One Month

It's hard to believe that a month has already passed since Oliver joined our family. 

We've been having a beautiful autumn and though this picture is fairly recent, the leaves are mostly done. It's been a reminder of all of the changes. Though, much is the same, we are noticing that Oliver is more alert and spends more time observing his environment. There have also been a few recent "firsts".

 

Oliver saw his room for the first time about a week ago. He has been sleeping in our room as we had planned and although we've had the nursery/guest room ready for awhile, we realized recently that Oliver had never been in his room. He won't be sleeping in his crib until all of us are ready, but he did seem to have a positive first impression.  

first time in his crib

This past week Mel's mom Linda came to visit. It was her first time in the Twin Cities and her first time meeting her grandson. We spent most of our time enjoying each other's company, drinking coffee, and watching movies.

Linda and Oliver

Oliver also took his first feeding from a bottle a few days ago. Melanie won't be back to professing full time until January, but when she is it will be up to Chris to take care of a lot of his feedings with pumped milk from a bottle. We thought it would be a good idea to start getting Oliver used to bottle feeding. He took to it with ease.

first bottle

Of course, there will be more and greater "firsts", but we are enjoying all of the small things as they come.

Here are some more pictures from his first month.

Oliver Daily

Oliver Daily

We have started a new project. Oliver Daily is a new photography web log documenting Oliver's life. We plan to post a picture taken on each day of his life. We will be as punctual with posting as possible, and plan to continue the project for as long as we (and he) can stand it. Maybe it will last a year; maybe it will last a hundred years. Either way, you are welcome to enjoy all the pictures.

Oliver Daily is located at olivereno.blogspot.com

Since the content of Oliver Daily is almost exclusively photographs, we plan to continue to use The Bayres site as well.

Two Weeks

We have really enjoyed Oliver's first two weeks. He is generally a pretty happy guy and a joy to have at home.  It hasn't always been easy, but Chris will be on leave from work for the first six weeks, Melanie has only one online course to teach this semester, and several family members are coming one at a time to visit and help out. The first visitor has already come and gone. Chris' mom, "Grammy Cathy", was here for five days and put her years of midwifery experience to good use. Oliver seemed to like his grandma and we know she loves him. Cathy was the first of his relatives that he has had the chance to meet.

Cathy and Oliver

It seems like every day there is a "first" happening, or some sort of milestone reached. We had our first outing when he was nine days old. We loaded him up in his carseat which locks onto a stroller and took a short walk through our neighborhood to enjoy the unusual combination of autumn color and warm weather.

The walk went so well that we decided to extend Oliver's first trip outside of the house by going out for lunch. It went remarkably well as he slept most of the time.

at lunch

Since that first trip out in to the greater world we have ventured out several more times. We have gone on more walks, gone to the park, and had our first visit with his pediatrician (we are told that all is well). Most of our time though is spent at home and it has been wonderful to spend so much time together the first few exciting and exhausting weeks.