Happy Anniversary!

Today our little man Grant is 12 weeks old! It's also our 4 year anniversary. Hooray for me and Husband! We were married at Bass Lake Park in Holly Springs, NC. The wedding was supposed to be at 2:00 but due to unforseen hiccups it was probably more like 2:30-3:00 (my sister got drunk the night before and made me incredibly late for my hair appointment which threw off the rest of the day - then had the nerve on the way back to her hotel to say "Can we stop at Chick-fil-a?"). But, other than the fact that I was late for my own wedding, it was a great day. So Happy Anniversary to me & Husband!

Getting married under the canopy deocorated by Mom & Aunt Bonnie

My favorite picture!

One of my other favorites.



Us with Judge Wills (we decided to do the judge thing...good decision).




Wedding Party
(my friend Elizabeth, my sister Shauna, me, Nate, Nate's dad, Nate's friend Casey)



Us with everyone who came down from NY
(Aunt Bonnie, Mom, Nate, Me, Shauna, Dad, AJ, and Jenny -
Note: my sister's boyfriend at the time was there too.
I had the photographer take one with him and one without in case they broke up. See him there? No? I'm a smart girl.)




 

Us with Nate's Mom's side of the family

(back row: stepdad Earl, Mom, Me, Nate, uncle Dykes;

front row: Grandma Marlene, brother Scotty, cousin Krisite, Aunt Debbie)



Us with Nate's Dad's side of the family
(brother "Sparky", sister Hollie, me, Nate, stepmom Veda, Nate's Dad)







I love this picture! It's my sister Shauna, my Mom, me & Aunt Bonnie.





Me & my Mom dancing to "Bobby McGee" while everyone else is cleaning up.
This is picture is extra special since we lost my earlier this year.



Baby's First Trip to the ER

Grant loves his bottle. I try to burp him half-way through it so he doesn't spit up all over the place following one giant burp at the end. It's hard to do because he pitches such a fit about it that it's easier to just let him have the whole thing. So I knew something wasn't right last night when I took the bottle out of his mouth and he didn't care. He was very warm and had no interest in the second half of the bottle. So I took his temperature - in his bum - and when it went to 101.1. The answering service at the pediatricians office told us to take him to an emergency room. From that point on we had two people in the house who needed medical attention. Grant for his fever and husband for his extreme anxiety.

We were seen very quickly at the ER and in "triage" they took Grant's temperature again...102.4. And the triage dude was a pro 'cause Grant pooped mid-temp taking and the guy never flinched (Note: see previous post about projectile poop). He was lucky though, the diaper blocked most of the poop shrapnel. It could have been a lot worse. Then they put us in a room and we waited for nurses and doctors and what-not.

Little Grant in the big ER bed!





To be honest, I don't remember the order of events last night. I know they stuck him with a needle to get blood - twice because it didn't work the first time. They stuck a q-tip way up his nose. They stuck a catheder in his little peeper several times for a urine sample with no luck. They would take it out, put his diaper back on and 5 minutes later...pee in the diaper. He had x-rays done and laid remarkably still for them. And then the poor little guy had to have a spinal tap. Husband had to leave the room for that one (he was a complete wreck the entire time), Mommy did really well. It was tough to hear him cry that hard but at least I was right there to hold him when they were done.

After all that, what they came up with was that he must have a virus. They finally let us go home at 3:00 a.m. and Grants temperature was down to 98.4. Today he spent the day at home with Mommy & Daddy. All of us took turns napping.

The First 2 Months

I am going to attempt to be a better blogger. That is to say, I will actually post things on my blog. I wish my blog was cuter...that might make me do it more. Anyway, this was supposed to be about mine and my husband's adventures and experiences as new parents but it's sort of turned into just my blog. So, in my attempt to be a better blogger and a more bragging mother I'm going to at least make monthly posts about my baby's first year.

One month

Grant's first month was, for lack of a better word, interesting. He was figuring us out and we were...clueless. He learned that if he cried he'd get held and, if was really lucky, a boob stuck in his mouth. We learned that newborns have projectile poop. Yes, we were peed on. Several times. So was the dog (who we don't see much of anymore. He's got an apartment set up underneath the bed). Pee is easy to clean up. I've cleaned poop off of just about every surface in the nursery. When I say "projectile poop" I mean to say that his best distance was roughly 3 feet. I never measured but I should have. I did take a picture but I've been told that I can NOT put it on the internet. In case Grant becomes president. I need you to take my word for it that it's hysterical. We learned how to give baths to a screaming, terrified infant. My husband learned to love onesies because "they hold the diaper on". And I learned that the best way to sleep in was to put Grant in bed with me. It was an educational, sleepless, stressful, but wonderful first month.

Grant's first full day at home (8/29/10)
4 days old



Grant at one month

Two months
By two months old Grant was almost 10.5 lbs and thankfully, no longer breast fed. We seem to have passed the projectile poop stage but still occaisionally get peed on. He doesn't mind bath time any more and it's actually enjoyable for me to give my little guy a bath. He can hold his head up really well now and loves to be sitting up so he can see what's going on. We use the bumbo seat to help him sit up. He's sleeping much better at night so I feel more rested than I did in the first month. Husband on the other hand...not so much. We've moved Grant from the bassinet in our room to his crib. BIG move for husband who worries constantly. We have a baby monitor, of course, and every time the baby so much as grunts Nate is instantly crib-side checking on him. But I need to be thankful he's like that and not leaving it all up to me. Thanks husband :) Grant also had his first shots at two months. I can't wait to do that again! However, it did make me feel good when he kept screaming until I held him. Then he put his little head on my shoulder and calmed down. He loves his mommy!

Happy Grant in his bumbo seat



Grant at two month old



Grant's first Halloween



Month three coming soon!

Saving the Ta-Tas...My Ta-Tas!

Yesterday I quit breast feeding. Hallelujah! Looking back, I should have stopped a while ago. The problem with quitting (besides my unwillingness to admit that I couldn't do it) was really the lactation chicks at the hopsital. They need a hobby that doesn't include other people's boobs. Seriously, they are dangerously close to needing posters at the hospital that say "You should breast feed. You're a bad mom if you don't. No, really, we will judge you." Or maybe a poster that says "You should breast feed until your child gets his own place. And he won't ever need therapy for it." I get that some people actually like to breast feed. You hear people call it magical, a wonderful bonding experience for you and your baby. I think those people should be tested for drugs. Monday night I was feeding my son, Grant, for the last time before bed. He feel asleep with my nipple in his mouth clamped between his little gums. I imagine that's what it would feel like if my nipple had been caught in a bear trap. Yet that was not what made me quit. That came yesterday morning...when it felt like Grant was chewing on the already sensitive part of my anatomy. He's 8 weeks old and has no teeth and yet it felt like all his grown up teeth came in while he was sleeping. At that moment my husband was coming in to say good-bye to us (he was off to work) and I looked at him and said "I'm done. I quit. I can't do it anymore." And this is why I love my husband...he said "Thank God!" So for almost two days I've been pumping and bottle feeding my little boy. And I love feeding him a bottle!

October is breast cancer awareness month!



Thank You Notes

So, I've been really bad about sending out thank you notes. It's not that I'm not grateful! I am. But I always think I sound cheesy when I write those things. Plus, it's hard to carve out the time in the day to do that when I can't even manage a shower every day (Seriously, it got so bad last week I thought a hazmat team may have to dispose of the clothes I was wearing). So, weeks after my son was born I get a card and gift from my grandmother - who I never hear from or see. We shall call her The Thank You Note Nazi. It was very sweet of her and I have no doubt it was done out of an obligation she felt rather than actually wanting to do it. Less than a week later my father is calling me to say "Uh, can you send a thank you note to your grandmother?" What? People who went to my shower were still waiting for thank you notes at that point! I shouldn't have been surprised. This is a woman who once gave my mother a box of thank you notes as a Christmas gift. And she expected a thank you note for it. There should be medication for that. So anyway, I finally got around to sending her a thank you note (and an announcement so she'd stop complaining that she hadn't seen the baby yet). And last week, what do I get in the mail? That's right folks, a thank you note for sending her a thank you note! I only wish I was kidding. For a very brief moment I considered sending her a thank you note for the thank you note for the thank you note. :)