moses’s first weeks

 
          ^^ two weeks old ^^                                                                              ^^ one month old ^^


<<< rewind! <<<

today i’ve finally been able to get through and organize all the photographs we took during moses’s first month on earth. like i mentioned in my last post, the boy and i are still trying to figure out the right balance - for us personally as a family - when it comes to publicly posting images and information about our son. i’m definitely going to continue sharing and also continue refining where we stand on this as moses grows up and as siblings eventually come along! for now, we are keeping some special pictures, videos and memories to ourselves. but we also feel good about sharing a decent chunk of the cuteness and joy abounding in our lives right now, particularly because this blog is a super useful tool for me in keeping a pretty thorough family history (which is something that is important to me and makes me happy).

something else related that i’ve been trying to find balance on is between watching and documenting moses’s new and growing life. i sometimes truly wish i could have a photograph and a video of every single “first,” each and every adorable expression/sound, and every single beautiful or tender moment – captured and treasured forever. but i don’t want any camera or notepad to distance me or moses (or ian!) from the full experience - the gleaming present - and i don’t want to spend so much time writing down memories that i miss memories! i’m refining my balance on this every day, and i’m hoping that there’s a really good video archive of our lives being kept in heaven! :)

here’s my blog attempt to document little mo’s first weeks of life (along with these two previous posts). i have dozens of pictures that i’m not posting here, and a document kept on my phone chock-full of quick notes about sweet memories, and i’m trying to keep up in the journal i have for moses and my personal journal. why am i so anxious about this documenting?! i guess i just feel that moses’s new life is so so so precious, and that he’s growing too fast. i’ll find my groove eventually, i’m sure.

click through for a dump of photos and tidbits if you’re interested! 


the 1st week of moses’s life was the sweetest seven days i’ve ever experienced. i just can’t think of any other word better than sweet to describe it. time was different – longer and slower – and everything around me felt new. it’s all a bit hazy looking back on now – just a precious blur. there weren’t any long chunks of sleep, and my body ached a lot. but my heart was glowing.

the 2nd week, after ian went back to work and my mom went back to the states, things started to get a bit grueling. breastfeeding was really challenging – for me, all in all, it was harder than labor and delivery. i was worried and in pain. during week three the sleep deprivation really started to set in, and moses had a few days of inconsolable crying that broke my heart and seemingly my back, which started to hurt constantly. it was rough! mothering a newborn is truly taxing (in different ways for every new mom!). but i prayed and worked and asked for help and relished all the abundant joy and peace and wonder woven in with the challenges, and then by week four i felt that i was hitting my stride. ian was an amazing support through it all (still is!), and absolutely adores being a dad.

that first month was so precious! here ^^ is baby moses on the afternoon he came home from the hospital. we gave him a little tour of his flat and then put him right in his comfy moses basket! ^^
 
^^ little moses wright, at home for the first time! a little sleepy smile, and a little sweet cry! ^^

^^ we spent hours just staring and smiling at this little angel straight outta heaven. ^^

^^ when i came in the bedroom and saw this sight, my heart melted right into a puddle. just looking at this photo makes my insides turn with intense love and joy. the boy and the baby boy – i adore them each so much, and am just crazy about them together. ^^

^^ out on our first walk together! the day after we got home from the hospital, mom, ian and i took moses to trafalgar square, and it just happened to start raining as we left the flat and then pouring as we got to the square!  moses and i took a walk around our london neighborhood every single day in his first month of life, starting with this little adventure when baby boy was three days old. ^^
 
^^ i love my mom’s face in this picture, and the way i’m looking down at my tiny son. and we had to stop to snap a photo of my favourite pub flower boxes, right down the street from our flat. ^^

^^ in the downpour with the trafalgar lions, big ben, and our sweet, sweet baby son. i hope i’ll never forget this moment! ^^
 
^^ that first week moses was so snoozy, and both the boy and i took advantage of any naps we could get! being a new parent is exhausting like nothing else! ^^

^^ more staring and adoring. ^^

^^ and one more picture of those tiny feet. when i saw the way that moses moved outside the womb, so many of the sensations i felt while he was inside me made a lot more sense! as a tiny newborn he constantly crossed his ankles and then unbent his knees – and i realized that was what was happening when i felt a thick jab in my side when he was in my belly! ^^
 
^^ in those first few weeks, moses looooved sleeping with his dad, and he almost always slept with one or both of his arms up by his head, which is exactly how ian sleeps! // moses has been soo expressive since day one. he’s a little emoji baby. isn’t the photo on the right just a dead ringer for the winky tongue out emoji?! ^^
  
^^ my legs and particularly my ankles were super swollen for several weeks after labor and delivery. i heard that cold cabbage leaves could help draw the excess water out, so my feet looked pretty silly while they were propped up and wrapped in cabbage! // two community midwives came to visit us the day after we came home from the hospital and then again a couple days later. it was so nice and they were super sweet. they checked up on everything with moses and i and then weighed baby boy with this cool apparatus. ^^

^^ on a walk to st. james’s park, past the queen’s horse guard building. ^^
 
^^ three generations at covent garden … and one more of snoozing mosey. i knew that i should be sleeping when he was sleeping during the day, but i just couldn’t help staring and him and taking photographs. that sweetness just kills me. ^^

^^ when moses was six days old, we had to take him back into the hospital to get something checked up on. our walk there afforded some excellent views down the thames! the boy and i have enjoyed those vistas so many times together, but it all just felt so much more wonderful with baby boy along with us. ^^
 
^^ moses’s first bus ride, and one of his first tube rides! how cute are his teeny tiny chicken legs sticking out of the ergo?! ^^

^^ on the day moses turned two weeks old, the three of us went on a little excursion to pick up a few things we needed at a store on oxford street, then to get baby boy’s passport photos taken and then to regent’s park to enjoy the roses. i asked ian to take some photos of me with tiny moses. i still can’t believe his is our baby! ^^

^^ ian and i were marveling at how pretty the roses were on a sunny day, but moses was just looking for food ;) ^^

^^ his perfect tiny ear! i just cannot get over that we made him! he grew from a little cluster of cells to a legit human inside my body, which somehow knew to make his ear this curvy and functional and perfect. what a miracle. ^^

^^ on our way to church on a sunny sunday morning, when moses was three weeks old. his first time was at two weeks, and it was so fun to introduce him to our friends at church, particularly the primary children we teach! ^^


^^ meanwhile, back across the pond … my family was having our annual epic bear lake reunion. we all three were so sad to miss it this year, but we did facetime in a few times so aunts, uncles and cousins could virtually meet baby moses. it was so fun! my sister saren snapped this photo of some of the cousins checking out moses on my other sister saydi’s phone. ^^

>> and some of my nieces and nephews made moses banners and wrote him notes during the reunion! ^^


^^ hanging out with moses at home. ian went back to work after one week off and two days working from home. we missed him so so so much after he went back! i sent him pictures throughout the day every day – and even now i send him photos and updates all the time. ^^
 
^^ on the saturday that moses turned three weeks old, we took a little family excursion to the british museum. doesn’t moses look super impressed?! haha! we took him to see the rosetta stone and a bunch of ancient egyptian mummies and he didn’t even appreciate it -  just slept through the whole thing ;)

^^ we stopped on the way home to admire some gorgeous pub flower boxes (which are my number one favourite thing about this city – they are everywhere around london in the summertime) ^^
 
^^ one night our dear friends the crofts came over and brought us dinner and some snuggles for baby moses. we are so sad that brian, rachel and their four wonderful girls have since moved away from london – we miss them! ^^
 
^^ sometimes moses’s expressions are pretty hilarious and not super cute, and sometimes he is perfectly beautifully milk drunk and content. ^^
  
^^ when moses was three weeks old, ian traveled back to the states for his sister’s wedding. our dear friends the schwartzes (who i’ve talked about quite a lot on this blog – they are like family!) took moses and i in for the long weekend so we wouldn’t have to be alone while ian was away and moses was still so new. this was a huge blessing for us for many reasons, and moses and i had such a great time with rob, amy, and their four glorious girls in and around the lovely little english village northeast of london where they live. they were extremely helpful and loving towards us, even when they had other family visitors in town and staying at their home. the schwartzes are likely the most casually generous people i’ve ever encountered. and their girls are just gold – in fact, the first time i’ve ever heard them fight was during this weekend we spent with them – because they were arguing over who got to hold baby moses next! moses and i had some really rough nights, and we missed ian like crazy, but this time with the schwartzes was really good for us in a lot of ways. being with amy, rob, the girls and their family visitors got moses and i over the hump of trepidation about going out and nursing in public. that weekend we went to the cinema (moses’s first film was finding dory!), had afternoon tea at the darlingest little garden cafe, ate out at several restaurants, played at a few different parks, and visited a gorgeous historic manor in the english countryside. it was the most eventful few days of moses’s life for sure! i was so focused on making sure we had enough diapers when we left the house and finding comfortable places to breastfeed that i didn’t take single picture of our adventures! but i did snag the photos above with the wonderful schwartz girls. i’m so grateful for these friends that are like family here in england. ^^
  
^^ ^^ some photos i did snap during that long weekend with the schwartzes – so that i could send them to ian while he sent me photos of his sister’s wedding, which i was so sad to miss. ^^ ^^
 
^^ the coolest baby ever both sleeping and awake! ^^
 
^^ moses in his moses basket on the day he turned one month old! ^^

^^ ten seconds of expressions!! i could watch this all day, every day. ^^
  
^^ baby moses conked out sleeping … and at last saying “no more pictures, mom!!” ;) i think i’ll hear that one a few times in the next eighteen years! ^^

and…that’s a wrap! moses’s first month on earth.