Andrew's Two Week Update

Dear Andrew,

You are two weeks old!  While you have only been in our lives for two short weeks, you already fit in perfectly with all of us.  You are very calm and low maintenance—completely opposite of your big brother.  You love to cuddle, but if left alone, you will fall asleep by yourself most of the time.  You have great awake time during the day and are such a good sleeper at night!

DD Nana & T-Pa were here for 10 days helping us out and they were such a big help!  They got Parker to/from school, prepped dinners and stayed up late at night with you (until midnight) so that we could get a little more sleep the first few days.  Though, you immediately slept for 5 hours at night when we got home so that was kind of AMAZING.  Your Aunt Kirstie came to visit and help us, too.  And of course, your Aunt Kate was also present!  The whole Hesseltine family was here to welcome you into the world!  It doesn’t happen often that all of us get together at the same time in one place, so, Andrew, you should feel pretty special that everyone was present!

Mom feels a lot more confidant with you and has less feelings of anxiety then when she had Parker.  I don't feel as though I need to cry all the time and genuinely look forward to every moment with you.  Mom spent the first few weeks of Parker's life having the "baby blues," but I'm not running into those types of feelings nearly as much with you.  I don't know if your calmness is a reflection of me just knowing what to do or if you were just going to be calm either way.

When big brother wakes up in the morning, one of the first things he does is ask about you.  We get downstairs and big brother won’t leave the house for school until he’s seen you.  He likes to be the person to wake you up in the morning—“Wake up An-dew!” he yells (we are still working on a whisper voice).  He gives you lots of hugs and kisses and likes to hold you, too.  He loves you so much and I can’t wait to see y’alls relationship grow as you both get older.  He will also give you his “horsies” (small horse figurines that are really zebras), but I usually don’t see him do that until I manage to sit or step on one. Hehe.

We survived our first weekend home alone without any help and it went very well.  You don’t mind the loud noise big brother makes.. in fact, you slept right through the two lawnmowers playing chase in the living room by some miracle.  Thank goodness you love to sleep!  We like to take family walks together and Parker still likes to make sure you have his prized “little elephant” when he is home.  Though, he will snatch it from you if he gets upset or goes to lay down.  But it’s okay… you have your own toys, too.  Parker also likes to “race An-dew” when we go on a walk which means he runs next to the stroller while mom or dad push you. 

You don’t seem to mind tummy time too much and will lift your head up off the ground and turn it to a different side all on your own.  You also seem to take after mama more than your daddy when it comes to your good looks.  ;-)  You still have lots of hair, though it seems to be thinning on top a bit.  Your umbilical cord fell off after the first week and we’ve been giving you full baths ever since.  You love the warm water and the warm towel afterwards (thank you Lori [and Grandma Joan] for that little trick!).  You head off to bed at about 10 PM at night. 

I can’t wait to see how the rest of this first month goes… you are doing so well!  Your two week check-up went wonderfully and you are such a trooper.  We love you baby boy, always and forever.

At two weeks you:

• Eat about 2 OZ every 2.5 to 3 hours during the day—we move to feeding you every 2 hours (cluster feeding) in the evening hours.
• Must burp after every feeding or you will do a large spit up.  Otherwise, your spitting up seems to be getting slightly better, but you still spit up a little bit after every feeding
• Can sleep 8 hours at night from 10-6.  Sometimes you will wake up for a middle of the night feeding around 3-5 AM, but then you sleep until 8:30 if you do that.  I have no idea how I’m getting so lucky… all I have to say is Babywise and Happiest Baby on the Block are the best books ever.  Eat, Wake, Sleep hasn’t failed me yet!
• Sleep in the rock and play in the extra bedroom next to mom & dad’s room
• Wear newborn clothes—most of the 0-3 month clothing is still too big for you. 
• Have wake time for about an hour or so after every feeding… sometimes less, sometimes more
• Weigh 7lbs and 14 oz (you’ve gained all of your birth weight back!) (50^th percentile)
• Are 21 inches long (25^th percentile)
• Like just staring up at the ceiling and hanging out on the floor or sitting with mommy while we watch big brother play.
• Enjoy being warm and cuddled
• Beginning to hold your head up for a few seconds on your own
• Poop 2-3x a day and wear newborn size diapers; though when I run out of those (about 30 left I think), I’ll be moving you into size 1
• Seem pretty sensitive to bright lights and you won’t really open your eyes too much unless we dim the lights a little bit for you
• Make goofy grins when you get a little gassy in your sleep.  I can't wait to see you smile when something actually makes you happy.

Hanging outside on the back deck.

The smile on big brother's face says it all.  He loves you!

More hugs for An-dew!

First sponge bath.

First real bath where we put you in water.

Reading books at night before bed.

I love my two boys!

Well… maybe RobAndJessInAWorkoutRegimen is better than Vitameatavegamin. Maybe.

Oh yes, I know.. you thought we, or I, had given up.  But nope, today marked the 15^th workout by me & Rob.  We haven’t skipped a single day.  The only day of rest is a Sunday.  And I look forward to that day with everything I got.

And yes, the first week was bloody miserable.  I couldn’t move, everything hurt.  I even researched ice baths and made one for me and Rob.  Yep, you heard right.  I took an ice bath.  Do I need to repeat b/c you still don’t believe.  YES, I, JESSICA LYNN MEIER, TOOK AN ICE BATH.  But only after Robert did it first.  And I put on sweatshirt for the upper half of me.  But yes, the water was a sweet 58 degrees.  Robert kind of just had to push me down b/c I stepped my toes in and was like, nope… I’m not doing it.  He literally shoved me down as I went screaming.  But I stayed in for 8 minutes.  Yep, you are looking at the girl who doesn’t get in pool unless the water is above 86 degrees.  My legs were numb afterwards, but can I say that I felt miraculously better the next day?  Yes.  Oh, and I took a hot shower an hour later.  I was kind of concern at first b/c other than my legs feeling a bit numb… my body still freaking hurt.  But, I can honestly say the next day I felt better.

We were in such unbearable pain that we took ice baths.  But, I can’t even describe to you the amount of pain my legs were in.  I don’t even remember what else hurt, but I can recall the screaming pain of my legs instantly.  I still have nightmares about it.  The second week was drastically better than the first.  Don’t get me wrong… not a minute goes by that our instructor, Shaun T says “ Dig deeper, squeeze that core!”  I  yell back, “I DON’T HAVE A CORE!!!!!” with sweat dripping down my face and my legs shaking.

I am proud to report that Rob and I can almost make it through the 9 minute warm-up.  ALMOST.  But, I don’t really consider this a warm-up.  Hardest warm-up of my life.  And then, there is this one day where you just do cardio straight for 20 minutes.  It’s kind of ridiculous.  The second week had to combine 20  minute non-stop cardio w/ a cardio abs workout.  Needless to say, my abs have yet to recover (this took place on Saturday).   I live for “Recovery Workout” Day.  While this entails squatting for 3 minutes straight, there is no jumping.  So be it that my legs collapse and I fall to the floor.  Just no more basketballs and squat jumps, please!!!!!!  For those wondering what a “basketball” is that is where you squat, bend down and touch the floor, and jump up pretending you are shooting a basketball.  Don’t know about you, but I get a ‘nothing but net’ every time!!!!

So, today was fitness test 2.  You will recall our first fitness test from day 1 on my previous blog.  So, let me break it down for you:

	Jessica		Robert
	Day 1	Day 15	Day 1	Day 15
Test 1	38	61	45	76
Test 2	18	30	26	35
Test 3	30	48	40	62
Test 4	13	20	20	29
Test 5	4	8	5	8
Test 6	8	10	10	11
Test 7	0*	6	18	20
Test 8	20	30	18	26

*This would be push up jacks.  I could do none the first day.

Oh, and no one is allowed to comment about how Rob does more reps than me.  We have a rule… no judging each other, so that will also apply to you.

So, yes folks… I would say our workout is working!  WE IMPROVED!!!!!!!!  I’m calling this a success.  What, what?!?  So, maybe all that pain was for a little gain.  I can even do a push-up!!!!!  I was fairly certain I would never be able to do a push-up jack.  I mean really, who wants to jump and straddle their legs all while doing a push up???  Certainly not me.  Oh, and I still don’t like doing any of this stuff.. but it is getting somewhat easier.  SOMEWHAT.  Maybe in the next 2 weeks I will be able to report that I can make it through the entire warm-up.  MAYBE.

We definitely don’t have a 6 pack of abs or anything, but I am starting to see a faint outline of a leg muscle.  I still hate Kendra.  She still wears her hair down and has a 6-pack of abs and annoyingly smiles while she does it all… but let me tell ya, Kendra… I’M COMING AFTER YOU.  Though, I will never wear my hair down while working out.  That’s just stupid.  But, maybe we’re past the point of needing another ice bath, cuz baby, that was just cold!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But here I am, making this all about me… but Rob is doing great too.  But, let’s face it… I’m the one that really needs to work out.  He could run 4 miles w/o stopping before he even started.  J  And he still drinks Protein shakes after every workout.  I’m still eating cereal.  Where’s the fairness in life??  Okay, no judging I swear!  I’ve got 5 more pounds to go to get to my original wedding weight.  Damn the 15 lbs marriage can give you!!

So, here’s my incentive to you.  If I can do it…. you can definitely do it.  I hope my blog is somewhat of an inspiration to you.. b/c just knowing that someone might wonder how I did keeps me going day in and day out.  So, hopefully you will be able to see how we are coming along in the next 15 days.

So yes, maybe RobandJessInAWorkoutRegimen is a little better than Vitameatavegamin.  Maybe.