4 WEEKS!! Can you believe it!!

It's officially 4 weeks!! I can't believe we've come this far, and yet it almost seems like forever.  I guess that's what happens when you're learning about babies.  Things are going soo much better!  Raiden has been gaining weight and he's pretty much breastfeeding only (with a bottle about once a day, just to give mom a break).  We've been pretty lucky that things are going so well.  We feel extremely grateful to both our moms for all the help and support that they've given us.  They have taught and relieved us from the initial fears and anxieties of being new parents.

Well Raiden has now moved up a notch in his car seat!  Ever since his double chin has appeared, I kept asking Brandon to make sure that his car seat straps were at the right level.  He's getting to be a big boy!

We had about a week of fussiness that we weren't sure exactly what was going on.  With books and people giving their opinions about growth spurts, colic, and just plain fussiness, I was pretty concerned that Raiden was just going to be a pretty fussy baby.  Well turns out that mostly Raiden just gets tired.  Unlike his first 2 weeks where he could just eat and sleep and poop as he liked, now Raiden needs some pacifying before he gets to bed.  We've learned to notice the yawns and the fussy behavior, and sometimes rocking and swaying him will keep him calm, but nothing can compare to his bottle/pacifier... that's me.  Yup, it takes less than 5 minutes and his eyes are getting heavy and then suddenly he's pretty much out.  After that it's only a matter of rocking him until he's limp and then into the crib he goes!  It's a pretty neat trick, but it only works some of the time. But I guess Heavenly Father is looking out for Brandon and I and our sleep!  It's been pretty nice!  Plus with both Moms help we've had so much more time to do things.  We are soo spoiled and we know it, but we're infinitely grateful.

We wanted to share a few funny stories about Raiden that definitely make him pretty cute.

Diaper Change:
Since the first few days of Raiden's life outside the womb, he's been pretty consistent about 1 thing... Pooping is much easier when the diaper is off.  It was probably the 2nd or 3rd day of Raiden's life and we were changing his diaper in the hospital, when suddenly he decided that he wanted to keep going. Luckily we caught the poop before it hit the sheets.  I'm not sure why we didn't reflect on that experience before.  Since then we've had to be sure not to change his dirty diaper too quickly.  You have to give him time to finish. It's pretty funny to watch Raiden grunt and get a very focused look on his face as we change his diaper.  You just have to be sure to make sure he's able to squirm a little before you put the new diaper on. When Obachan was here, we went through 4 diapers before he stopped.  4 diapers!  Now that Abuelita is here she taught us to put a rag over his little boy part, since he also likes to go shishi (Japanese for pee) after he poops.  She has a lot of experience after 4 little boys!  So now we don't get a fountain of shishi all over us after he poops ;-)

Pacifying:
Well as we explained above Raiden likes to use me as his pacifier.  However he doesn't like to get the milk that comes with pacifying at the breast.  It's so funny, because once I have a let down of milk, I can almost always expect a very frustrated cry that sounds a lot like "Ooohhh! That's not what I wanted!"  It's pretty funny, but it's also sad at the same time, for Raiden's sake.

Well to wrap things up, Raiden went for his first stroller ride.  We decided to accompany Brandon to the dumpsters.  It was pretty cold out and Raiden liked the change of environment at first, but then it was pretty clear that it wasn't fun anymore and that it was too cold!

Raiden got his most recent toy!  It's a swing!  A rain forest swing!  I don't know if the type of swing even makes a difference to him.  But it seems to keep him stimulated enough.  Although I don't think that Raiden's ready to fall asleep in it.  Oh well, but at least we'll see if he likes it enough to give me more time to do other things, other than just hold him. 

Things are going pretty dang well in our cozy woodland home.  Thanks to all for your love and support!  Stay tuned...