Hi Sam!

Hi Sam!
Since we knew you were growing inside me I was a little hesitant to write to you because I was scared that I was going to jinx things.  During our pregnancy, I was holding my breath a little bit because I was nervous if you were going to make it to birth.  You have always been very healthy since your development, however we had been trying to get pregnant for a little while with no successful pregnancies.  Until YOU!  You were exactly what God wanted for us. He created YOU to be our little boy to raise into a man.  We are so excited to have you in our lives and treasure every moment we have with you.

I thought it would be so wonderful for me to get to talk to you to share with you my feelings about how it's like being a mom and being your mom.  You were seven weeks old this past Tuesday (today is Thursday, Nov. 12th).  Your daddy was 40 and I was 39 when you were born.  I apologize in advance that you are going to have older parents.  I hope you still think we're cool when we're 60.  The good thing about us being older is that we have done a lot of things we wanted to do as younger kids and now get to focus on you.

I never realized how much babies in general sleep.  You sleep a lot and I can't wait for you to wake up so we can play again.

A friend of mine mailed me a book that has a daily schedule that is supposed to help us get you on track to sleep during the night.  We tried following that book and schedule for the first few weeks, but you fell into your own schedule that is pretty close to the book.  Every baby is different they say.

We brought you home on a Thursday and took you to the Pediatrician the next morning per the hospital's recommendation.  They thought you may be jaundice which you weren't'.  Nana was here that Thursday night and made Daddy and me dinner.  It was so nice she was here so we could have time with you and get rest and just finish some last minute things here at the house.  The very first Saturday morning you were here with us was one of my most favorite days of my life.  It was just so nice being here as a family and not having to be anywhere and knowing that we have a sweet, healthy baby boy as part of our family now.  Life couldn't be any better!

Your schedule the first week was hard as you were up a lot during the night and went to sleep around 4.  We were very sleepy.  You were just not aware of night and day since you were inside my belly for 9 months.  It's always dark in my belly.

Now your schedule is pretty much this:  We give you a bath every other night around 8/8:30 pm and then we feed you a bottle.  After that you are relaxed and we swaddle and rock you.  Once you have fallen asleep, we put you in the bassinet (trying to use crib more).  You normally wake up around 1am or 2am and we feed you a bottle and you go back to sleep really good. Then you wake up at 6 or 7 and have a little more to eat and take another nap.  The common times you eat are 9 am, 12 pm, 3 pm, 6 pm and 9 pm.  (that's what's in the book but you are pretty close to that give or take 30 minutes).

Things that you enjoy are: At first you like your changing table and looking out the window.  Now that you are getting to be more into humans, you like to look at mommy and daddy when we change your diaper.  It's a good time to talk to you and tickle your belly and interact with you.  You also like laying on your activity mat and looking at your toys hanging above you.  You've gotten more involved in trying to reach for the toys above.  Your muscles are still getting strong, so you don't have tons of strength yet in your arms but you are working on it!  You also enjoy when I put you on our bed and I hover over you and talk to you.  We started this at Nana's house and it's my favorite time with you.  You try to talk back to me when I am talking to you.  You are so cute with your lips and mouth and coo's.  I also lay you on the bed and lay next to you and put your books in front of us so you can see the pictures.  You look at the pictures in front of you.  There are even pictures in the books that make you talk.  It's very cute!  Oh Sam, we love you so much and are having so much fun getting to be your parents!