Baby Firsts (5 weeks, 4 days)

Here are some baby firsts....

* I spent my first half hour away from Zeke. It wasn't much, but it was a start. On Monday, I went and got a pedicure. I passed on the manicure, because Zeke still won't take a pacifier, but will suck on a finger when upset.

* Baby pooped on me for the first time. Two days in a row. Funny, but kinda not.

* Nursed discretely in front of other people and was not arrested or shunned or embarrassed. This may be too much, too personal to share, but it's certainly part of my story. It went fine. I am 100 times more confident now.

* On another nursing related issue (turn away, if you can't take anymore talk about me and breast feeding), I have frozen my first bags of pumped milk. I am now officially free to leave Zeke for more than 2 hours sometime in the next 3 months (the shelf life of frozen milk).

* Carried Zeke in his sling that makes us look like we might be from a National Geographic story. He likes it, or at the least it seems to render him comatose in a deep sleep. Furthermore, we went into Whole Foods like this. I wish I had a photo of it. This is really the fulfillment of a long-standing image of myself. When I worked at Whole Foods/Wellspring, I always saw the mommas wearing a baby and thought, "I see myself being that mom." Done.

* Zeke went to his first community meetings -- one with our city council woman on Sunday and the neighborhood association on Monday. The council member said Zeke was very pretty and "too beautiful to be a boy". I didn't ask for an official City of Atlanta declaration of this, but maybe next time.

* This happened in the first weeks, but I forgot to mention it. I have licked my finger and wiped something off my child's face. I'm a mom officially, I guess.

And, finally,

* Had my first Zeke and Mom day. Poor Aaron appears to have food poisoning or a stomach bug today. He has been sick and throwing up since early early this morning. Aaron has been in bed (or in the bathroom) all day. That left me and Zeke to our own devices and we appear to have survived.

Actually, Zeke has been really easy going today and mostly asleep. This is good as he has been pretty colicky in the past few days and was really upset last night. I hate when he cries and gets these real big tears! It seems to be getting better now that I am cutting more and more dairy out of my diet. A woman at the La Leche group really helped convinced me that Zeke has a mild milk intolerance when she described her son and his allergy -- it was very similar. Zeke has a stuffy nose, poop with a little mucous in it, and terrible stomach upsets and gas and is thus fussy more than a few times a day. Apparently, some babies aren't able to digest milk proteins in the first few months and it can become a full-blown allergy. Also, happens more to babies with Asian or African genes (maybe Zeke qualifies for this). Also, can be related to the amount of the offending item consumed when pregnant (I ate lots of dairy for protein). Of course, this is all self-diagnosis which can be frivolous, but I see the difference, so I am going with it. He could just be a baby, as babies get gassy and babies get colicky. Like I said below, the things I am learning!

I should be returning to you with more regular posts and photos in the coming weeks, though I don't make any promises. My new Mac Book Pro just came in the mail today to replace my downed computer. I should be able to use the laptop and internet from anywhere in the house and will no longer be sharing a computer with hubby.