noah benjamin thompson: one month, two celebrations!

It is official that my birthday will never be important again. Don't get me wrong, my family and friends made it a great ~~day~~ week (thank you all for the gifts, celebrations and well wishes!), but in the end nothing is about me because my life is now all about Noah, and I couldn't be happier. He was thoughtful enough to send flowers with help from his daddy, but shortly after they arrived he pooped on me. I think it was his way of reminding me he is still #1 in this household.

Just two days after I turned the big 2-9, Noah celebrated four weeks and had his one month check up with his pediatrician, Dr. Weil. One reason I like Dr. Weil so much is that he reminds me a lot of Saul from Homeland (watch it if you haven't, it is amazing) because of his mannerisms, age and looks, and this gives me confidence in him, which is wonderful even if it is based on somewhat faulty logic. Another (unimportant) reason I like him is that I heard he does magic tricks. I haven't seen one yet but am hopeful that by Noah's one year appointment that will change. He also came very highly recommended and takes time to answer all of my questions. The bulk of Noah's one month appointment revolved around some of my absurd questions, such as "Why is he cross-eyed some of the time?", "Is his gas normal?", "Has he gained too much weight?" and "Does he even know who I am?". Thankfully Noah appears to be completely normal, weighing in at 8lbs 5oz (25th percentile) and measuring 21.5 inches long (50th percentile).

Over the past week Noah has made some big strides. He successfully moved into his crib, got a paci, had his first massage, and had a bath and bedtime without mommy. The move to the crib and his first bath and bedtime without me were definitely harder on me than him. From what I can tell, he pretty much didn't notice. Thankfully the reason I had to miss bath and bedtime was for fun (book club), and I will say it was nice to feel like my old self for a few hours even though I missed Noah most of the time. So far he loves his paci and sort of hates massages. It came as no surprise that he'd love the paci since he has always been easily soothed by sucking. We are trying to use it sparingly, but I have a feeling that won't last if he gets his way.

We are making some progress towards sleeping through the night too. He is generally sleeping from 9pm until 2am-ish (sometimes 1:30 and sometimes 3:30am) and then until 6:30 or 7am. You would think this means I am getting more sleep, but alas I have a very noisy sleeper on my hands who cries in his sleep and wakes me up, which means I've gotten through several episodes of Downton Abby and read a lot of books. Ben got a taste of what it is like to be a mom by taking on the middle of the night and morning feeding this past Friday. His kindness allowed me a blissful four and a half hours of uninterrupted sleep, and I hope we can make this a tradition on the weekends (fingers crossed!).

We're continuing to attempt an outing most days, and recently it has been a long walk around the neighborhood. Noah likes to nap and I like to walk so it is a perfect combination on pretty days. He's also been on a few lunch dates and even to the mall.

Here are the highlights of the past week:
- sleeping from 9pm to 3:30am one night
- falling in love with a paci
- spending hours gazing into mirrors
- starting to mimic mommy's facial expressions

And of course the best part of the post is the pictures, enjoy!