our favs

We have a few products that we've been LOVING since bringing Micah home. We thought we'd share so you can fall in love as well...First is Dr. Bonner's Magic Soap...Baby Mild Liquid Soap. We received this as a shower gift. I put it in Micah's bath basket, and expected to try it eventually. Little did I know that it would become our best friend :) Our laundry detergent is all the way downstairs, and in the garage, so when Micah got some poop on his blanket, my mom grabbed this soap, and put a tiny bit on the stain (the bottle lists about 1,000 different uses for the soap, and laundry is one of them). After we washed the blanket and saw no sign of the stain, we kept using it! It has gotten out tons of baby poop, as well as egg yolk from one of Alex's shirts! We are in love...and we haven't even used it in Micah's bath yet!

I am loving the Dr. Brown's bottles. We tried switching Micah over to the Born Free bottles when we realized that nursing wasn't working, but I think the nipple lets more milk through than the Dr. Brown's, and the Dr. Brown's nipple is much smaller and I think he does so much better with these. I keep saying I, because Alex doesn't love all of the internal parts to clean, or the fact that we only have two of these...I'm not anticipating him being on these bottles for too much longer, but while he's still bitty, I like them!
Lastly, our little guy had his first round of really bad gas. We tried everything to soothe him, but nothing was helping. Let's just say it was a LONG night, and we felt like someone had switched our baby with another. Poor little man was SO uncomfortable, until we got some gas drops for him. We had a different brand than these, but they had the same active ingredient, and two doses later, we had a happy baby. We are thankful for great recommendations like these!

2 weeks old

Our little man is two weeks old...we are loving every minute that we have together as a family, and Micah and I are both sad that Alex will be going back to work on Tuesday. We'll definitely be looking forward to our three day weekends with him! Micah had a big week...he had his newborn photo shoot with the oh so talented Richelle Dante, and he had his two week check up! His pediatrician says he's gaining weight at a great rate! He's now weighing in at 8lbs. 1oz., and is 20.75 inches long. He's 50th percentile for weight, 60th for length, and 35th for his head circumference :)

Here are some pics from his newborn shoot. Richelle was SO good with Micah...waiting for a good long time before he stopped screaming! He was NOT happy about being naked, and did much better once we clothed him! Somehow, Richelle managed to get some great shots that we are in love with! If anyone needs a great infant photographer (or engagement, or wedding, or anything else!), Richelle is their girl! She's taken pictures of us a number of times, and we are always more than happy with them!


we love these 10 little toes!



cutest little face!


I wanted this bear hat picture SO bad! LOVE the hat!


This is one of our favorites and you can't even see his face!!



alex has been dreaming of this pose for so long!

our first week

Micah turned one week old on Wednesday, and had his first check-up on Thursday. He is gaining weight like a champ and is 1oz. over his birth weight. We are loving being a family of three now, and can't stop looking at our baby! during the day, we even try to have him nap in the living room so that we can just watch him! Some might say we're addicted to our baby...I guess we'll be joining Kit and Gina at addicts anonymous.

We're all adjusting pretty well. I had an infection that pretty much kicked my butt last weekend, but feel much better now...just an occasional headache to remind me to take it easy! Alex is a little more sleep deprived than I am because he does such a great job of trying to get me to rest. He is constantly trying to take care of me as well as Micah and I am so thankful for that. Can I just say that I LOVE watching him with Micah. He is such a hands-on dad, and it brings me so much joy to watch him with our son!
The hardest adjustment has definitely been feeding. While Micah loooves to eat, he has not wanted to latch...AT ALL. We have now seen multiple lactation consultants (including my sister!) and he knows how to do it, he just refuses. Honestly, he acts like we are torturing him when I even try to offer it to him! After many feedings and attempts at getting him to latch and MANY tears (from both of us...alex may have shed one or two as well while watching his baby freak out!!), we have decided to continue pumping and bottle feeding him breast milk. Thankfully I have a well established milk supply (too much in fact!) and can get my baby the nutrition even without the latch. It was not an easy decision for me. I had these pictures in my head of the way I wanted everything to be, and this was definitely not part of that picture. It was a very stressful and very emotional decision, but ultimately, I don't have it in me to let him go hungry unless he latches. I just couldn't do it. As it turns out, one of my nieces totally refused to latch also! My sister had already breastfed her oldest and assumed she would be fine with the second baby, but no, she never wanted to latch! Looks like the stubbornness runs in the family!

On the bright side, I had a great experience with our lactation consultant through Hoag. She called to check-in (Micah latched like a champ in her office, and then wouldn't latch again once we got home), and I told her what had happened since we'd been on our own. I was afraid she was going to make me feel guilty for not continuing, but she was nothing but very kind and affirming. She told me that some babies just don't take to it, and that we could keep trying and we could probably get him to do it, but that if I was emotionally drained, Micah would feel that and could potentially make it worse. She told me that she was proud of me for choosing to pump for him and that she was supportive of my choice. She let me know that if I need help with figuring out a pumping schedule or keeping up my supply, she would be there to help me!

Enough with the talking...here's some cuteness...

meet micah

micah alexander pavone. may 12. 7lbs 5oz. 20 inches

we are enjoying life at home with our baby boy. we might be biased, but we're pretty sure he's the cutest baby ever.

counting down...

We've got 11 days until my due date, and 4 days left of work. I would love to know when this little man is going to make his big debut, but I guess the waiting is part of the experience, right? Right now, I'm 2cm dilated and 60% effaced. I'm hoping that Micah will decide to come before the doc decides to induce me (1 week past my due date)!

baby showers

I had two other baby showers after the first! I had so much fun and felt SO loved :)

Unfortunately, I still haven't gotten pics from my sisters from one shower, but here are some from the shower that Karen and Nicole hosted for us. Again, my sister has some of my favorite pics, but I haven't gotten them from her yet!

In other Micah news, his room is 95% done...just a few things left to hang on the walls (that alex is designing and putting together as I type!) and that's it! I can't wait to post the finished pics...alex already posted the "almost finished pics" on facebook if you're dying to see the work in progress :)

new addition to the fam...

....and it's not Micah...at least not yet!

Alex and I had been patiently (or very impatiently) waiting to buy a new car for a looooong time. We both had cars that are/were 10+ years old. In particular, Alex's car had quite a bit of mechanical trouble over the past couple of years and we were tired of dropping money on a car that wasn't even worth what we put in! We were waiting for something permanent with Alex's temporary position to actually go ahead and start looking for a car...and on Friday, Alex got hired on!! I am so proud of him. He has done everything he could in the last two years to provide for our family, and I couldn't be more excited for him to have a job that he actually enjoys! Plus...that meant we could go car shopping!
After a little looking around online, we were sold...we went down to Carmax, talked numbers with our sales associate, and the next day test drove the car and left the lot with it!! Here are some pics of our new "fancy" car. When you've been driving around in either of our two cars, anything newer feels very fancy :)

Welcome to the family 2007 CR-V!