Changes

I have not blogged in a few days, so I need to catch up. Brad and I had some friends in town from California (Oliver and Cristy) so we spent time with them as much as we could. We have been trying to take advantage of Brad having time off from work for the holidays as well. I feel like this next week life is really going to start and settle in. Everyone goes back to work this week including my friend Danielle. I don't go back to school until next Tuesday which is nice. My heart is not ready to be back in school and be separated from Benjamin. I already know I am going to have a hard time with it. Yesterday Benjamin was awake the most he has been awake since he was born. I think he had a total of 4 to 5 hours of awake time all together. He spent time laying on his back on his little hippo gym looking around at everything in the room. He has really started to focus on the people around him as well. If you are holding him he will just stare at you, like he is taking in every detail of your face. I am working on getting him a little on a schedule (not really as far as eating time goes) but more to get him used to being asleep, then getting up and eating, and then having awake time. For the most part he is doing well with it. His eating times have been sporadic due to the fact that he has not been feeling well with his cold, and because he is growing so much. He eats anywhere from every 2 to 4 hours. It has been a little hard to predict when he might want to eat again, but it seems to work for now. I try to have him eat more during the day so he will sleep more sound and longer at night, but babies digest breast milk so quickly that he has been waking up a lot sooner. Last Thursday Brad and I helped host a wedding shower for some of our friends Will and Joanna, so my parents came over and kept Benjamin for us. It was so funny because they were so excited. They fed him his bottle, they bathed him and of course just held and loved on him. It is so nice to have all our parents in town. I am so glad Benjamin will grow up surrounded by his grandparents and will be able to have a relationship with them. For so much of my life my grandparents all lived in Florida and we saw them once or twice a year. Brad came home from the shower before I did and when he walked in the door Benjamin had been asleep on my mom and as soon as Brad said something he woke up and started moving his head around. He knows his fathers voice. I assume there is some sort of comfort in hearing and recognizing his voice as well. It is a picture of how we are in our relationship with the Lord. We completely rely on him for our needs to be met and we respond to his voice and feel comfort from it. Obviously not in an audible way, but he answers our prayers, he protects and loves us more than we can know. It is just neat to see how many parallels there are between watching our new baby develop and realizing how we are the same way with the Lord.

Play time during his awake time. He is getting interested in his toys now and loves to stare at them.



Working on tummy time so that he can start getting stronger to lift his head better and look around.


Sleeping on the couch... I let him sleep on his stomach on the couch when I am out there with him since he is supposed to sleep on his back.

Too Cute... He looks like a red head in this picture.

Sitting with Cristy who was talking to him..

Doing what he does best... Looking adorable while sleeping.

spending some time with Daddy

Grandpa came to visit.

Our buddy Red hanging out in his carseat.

Well last night was a big night for us (well mostly me) because Benjamin moved out of our room into his crib. I think it was harder on mom than anyone. I didn't sleep well and checked the video monitor 100 times to make sure I could see him breathing. Brad said I did sleep pretty sound at times though because I didn't wake up to some of his crying and Brad got up instead. It will take a little adjusting, but it is good for both Benjamin and mom & dad to have him sleep in his bed.
This morning while Benjamin had awake time, I was talking to him and trying to get him to smile at me and he did! It was a real smile and not like when he is sleeping and smirks or something like that. It completely made my day! It made me feel like he really responded to me and reacted to me talking to him. It doesn't take much to make a mother smile and get excited about her child. Well that is about all for now. I am sure I will have new year's pictures up soon!