Our Journey, His Work: That first week...

I am learning more and more how every baby is different and every situation is different! From the moment I found out I was pregnant, I prayed not to be a mom that would compare. Jayden does not deserve to be compared to others AND others do not deserve to be compared to Jayden.

I had no idea what the first week would be like with a baby but I was prepared for it to be sleepless and hard. It was sleepless but that was my fault, not Jayden's (he's a champ at night). I have never been a napper and I have never been able to fall asleep easily once I've been woken up or woke up on my own. Considering I am breastfeeding and that requires ME to feed through the night, falling back asleep after a feeding at 3am just didn't happen and I still struggle to make that happen. We are all still praying over that. I guess overall, the hardest part for me the first week was my own physical issues not Jayden himself (I'll spare you of those)!

It was such a HUGE blessing having my mom stay with us for a week because she served us all so well through cooking, cleaning and washing clothes (who would have ever thought a baby would create so much laundry???). She also enjoyed lots of time holding her new grandson too.

When we came home from the hospital Jayden's weight was 8 lb 13 oz. (from 9 lb. 9 oz birth weight). This is totally normal for breastfed babies. At his first peditrician appointment on that Wednesday, June 11th - Jayden was back up to weighing 9 lb. 1 oz and on Thursday, June 12th, Jayden had his circumcision completed and he weighed 9 lb. 4 oz. Like I said, he's a beastly eater!

Random facts we learned QUICKLY about Jayden:

He does NOT like to be swaddled. In fact, you can wrap him as tight as possible and he WILL break free from that swaddle - which leads me to my next point.
Talon means "strength" and we purposely chose that name for Jayden so that no matter how physically strong he was that he would understand and know that our real strength in this life comes from the Lord. Well let me tell you, his physical strength is STRONG. Rance laughs and reminds me often that I prayed for 9 months that he would be a STRONG warrior for the Lord (maybe that included physical strength too?). He has a leg kick that is insane (Rance calls it the 'mule kick').
He LOVES his diaper to be changed. In fact, some of my most favorite times with him are changing his diaper. On the other hand, if his diaper is full or wet, he will let you know. Jayden likes his butt CLEAN!
He has been super easy during bath time since day one too. I think I was expecting a traumatic experience but that hasn't been the case yet.
He always has a long stretch of sleep through the night (started the first night in the hospital) which has been a huge blessing. In the beginning that stretch was around 4-5 hours and sometimes up to 7 hours now. A couple of nights ago he slept 10 1/2 hours straight (at 5 weeks old).
His hands and feet are constantly moving. He was just like this in the womb so it makes me laugh often. We kept little mittens on his hands those first few weeks (a lot) because when he cries or gets upset or is hurting, he is crazy with those hands and would scratch his face and body with his hand movement. Seriously, I started questioning if he had a temper already and I've been assured that's not the case.
He is a sucker! The BOY LOVES TO SUCK on something! We thought he would be a thumb sucker because he seemed to be in the womb and he did suck his thumb on the day he was born but ever since then he's not been interested. This was super hard in the beginning because breastfed babies are NOT supposed to have paci's according to all the nurses and lactation consultants, etc. out there. We would let him suck on our finger but knew that wasn't really wise when others wanted to hold him. After a week, we gave him a paci! He had a hard time holding it in his mouth on his own in the beginning but when he figured it out - oh it was a blessing. Thankfully, Jayden has no confusion when it comes to breastfeeding or paci's or whatever. I think he would suck on my toe if I'd let him.
He LOVES to be outside. It's almost like it's calming or soothing to him. No argument from his mama & daddy on this.
He is a hot natured baby so he does NOT like a lot of clothes on nor does he like to be wrapped up in blankets. They say dress a baby in one more layer than you would dress yourself. This is not true for Jayden because he is usually dressed in less than me. Onesies have been the easiest thing with him because it's light and cool.
There is also this 'rule' that babies MUST sleep on their backs and we broke that rule quickly too. When Jayden came home from the hospital, he actually slept in our bed on the boppy (yes that you breastfeed on) with blankets stuffed in the hole because it allowed him to sort of be cradled but sleep on his side not flat on his back. We have recently changed this which I'll update later.
He eats so well. I'm sure you didn't guess that seeing as he is a BIG BOY. This has had some pros and cons which I'll talk about at another time but I do love when he is 'milk drunk.' He acts like life cannot get any better when his belly is full and he is woozy!
Homeboy has got a set of lungs let me tell ya. When he cries, he could tear down the walls!
His smiles are so fun to watch and his first smile happened after feeding him during the first week.
He likes to be bounced or in motion. I find this hilarious since I recently read that if you were an 'active mom' while pregnant then your newborn baby expects that same thing to continue when he/she is born. I immediately thought "OH NO what have I done" haha. Jayden LOVES his swing and bouncy seat and his daddy bouncing him around the house.

And now...LOTS of pictures during the first week of Jayden's life:

The next few pictures are at Jayden's first peditrican appointment on Wednesday (after leaving hospital on Monday):

Before his first doctor's appointment

With Grandma!

His daddy sure knows how to soothe him.

The next couple of pictures are at Jayden's circumcision appointment which was the next day (Thursday). Rance watched the entire procedure while I sat in a room next door :)