first week and first day

Yesterday marked both River's first week with us and Gabriel's first day without us.

Like all milestone days, this one was bittersweet.

the sweet

River had his one week check-up with the pediatrician, who pronounced him still healthy. He weighs 8 pounds, 3.5 ounces (just an ounce-and-a-half shy of his birth weight). Considering his initial feeding issues, this weight gain is great.

He is now waking every 2 hours, wanting to nurse, and sometimes even more frequently. Since he is doing so great with the daytime feedings, if he wants to sleep for a 5 hour stretch at night, I have been letting him.

Liam loves to hold River (with lots of assistance on my part...), and is still reminding me often that he is the big brother. He seems to genuinely enjoy River's presence and likes to say Hi and I see you, River.

the bitter

I woke up with a hideous monster of a cold sore on my lip, a parting gift from the mild cold I picked up at the hospital. This is really more of an annoyance than anything else, but it really doesn't help with my post-baby body blues...

And then I stepped on a nail in the backyard. A big framing nail. It went straight through my gardening crocs and into the sole of my foot. Getting the protruding nail out of the mulch, convincing Liam that we had to go inside, and taking care of River while trying to clean my injury was not a fun experience. And now I'm hobbling around like a gimp while trying to carry a newborn and take care of a toddler. Still not fun.

And then the crowning moment: I was sitting on the couch, holding a sleeping River while Liam napped, when I noticed a snake slithering across the living room rug. It was just a small prairie ringneck, harmless, but still it was a live snake. Thank you, Coleridge.

I grabbed the broom and whisked it out the front door.

Let's just say I was not calm and collected super mom by the time Gabriel came home from work.

But we made it through the day, a lovely friend from church brought us homemade bread and potato soup, and we barely made it through the latest episode of Lost without nodding off.