Macklin James entered our world on Tuesday, April 21, 2009. My due date wasn't until the 25th, and I had convinced myself I was going to go past due with my first, so it was quite a surprise when my water broke that afternoon. That Tuesday was my fourth day of my maternity leave and I had a long list made of things to do that day - nowhere on that list was 'give birth'! After only 10 hours of labor (the first four of which I wasn't feeling much) and an hour of pushing, we had our sweet little boy. We fell in love immediately with our beautiful, perfect little baby.
When we brought him home I was a lot more scared than I had expected. I'd been around babies plenty, including my sister as a newborn, so I thought I had this stuff down. I wasn't prepared for how much I was going to love and therefore worry about this helpless little baby who was counting on me for everything. I was absolutely terrified that I was going to do something wrong or inadvertently hurt him or something. Thankfully that all changed as Mack and I got to know each other and I got used to this mommy business.
Lots more has changed in the last 6 months. It's impossible to understand just how completely a baby changes your life until you have one of your own. During my pregnancy I was dead-set on returning to work, hoping to go back part-time but planning to no matter what. Just a week before I had Macklin, I was driving to work and crying on the phone to Ryan telling him that there was absolutely no way I could quit my job because I loved it so much. After I had Macklin and before we even left the hospital, I'd done a complete 180 and the thought of going back to work had me in tears. Thankfully Ryan was extremely supportive of me staying home and we were able to afford it, so I became a SAHM.
I love being home with Macklin and am so thankful for all the time I'm able to spend with him and just soak him up. Because of the flexibility that comes with being a SAHM, I've been able to just let him set his own schedule and let Macklin be Macklin. I've never been one for putting babies on schedules, and I'm glad I never tried with him because I think I would've ended up really frustrated when I couldn't get him to nap longer than 30 minutes at a time because of his reflux and gassy little belly. Instead I decided to just roll with it and realized that he'd grow out of it when he was ready. We've now fallen into a decent routine, and my little boy who seemed to claim that 'naps are for sissies' has become an awesome napper and very happy boy. Now that he's napping better and I have more time on my hands, though, I've decided I need to find some projects...
We've already had a lot of 'firsts' and I haven't been great about writing them all down...bad mommy. Thankfully I have taken pictures so I can look back that way :). So here goes a list of some of Macklin's firsts...
trip: 5 days old. I needed out of the house so we went to Slumberland to look at a new couch for downstairs. It was on a Sunday and it was nice and quiet, uncrowded place to go.
real bath: 10 days old, after his cord fell off.
smile: 4 weeks, 6 days. Although gpa Nick claimed Macklin had been smiling at him for weeks already, we decided he had his first real social smiles right around 5 weeks. I have an adorable picture of him smiling at his little Fisher-Price seahorse on this day :).
time away from Mom & Dad: 7 weeks, 3 days. Macklin got to hang out with gpa Nick and gma Jane while Ryan and I went to a Coldplay concert. We had planned to go with friends and bought the tickets while I was still pregnant. At the time, I was sure I'd be okay with being away from him for several hours by then. In reality, although I enjoyed the night out, I cried quietly throughout the concert and couldn't wait for it to be over.
rolling over: 8ish weeks? I'm fuzzy on this one...bad mommy.
swim: 8 weeks, 4 days. We took him in the pool in Clear Lake and he loved it!
sleeping through the night: 10 weeks. After struggling to get him to sleep in his bassinet or crib, we bought him the Nap Nanny which is contoured like a car seat. He slept through the night his 3rd night in it, and continued to either sleep through the night or wake up once to eat until about 4 months. And then he must have heard his mommy say she missed him at night, and promptly starting waking up at least twice...
concert: 11 weeks, 2 days. We took Macklin along with us to see Mat Kearney at Nitefall on the River. He did great since he loves being outside - just chilled in my sling the whole time.
road trip: 12 weeks, 3 days. We headed to Hibbing to see my parents again, and for him to meet the rest of the family. Stinkin' MN road construction added an extra 1.5 hours to an already long trip, so we were all very tired of being in the car by the time we got there. But we enjoyed seeing family when we finally arrived.
movie: 4 months, 1 week. Emme was staying with us for a week, and we decided to go see a matinee showing of 'Shorts.' Macklin was great the entire time and even took a short nap.
solids: 4 months, 11 days. We started with a little YoBaby! yogurt and it wasn't a huge hit. He decided he'd rather suck on his Bumbo than eat the runny crap I was trying to shovel in.
sitting up: 4 months, 11 days. He sat on his own without support, although he was still pretty tippy.
laugh: 4 months, 11 days. No, that's not a typo - this was a big day for him. Ryan had been out of town for 4 days, so apparently he was saving it all up for him :). Although we'd gotten plenty of little 'huh's out of him, this was his first real big laugh. He was having so much fun sitting up that he turned into a little giggle monster.
football game: 5 months, 5 days. We took Macklin to a Cyclones game on a perfect September evening. He did fantastic since he loves being outside so much, and even managed to get in a little nap on my lap even with the noisy crowd. And I discovered that a first-aid station makes a good place to nurse a baby.
airplane ride: couple days shy of 6 months. Mack and I went to visit gpa Nick and gma Jane in FL. He did pretty good on the plane despite the poor timing...little guy had an ear infection diagnosed 4 days before we left.
tooth: one day shy of 6 months. We'd been convinced Macklin had a tooth ready to break through at any moment back in September, and gma Jane kept saying she wasn't leaving for FL until that tooth showed up. They had to leave then anyway, but Mack's saved it for her - it came in during our 3 day trip to FL :).
visit to the beach: one day shy of 6 months. Although I took several great pictures that made it look like he was having a fantastic time, Macklin gave the beach a giant 'fail.'
There's my 'quick' (ha!) summary of our last 6 months...much more to follow :).
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