One Week as a Family

Today we celebrate one week together as a complete family of four (yes, I count Cooper, our dog!).  I have to say, once we got through the trip back from Korea and the first two days home, things really just fell into place and became very easy and natural.  I don't want to get ahead of myself here, but I really think Maddyx is generally a pretty happy guy with an easy going demeanor.  He is teething, which adds a little bit of crankiness to the mix, but not too bad at all. 

Here are some updates from our first week.

Sleeping - Maddyx is now going to bed (in his crib) at 9pm and sleeping until 4am.  As soon as he wakes (at 4am) I go in and rub his back until he falls back asleep.  He usually just needs to see me walk in the door and he will lay right back down.  He only stays asleep for about 30 more minutes before he wakes again.  When I go in the second time I bring him back to bed with us.  From there he sleeps until 7:30-9:00 a.m.  After that, Daddy-duty kicks in.  Daddy and Maddyx go downstairs and have some morning bonding time while Mommy gets a couple more hours of sleep!  I've been sleeping until around 10:00 a.m.  This is soooo not me, but I am really tired and I'm not a day-time napper.  So I'm getting the sleep when I can!  That's what they say you're supposed to do, right?!?  He is also taking two naps a day.  One around 11:00 and another around 3:00.  This has been pretty consistent since day one.

Baths - Not liking the bath-thing just yet.  His Foster Mom told me he liked baths and playing with the toys, but thus far, we have yet to meet that baby.  We did, however, make some progress last night as he didn't scream when I put him in the tub.  He just wouldn't sit down.  He held on to me clinging for dear life while I splashed the water over him and cleaned him as best I could.  Didn't cry though...  Therefore, I see this as progress!  Even if I did have soaking wet jeans when we were done. =)

Bonding - Maddyx makes wonderful eye contact with both Kasey and I.  This is one of the things I read about in one of my bonding and attachment books, so I looked for it right away.  He actually stares at me the entire time I feed him and also as he's falling asleep.  He loves for us to hold him, and also likes his freedom to crawl and play.  Seems to me like the perfect balance.  If he's fussy, we immediately pick him up and hold him, and he wants this.  The first couple of days we could not leave the room without a meltdown, but we're not seeing that anymore.  Except when he's tired.  He also does not go ANYWHERE without his Pororo pillow.  Thank goodness for this pillow.  I can see our son still carrying around this pillow 8 years down the road... and we don't mind! 

Stroller and Car Seat - Loves walks and loves car rides.  On a walk right now with Daddy and Cooper...

All that said, I think we're doing really well as a family.  It's all about routine and consistency right now.  What we've got going seems to be working really well.  We do a lot of laughing around here, mostly due to Daddy's comedic relief.  Maddyx finds so many things his Dad does funny.  Mainly just the silly faces he's always making.  Which comes in handy when we see the meltdown coming on.  It's still a lot of work since the main focus is being 100% present for him right now.  Which entails a lot of holding, running to his room immediately if he starts to cry and just plain proving to him that we will be there for him no matter what, and we are not ever going to leave him.  This means not always having a super clean house, not getting showers and make-up until the afternoon nap and a whole lot of hangin' around the house time.  I think Dad is ready to go back to work and more so, go play some golf (this is the longest he's gone without playing in all the years we've been together...it's been about 2 weeks), but I'm still pretty content in my new role as a SAM.

I will leave you with some fun pictures from our first week together....