your absolute best all within a few hours span (if there are complications, like with our little H Dubs). Well, in that moment, while Tay started to chew his food, he was chewing SO LOUD. Loud enough where I stopped and looked at him.
"What?"
"Why in the hell are you chewing so loud! At least cut the TV up, so I don't have to listen to you! Are you purposely trying to piss me off?"
"Um, ok.I'm sorry."
And in that moment, probably the moment in my life that I wanted to kill Tay the most, I realized that it was my body's natural birth control. My body was saying, 'this man did this to you. You hate him, don't even think about babies right now.' I apologized later (after getting some sleep), and we laugh about it now :)
And now, my other recently recalled memory from delivery, and then I'll get to the pictures, I promise. Scout's honor!
Once family came in to meet their new Tater Baby and find out the gender, they were all staring at him and holding him. Except for one person. My father in law, Henry Wallace's namesake. Instead of rushing over to the baby and waiting for his turn to hold him, he walked straight up to me, kissed my check, and hugged me tighter than he ever had before, and said "Thank you, Doo-Dah. Thank you so much for doing this." Talk about melting my heart! If Henry Wallace turns out to be half the man his grandaddy is, then I'll be the happiest mama in the world.
Some stats:
Weight: 14 pounds
Eating: 4-6 ounces per feeding
Get's both breastmilk and formula (if I had it my way, it would be all breast milk)
Eats every 3-4 hours
Bath time is every night at 7:30 or 8:00. He then gets a little bottle and will typically sleep from 8:00-12:00am and then from 12:30 to about 5:00. This is a schedule I can get on board with, much better than him waking every 2 hours!
He loves to be held and be sung to. He loves doing anything outside; helping mama water the yard or check the mail, or just sitting on the patio, watching the wind blow the trees. He giggles at Norman when he licks his feet or face or naked bottom.
As of right now, his favorite books are "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?", Shel Silverstein's "Giraffe and a Half," and Dr. Seuss' "ABC." I read them in funny voices and it seems to illicit a giggle response from Mr. H Dubs.
And I promised, so here you go...
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