Week 7

Joshua is now 7 weeks old. It has been amazing to see his development so far.

He holds his head up for quite a while.
He has been blowing bubbles.
We have been enjoying the most wonderful of smiles.
He has grown out of several of his newborn clothes and is enjoying the extra leg room of the 0-3M clothes.

Last night was our first BAD night. (I have been spoiled only getting up for one feeding a night) Michael and I decided that we needed to eat better. We forgot about the fact that I am still eating for two being that I am breast feeding. I had one GASSY baby on my hands.

Joshua was extremely fussy with lots of grunting, tears, wild leg kicking. I hate the cries when he's screaming so hard he's not breathing. I felt awful. I may have shed a tear or two myself as I tried to help him get the gas out with tummy rubs, and leg exercises. We were both so tired. As the night went on and I heard the results of some Mylicon (gas relief drops) I thought we were in the clear. Today during the day I realized I was mistaken. It seems that the drops are just as hard on his system as whatever I ate.

We now have the puzzle of trying to figure out what I ate that made my son's life so horrible. Wish us luck.

Our Trip to Wisconsin

Despite our Christmas Winter Storm Michael shoveled out our car and we loaded it up.

We left on Sunday Morning December 27th. The trip took us roughly seven hours. We stopped three times, but only one was because of Joshua. He did a wonderful job in the car.

When we got to Wisconsin we had Christmas with my mom's side of the family. It was great to see my niece and nephew. They have grown so much! It was fun the watch the kids interact with one another and I am excited to see how they will act when they get older.

We got a chance to see my good friend Emily and she got to meet Joshua. It's hard to stay close with friends when we only see each other once or twice a year.

Michael, Joshua and I also made a trip to visit my grandmother. She was excited to see another one of her great-grandchildren. We had lunch with her and visited for a while.

Before we headed back to Minnesota we visited with my dad, step-mom, and my cousin Nikki. The visit was short, but sweet.

Michael and I set up a "Skype" account to keep in touch with his grandparents while we are a state away from them. Anyone interested please add us. Our screen name is: "Schottey.fam"

The drive back to Minnesota was similar to the drive to Wisconsin. Joshua was fabulous. The roads were not as good as they were on the way there. Michael did the majority of the driving and we arrived after about seven hours. I jokingly asked Michael if we needed a mini-van yet. His response was that we would only need one if it were Christmas everyday. We were truly blessed to get to spend time with family and friends for the holidays.

Joshua's First Christmas

Christmas Eve Joshua and I enjoyed the falling snow home together.

There was a winter storm warning and Michael had to work. We only have one car and Michael had it. I thought about walking to church with Joshua because we only live a block away. This would be do-able if it were a normal block and a normal amount of snow. The snow was probably about a foot deep by 7:00p and it's up a pretty steep hill. I'm not the most graceful or coordinated of people, so I decided for my safety as well as his we had better stay home. This was the first time in 22 years that I hadn't been to the Christmas Eve Service. It made me a little sad. I read a devotion and sang a Christmas hymn or two (as well as reading Luke 2) and headed off to bed.


The next morning Michael and I dug out the car to drive up one block to get to church. We were glad that they decided to start late due to the weather. We celebrated Christ's birth together with those who battled the weather. It was a beautiful service.

At home we had a very low-key day. We rented movies and just spent some time together as a family. While Joshua was awake and semi-happy we took a couple of picture before changing into some cozy jammies.

Baptism: December 20, 2009

Joshua was baptized on December 20th.

His sponsors as well as his Grandma Schottey made the trip from Michigan to witness Joshua's entrance into God's family of faith.

Joshua did very well. He opened one eye as Pastor Bovee poured the water over his head, but Joshua didn't make a sound. Then he slept through the rest of the service.

The Sunday School Christmas Service was the following service so we quickly took some pictures before proud parents and grandparents flooded the church to celebrate the message of Christ's birth from the lips of children.

Back at our house we had a nice lunch with good company. It was great to have a close group of friends and family to celebrate with.

Another Family-Filled Weekend

My dad and step-mom came to visit our new family over the weekend. It was nice to share our little blessing with more family.

We enjoyed time talking together and a nice ham dinner here at home. The weather has gotten cold already. I'm not looking forward to another Minnesota winter especially now having another person to load into the car.

Joshua didn't mind company. He stuck to his routine. On Saturday I did get a little concerned about how much Joshua was sleeping. I guess we should be counting our blessings since he's such a good sleeper. He would sleep all day and all night if I would let him. Michael looked up more information about sleepy babies. The main thing that we found out was that the concern with sleepy babies is that they don't get enough to eat because they would rather sleep than eat. I have been waking Joshua up to feed him every three hours during the day if he doesn't wake himself. At night time all the sources that we read said to leave him be. He sleeps for roughly 6 hours at a time at night. I wake up to check on him and/or pump in the middle of the night otherwise I'm too uncomfortable by morning.

Bath Time!

Joshua's umbilical cord fell off which meant that now he was ready to take a real bath! I think that I was more excited about it than he was. He screeched just like he does when I wash him up. He did get to spend some time without a diaper which he enjoyed. (It's pretty dangerous for me though, the little boy thinks that he is a sprinkler...)

Joshua calmed down and enjoyed getting out of the tub. While getting dried off he made pleasant coos instead of screaming. He shivered while I put his clothes on, but I sang to him and by the time the whole experience was over he was ready to drift back to sleep.

December 1: Two Weeks Old

Joshua is two weeks old already! Yesterday the Brown County Family Services came and checked Joshua's weight and development. He is still gaining weight and growing. When the nurse put him on his belly for tummy time he turned his head to both sides when I called his name and talked to him.

Joshua's umbilical cord fell off this morning. He also is beginning to enjoy getting cleaned up and having his hair washed. Because he has so much hair, it needs to be washed pretty much everyday. Up until this point, he would scream and yell when we washed his hair.