Some of my favorite memories of being with Henry have been the usual fare, like watching him sleep, holding him as he takes in the world, watching people's eyes light up when they see him, smelling his clean baby smell after a bath and so much more.
But some of my favorite stories involve changing his diapers. Though in the moment, I would not be happy to call them favorites. Now, looking back, I cannot help but laugh. In Henry's first weeks of life, every third time or so that I changed his diaper he would pee everywhere. And it was only me he would pee on really; he rarely peed on Cadi (as the two of us were the only ones really changing him in those first weeks.) Even after I got wise to his ruse and put a wet wipe over his little willy, he would still find weaknesses in my defense and pee when opportunity knocked. Sometimes it was before I could get the wet wipe down, sometimes it was as I was pulling on the new diaper. Though he never laughed or really smiled because he was so young, I know he was entertaining himself.
Another fateful memory comes to mind very, very early in the morning. With Henry eating several times a night in his first few weeks of life outside the womb, Cadi would simply pull him out of the bassinet and feed him in bed. Oftentimes, beforehand, I would change his diaper first. So he stirred awake at 4 AM or so, and I brought him to his nursery and put him on the changing table. Well, my tired mind didn't quite process my defensive strategy and he peed all over himself and me. As I was wiping up the mess, he started to poop, viciously. Now I'm wide awake, yelling for Cadi. As the flow continued strong, I couldn't let the warm stinky liquid go everywhere. So, I made a split second decision and I stuck my hand over his little butt and caught his stream of warm poop in my hand. This was my "Welcome to Parenthood" moment. Cadi came and we cleaned up the huge mess, changed him and readied him for feeding. As I drifted off to sleep as Cadi was feeding him in bed, I was abruptly awoken to Cadi shrieking. Henry had puked, all over her, himself and our bed. In a matter of one hour, so much damage done. The laundry done at 5 AM was immense while the sleep was quite the opposite. I laugh now, but poor Matt and Cadi on that fateful early morning. Lessons learned. Now daddy has better diaper changing defenses and mommy lays down extra burp rags in bed to prevent "The King" from anointing us with his projectiles.
Of course, Henry being the first born in our growing family, we have a TON of pictures of him through his first month of life. These are some of my favorites. (click the pictures to enlarge).
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