3 weeks old.

Today our little guy is 3 weeks old. 3 weeks have already gone by? Crazy fast!

Here are some things to note about Joseph Valentine Dworak II.

1. At our 2 1/2 week Dr's appt. he weighed 6 lbs. 7 1/2 oz. and he measured 1/2 an inch longer than the previous appt.. He is growing! Our pediatrician things we are doing an outstanding job. :)

2. We determined that our little guy does have a case of colic. Not severe. He doesn't cry all day - for which I am thankful! But it still hard at times. For him, it seems to be due to neurological immaturity (according to our Dr. this is more common in babies who arrive on the early side). He encounters all this external stimuli all day long and he reaches a point late at night when he doesn't know how to internally handle it all....and he cries and screams and he tenses up and he is inconsolable...until you finally hold him tight and he begins to relax again. Poor little guy. I so wish we could teach him to self-soothe, but for now, he is just an itty bitty person trying to figure it all out. Basically this means that he has to be held for a few hours late at night/early in the morning versus being able to sleep in his crib....which we are not enjoying all that much, truthfully. :( And I am a bit too tentative to try to put him in his crib when he has calmed down because I do not want his fussiness to start back up again. So, we are trying to figure this all out, too. :) I am hoping it will begin to subside in the next month.

3. He may be little, but he is strong! He really does not like a pacifier...we only use it when we really need a way to try to soothe and quiet him but more times than not, he will take his little hand and bat the pacifier out of his mouth! He can already move his head from one side to the other when we place him on his tummy. He also kicks himself out of his swaddle.....he is a little houdini. We wrap him tight only to find his blanket completely unraveled around him in his crib.

All in all, it is fun seeing glimpses of his little personality shining through. He is sweet with a tenacious spirit and we look forward to getting to know him more each day!

October 22.

October 22 is a date I had firmly ingrained in my head. "When are you due?" October 22. I probably said the date October 22 at least 5 times a day every day since we announced we were having a baby. Which has made October a very strange month for me. I had my eyes focused on the end of the month, but everything began to unfold right at the start.


My blood pressure was high. Alarmingly so. And so I was sent to the hospital to do overnight testing to see if I had preeclempsia on September 30. Sent home. Rechecked again at the Dr.'s office on Monday, October 5. I headed to the Doctors on that Monday with a shopping list in hand for what I was going to pick up at Target on my way home that afternoon. I had no idea I would show up at the Doctors and have the OB GYN tell me that she recommends I head to the hospital to have this baby.


I think I looked at her and said, "like, now?"


Yes. Now.


So....I then had to call JVD and tell him that we were heading to the hospital to have this baby.

At some point, I will want to write out the whole birth story....but so much of it was not the most pleasant of memories for me. It was, by far, the hardest thing I have ever been through. I have never felt so helpless....but I also cannot recall a time in my life when I have had so many people praying and pulling for us. And yet there is a great paradox because even though my week's stay at the hospital was not at all what I had pictured or imagined when I envisioned having a baby, at the end of day on Tuesday, October 6, I had a beautiful baby boy. He came out crying with a great set of lungs and was given a fabulous clean bill of health. He very much still is such a little guy, but he has a tenacious spirit about him that I already love.


So on this October 22, I celebrate the little boy who entered our home and our hearts.


Here is a video I took last Thursday....amazing how much he changed in just a matter of days and how much he has even changed since!