Learning

We went to the hospital not knowing I was in labor on April 20, and left the building with the cutest little person (of course we think as such!)  on April 22 - the day we started dating 5 years ago.  And Zeke was born on Grandpa's birthday (April 21)... so many reasons to be sentimental about his birth.


You get a one-day old for only one day.  So writes Beth Ann Fennelly to her young pregnant friend. And it's true... Zeke is already 5-days-old today... and each day has passed by like a dream - surreal, surprising, all-encompassing.  You try to look and look and look, wishing you could bottle up the sight and take it out later to savor it once more just a little while later. But even with cameras and camcorders and journals and scrapbooks, the moments continue to pass you by. So you keep looking.

What a beautiful little face you have, my boy.

Each day he seems to have his eyes open for longer, and his perfect little face gains a degree of roundness. His funny faces only get funnier, and he's become more and more voracious when it comes to breast milk.

But of course it's not easy. Last night at 1 am, exhausted from an hour of feeding him and frustrated that he wasn't sleeping, I handed him off to Ryan, and then proceeded to sleep peacefully for an hour. At 2 am, Ryan came in, more tired and worn out than I had been an hour ago. Zeke had wailed at the top of his lungs non-stop for the past hour, and Ryan had born it out, wanting to give me a chance to sleep.

At 3 am, Zeke settled down after another half hour of nursing, and Ryan came up to hold both him and me. There, us two tired, clueless kids held our kid and thanked God for him - his puzzling behavior, his restlessness, his seemingly insatiable appetite and all.

Ryan was only going to stay for a while and then head back down to do school work, but he fell asleep with Zeke on his chest, breathing heavy baby breaths. There isn't a sweeter sight in this world.