Chronicles of Luke - October 2004

Greetings family and friends!

Welcome to your first "Chronicles of Luke" newsletter. I'm open to other names, BTW, if you have any suggestions. This is the best I can do under the current circumstances! LOL

So, it has officially been four weeks. Wow, has it really been that long? Some days it seems like just yesterday that he arrived; other days, it's hard to remember life BL (before Luke). Things are finally going really well. They say the first week is the hardest, and they're right, but I need to write a thank you note to the nurse who told me that things don't really start to "click" until day 10 or so. She was so right! Things took about that long to not feel like we were surviving moment to moment. But, we are now starting to fall into some kind of routine, breast feeding is going well, everyone is getting sleep (whether it is enough sleep depends on the day and the mood of the little one). If I can just get the hang of cooking dinner and getting a shower every day again, life will be beautiful!

Luke's first doctor's visit went very well. He went in on his 2-week birthday, and has he ever grown! At that point, he had gained 1 lb 11 oz from his lowest weight, and he had grown 2.75 inches. No wonder he was eating like he had a black hole for a stomach!!! Official weight (at two weeks): 9 lbs 4 oz; Official length (at two weeks): 21 3/4 inches. No idea where he stands now, though I can tell you that he is at least a little longer and quite a bit heavier. Everything else checked out, and I quote, "perfect." His next visit will be December 7.

We've had lots of visitors in the last four weeks. In fact, we have yet to be alone over a weekend (this upcoming one will be our first; no idea what we'll do with ourselves, LOL). Mom, I mean Nana :p, was here for the first 10 days or so of his life. THANK YOU! We never would have made it without you. Her last weekend here, Dad, er, Papa came for his first visit. That same Saturday, Este Mom (my mother's mother) and Great-Uncle Alan (my mother's brother) came for their first personal view of their first great-grandchild and great-nephew (respectively). The next week, Steve was still home with me, except for one day that he needed to attend a class. Special thanks to Valerie for coming to stay with me during that day, since I was still not allowed to drive. Steve's mother, a.k.a. Grandmama, came for her first visit that weekend. The next week was our first "alone," as Steve returned to work. Things went remarkably well, except that I was *exhausted* by the weekend! Thank goodness Uncle Jacob came for his first visit, accompanied by Nana and Papa, and everyone was more than willing to pitch in and help while I tried to get some rest. That brings us to the current week, which except for Tuesday (when Luke was super-fussy), things have been great.

I'm doing pretty well, too. I have officially lost 25 pounds of what I gained. (And no, we won't mention how much that leaves me.) Took about two weeks for more than "just baby" weight (baby, amniotic fluid, placenta, etc) to go, which is longer than I thought, but once my ankles reappeared, I felt significantly better. My incision is hardly bothering me now (the staples were killing me), I can go up and down stairs easily (carrying Luke even!), and just in the last few days, my back where they administered the spinal has FINALLY stopped killing me. (I was starting to think I might have to live with that pain forever.) Give me a couple more weeks, and Luke and I will be going on adventures of our own *outside* the house! ::shock, gasp::

As always, there are pictures available at (the newly upgraded, thus can hold more photos) http://community.webshots.com/user/warrengaston. There are currently two pages worth of albums, ranked in descending chronological order (I hope to do some consolidation soon, though), so if you really want to see everything, don't miss the (older) albums on page two. Several of the albums also include multiple pages of photos, so don't miss those either. I upload as I have time and new pictures. We will take a couple today (4 weeks) and a few on Saturday (1 month), so check back soon, probably sometime Sunday or Monday.

Okay, that's probably way more than you wanted to know about stuff that's not very interesting! LOL I'm having a hard time even thinking linearly, much less rationally and creatively. I hope you got something worthwhile out of this. Hopefully, these newsletters will improve with time and sleep. Until next month!