Tomorrow, 7 weeks old already!!

Monday, November 8, 2010 0 comments
Sorry it's been so long since I've last updated you all.
As you can probably imagine, I've been busy getting used to being a mommy, and also to my new sleeping patterns.  Like I said before, too, I've been spending a bit too much time at the med. center lately.
Fortunately, last Wednesday was my last visit to the nurses to dress the c-section wound.  Since they no longer need to put drains in the wound to get the liquid to come out, they said that from now on I can clean and dress the wound myself.  I only have one area of the wound that is still open, and it is getting much more shallow now.
Eric has been behaving himself for the most part, and he does usually take at least one decent nap during the day.  At times, I use that nap to try to get some more sleep in.  At other times, though, I've been working on little projects for him or for me to remember how he is right now.  That has also been keeping me busy and away from my blog.
So, what have I been up to?
Well,I have made several things to remember the size of Eric's hands and feet.
First of all I made open hand prints (along with one footprint) in clay at 3 weeks of age.  This wasn't easy as a baby's reflex is to close their hand into a fist.  So, I waited until he was sound (let me reiterate- sound) asleep.  I had him lie in my lap and coaxed his hand open and pressed it into the clay.  It still wasn't easy, and I also had to be careful to press hard enough to make an impression in the clay, but soft enough to not hurt Eric!
A couple of days later, ironically, we received a very cool present from Mauri's brother and family, most likely picked out by my sister-in-law.  (When my niece was little, I helped her make a plaster print of her hand).  It was a frame with 12 separate openings for pictures of each month up until 1 year old, with an shadow box opening on the end for a handprint.  It came with a special soft clay to make the handprint.  I still have to get to that.
I also bought a kit to make handprints on special paper without actually using ink, and made some handprints on paper to be able to use on cards, etc. The first copies didn't work very well, but I got better at it and eded up getting a pretty good print.
I also ordered some dental supplies, to use some of my dental knowledge for a good cause.  With a bit of alginate and dental stone, I made a couple of impressions of Eric's hands, and one of one of his feet.  I then filled up the alginate mold with dental stone, and, voila, 3D models of Eric's hands. When I get a chance, I will make some more, and will also look for a good way to finish off the models.  I thought that it might look cool to spray paint them bronze and to antique them afterwards so that all of the little details show up better.
With one of the molds, I realized that I could split it in half, and could then reuse it to pour up a duplicate model.  I actually made a few so that I could practice with different finishes without risking destroying my only one.  As he gets bigger, I hope to make more models to compare and see how much he actually is growing.
Being with him all of the time, I don't really notice how much he is growing.  At his first month doctor's appointment, he measured 53.5cm (3.5cm bigger)!  I do think I notice his hands being bigger, though, because he often holds my finger when he is breastfeeding.  Now, I'll be able to see for sure, and will always be able to look at what his little hands looked like.
As if I didn't have enough projects, I decided that I would make him a cute little Halloween costume.  I had seen a cute (expensive) baby lion costume online that I really liked, and thought, hey, I could make something like that.  So, I did!  It's impossible to find fleece cloth, and felt is extremely expensive, so I did what I always do when I need cloth for a fun project for any of my babies (furry or otherwise). ;)  I bought cheap polar fleece blankets and cut them up.  I used to be able to buy them for 3 euros, but with Eric with me I didn't want to search all over town, so I went to a store that has parking and that I knew would have blankets for 5 euros each.  I wanted a yellow and a brown one or a yellow and orange one, or something similar, but ended up buying an orange and a very light yellowish green one after seeing my limited choices.  I really like the combination of colors, and figured it would be easy to use the rest of the fabric for other projects.
I traced one of his PJ's onto the yellow-green blanket, cut it out and sewed around it, making a very simple body suit.  I then cut strips of the orange fabric, and cut slits into it for the mane and tail hair. I also cut out a big orange oval for the belly, and smaller ones for the paws.  I decided to hot glue on the orange details, although I did sew the hair strips onto the bonnet that I made up for the hat/mane.  To get the suit on and off, I cut openings up the back that I sewed velcro on to close.  Thinking the costume was big, I decided that I could fold the edges down to hem them before sewing on the velcro.  This turned out to be a mistake since the PJ's I traced were quite stretchy, and the polar fleece doesn't stretch in both directions.  Had I planned ahead, I would have made the strech go verticaly, but it ended up being horizontal, where my costume was already big.  It wasn't a huge deal, but the costume did open up in the back a little when Eric moved because it was a bit of a tight fit vertically.
  Anyways, you can get the idea of the costume from the picture.  Two naps later, I had Eric's Halloween costume ready, and I figured it wasn't worth the effort of ripping the hems out to make the costume bigger since he wasn't really going to use it that much.
Eric the lion made his appearance twice on Halloween.  The first appearance was at l'Escoleta, the nursery school where I have worked several hours daily at times (usually September through December/January when they need the most help).  I have friends who work there, and used to go help out with their Halloween party even before I started to work there, being an American "expert" in Halloween, of course.  ;)  Sadly, the battery in my camera wasn't charged, but we got some great pictures there with my friend Maite's camera.  I don't have those pics yet to show you, but I will post them when I do.
At night, the kids of the first "grupo de marineros," the neighborhood where Mauri's parents live, decided to go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.  So, I decided Eric couldn't be left out. He ended up with a little bit of candy, which mostly his dentist mother ate. There wasn't much, but considering that he is an infant who doesn't eat candy, in a country that doesn't really celebrate Halloween, well, you know what I mean.
I decided that it would be a waste to not use the leftover blaket fabric, so I looked for a pattern for something that I really wanted to make, a swaddle blanket.  I found this, and decided to make it with what I had, without the embroidery. http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/elprojects/SimpleProduct_ELP.aspx?CS_ProductID=PR1273&CS_Category=Children%20and%20Nursery&CS_Catalog=Elprojects
It turned out well, and does work well for Eric to sleep a bit better and not wake himself up when he starts flinging his arms around at night.
My cute little baby burrito.

I have also been working on baby announcements, and got some simple ones ready for a party that we held for Eric this past weekend.  Mauri's mom made a big arroz abanda and invited the people from her neighborhood who had gotten money together to give us as a gift for Eric.
I've blurred out the last names for privacy, of course.  I used a template I found online, but changed it a bit to better suit my taste.  I found it here incase anyone wants to use it.  http://kimbearphoto.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/need-a-baby-boy-birth-announcement-here-is-a-free-template/
Then, on the back, I printed a thank you from Eric, with his handprint at actual size.  I handed them out to the people who had given us gifts.  They seemed to really like them.  Here, birth announcements aren't common, nor are baby showers.  It was fun to have a get together for Eric since I haven't had the experience of having a baby shower.
We got lots of pictures, so I'll upload some of them soon.
I'll also get another set of photos of Eric together to upload.  I've been working on those the last couple of days.
For now, though, I want to get this posted.  It has been way too long!
I'll try to be better about it in the future.

Before I sign off, I'd like to announce a few baby milestones from this past week.
I dressed Eric in the cute outfit that Mauri had picked out for him, and realized it was getting too small!!  It had been big on him when we bought it for him (when he was 2 and a half weeks old).

On Friday, Eric started to smile.  Up until now, he really only smiled in his sleep.  The last few days, though, we have been able to get him to smile and show us his left dimple.  :)
I'm working on getting pictures, but it's hard to get him to smile and take a picture at the same time.

Friday night we had another surprise: Eric slept for 5 hours straight!!  He did it again on Saturday night!  It was great.  Sadly, last night, we were back at 3 hours for the longest stretch.  :(  Oh well.

We also bought Eric his tree this weekend, but haven't planted it yet.  I had wanted to buy a tree to plant when Eric was born.  With everything going on, it got put off for awhile, but we finally bought a loquat tree to plant.  So, when he gets older, he'll get to see the tree that we planted for him.  We chose a loquat tree because it is strong here, and we don't want it to die, of course. :)  Also, we already have a loquat tree, but it was started from a seed, and hasn't given us fruit yet.  This one, though, being a grafted variety, already has flowers.  Once we get it planted, I'll post it along with all of the other pictures!

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