Today Dominic turned one month old!  One of his (or our) favorite things to do is to raise his hand(s) for no reason, so we ask him absurd questions that only be answered by raising his hand, look at how silly babies make you! :)

He already looks bigger and much different than he did when he first appeared that morning one month ago.  I can’t believe it’s been a whole month!  I enjoy coming home from work and seeing him and giving him a hug and a kiss.  I can’t wait until he’s a little older and (hopefully) has that “dad is home” excitement.

Not much to say other than that I’m enjoying our new family life and we’re starting to get into a decent routine and of course he’s such an amazing sleeper.  Thanks little guy you must’ve known it would be a busy month with my work!  He’s also been doing well going out and visiting people and places with us.  We’re able to make lunch together and Lori’s been able to take him to her little lunch gatherings also.  Last night we were able to have dinner at Donovan’s place and even though he fussed a little it felt pretty good/normal to have Dominic along with us.

Also I have to lift up Lori.  I am so amazed by her natural motherly ability.  It’s a good comfort to know that the woman you love enough to want to marry and spend the rest of your life with also turns out to be a fantastic, paitent and loving mother.  I love you Lori and I don’t know what we  would do without you!

Here is one of the earlier (from the first day) photos taken of him, next to a more recent (taken an hour ago) photo of him:

It’s been a life-changingly good month and I’m trying to take as many photos and videos to continue to document the growing / changing of him.  Videos aren’t always as interesting so I take them more infrequently and post them even less often, however I promise to post any new videos to this blog (via Vimeo).

WIth regard to photo updates I’ve been adding them to our flickr stream as I dump them off the camera (every few nights or so) so I don’t always post them to the blog that often.  So if you want to see the latest photos of Dominic be sure refresh our flickr stream often (or subscribe to the RSS feed here for automatic updates via your google reader).

Today Dominic turned weeks and I know I’m a broken record but it’s so hard to believe it’s almost been a month!

This weekend was filled with many outings for us and while it was somewhat busy for a newborn it felt so good to get out of the house and do some normal activities.

Friday night we drove to the country of IKEA walked around and had dinner.  On the way back we had a quick layover in Fry’s territory and returned home for the evening.  He slept 8 hours that night!

Saturday morning Lori went to get her hair done which meant it was time for my inaugural Daddy Day Care session.  He did well and I was able to get over my fear of not being able to soothe him without Lori’s (fantastic motherly) help.  Lori returned, picked up Dominic and headed out to my sister’s baby shower in Downey while I headed over to the new Wallace ranch to help/get in the way/hang out.  We stayed in for the evening and watched a movie. He slept 9 hours that night!

Today after waking up, feeding and bathing we got him ready for his first outing to church.  It was SUPER nice to be back at church after the month of Sundays and people we have missed.  Oh, before I forget (and if I didn’t see/tell you today) we would like to give a BIG THANK YOU to the Revolution Supper Club for the constant stream and variety of tasty meals.  You all blew us away with generosity and I know you’ve inspired Lori to join this ministry!

Back to the service, Dominic did super well and slept right though the loud/thumping worship.  He only started to wake a bit during the sermon but as soon as worship resumed he fell right to sleep.

After church a few of us headed over to (Mother)Fudd Ruckers for lunch and you guessed it he slept right through lunch (newborns are great.)   After his afternoon lunch and nap we fed him, loaded him into the car seat and drove down the street to Heartwell Park and walked a big lap.  I rigged the stroller with my ipod speakers so we had a good soundtrack to walk along with.  I so have been looking forward to finally doing this walk and plan on continuing to visit some of the other local parks during the remainder of the waning summer days.

After the walk we headed down the street to the new Wallace ranch and hung out for the remainder of the evening.  It was good for us to have a place outside our house to go to and hang at with good friends.  Thanks to Ray and Judy for the awesome BLTs and tasty brocolli salad.

Now Dominic is winding down and eating his evening meal while we finish watching The Shawshank Redemption and we’re off to bed.

It feels like the last year and a half of our lives have been a busy, distracting blur with us getting baby ready and then the pregnancy.  I can’t say this enought but I’m so glad he’s finally here.  As each week goes by it feels more normal to have a baby and I’m finding it harder to remember exactly what life was like before the *thought* of baby entered our life.  I highly recommend parenthood if you’re on the fence…  children are pretty awesome and they can make some funny faces and noises! :)

First, I will apologize now for the randomness of this post, my head is swimming with thoughts and emotions and it may not all make sense!

So, Dominic is now 2 weeks old and I can’t believe it. I feel like so much has happened and I’ve learned so much in just these 2 weeks.

Becoming a mom is something that NO one could have prepared me for. Yeah sure I have read every book, listened to every bit of advice, and I’ve even been called “a natural” but still - the moment he came out, I all of a sudden became absolutely clueless about this whole parenting thing. Why is he crying? Is his poo supposed to be THAT color??? Is he supposed to sleep this much? And all of these questions came up during the first, oh… 5 minutes!

Oh, and let’s not forget about the crying. No, not him. ME. Holy moly, how come no one warned me about the hormones??!! My body pretty much gave me the finger after Dominic was born. Not just physically but emotionally. The first week home I think I told Angelo I needed to be committed. I was definitely hit hard by the “baby blues” and it was not pretty. I felt like I was such a failure because Dominic was crying or gassy. It was ridiculous. I didn’t even want to have visitors, I preferred to sit with my baby and be sad that I was a failure. Crazy. After about a week I had to have a talk with myself and realize that babies cry, that’s what they do, and it is not a result of my mothering skills. Once I came to terms with that, I started to get better. Now, I love being a mom and look forward to going out more with him and having my life be a little more “normal.”

Things are definitely looking up now that week 2 is over. We are establishing a routine, which is pretty easy when your baby does little more than eat, sleep, and poo. He is a pretty good little sleeper, too! For days now he has slept pretty decently at night. We put him down for the night around 10 or 10:30pm and he sleeps until 3:30am! That’s amazing for a newborn! We feed him and put him down again and he sleeps until 8 or 9am. YES we are thanking the Heavenly Father for that! The only thing that remains really difficult is breastfeeding. We had difficulty from day one and by day 3 we had to put him on formula. He does wonderfully on formula but now my own milk has suffered. I’m on expensive herbal supplements that are supposed to help but so far - no luck andI really am beginning to think that I need to move on. I will give it one more week, but at least I am ok with this decision. As I said before, last week I was pretty upset about everything and this was a BIG item on the list.

Dominic is such a joy to us, there is no doubt in our minds that he is a gift from God. I continue to hope and pray that I can be the mom that He wants me to be.

Thanks to everyone who has come to visit us, bring us food, or simply gave us a call. It has been so uplifting and encouraging to hear from friends during this life changing moment. Nothing can *really* prepare you for this change, but it sure is a lot easier when you have friends and family by your side.

Here are a few pictures from week 2…

Dominic is now over a week old.  It’s just so hard to believe.  He’s a pretty good little sleeper and is just a joy to hold and care for.  Life has been busy with us trying to adjust to his/our routine, which we still don’t have but are working on. I truly love being a father and there is just something amazing about when he looks up at you with his big eyes full of trust.

Here again are the set of photos from the first few days in the hospital and here’s another set with general photos which I’ll keep updating/adding to at random (if you care to, you can subscribe to the RSS feed with google reader for updates).

I’ve also put together a few clips from the first 5 days of his life:

Click here to see the video in High Definition OR if you don’t see a video in your RSS reader.

I’m laying here next to Lori and our new baby and all I can say is we are blessed.  He is such a wonderul child.

Here are a just few photos I’ve captured:

I’ve also captured some video and there’s one funny and (potentially) embarrassing clip that lori took of me with little Dominic, be patient with the video updates those take longer to produce and I’m beat!

For now here are photos my best friend Richard took from last night to this early this morning.  He also took more photos this evening and will update the page.

A big thanks to the crew of family and friends who came out to the hospital to show us support, though it was a long journey and we didn’t get to visit much your presence and endurance meant the world to us.

Thanks to all those who sent text messages, emails and posts of encouragement I read them all and your words helped when things felt tough or unchanging.  It’s a blessing to feel loved and encouraged.

I plan on blogging about the labor experience but I just don’t have the rest / mental focus / desire to remember it all yet! :)

Well it was a long one, labor that is. Finally ending in a C-Section. We finally found out why:

Dominic Angelo Alberico Born: 7/13/08 at 05:56. 9 lbs, 20.5 inches.

For now here is a crappy cell phone pic, until I can recoup a little.

Well actually Lori is doing most of the laboring right now, I’m here for support.  It all started at 2am with contractions that woke Lori up.  We made it to the hospital about 7:30ish and in Labor and Deliver triage for about 30 - 45 minutes until they determined we’d be staying and transferred us to the lush delivery room.

I get a decent cell signal in the Delivery room so I’ll keep the twitter feed updated. http://twitter.com/angeloandlori

Will also try to post a quick cell camera shot soon after he’s born.

We’re both so excited and tired still more to go!

Well, it’s offical. Dominic did not make it on his due date so consider him ‘late.’

I didn’t think that I would be as bothered by this as I am. What’s a few more days, right? Yeah well, wrong.  This past week has been pretty uncomfortable - braxton hicks (aka false labor contractions) have been attacking me every time I sit in a comfy chair and my little boy has been enjoying raming his head into my cervix - or as I like to call it - the ol’ ice pick to the crotch! Ouch!  Not to mention that I get a million calls a day from people to see if I’ve exploded yet. I almost feel like I’m letting people down when they utter the words, “You haven’t had that baby YET???!” Uh, no cuz see, I REALLY like posing as a whale, but thanks. In all seriousness I know people are just checking on me because they care. I really appreciate that. But, I promise you will see the Bat Signal with the time comes.

Ah well, I guess I shouldn’t complain, I’ve had it pretty easy. I’ll just continue to watch the clock tick by and watch as much crappy day time television as I can. Sigh…

Hey, I’ll be you BFF if you throw a prayer my way. Thanks.

We’re still waiting for our little guy to arrive.

We had a nice 4th of July yesterday.  Early part of the day was spent watching a few movies and enjoying the AC.  Later in the evening we headed over to the Drobeck’s house to celebrate the USA’s birthday with food, bocce and fireworks.

I have many fond memories (from my younger years) spent with their family and it’s always so fun to celebrate with them.  Steve is a LOL riot and he out did himself again when he pulled out this firework the size of a bucket, I nearly peed myself I was laughing so hard!

This year we also celebrated with the newest member of their family Emma Rose. It was fun to watch her react to the festivities (once she woke up) and then to the fireworks.  I so look forward to having a baby to celebrate our upcoming holidays with family and friends.  I also look forward to helping make many joyful memories for him.

BAH!  I’m rambling and nostalgic.

Here’s the meat of the post. We did the fireworks in the backyard this year, it was nice and private feeling. I setup the camera on a tripod and let it roll to record the night’s fireworks show.  I sped up the video / time compressed it down to a little over 11 minutes.  It’s fun re-watching the 900 times I nearly burned my legs or arms, all in good fun!  This year I saved one of the dogs from jumping right into the about to erupt firework, crazy dog!

So this is how I feel today…

I’m sure some of you are sick to death of hearing about this impending birth. Ah well, you’ll have to deal. It’s pretty amazing - all of the thoughts and emotions that you experience as you sit and wait for a baby to show up. Angelo and I have already shared quite a few on this blog, so I’ll spare you. Just know that when it’s your time to go through this, you’ll understand the need to blab about it all the time. For example, I don’t particularly like to “blog,” yet I find myself *needing* to do it to keep my head from imploding.

I’m pretty thankful. I have had a relatively easy pregnancy. No complications, no ‘scares,’  just a lot of anxiety - though thankfully that has subsided now that I feel the baby all the time. Yet, with this easy pregnancy, I feel I can now say that “I’m over it.”

I’m over having to pop TUMS 647 times a day because pregnancy heart burn is from the devil himself.

I’m over having to be careful when I laugh, bend down, stand up, ok - breath, so I don’t accidentally, ah hem… have an accident.

I’m over needing a forklift to get me out of bed in the middle of the night for a trip to bathroom. Again.

And finally, I’m over having a million false alarm contractions wondering if this is *indeed* the real thing.

The sad part of all of this is, I still have a week to go. And that’s IF he comes on time. Sigh… Dominic’s worth it, though. All of this discomfort will soon be a distant memory. I’ll soon have other discomforts to blog about - aren’t you excited?!

So for now, I will try to enjoy the last FEW days I have to sleep in, do what I want, lunch with friends, and well.. do what I want… and I will enjoy the last few moments of wondering what this little person inside me looks like…

<pardon… I’m having a contraction………………………… eh, it’s a fake>