Our Son Leyland

It's pronounced "Lee-land"

Our son Leyland Carson was born at 8:01 am on February 8, 2010. My water broke at home at 1:00 am on February 7, and the events that followed were intense, beautiful, and painful. I don't think I will write out my birth story here, because it is also very personal to me. But I am happy to share the story with those who are interested.

When Leyland was born the doctor was already trying to guess his weight before I even heard my son cry. When he announced "it's a really big boy" I was filled with excitement, but I was not shocked. You may recall that I always suspected we were having a boy. So I felt that my heart was right all along.

When our son was weighed everyone seemed to hold their breath. As the scale numbers moved up and down, there was a collective gasp when his weight was announced: 10 lbs 13 oz! My gasp may have been the loudest. Our son was 22 inches, and his head was 14inches. I never ever could have guessed that my little Peapod was so big!

Leyland will be one month tomorrow, and he is hands down the best gift God has given me. In my last post I wondered what it might be like to see "Peapod's" hiccups on the outside, and now I get to! Let me tell you that they are precious, and drive him crazy. Getting to know this little person has been a wonderful adventure thus far, and Kevin and I love to pour over every one of his features assigning its origin to either me or him.

Some things you might like to know about Leyland
He tends to be a serious baby thus far. He furrows his brow frequently, and appears quite thoughtful most of the time.
We suspect he may be an introvert like his parents. When we take him out, or introduce him to new people away from home he often times closes his eyes. Whomever is meeting him will say "aww, he's sleeping soundly." But we know better, he's just keeping to himself. When we return home from such an outing he likes to lay on his back in silence, preferably with a pacifier. He will just lay still with his eyes open, but not kicking, or cooing like he normally does.
When he is eating he clasps his hands together, and holds them close under his chin.
He prefers not to cry, and opts for low toned grunts, and small moans.
He will cry when his clothes are being changed, and sometimes during a diaper change.
During his second week of life I introduced a bedtime routine, and so far he seems to love the predictability of it. At night I lay him down often times while he is still awake, and he looks around for a bit before drifting off.
He has the best hair. After baths it dries into tight curls before relaxing into a natural faux-hawk. Our little neighbor who is 5 said "hey, your baby has a Mohawk! Where did he get that?"
He makes this face sometimes where his eyes go wide, his eyebrows raise, and he purses his lips into a tiny "o" as if to silently say "oooooh, I see."

He is my favorite little buddy, and he fits right into our home as though he was always one of us.