The Ultrasound

I have lots of pictures to post to get caught up, so you can expect several picture posts in the near future. First and foremost, though, I need to show off the newest pictures of Nathan.

If you remember, last weekend we went to Dallas for the sole purpose of getting a make-up ultrasound done. We had the great luck of getting to visit with both sets of grandparents as well as a great-aunt and -uncle (pictures to come). As fun as that was, though, I had the most fun at the ultrasound. Everything looked like it should be exactly as it was last time--same place, same group of people in the room, even the same ultrasound tech--but Nathan looked nothing like he did last time. That creepy E.T.-lookalike had been replaced with a real little baby.
Most notably, you may notice that Nathan's face has filled out considerably. We asked the ultrasound tech about it, sure that it was a common feature of babies his gestational age. It turns out that just like newborns, babies this age can be either scrawny or chubby. Unlike his big brother has always been, Nathan is chubby.

It was neat to watch Nathan keep moving his hands, too. That one hand kept drifting up to his face, and we were able to identify all his fingers on it even. Once it looked like he was sucking on his fingers, and he flicked us off at one point. We also watched as he opened and closed his mouth several times and even blinked. The open eye looked a little creepy, but it's cool to be able to tell that in a sonogram.

It was also neat seeing the peach fuzz on his head when the tech switched back to a normal ultrasound. I can't believe we actually saw his hair--and he has lots of it already!

Oh, and of course it was easy for the tech to verify that Nathan is still a Nathan, if you catch my drift.

I was personally surprised at what a bonding experience it turned out to be. I thought that was just one of their corny catch phrases, but it turned out to be true. I suppose there's something that makes me feel closer to this anonymous baby when he's not anonymous anymore, when I've seen his adorable little face, when I know things like whether he has hair and how chubby he is. I also like being able to feel a movement in my belly and not just know that it's Nathan's, but his legs or his head, based on where the jabs happened. This ultrasound was a big step in the process of being emotionally ready for Nathan to arrive. I feel like I'm just about there--but I keep hoping he'll decide to wait quite a while yet, just to be sure he's completely ready.

The Nurturer

As the mom, that's supposed to be my role--the nurturer. The last few days when I've been under the weather, though, Matt has taken over that role. He's been taking care of both me and Patrick any time he's home. It seems that Patrick has started to pick up the vibes that Mommy needs to be taken care of, though.

Tonight while Matt was cooking me my favorite dinner--as a surprise--Patrick toddled over to where I was lying on the couch and wanted up. This happens fairly often, but not as much while I'm on the couch (he wants to play with the Mommy toys, like my cell phone, next to me in the chair). He was happy tonight just sitting with Mommy for a minute. I was concerned when he found my tissue I'd been trying to hide from him, though. Usually he either walks around with it until he drops it on the floor for us to find or shreds it into tiny pieces. I wasn't looking forward to cleaning up after either. But tonight Patrick did something new with the tissue. He leaned over and wiped my nose with it. Repeatedly.

Considering Patrick has never even had a cold, it amazes me that he understands what the tissue is used for. He may have had me wipe his nose two or three times total in his life. He has now officially wiped my nose more times than I've wiped his. I love the little nurturer I'm raising; he takes after his daddy so well.

Day Off

I apologize for doing this so soon, but I'm taking the day off from posting anything of substance. I've been fighting a sore throat since Monday night, and today my whole body is starting to feel under the weather. I'm spending Patrick's nap time resting and sleeping instead of blogging. Keep your fingers crossed that this is just allergy-related and not something like strep.

Shadow Friends

When Grammy and Gramps were here, we apparently entered rainy season. Storms came through on and off all weekend, and as a result, the lighting in the house was unusual. The lamp stayed on all the time, but the light coming through the window alternated between bright and sunny and dim and cloudy. I suspect it is this unusual lighting that caught Patrick's attention.

As he ran back and forth around the living room keeping Grammy and Gramps entertained, he suddenly realized he was not alone. For the first time ever, he noticed his shadow on the one uncluttered wall behind him. He was fascinated. He experimented playing with his new shadow friend, who was just his size and imitated his every move. Patrick would run back and forth in front of the wall, watching as his friend chased him along the way. Then he would peek around the corner--where the light didn't reach--and wonder at how the friend disappeared so quickly. when he peeked back around, the friend was back!

Patrick hasn't done this since, but it was quite amusing for all of us to watch. There is something quite charming about watching someone Patrick's age discover something like that for the first time. We take common things like shadows for granted, but for Patrick it was fascinating because it was new. It was something to play with and experiment with to see how it worked. It kind of helps restore our sense of wonder with simple things in life, too, doesn't it?

New Tickers

It was not my intention to create new tickers for Patrick and Nathan (that thing that keeps track of how old they are at the top of the page), but I was having major formatting issues with tickers from the old place. They may change again when Matt makes it home from work; he may be able to talk me through whatever I was doing wrong (or whatever blogger was doing wrong with my copied and pasted html code). But I don't know. I kind of like the ticker for Nathan. I just wish I could personalize either the way the old ones were done. Either way, bear with the confusion for a few days until I get all of this settled. If you happen to check and see something you particularly like, please let me know. Right away, before I happen to change it again!

Grammy and Gramps

Not this recent weekend but the one before, Patrick's Grammy and Gramps came for a visit. He had a fun time showing off all his newest developments to them. I don't think he slowed down for more than a second or two any moment he was awake. I tried getting more pictures, but a dead battery slowed me down for the second half of the trip. Here are my favorites from the pictures I did get.

Patrick playing with Grammy's necklace

Gramps playing with Patrick (who loved this!)

Afternoon naptime, apparently

The Time Has Come

This past weekend I got to see my new baby Nathan. For the first time, he looked like a real little baby in there, not just an anonymous fetus. I am faced with the reality of being a mother to two completely different children.

With that realization has come the one that I cannot expect everything that worked to raise Patrick up to this point to work for Nathan. Nathan is an individual and deserves to have me recognize that. For that reason, I don't want to force Nathan to live as an afterthought on the blog I created for Patrick.

That being said, this is not Nathan's blog the way the other one was all about Patrick. This new blog will hopefully be a place for me to equally honor both my baby boys. I am hoping the new look and location will also help re-motivate me to blog the way I did in the early days of the old blog.

I am going to shoot for a format change as well. Perhaps it's my nesting instinct kicking in, but the seeming randomness of the old blog was starting to bother me. You can expect me to have three basic types of posts from here on out: picture posts, story posts, and update posts. Hopefully the types should be clear enough from their names. I am tired of randomly including unrelated pictures with stories of their own in the middle of an update post. Maybe this little extra forethought about what I want the blog to be will help keep me on track.

Please check back often over the next few days. I've been collecting pictures and stories to post--in separate posts, of course--over the last week or so and expect to post as much as several times a day for a while to get caught up.