Things I Have Learned in a Mere 3 Weeks.

1. Posting blogs slips pretty far down your priority list when life gets this crazy. Sorry everyone!
2. A teeny, tiny, brand-new person can rack up a lot of nicknames in a very short time. Here are some: Fussy McFusserton, Piglet, Frogger, ET, Squirmy, Boo Boo La La, Bug, Roly-Poly, Potato Bug, Little Old Man, etc.
3. The first time you get 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep feels like Christmas morning. And pretty much every time you get that much sleep.
4. Watching newborn facial gymnastics is more entertaining than the American Idol finale (and a lot of other stuff, cuz that show was pretty boring. maybe I should say it's more entertaining than the last 10 minutes of the finale!).
5. You can literally spend ALL your time dealing with feeding and feeding related issues, especially when your baby is having trouble nursing, so you have to nurse, and supplement with bottles, and pump, and occasionally have a bite to eat yourself, and change diapers, and run to the bathroom--often while your baby is screaming at you--and guzzle some water, and what? your husband's home from work and you're still in your pajamas? Yep.
6. Feeding and burping a newborn can be a very traumatic and emotionally-exhausting process. I'm not exagerrating.
7. 10 minutes of adorable can totally make up for several hours of pain-in-the-backside (he's pretty cute in that mode too, though).
8. I love my husband and would be absolutely lost without him.
9. The love and support and unending service of family and friends (especially your mother!)and your husband and your Heavenly Father can help you live through and deal with some truly difficult experiences (like an emergency c-section after 17 hours of labor and 6 weeks of recovery).
10. Magic for newborns: the swaddle and the sling.
11. Magic for mamas: a hot shower and a nap.
12. I am truly blessed.
13. I have the cutest little boy. Here is photographic proof, provided by my talented cousin and her talented friend:

World, Walter. Walter, World.

Introducing Walter Scott Richardson!! Born on Monday, May 5th, at 3:30 pm. 8 lbs, 6 ozs, 21 inches long. There's a lot more to the story, but I will tell that in another post. As for now, he is perfect, beautiful, sweet, mellow, and the nurses and doctors couldn't stop raving about how good-looking he is. I, myself, am pretty astounded by it also. He is definitely more than the sum of both his parents. Not that hubby isn't the handsomest man on earth, and I'm not too shabby either, but this little boy passes us both up by far!!

We named him Walter for Jon's dad, and Scott for my maiden name, which is now serving as my middle name. And yes, we knew about the author, and thought it was pretty clever of us to come up with that name. So we like to call him Sir Walter. We are also paying homage to a couple of other literary figures named Walter that are favorites of mine. So with a name like that and parents like us, the poor kid is pretty much destined to be another nerdy bookworm! Here are some pictures of our little man: enjoy!