Taking it to the Max - 1st week

Max has been a great baby so far.  He seems so content and happy.  He has taken right to eating, which luckily for me has been the case with all my kids.  In fact this hungry little hippo is such a good eater, he had gained back all his weight he lost in at the hospital plus an additional ounces or two.  The doctor who saw him 4 days after being released was so impressed, he said Max didn't have to come back to the usual 2 week check up - that he could wait to be seen in a month! (He also couldn't believe that we weren't using any supplements - yes my milk is pure cream!)

When Max is awake he is really alert and will stare right into your eyes for minutes at a time.  He seems to have an "old soul" feel.  He is patient with the kids who LOVE to hold him.  They want to touch his head all the time because his hair is so soft, and they love trying to figure out how he is eating - which is super fun for me.  The only thing that Max seems to do a lot is wet through his clothes.  We had several nights where we went through 2-3 sets of pjs, onesies, blankets and crib sheets.  In other exciting milestones, his umbilical cord fell off yesterday so now we can bath him in the tub! Hooray!

All of us love taking pictures with Max - he is just cuter than cute - except for Lyv.  She loves Max, but can't be bothered to sit still long enough to take a decent picture.

I asked Shawn the other night as he was holding him if he could imagine that Max would be our last baby.  He said "Sure!" I on the other hand have a more difficult time imagining it.  Especially when I'm just holding him on my chest and he stares at me with his old soul eyes, I feel like I'm not sure if I'm ready for Max to be the last time I experience a new baby of my own.  There is something so literally heavenly about a newborn.  They are so pure in every sense of the word, and bring such a calming, loving feeling to a home.  I commented to Shawn that during my pregnancy I never felt like I was really having another child - things were always so busy that I didn't have time to cement it other than the movements I felt in my tummy.  I was worried that I would feel a little detatched from Max...but once he arrived I immediately felt like life without him didn't exist.  He just seems like he has always been apart of our family.

Shawn always gets me beautiful flowers when I have a baby - my reward for all the hard work!  These were probably my favorite arrangement.  I loved colors and the variety of blooms.