Mimi is in town!

Well Mimi (Shawn's mom) came into town last Wednesday. She came to see Liam- oh wait I mean "all of us" haha. Liam and Mimi are having a blast with each other. Mimi has been helping feed him, change him, and bathe him. They're also reading and playing together too. Its certainly been heaven for Mimi to get to spend all this time with Liam. She also brought Liam a lot of new clothes, which we all love. 

Its been so nice to have family around (and not just because of the extra help). We really enjoying Liam being able to spend time with family because we don't live around any, so its special when he gets to. Mimi leaves on Wednesday and then my parents come into town Saturday. Then next Friday, my oldest brother Curt and his wife Melissa will be in town for a wedding and will get to visit with Liam as well! We will for sure be visiting Erie in June, and we're really excited about the trip!

Three Months Old

Its hard to believe, but Liam is now three months old! He really seems to be growing and changing so much. This month we are going to have visits from Shawn's mom, my parents, and my brother and sister-in-law, and we can't wait. We're excited for them to get to see him and how much he's changed. We're also planning a trip home to PA in June and to Indy in July! We're hoping our plans work out! 

 

Liam is doing pretty well. He's been a bit more fussy than usual... we're suspecting he may be teething already. I guess we'll keep you posted on that. He's still becoming more and more interactive. He loves to smile and "talk" to people. He's discovering how to make new noises with that mouth of his. Its quite fun. Since Liam is now holding his head up quite well on his own, we got out his jumperoo for him to play in. He's still a little small for it, but he seems to enjoy it well enough. I think as he gets bigger he'll like it even more. I added more photos to the smugmug site... enjoy!

A Day in the Life of Liam

 Well another week has gone by and really not too much has changed. Liam continues to do very well. He's sleeping through the night about once or twice a week, and by through the night I mean from 10pm - 6 or 7am! We are blessed! The other nights he sleeps from 10pm - 8am but always wakes up around 5am to eat. We're trying to teach him to go back to sleep on his own, so we'll let him cry. Unfortunately, he never stops on his own. We'll let him go for about 20-30 minutes, and then I'll go feed him. But we're still very pleased he does so well.

  We've really gotten into a pretty good routine with Liam. It really does feel like normal life finally. Liam likes to get up around 8 or so and he eats. Then we let him "play" for as long as he likes. He likes to play the most in the mornings. To play we set up his play gym and tummy time mat. We'll have him do some tummy time- which is just spending time on his belly so that his neck and various other muscles strengthen. He really doesn't like this much. He'll do well for about 5 minutes max and then SCREAM! He likes to lay on his play gym and swing at the hanging toys. He's getting more coordinated and hits them a lot now. He's also starting to open his hands more and intentially grasp onto things. He also likes to sit up on the couch. Usually we prop him up between cushons so that they hold him up, but sometimes we sit him up so that he has to hold himself up. He can do this for a short period of time, but he's still not quite ready to sit up on his own. After he tells us he's done playing (by screaming of coarse) we usually put him in the swing for a nap. And generally speaking the rest of the day is a rotation of diaper changing, eating, playing, and napping. He eats about every 3-4 hours. I'm still breastfeeding him, which is still going great. At night he gets a bath (which he loves), one final feeding, and goes to sleep quite easily around 10pm. Its wonderful.

    I added some more pictures to the April 2009 album on the smugmug site. Enjoy! Oh, and we will eventually post more videos. They just take a whole lot more time to do. Shawn is recovering this week from a root canal on Monday. Perhaps next week? We'll see!

Ten weeks old

Shawn taught me (Angie) how to update the blog, so hopefully between the two of us we'll update it more often. Well Liam is doing great. Monday he turned 10 weeks old! It's so hard to believe. Time really does fly by. 

This past weekend was the first Saturday that Liam was with the babysitter. All went very well. She sent home a little "report card" of what he did for the night. Jenny (the babysitter) has two kids, Joshua- 3 and Emma- 15 months. Evidentally Liam loved to sit in the bouncy seat and watch the kids play. He did great with the bottle (which is sometimes a struggle) and he slept 8 hours straight for her! She said he  was such a joy (which is no suprise to me). Shawn and I had good nights at work, but weekends are going to be very tiring now for the both of us. But we're happy to do it so we can have more time together and more time with Liam. 

Today, I went crazy with the camera and took a bunch of photos of Liam (hey I'm a new mom, what do you expect!). I added them to the gallery. Today I decided to sit Liam up on the couch and see how he liked it. He really did! In fact, he started kicking his legs around and "found his feet". He would just sit and stare at them as he kicked his legs- almost like "Wow, look what I can do!" He is a wonderful little guy and we couldn't love him any more!

Roll Over!

Liam has been growing in to such a big boy! He is now 2 months old (almost 10wks) and at the pediatrician on Wednesday he was 10lbs 13oz and 23.75 inches long. This puts him in the 75-90th percentile in length but 25th percentile for weight. The pediatrician said he is a long lean baby! She was happy with how he is doing. While we were at the pediatrician, she placed him on his tummy to see how he is using his neck muscles. While she was doing this he rolled over onto his back for the first time! He is a early starter, normally babies begin to do this at 3 to 5 months. Liam is finally starting to pack on some weight. So his clothes are now fitting. His newborn pants had become too short, but the larger size was way too big around his waist. He looked like he was swimming! But finally some of those larger pants are fitting him.
 

Liam is getting more interactive by the day. He is awake more during the day, smiling, cooing, and playing. He also has found his hands and is sucking on them too. He found the left one first, so hopefully he'll be a lefty! Another big accomplishment was that he slept through the night this last Wednesday night. Hopefully he will do this more and more. This Saturday Angie starts her first normal weekend work schedule. This will be the first night he goes to stay at the babysitter's. Pray this goes well. We do have a video of Liam rolling over. I'll be putting it up after my stretch of days at the hospital is over.

6 Weeks Already

It is hard to believe that 6 weeks has gone by. I'm sorry for the gap with no posts, life sure has been hectic. Lots has happened in the last few weeks. I returned back to work for two very busy  weekends! The hospital was hopping and Angie was just as busy at home with Liam....But obviously all three of us survived. We also started to give Liam milk via the bottle. The first attempt at this was difficult and we had to trick him into taking the bottle. After that first time, he has taken to it like a pro. This has been a blessing to Angie as it has given her opportunity to go out, get longer periods of sleep, or just to take a break. It has also been fun for me to get to take care of him a little more.

This past weekend Liam took his first road trip. We went down to West Palm Beach to see his Uncle Curt get married. It was supposed to be an 8 hour trip there. Liam did absolutely wonderful. He slept the majority of the way and woke up at about feeding times. We bottle fed him in his car seat and then stopped to eat, gas up, burp him, and change him. All and all having Liam along only added about a half hour. The problem was that someone decided that I95 would be a great place to shoot someone! We were no where near the trouble......because they shut down the whole interstate. After we figured out a new route and took it, it had added about 2 hours onto the trip down.

Liam seemed to enjoy West Palm, his Uncle Curt (who may I add was QUITE excited to meet Liam), his new Auntie Melissa, and his new extended Columbian family(Melissa's family). They were wonderful and just loved Liam. He got so much spanish baby talk to him I think he'll automatically have Spanish as a second language! Also, Liam got to see Grandpa and Grandma Rapp again! Or should I say that the other way around! Liam definitely enjoyed his time with Grandma and Grandpa, there is a video on the smugmug page.

3 Weeks Old!

Today Liam is three weeks old! He is definitely changing. Everyday he seems to look different. Since the last post not much has happened. Liam still does the typical eat, sleep, poop, and cry. His nights are getting better. He is going to bed easier and a lot of the time he sleeps sound until it is time to be fed, usually about 3-4 hours. Last week we took Liam and the dogs out on a walk. Liam seemed to enjoy being out and about and the dogs got rid of some energy. We also took many outings to stores and whatnot. Liam usually cries hysterically when we put him in his car seat but as soon as that car starts moving he is content as can be. Before my Mom left we all went out to eat for lunch. We were nervous that we would be "that couple" who has a baby that just won't shut up! Fortunately after some initial fussiness and a diaper change Liam decided to be content in his carrier at the restaurant. Yesterday our family help officially left very early in the morning. After two weeks here my Mom went back to Erie. It turned out to be a very good day for our first day without help. We also ventured out to church with Liam from the first time. It was great to get back to church and to be able to see friends again, some of whom we haven't gotten to see in weeks! Liam did great in church. The first beat of worship scared him and he jumped a little but after that he just went back to sleep. There was only one moment he looked like he might cry but luckily didn't. After the service he decided to wake up to show of his blue eyes. Wednesday is our small group and we plan on going to that with him. Unfortunately I (Shawn) have to return to work this coming Friday.