Grain of Rice

We wish all of you a wonderful holiday season! Joakim is almost 6 weeks old and is doing very well. He is starting to look a little bit chubby. He has big blue eyes and his hair is looking strawberry blond. He is becoming more interactive each day and sends us beautiful smiles often. We still feel incredibly lucky to have him, especially during this holiday time. Our first Christmas was very special.

Joakim’s name has been the subject of many conversations amongst us and our family and friends. We liked the Spanish name Joaquin and what it meant. The name is from Hebrew and exists in many languages with different spellings and pronunciations. We decided on the Scandinavian spelling because Saxton liked it and for the pronunciation, we are using something similar to the Spanish version, which sounds like - hwakeem - 2 syllables.
Joakim means “God will establish” or “established by God.” It was the name of the Virgin Mary’s Father.

Enjoy the new pics!

Joakim is 1 month old today and is a big boy! At the pediatrician appointment yesterday he weighed 10 lbs. and is 21 inches long. He is in the 50th percentile for all of the categories and we couldn’t be more proud that he is perfectly average. Well, to us, he is the best. Enjoy the new photos on the pictures page. Happy Holidays!

Pampers newborn diapers are better than Huggies… don’t be fooled, Huggies leak! You know your life has changed when you start comparing diaper brands…

We’ve definitely experienced a huge change in the San Juan Rose household. Only sleeping in 2-3 hour intervals each night, breastfeeding 24/7 and the drastic hormonal changes have been tough. But we can do this! The main change though is that we have the most beautiful, incredible, gorgeous, amazing, handsome, strong little man in our home now. We are incredibly lucky to have him. He is a gift and we are overwhelmed daily with immense gratitude to have him. He is more than 3 weeks old now and is doing very well. He seems to be growing and putting on some extra weight (we will find out for sure at the pediatrician appt. next week) and is stronger each day. He has great control of his neck and head already and has some really strong legs on him! He is able to focus his eyes on our faces and he sometimes gives us a smile. He has a strong grip, holding on to our fingers and has already pulled my hair! He is also sporting quite the natural hairdo. He wants to be like Daddy already :).

He was a very peaceful baby; just eating and sleeping and having tranquil awake periods, but at 2 weeks old he became a bit fussy. We still love him but with each day he must be realizing and feeling more about his little body and feels it’s time to cry and fuss about it. Thankfully these periods are only a small portion of each day.

The labor and delivery experience was um….difficult! It was 11 hours and 4 hours of it were extremely hard and painful. At the moment I have no desire to go through that again… but it was worth it to get him here. When they put him on my tummy I couldn’t believe how huge he looked, but now that we’re home he seems so little, especially when I see him next to other babies who are not much older.

Check the pictures page for new photos. Many thanks again to everyone!!!

-A very new mother in training….