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So, when I posted our first “Pascha” blog, we still had lots of day left, and it turned out to be eventful in very odd ways. Mainly, there was a poop incident almost immediately upon our arrival back at Church for Agape Vespers and our annual Church picnic, but today we got more smiles and “silent” belly laughs than I’ve seen from him, ever.
After we got home this morning, Justin slept until about 11:45, giving Momma and Daddy a few hours to nap before reassuming animation for the rest of the day (thank you, little Justin!!). I fed him, and we headed back for Church. Upon our arrival, I did the one thing every new mom does (apparently): I set down his carseat/carrier, diaper bag and whatnot in the baby room, and went straight into church. Here’s the problem: I got through 2 metanyas (sp? – oh, and metanyas are where you cross yourself and touch the floor) before it occured to me that I had completely forgotten that I had a son who I’d left abandoned in the baby room. Yup, Justin’s mom is a tard. Fortunately, when I returned to the baby room 5 steps later, one of the other moms was appropriately chuckling at my idiocy (more out of sheer understanding than anything) as she nursed her own baby. Justin was waiting quite patiently in his carseat to be retrieved, which I did; and after a short cuddle, he too decided he was hungry again and I fed him. That’s silly event number one.
2. Shortly after nursing (and having a nice chat with Shannon and her little Maggie), it was clear that our little boy had completed another one of his very special “projects”. As usual, I grabbed a diaper and wipes from the diaper bag and headed for the bathroom/changing table. However, as I got up, I noticed a very square yellow stripe down the front of my white shirt which my first thought was, “oh, I must have somehow gotten lanolin from my nursing pad wiped down my shirt while I was nursing…”. (can you smell the forshadowing?)
At first I saw no leak. Then I pulled off the diaper and noticed poo all the way up the back of the diaper in such a way as to suggest it had escaped into his onesie. Upon removing the onesie to replace it, I discovered that not only had the poo made the excursion out of the diaper, up into the onesie, but had also soaked through that onesie and even through Justin’s overalls, and, you guessed it, found itself to be the culprit of the now much more horrifying yellow stripe down the front of my white shirt. So now I’m stranded at the changing table without my diaper bag (containing a change of clothes for Justin) with poo-soaked baby clothes all over the table, and lost in the mortifying terror of knowing that there I was standing amid the most packed church day of the year wearing jeans and a white shirt now plainly showing a 2-inch wide strip of poo from my bustline down to my waist. Fortunately, Shannon walked by and was able to retrieve my diaper bag for me, so that at least one of us wasn’t forever smocked with poo. Apparently the confetti, noise-makers, and confetti poppers weren’t the only explosive Pascha event.
Here’s the thing: if this had happened at home, it’d have been no big deal. In fact, earlier this week, while Justin was sick we had the joy of mid-diaper change projectile poo. I fear not the poo. I do fear being in public with people I respect, and in a house of God while plainly spattered (or striped in this case) with bright yellow baby poo. Lord have mercy! So what did I do? I turned my poopy-shirt inside out (I was wearing a cami underneath anyway, but the cami was too thin to wear alone), and threw on my hoodie. Fortunately, my lovely fashion accessory was only noticed by one person the rest of the afternoon.
3. After we got home this afternoon, we were greeted by our baby boy being in a wonderful mood. A little tired from the long day, but generally happy. I have to say, I’m thrilled to no end that his cold is gone, that he’s sleeping like a dream, and is smiling. He had started to smile more consistently before he got sick, then it was Johnny Fuss-Pants time for the next few days. Now my little happy boy is back not just smiling from time to time when he’s tickled, but looking like he’s making full belly laughs (just without the sound, which I hear will follow in the next week or two). 
4. In the last week or so, Justin has taken to crying whenever buckled into his car seat. Determined to get to the bottom of it, we discovered that he had just grown out of his snuzzler (the padding that helped keep him firmly where he should be in the car seat during that itty-bitty stage) and that he just wasn’t comfortable. Also, it seems his shoulder straps might have been rubbing a bit. So after a few adjustments we opted for the blue strap covers named by Matt “Bondage Kitties”. Finally, we determined that not only was our little boy uncomfortable in his seat (now fixed with the removal of the snuzzler and the application of his Bondage Kitties), but he was also getting bored on the ride out to church! It never occured to me that a one month old would get bored on a half-hour drive. Yes, his world was made right in the car with the addition of a few brightly colored toys in his line of sight - apparently gazing out the window like he used to just wasn’t enough anymore…
5. I almost ran over the Pascha Bunny. On the drive back out to church this afternoon, a little brown bunny jumped into the road right in front of our car. I came so close to accidentally hitting it, that I actually had to look in the rear-view mirror to confirm I hadn’t hit it. There’s something horrible in the possibility of having run over a little bunny on Easter… “I’m sorry, the Easter Bunny won’t be able to make it this year, your parents will have to do – Amber ran over the Easter Bunny last Easter…”
Happy Pascha everyone!
As most of you all know we are Eastern Orthodox Christians, which means that today (April 27) is Holy Pascha (Easter). Orthodox Wiki has a great explanation for why we celebrate Easter on a different day than the West. Anyway, Pascha is a bigger deal than even Christmas, and a lot goes into it. We were so excited to get our Pascha basket put together, get Justin (and us) all dressed up, and be at church at 5am for the sunrise service this morning. Well, we were excited, Justin was confused as to why we were getting up before him (the tables have turned, my friend, now we wake you!)
We were running a little late as usual, so Justin got half his feeding before we left, and half by bottle of pumped milk on the road (thanks daddy!) so he was full and sleepy by the time we arrived to our very dark church (all lights were out – even exit signs were covered to keep out light). Sleepy, Justin was happy to oblige being in the Ergo carrier for the whole service from the darkness, to the candles all being lit, to the procession around the church, and the throwing of confetti and all of the festivities. Despite the shouts of “Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!”, Justin mostly chilled out or slept:
All the while, Daddy helped hold our candles!
In the end, it was a wonderful first Pascha with our little boy. He even had lots of smiles for us at the Pascha breakfast! Yes friends and family, this is the first time we’ve gotten a picture at all of Justin smiling, so you know he was really doing it for us to be able to get the camera out and actually capture a smile for the first time!
Happy Pascha everyone! From our family to yours. Christos Anesti! Alethos Anesti!
Over the last week and a half, I’ve noticed some things: like the fact that being sick hasn’t slowed my little boy down much as far as growing goes, nor has it slowed much his interest in learning (he just needs it in more frequent, short chunks than he does when he’s not sick). I guess I’ve also noticed that having a sick baby during Holy Week isn’t terribly fun – though I’m connecting in some ways, better because of the suffering.
As a result of a multi-day low-grade fever (hovering around 100 degrees), Justin has been introduced to our friend, Tylenol. While it didn’t calm him immediately, it did help him sleep through the night for the first time in a few days (my baby doesn’t really like to sleep during the day, so he has to do it all at night – trust me, it’s a mixed blessing). He was so exhausted… it was so incredibly sad. This 8 days into his nasty little cold.
On the upside, taking him to the pediatrician this week meant getting him weighed for the first time in a week, and curiosity got the best of me and I measured his length for the first time since he was born. So officially at 5 weeks old, Justin Elias Owen is now 23.5 inches long (90th percentile), and 10lbs 9oz (49th percentile). That’s 2.5 inches in 4 weeks and a whole pound in just 2 weeks. It also means that we indeed have a little string bean! Yup, that’s why all his newborn-sized clothes fit him around, but not so much in length (unless I want to snap him into a horendous wedgie).
In other news, Justin got visited this week by that nasty, terrible, Baby-Acne-Fairy: 
Yup, our adorable little string bean who prefers to smile only when the camera is NOT on him, also looks a bit like a pock-marked teenager. Believe it or not, it has gotten worse since this picture, and subsequently a little better today. Sigh. It’s a good thing we didn’t set up those professional family photos this week…
We (along with our friends, the Rush’s) also were the happy recipients of an awesome baby shower thrown by our Church on Palm Sunday (this past weekend). We have such awesome friends in our Church, we really do. We are VERY loved.
In other photographic news, below you’ll find my favorite pics of the week:
I set him down for a moment to put on my nursing pillow, he fell alseep on my side of the bed in that 10 seconds. Bed thief! You can guess who won that battle (yes, the one with motor control won this battle)! This is also a good picture showing how long our little boy has gotten. Matt calls him “glow worm” when he’s in this swaddler.
Justin beats most folks I’ve met at bed-head. I’m so glad I have this and other pictures like it to torment him in high school…
I’ve been DYING to share video of little Justin being his happy little self. Enjoy!
Well, here we are: My son is 4 weeks old today, and will officially be one month old on Saturday. He is a delight, a joy, and a whole lot of work. He broke the 10lb weight mark officially yesterday, and is generally doing great. His smiles light up my day, but the fact that he seems to have come down with his first cold breaks my heart.
Yesterday afternoon he started really getting a stuffy nose, by last night he was inconsolably fussy (unless I had him at the breast where he wasn’t really eating, just sort of gnawing for comfort). No fever, but he sneezes or coughs at least every 5 minutes and is obviously exhausted and uncomfortable. He sleeps, but not well. While saline drops and my super-duper bulb syringe are pretty much my side-arms right now (and bring some relief), my poor little boy is very much not happy and there is little I can do to console him.
Any ideas to help soothe my little boy?
In the last few days I’ve realized just how many nicknames we’ve come up with and used on our wonderful little boy and thought I’d share them with you all:
5. “Johnny Fuss-Pants”: used when Justin is been fussy or especially clingy
4. “Toots”: As I’ve mentioned in other posts, our adorable little boy farts like an old man. He has therefore earned this nickname that gets used periodically throughout the day.
3. “Señor Poopy-Pants”: I’m sure you can guess this nickname’s appropriate usage.
2. “Sweet boy” or “Justin Boy”: Very frequently used, and generally used when cuddling or consoling my little one.
1. “Lion King”: This started as Daddy’s primary nickname for Justin when he was still a little jaundiced (jaundiced and with as much blonde hair as Justin has, he really did look like a lion cub). Justin also makes little squawking noises like a baby lion, and Matt thinks he looks like the Lion King from the Disney movie when you hold him up under his armpits. This is by far the nickname used most in our house. Justin’s favorite lullaby is “In the Jungle” as sung by daddy slightly off-key.
Head on over to my Picasa site: http://picasaweb.google.com/SqueekyMomma
After our visit to the pediatrician today (where when stripping him down to be weighed he spit up and peed all over himself – even in his hair!), Justin was treated to his third bath. I cannot emphasize enough how much this little boy loves his bath. If I want to see a relaxed, content baby, all I have to do is fill the bath, strip a baby, and put said baby in bath and dish water all over him. 
Yeah, I think he’d like a bath every day if it didn’t run the risk of drying out his skin. Daddy says it’s because he still wishes he was a fish (like he was in my belly). Fr. Mel will likely appreciate how much Justin loves his bath when it comes time for his Baptism in a few months!
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