On the way. . .

 

to sitting. . . . .

He is not quite there yet, but he is getting stronger and stronger.

Remembering the First Days of Mommyhood. .

 

It has occurred to me recently that I never posted the photos of Daniel from the first moments after he was born. I want to go ahead and do that now. At the time I didn’t really think about pictures of course, but I am really glad that we have them now.

Just so that we are clear: it takes a lot of guts to post these photos of me, but I have confidence that you will have mercy on my appearance as I had been laboring for nearly 30 hours at the point of these pictures. Well except for the first one.

This was taken on Sunday (the day before Daniel was born around 10:00 a.m. I was having a contraction while this exact photo was being taken)

These next pictures are from the NEXT Monday morning. (around 6 hours before Daniel came) Those of you that are not familiar with this machine: this kept track of my blood pressure, heart rate, and the baby. The paper is my contractions. I cringe seeing those black lines spike. That meant it was a painful one. The number 48 that you see on the monitor is the level of contraction I was having at the moment. I saw that number go into the 100’s, but 48 is pretty uncomfortable, too.

I asked Erin to come be my “coach” while I labored in the early stages. I say early, but it felt late to me. At this point, I had still not had the epidural. All I will say is, we are still friends, and this is a good thing. She saw me in a pretty personal way that I am grateful didn’t scare her away! I was thankful for her support. It meant a lot to me to have my mom there, too. In my mind, I thought that the hours leading up to his birth would be “enjoyable.” Meaning, I thought I would be myself, and we could all just hang out. I was……… WRONG! I was not much fun to hang around. I can see the anguished body language of my mom. I know that she hated to see me in such pain, but I know that she was so excited for her grandbaby to get here.

Now, if you fast forward a few good hours: You have the first moments of Daniel’s life.

(I apologize for the “natural" nature of this photo, but it is what it is) Dennis is cutting the umbilical cord here. That cord was tough!!!!

My poor baby was cold! When I laid eyes on him for the first time, all I could see was that he had his daddy’s mouth! I mean, that is ALL I could see. I was so glad. I love Dennis’ features, and it was an honor to have a son that looked so much like him. And then the second thing I noticed: the kids was ALL hands and feet. I hoped that he would grow into them.

I love love love this picture of him here with my mom. As soon as I had him, we invited our family and friends in that were waiting.

 

I know that all mommas believe that their baby is the most precious thing that they have ever seen, but I really did believe that he was prettiest little thing, ever. But, again, he is my baby, and I am his mom. Of course, I am going to think so.

This was brought to us for dinner the second night that we were there. It was really yummy.

These next pictures marks the day that we brought him home. I was really excited to leave the hospital, but I was also very scared. I really relied on the nurses to bring me that awesome ice. I could drink all the Coke I wanted. (non-caffeinated of course) and I loved it. It was my favorite thing.

This was one of our first family pictures. I was VERY VERY emotional that day. I just couldn’t stop crying! Everything was just beautiful and sweet. And, everything seemed overwhelming.

When we got home, Daniel needed his first at home diaper change. Dennis pretty much did everything those first few days at home. I was so nervous for him to go back to work. Just looking at those pictures, it reminds me of the cold in the air that January afternoon.

Cousin Cole holding him for the first time.

and my mom gets another squeeze of her grandbaby.

and now. . . . .

 

I get to wake up to this sweet little boy every day. He has grown up before my very eyes. I cannot believe that it has already been nearly 6 months since our lives have changed. We love our sweet Daniel. Thanks for journeying back through those memories with me. Love to all.

Our First Fruits. . .

 

It has finally happened!!! We were able to pick the first “fruits” from our garden later this week!! We thought we just had a squash, and then this morning Dennis went out to check the garden before church, and in a blink, we had these two large Zucchini's! We didn’t even see them coming!!!

So we had a small dinner tonight, and I fried the squash because Dennis had never had it before. I mixed the Zucchini in with a pepper and onion blend. I am just LOVING this garden. It just brings so much satisfaction. We have been very fortunate to not have to use any type of netting or fencing to keep animals out, and the bugs seem to be leaving them alone, so we have had no problem keeping our veggies organic! Love that.

Before there were 5….

 

there were just two…………

July 4th Holiday Weekend

We had a great holiday weekend! We started out on Friday night with our small group, or well, those of them that were able to come. We missed the Bollings, and Williams’!

We celebrated Mason & Zach’a birthday, too.

We all crowded around the deck with all of our children. It was really fun!!

Dennis wrote me a love note in the driveway! So sweet.

Saturday and Sunday we didn’t reall do a whole lot, but on Monday we went to the pool and hung out with my Dad all day. Dennis enjoyed some pool time with his Dad.

After that, we went to the parade. Daniel was NOT happy with the fire trucks and rescue squads honking their horns and sounding their sirens. I had to talk him through most of that.

Then after that, we went to the Buchanan carnival and celebrated with our annual french fries, petros, and ice cream! It was a lot of fun.

When we go out like this, I don’t bring my Grand Canon, instead, I bring little bitty Canon so that I can easily take pictures. That is why some of these are just blurry and you can see a lot of motion.

This picture below would have been good if the camera would have worked! Grr….

Even with the loud rides, games, and music, our little sleeper went to sleep anyway. He woke up on the first bang of fireworks. He would look up at them and then as soon as the color would disappear he wouldn’t look back up until the bang, and by then, again, the color was pretty much gone. Hopefully next year he will have a better attention span to enjoy the fireworks! It was a great weekend. Now, we are back to the nitty gritty!

5 months old Post

I have been needing for ONE WEEK already needing to make his 5 month milestones post, but I have been so busy!

OUR BABY IN A WORD: INDEPENDANT

He is playing SO much now!!! He likes to stand mostly (with support obviously), and now that he grab things, this makes this so fun!!

See the drool?!?! I have been getting LOTS of wet kisses lately.

Daniel’s stats:

Weight: 17 pounds.

Height: ? We will find out at his 6-month appointment

Size 2 diapers.

3-6 but more comfortably 6-9 month clothes

Food:

He is still doing really well with nursing.

He eats 7am, 9:45, 12:30, 4, and 8:00 p.m. give or take a half hour.

I have been VERY SLOWLY introducing him to solids. We pretty much fed him rice cereal ONE time, and have since just stuck with real food.

I have made him:

carrotts

sweet potatoes

green beans (which he spat at me forcefully)

applesauce

I have bought for him:

peas

He seems to be doing better with this each time. Actually last night, he ate the peas pretty excitedly. I learned from buying one jar of Gerber baby food that Daniel might eat the food I make him a little better if it were just a tad more soupy. I don’t think he likes the consistency that I make it. Although I won’t make it like soup that will drip from the spoon like Gerber, I will work harder to make it as smooth as possible for awhile until he gets used to the tastes that he is experiencing. So far, we have had no problem with any irritation, constipation, etc with with food. Again, it is mostly just for practice, and we don’t do it everyday. I would say he eats something other than milk  2 times a week.

Sleeping:

THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! He is such a super sleeper.

Bedtime: 8:00 p.m. but I think he is wanting to go to bed sooner and sooner here lately.

He wakes up around 6:45am. (Dennis usually just goes in there to get him and he is awake) and he brings him to me, and I feed him.

I immediately take him back to his bed.

he sleeps until about 9:45. (he has been known multiple times in this month to sleep until 10:30-11:45!!!)

At 9:45ish I will feed him again.

He starts to tire again for another long nap around noonish.

12:30-1:00 p.m. (depending on when morning nap ends) he goes back down for afternoon nap.

I can pretty much count on him sleeping until 3:30-4:15. It is a nice long nap!

He goes back down at 8:00ish

 

Fun things:

he SMILES SO BIG when I go get him from his crib in the morning.

He rolls easily (but not very frequently) to his back from his stomach. He pretty much still hates to be on his belly.

Wants to sit up and stand instead of sit.

LOVES to be naked- (or diapered only)

still loves his mobile in his crib

starting to laugh so much more!!! “BOO!” usually gets a giggle when we play hide and seek. Picking him way up in the air usually gets a huge smile if not a laugh.

Calms super easy if I hold him.

LOVES his toys!!! He loves to play! Will pick his toy up, and goes straight for his mouth that is usually wide open with his tongue sticking out.

likes sweet things like ice cream, syrup, etc.

still crooks his foot when nurses.

DOES NOT sleep in the bed with us anymore.

Content. Happy. Non-fussy. Easy.

He is such a joyful addition to our family. We love him dearly, and he adds so much to my day. Motherhood is so great. I can’t wait to do this again.

We have a tomato bud! :)

This year along with having a garden, I am interested in growing a couple of herbs, too. The top photo is the beginning of cilantro. The bottom pit is a mix between parsley and basil. I plan to use this to cook with!

and below is a photo of our tomato plants.

We have a tomato bud!!!!! I was so excited to find this! Yay!

below: Squash

below: cucumber plant.

below: Zucchini

pepper plants.

pole beans.. . Dennis built this for them to grow on.

Watermelon! We also have a bud there, too. but I couldn’t get to it to take a picture. It looks much like our tomato bud.

Our sweet potatoes!!

Whole garden picture of Raised Bed #1

Whole Picture of raised Bed #2

I just wanted to document our progress 30 days after planting into garden.