Introducing…

 I’d like to introduce you to the cutest, sweetest baby you’ll ever meet (OK, I’m probably a little biased): Henrik Everett. Henrik made his appearance approximately four weeks ahead of schedule and caught both his daddy and I by complete surprise (and I am not surprised easily!) Call it mother’s intuition, but I always knew he’d come earlier than scheduled; I did not anticipate four weeks though. Despite being four weeks early, little man had a full head of dark hair, tipped the scales at 8 pounds, 5 ounces and measured 21″ long – causing even my doctor to question if my dates were off. (They weren’t, in case you were wondering.) You can read his whole birth story – including my candid commentary on the experience – on my personal blog (http://therusticsparkle.blogspot.com).

Henrik is now two months old and is the light of our life. He’s smiling, coo-ing, eating like a pig, growing like a weed and is, well, just perfect. Motherhood has been treating me well. I was terrified going into the whole experience, but labor and delivery were far less traumatizing than I anticipated, recovery was surprisingly fast and sleep deprivation is manageable.

There are a lot of things about having a baby that I could not appreciate until he was here, such as the sheer amount of poop a small thing can produce and how frustrated you feel when you JUST get the baby to sleep and one of your fur-babies spots a dog outside and goes ballistic, waking the baby.

Then there are the moments that I know I will look back on in just a short amount of time and wish I had them back, like when he falls asleep on my chest and sighs a super-content sigh or when I walk in the room and he hears my voice and turns his head to find me.

Henrik brings out a really good side of me. Patience is not a word that is commonly associated with me. I am probably one of the least patient people ever. It was something I worried about when I thought about being a mom – how would I be patient with a child? But for some reason, I have a sense of peace with all things related to Henrik and when he’s screaming in the middle of Target, I just smile at the person behind me, shrug and say “He’s hungry.” The main people in my life are completely flabbergasted by this. (Don’t worry though, I remain inpatient in all other areas of my life.)

One of my favorite stories (so far today)  happened this morning when I was getting him dressed. He was having a complete meltdown, complete with ear piercing shrieks and real tears. He had just ate, his diaper was clean and I was fairly certain he didn’t need to burp, because he does not scream like that for gas. All of a sudden, I looked closer and discovered his little hand behind his head with a fist full of his own hair. He was pulling his own hair and the more it hurt, the madder he got and the harder he pulled. I got his grip loosened to release the hair and he was completely fine, but it is one of those stories that is going in the baby book.

I’m excited to be back posting for ICMB and know I will be turning to you all for input on how to navigate this motherhood journey!