Our little Joshua will be one month old tomorrow and I think it's about time I started getting more serious about keeping everyone in the loop!
He was due July 26th but wasn't quite ready to come out then. I walked every day, went jogging, ran up and down the stairs in our apartment multiple times every evening, etc. None of it helped at all. He was born at 9:08pm on Monday, August 3 after being induced late Sunday evening. My contractions started at about 6am and were 3 minutes apart after only 20 minutes or so. I got my first set of pain medication around 11 and asked for an epidural at 2:30, after which Mario and Leslie (Mario's mom) got some lunch and we all watched Ghostbusters. I had been hoping to go without medication, but now I wonder what the devil I was thinking to even consider going without medication!!! Getting that epidural was the best decision I've ever made! Things were so much better for everyone after that until it started wearing off right before it was time to push. Suffice it to say I screamed. Really. A lot. Joshua came out with his fist by his head, which resulted in me getting a third degree tear. He was 8 lbs 5.5 oz and was very calm right from the beginning. He squawked once when he came out and spent the rest of his first evening just checking everything out. His hands and feet were purple, as you can see in the photos, which went away after a day or two.

We had a great deal of trouble with the whole nursing thing for the first few weeks, but we're doing a lot better now.

Joshua loves to pee on Mario when he's changing his diaper. I very rarely get urinated on, but for some reason it happens regularly to Mario.

He's a very good baby over all. He LOVES to be outside, which we discovered when he had jaundice and we needed to get him into the sun for a few minutes each day. If he's ever fussy, we just take him for a little walk or sit on the porch in the sun and he quiets down. He is apparently fascinated by trees, especially at night.

He's a great traveler too. We've been out quite a bit with him. He had his first ride on the subway at 4 days. He's been to 3 movies and Cape Cod. Not bad for only 5 weeks, huh?

I also put on my normal jeans at 4 weeks exactly. They were tight, very uncomfortable, and horribly unattractive, but at least they were on!!

I forgot to write that we went to a Red Sox game the day before he was due. We got a group rate with a bunch of people from our ward, which was awesome because we knew everyone we were sitting with not to mention it was pretty sweet to see the Green Monster. It's a beautiful stadium and we had a really great time.


We have a lot more pictures posted on my Facebook page at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=97345&id=571718027&l=8aba2e3c79