Well, Ari’s had another busy couple of weeks, but things are slowing down now. We had a few days at home after the Canada trip before we went to Lincoln City for my family’s get-together. A.’s aunt and uncle visited Portland and took us out for dinner at a nice restaurant, and Ari just slept quietly in his carrier. It used to be that he would always sleep quietly in the carrier, but lately he’s been more awake and fussier!

Jan and Pat brought Baker over and Jan was trying to keep Baker away from Ari but A. introduced them before she could stop him and Baker was very good and just sniffed and licked him nicely. Andrew tolerated it fine and mostly has been okay with Baker sniffing Ari, but one time when Baker was getting a little excited Andrew got stiff and growled at him, so I moved them away before they could start snapping at each other in front of Ari’s face.

On the 4th of July, Jan and I took Ari to New Seasons for his first grocery store trip. It turns out the carrier takes up an entire shopping cart, so it’s not a good way to carry him in a store!

We ate dinner there and I had a healthy stir fry! Afterward, we met our husbands at a barbecue but our friends’ dog was a little too excited about Ari so we decided to leave. I guess we won’t be able to hang out at those friends’ house anymore. :-(I’m glad I went home, though, because it was also Andrew’s first 4th of July and some neighbors were shooting off firecrackers and he was very anxious about it. He stayed right by me all night!

Here are some pictures of me feeding Ari a bottle of pumped milk. He’s had no problem taking a bottle, so that should be fine when I go back to work. Apparently I’m lucky and not all babies will take a bottle so easily.

Next was my mom’s family’s trip to a beach house in Lincoln City. The whole gang was there and everyone got to meet Ari. With so many baby holders (and diaper changers, even!), I got to walk on the beach a couple of times and play some games in between breastfeeding sessions. I just took him when he cried, which wasn’t very often since he was always held, or when whoever was holding him thought he was hungry. I still felt like it was a lot of work, though! I couldn’t even handle all my dog responsibilities and other people were walking Andrew for me (and he ate all the other dogs’ food!). During one diaper change early in the morning, all of a sudden there was projectile poop – on me, the bedspread, and the carpet! Then Andrew decided to contribute by vomiting something awful on another area of the carpet. Imagine if I had more kids! Endless cleaning!! And I got mastitis for the second time (in three weeks!) and had another miserable few hours with a fever and started a second round of antibiotics. I also spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I needed to do differently, and pumping, and cleaning the parts for the pump, and using ice and a hot water bottle. It’s really a pain. Now Ari seems to want to eat every hour or two, though, so I’ve stopped pumping and am trying to just let my supply balance out with his needs. I hope it works!

Anyway, my mom got some great close-up shots of Ari’s face when he had his eyes open.

I took a lot of pictures of him sleeping, and a couple when my grandma called me over because he had his hands folded together and it was very sweet.

This was a new outfit from my sister and I had to photograph him in it:

After that trip, my sister and brother-in-law and two nieces stayed two nights with us. It was fun having my niece show up with a list of things she wanted to do – it kept us very busy but we were never bored! I got more practice with being out and about with the baby. I did have a tough time when we went to the bookstore and I realized I couldn’t get around with the stroller because there were stairs between all the rooms, then right after I bought a tea that I was trying to hold in one hand, Ari started crying rather frantically and I just left the stroller in the cafe and was walking around with him looking for a place to sit and breastfeed, and remembered that I hadn’t paid for my parking. Everything worked out though! And when I finally found a place to sit, another woman sitting there talked to me about her breastfeeding experiences with her kids.

Then we rode aerial tram and I put Ari in my Baby K’Tan carrier. I’m still figuring it out and often I can’t seem to get him in there in a way that I’m comfortable with, even though he usually seems comfortable, but this was one day I liked how he was positioned, and it was very convenient. I need to figure out how to use it more to get stuff done around the house. Yesterday, I was able to put him in it for 45 minutes while I uploaded some pictures on the computer. Right now I’m able to write this because he’s asleep in his carseat/carrier, but he’s waking up!

I didn’t get a 3-week picture like this because we were at the coast, but here’s his 4-week shot!

I’ve spent the past several days trying to figure out how to get anything done at home with a baby who doesn’t want to sleep in his bassinet. Sometimes the swing works for a little while but mostly I seem to have to hold him all the time. It’s pretty good if I get to eat breakfast and brush my teeth before noon! One day I didn’t shower until A. got home. Yesterday I got partway through a shower before I heard him crying and decided my hair didn’t need any conditioner. Today I got a whole shower AND brushed my teeth in one stretch with him in his bassinet! Yesterday I wanted to go to the bank and deposit some checks. I got a few minutes with my hands free to find the checks, then later I got a few minutes again to endorse them, but then it was too late to go to the bank! Today I finally made it to the bank. Then I wanted to pop in for a couple things at a store but after I parked I decided it wasn’t worth the effort of getting Ari out of the car so I just went home. But a guy in line behind me at the bank had said his wife was pregnant with twins, and I thought, THAT sounds impossible! Being pregnant with twins sounded hard enough, then I couldn’t imagine breastfeeding with twins, then I couldn’t imagine getting anything done at home with twins, and now I can’t imagine running errands with twins. He said they’re scared, and I was thinking, yeah, you should be! But I didn’t say that.

My other baby is doing well, too! Andrew had a great time at the beach, even though he wouldn’t go in the water.

He played with his cousins Luna, Shaka, and Leia. He and Leia met for the first time on this trip. They’re close in age and once they got to know each other, they were playing practically nonstop, and cuddling and licking each other. But Andrew snapped at her when she got too close to Ari!

Here’s Shaka:

And Leia: