moments

 

We of the All Brick House have been  busy the last few days.  We birthed a baby, fed a baby, clothed a baby, changed a baby (the nurses told us they want to see ONE wet and ONE poopy diaper in the first 24 hours, but our little guy gave us TEN poopy ones.  He's already an overachiever.), and brought a baby home - among other things.  Almost all of the "other things", though, still revolved around THE BABY.

The Baby, whom we called Blueberry for several months, will now officially be known as Jedidiah Benjamin Albrecht. And he's adorable (didn't I tell you he was going to be?).  He entered the world at 11:25 pm on Wednesday the 25th (someone told me that since I was so close, I should have held him in until midnight so he could have been born on the 26th, though I'm not quite sure why.  I looked at them like they were crazy).  He was born 8lb 3oz, 20.5 in long, with a head 35.5 cm around.  For the mother who gave birth, the head circumference far outstrips both the weight and the length in terms of significance.

Our little angel has been the center of our universe the last several days (he makes sure of it), and every moment has been sweet, peaceful, easy, and magical.

Except when they haven't been.

In those moments, I feel frustrated, exhausted, discouraged, and inadequate.  I wonder whose brilliant idea it was to let us become parents, and what drugs they were on then they had it.  (Scott describes his anxiety and rush to leave the hospital Friday night as a result of feeling as though we were stealing a baby; that the nurses shouldn't be letting us take him home, and at any moment they would realize their mistake and chase us down.)  In those moments, the seconds feel like minutes and the minutes feel like hours.  I feel like giving up.  And sometimes I cry.

But those moments always pass, and in their wake I am left with the (thankfully much more frequent) moments of joy and tranquility brought by being close to a newborn still so close to heaven.  I am left with my gift from God, my precious cherub whose mere sight fills me with such an overwhelming feeling of love that I sometimes can't help but cry again - this time from happiness (and perhaps relief that HE has taken a break from it! And maybe there are a few hormones floating around in my body). :)

Here are a few pictures from the first 5 days of his life:

 

The obligatory photo with me in the stunningly gorgeous hospital gown!

Jed loves his Daddy!

 

 My dad says his grandson will learn to ride a horse before he learns to walk.  Looking at this photo, he is apparently going to be a horse archer.  Maybe he has some Mongolian blood in him?

 

 Scott has taken a sudden interest in our camera, and began playing with the settings, especially the ones about colour.

Also, take a look at that professional swaddling job - yep, it was all me!

Jed did this on his own - Scott had set him on his back on the couch, lightly wrapped in the blankets, and Jed managed to wriggle onto his side and scoot down enough that the blankets completely covered his head.  Scott pulled them back to take the picture.

 

I love the fingers under the chin - he has probably already solved the world's problems.  All he has to do is learn to talk and then he can tell us all the answers.

Sleeping babies are sooooo cute!