I put my favorite baby photo of Julian in a frame that I had...I ordered an 8x10 print from Snapfish, and the frame was 8x10, so why not? I came downstairs to show Dan and he said, "Oh my God, it looks like he's the Baby Buddha with that giant photo in the gold frame. We should be making offerings to that photo on a little altar or something. The Shrine of Julian." We cracked up. Later on, I found a Buddha shrine-type picture that I just *happened* to have around the house and we put them together...Big Buddha and Baby Buddha. Notice how they both are wearing the one-arm garment, and both have those beatific smiles.

Everything is going fine and dandy. Julian is a sweet baby. I am a little tired but not exhausted or anything. If I can get a nap in the afternoon then life is beautiful, but otherwise I still do OK, I just end up passing out fairly early in the evening. Ideally I like to nap somewhere between 4:00 and 6:00pm, then go to bed with Julian around 11:00pm. Yesterday I didn't nap and I was tired, so I fell asleep on the couch sitting up wearing Julian in his sling around 9:30. It was a real drag, too, because I rented BaadAssss Cinema from Netflix and I only made it through the first 30 minutes or so.

Everyone says that life with a newborn is horrible, but it's really not bad...especially now. He was a month old as of last Friday, and we kind of have a routine down. I know how to calm him down and soothe him when he gets fussy (most of the time it's either food or movement that he wants, not too difficult). I have recovered from the C-section to the point that I actually feel capable of exercising again. My back doesn't hurt as horribly as it did before. I did crunches on my exercise ball yesterday and it felt good.

I don't feel trapped at home or limited in my mobility. I have already been out to eat with the baby three times (thanks to my excellent friend Lisa, who came with me to a nice restaurant for my first dining venture out with a new baby...brave soul!) and it went fine each time. We go for a walk every afternoon with Dan and Bugs. We go out and do stuff. I just pop him in his Cotton Pouch and we're fully mobile in stores and restaurants and on hiking trails, no bulky stroller required. I like the stroller for walking around the neighborhood on sidewalks though. I also use the Pouch for calming Julian down when nothing else will. It works like a charm. When he's tired and cranky I pop him into the pouch, put on Wild, Cool & Swingin' Too or something equally bouncy and dance around and belt out songs. That works really well in the evenings when he's fussy sometimes and nothing else calms him down. Make sure he's well-fed and changed, then dance and sing with him in the pouch. So far it's failsafe. Yikes, I hate to even say that for fear I'll jinx it. ;-) He only really good though, he's an easy baby. He naps for several hours during the middle of the day now, so I can take that time to get things done...take a shower, cook something, etc. I don't feel as tied down 24/7 as I was the first few weeks. I actually got time to paint my toenails and shave my legs yesterday! Today I read an entire issue of Vanity Fair (well, almost) and made a big batch of bran/flax muffins. No, they're not icky, they're really, really good. Like carrot cake.

Well, there must be a downside, right? Ok, let me think...well, we got thrush, which is basically a yeast infection in the baby's mouth that can also infect mama's nipples. It's very common. It's not so terrible, I just noticed that my nipples were a bit itchy and rashy all of a sudden, and Julian had little tiny white patches in his mouth. A woman in my New Moms group was complaining about it last week, otherwise I may not have known what it was right away.

Stupid C-section. I got a huge yeast infection in the folds of my groin, of all places. It's finally going away, but it was a nightmare while I had it, gave me a horrible nasty rash. I was in pain from all the other C-section stuff for a while and didn't even really notice it until that stuff started to feel better and then I was like, "Ouch, what the hell's this rash?" I never imagined that it could be a yeast infection of my skin, but apparently they give you a whopping huge dose of antibiotic in the hospital when you have a C-section and that kills off all your natural bacteria and leaves you wide open for yeast infestation. Damn it. So I got a cream for that from my doctor and am just getting that under control but now Julian and I *both* have this new outbreak of yeast. Hateful.

Oh, Julian weighs 11 pounds, 9 ounces already! And his head is 29 inches around and he is 22.5 inches long. He's in the 90th percentile for growth in his age group, which means that he's bigger than 90% of the other babies his age.

New events of the past few days...he can hold his head up on his own now, although he's still a little wobbly and he can't do it for very long. Also a whole range of new little sounds have crept into his repertoire, including a very cute cooing noise, a little squawk, and many others. He will sit in his bouncy seat and kick his legs and talk up a storm. The coo comes when he is gazing into your face and gives you his big fat blue-eyed happy smile. It's the cutest thing ever, I assure you.