Huis-mini-men newborn facts

Grady had an appointment last week for his 2 week checkup (2 weeks and 2 days), and he weighed in at 9 lbs 8 oz. This means he's had great growth (8 lbs leaving the hospital and 8 lbs 6 oz at birth)! Our doctor recommended that we still wake him up every 3 hrs at night (not sure why?), but we have chosen to ignore this advice in lieu of getting everyone much better rest especially since Grady eats much better when he wakes us up on his own (otherwise it's just a struggle). So currently he wakes up 2xs per night which is just perfect for us right now. Here's a couple newborn shots of Grady from the hospital photographer.

Newborn photos at the hospital. Isn't he darling :).

Love. Love. Love.

I'm often left alone to my thoughts when I'm nursing Grady (especially when Andy is home!) and it lets me think about both of my boys as newborns. So I'd like to record some of these thoughts while they are still fresh and especially because I didn't start blogging until Carsten was 4 months so I didn't write about him as a newborn. Please excuse the random nature of this post - I'm perpetually tired these days :).

During pregnancy:

-Carsten punched my bladder like nobody's business and that's actually how he broke my water the day he was born. 

-Grady turned and rotated SO much during the entire pregnancy and it made me feel pretty ill when he was doing it. During the last trimester Grady's knees and elbows were often in really uncomfortable positions so I spent a lot of time poking at him trying to get him to move them.

-Grady often reacted very strongly to Carsten when he was having fun rough-housing with Andy and I; he basically started having dance parties in my belly.

-My water ending up breaking for both boys before going to the hospital although with Carsten it was much more dramatic. I'll try to post more on this later.

-I didn't feel sick with either pregnancy and was able to pretty much continue as normal throughout both pregnancies. Hey, I even did an international move during Grady's :).

As newborns:

-Grady burps ALL the time. Basically he swallows air while nursing and is often in need of burping. We spend a lot of time burping Grady because the gas actually does bother him a lot. Carsten on the other hand rarely burped and actually after about the couple of months we stopped burping him and it never seemed to bother him.

-I love baby smiles when they are sleeping and I can't wait for the real thing!

-Both boys are unusually strong and gain head control pretty early. This makes it difficult to nurse on occasion. Also, both boys don't seem to mind tummy time as newborns.

-They look so similar! Sometimes I find myself calling Grady Carsten just because they look so much alike to me as newborns. I'm sure more differences will appear as Grady grows older, but for now they really do look a lot alike.

-I think Grady wins the loudest baby contest. As of late, he's either sleeping, eating, or screaming and there are very few happy moments and I know this will get better. He tends to scream when he's cold, hungry, or tired. I don't remember Carsten doing this quite as much; Carsten just didn't sleep - EVER.

-Both boys have cool birthdates, but they are even cooler in Europe because they switch the month and day there. So, 8/9/10 for Carsten and 31/3/13 for Grady. Awesome, right?! :)

-Grady wins the sleeping contest. He is a much better sleeper at night and was already doing longer stretches in the first week than we got from Carsten by his 1st month. Also, Grady will take naps during the day and although sometimes I get frustrated because I cannot lay him down on occasion (typically I can), I could NEVER lay Carsten down and still expect him to stay sleeping. Carsten was and is still an extremely light sleeper. Grady so far seems to be a better sleeper and we are very grateful. Both boys generally refuse to sleep in the swing, bouncer, rock n play, and car seat (unless we're in the car/stroller); this begs the question of why do I have all this baby stuff that doesn't work for getting them to sleep?! I will say that with Grady once you lose a nap cycle with him during the day the rest of the day is very difficult, so I'm trying really hard to make sure we're getting into a good routine so we can all have a happy day. Also, I can honestly say that I never expected both boys to be napping at the same time, which does happen about every 2 out of 3 days, and I'm very grateful for this time that I get to spend napping, relaxing, or cleaning. Carsten took a really long time to get to sleep at night and for the first month I don't think we ever got him to sleep before 10 pm and it routinely took until 11 pm - 12 am to get him down for the night; Grady is typically asleep somewhere around 7:30 pm (+/- 30 min) and this has been such a blessing for us. This generally allows us to get both boys to bed at the same time and then we can get chores done and still go to bed early. Again, we didn't think this would happen, but we feel so blessed that it happens on most nights (and we try not to get frustrated when it doesn't happen!). Also, we are currently sleeping on an air mattress in Grady's room so that way it's easier to care for Grady at night and hopefully we won't wake Carsten that way. All I can say is that my husband loves me :). 

-Both boys on general principles object to the bottle. We will win this battle with Grady as I do not want another infant who refuses the bottle. Thank goodness for Andy who will help me with this!

That's all I can think of for now! We love being a family of four and Carsten is adjusting beautifully to being a loving older brother.