No Longer Newborn

I have been informed that Max is no longer a newborn, he's officially an infant. Of course all it takes is one look at his chubby cheeks to see that he's growing so quickly- this doesn't surprise me!

He has been smiling so much more lately, it's really fun to see him smile in response to something- he even smiled when I called home and Ron put the phone to his ear while I was talking! Last week he had his first smile in responce to someone- Uncle Larry was saying goodbye and Max smiled at him. He's been taking off smiling since then! This morning he smiled when Ron came down on a break, and he often smiles at us when he wakes up from a nap or in the morning. It's really fun to be able to do something to coax a smile out of him instead of the newborn time when they mostly smile randomly in their sleep.

So, I tried to capture his smile on film this morning to share with all of you. He was having none of it. Below is a series of pictures of me trying to get him to smile, to no avail.

In other news, I took a few hours of work at the video relay call center. I was really nervous about pumping and having Ron bottle feed Max- often when introducing a bottle the baby will not want to take the breast again. I was overly anxious all weekend just waiting to see what happened. On a trial run on Saturday night, he did fine. I should've known that with all he's been through so far- breastfeeding, finger feeding, pacifier, etc. that he would drink from just about anything! Ron was home having father son time during the 5 hours I was gone, and it went just fine. This was when I called home and Max smiled when he heard my voice. That made the shift a lot better! They were really great about allowing me time to pump during my break, there was a nice quiet room and I was able to use our new double electric breast pump just fine. It was quite a sight, though! I knew that I would also need to eat on my break, so I rigged my sports bra with two holes to hold the pumps. So basically I could hands-free pump... but it was a strange feeling being hooked up to a machine pumping my breasts while I ate a sandwich.. I will only be working one or two nights a week, just for 5 hours. Ron will be home with Max. It will be a good opportunity for Max to get used to Daddy putting him to sleep once in awhile, and all in all I think it's a good thing for all of us.

One of my favorite things (and I'm making a list- to be posted here later) is taking naps with Max. I try to nap with him at least once a day. Here's a picture that Ron caught of us napping on the couch last week.

Another thing I love is waking up in the morning to my husband and son lying in bed. I feel so lucky! We have Max's crib attached to our bed with one side removed (like a sidecar) and he starts off in the crib part at night, but he usually ends up between Ron and I by morning. We laze in bed a few minutes just playing with him. It is a great way to start off the day. This was taken this morning.