I recorded this video of Aidan yesterday, and oh my goodness it is so cute.  It’s short, but it will definitely make your day brighter.  Enjoy!

Aidan talking and smiling at 6 weeks old from Erika Mitchell on Vimeo.

We’re well into Aidan’s second month of life on dry land and we’ve already hit some pretty awesome milestones.  To wit:

They both look so happy...

Aidan’s first bottle.  I dreaded this bottle.  For me, this was a bottle of woe.  Woe, for you see, the minute Aidan accepted this bottle was the minute I was no longer the only person on the planet who could feed him.

That probably sounds silly, but it’s a kind of novel feeling to be that important in a person’s life and relinquishing it to share feeding duties was tough for me.  I was worried he would love the bottle so much that he’d refuse to breastfeed any more, but that turned out to be a waste of time because he loves to eat so much I really don’t think he cares where it comes from.

L'Chaim!

We also had the wonderful opportunity to celebrate Passover Shabbat (the Jewish sabbath) with some very good friends.  We’re not Jewish, but my best friend is, and she invited us to come celebrate with her family.

We had so much fun.  Aidan, as you can see in the picture, was very much a participant.  He loves being held, and there were oodles of people there eager to snuggle the cuddly little man.

We’re very fortunate that Aidan is so easygoing.  It makes it a pleasure to go out and about with him, and makes it easy to share him with other people.  I love watching other people hold him and exclaim over how cute he is, or even just enjoy holding his wee little hands.  My friend’s dog was there as well, and he enjoyed licking the baby’s socks and staring intensely at him while wagging his tail.

Almost everything is blue in this picture.

Of course, after we celebrated Passover it was time to celebrate Aidan’s first Easter!  Aidan and I made it to church on time and presentable, and were even able to make it through singing the worship songs at the beginning, which is definite progress for us.

Unfortunately, Aidan decided he was hungry right when Wes’ dad stood up to preach.  We have a Cry Room at church, where women can take their fussy babies.  Normally this would be a great place to breastfeed while listening to the sermon, but some random woman’s husband was in there and I didn’t want to risk exposing myself to someone’s husband on Easter Sunday, so Aidan and I left and spent time in Wes’ dad’s office instead.

After a very happy Easter with lots of good food and fun family to hang around, Aidan has decided that bunnies and Easter are A-OK on his book.  With all these milestones, is it any wonder I already feel like he’s growing up too fast?

Can you even imagine what would happen if we took him to see the Easter bunny at the mall?

My poor little baby has reflux.  I know, I know, 99.9% of little tiny babies have reflux.  I brought it up to his pediatrician on Monday (where he weighed 8 lbs 11 oz OH MY GOODNESS) and she said it was fairly normal but to keep an eye out for fussiness.

Well, as it turns out Wes and I have a knack for having really tough loved ones.  Doc, for example, would run around gleefully tearing out stitches if we let him and he probably wouldn’t even notice.  Aidan, too, is a tough little button.  He has a pretty awful case of reflux, and he barely even fusses about it (that’s not to say he never screams at me, but that’s usually just because he’s either bored or hungry).

Just as the pediatrician turned to leave, Aidan had some breakfast come shooting up and she heard firsthand the awful wheeze he makes after he spits up.  Truly, it is a wretched sound.

She looked at him pensively, and then wrote us a prescription for Zantac.  We started him on it today, hopefully it’ll make him feel better.

Yes, this picture is blurry. Adjust neither your monitor nor your contact prescription.

Aidan is skeptical.

Have any of you tangoed with reflux or Zantac?  Any tips or tricks I should know about?

I’m at a dangerous point in this whole new parent thing: I’m starting to feel like I’ve got my feet back under me.  I’m hesitant to even publish that, because I know that when you write stuff like the preceding statement infants get a seismic signal telling them to change everything just to keep you on your toes.

But for now: I’m feeling good.  I returned to work this week, albeit working from home.  My hours are drastically reduced, and I’m pretty much just running Bottle Your Brand’s blog, Twitter, and Facebook, but I love my work and it’s enough to keep my brain from turning to mush.

It’s funny, staying home all day with a newborn.  I thought being a nanny would prepare me.  It did to a certain extent, but it’s true what they say that everything’s different with your own baby.  I love the girls I nannied for fiercely (they also happen to be my beautiful nieces) but I could never sit and stare at their sleeping faces for an hour.

There’s just so much more to do now, and with so much less time!  Aidan cat naps most of the day, but from 1 pm – 3 pm, I can usually count on him taking a solid nap and that’s when I get my stuff done.  Dishes, laundry, work, cleaning, paying bills, blogging: All of these tasks wait for me to finish them in that two hour span.

Also, can I just say that baby laundry?  Never stops.  Ever.  You finish folding a basket of baby clothes only to find that the baby as horribly soiled every single scrap of clothing he owns and you have to laundry again the next day.  I’m not one of those moms who washes clothes even when they aren’t dirty, and I’m still drowning in baby laundry.  It’s crazy!

Baby clothes notwithstanding, I still feel like I’m getting my act together.  I made dinner last night for the first time since I got pregnant (that’s a tiny exaggeration, but only a tiny one), the bathrooms are clean, my work is getting done, the baby is developing a nice layer of breastfed baby chub, and my husband is happy.

I’m busy, and every day (and night) goes by in a blur, but I’m happy.  Aidan is happy, Wes is happy, and I’m happy.  As of right this second, everything is going well and I feel like I’ve got my act together.  I look forward to that changing drastically tomorrow just because I wrote that.