Samuel's First Friend

We had our first "Play Date" with a friend last week. Nicholas is a fellow birth center baby. His parents were in our birthing class and he was born two weeks before Samuel. Notice he too has a head full of dark hair. In fact, Samuel is on the left and Nicholas is on the right just in case you're trying to tell them apart. The visit was more for us moms but the babies had a good time sucking their fists together as you can see in the pictures. It was funny because we had planned to eat lunch, but by the time we managed to feed, diaper, and soothe both boys to sleep it was more like an afternoon snack. It was fun to share time with a new mom juggling tasks with our infants together. We're going to go visit Nicholas at his house next time.

Bed Head

Thank You Nap Nanny

We've been pretty sleepless around here to say the least. Even though Samuel is now 9 weeks old and weighs at least 13 lbs. he's still been wanting to nurse every 2 hrs. at night, so I've not had more than 2 consecutive hours of sleep in 9 weeks. He goes right back to sleep after feeding but still it's been rough! Anyway, I was talking to one of my friends from our birthing class who has a baby boy two weeks older than Samuel. We were sharing our ups and downs of being new moms and she introduced me to the Nap Nanny. We had a good laugh because she told me she found it online and ordered at 3am during one of her sleepless nights. Her baby has been sleeping five hour stretches and even an eight hour once or twice, so I wasted no time getting online to check it out. The price was a little more than I'd hoped, but at this point more than two or three hours sleep would be Priceless!! Needless to say, we are now proud owners of the NN ourselves and the first night we tried it with SJ he slept five hours straight! So far, so good... We've also gotten a bit more of a routine going around here. I've checked out about five different books from the library from all ends of the parenting pendulum trying to find something that resonates with us. One of the books has a schedule in it that is working well for us and for Samuel. Between having more of a routine and finding the NN we're making strides with getting more sleep and having more peace around here.

Mr. Social

We had our friends, Seth and Alicia over for dinner the other night. This is really the first time we've had anyone come over in a while, and I had been telling Samuel all day that our friends were coming, etc. When they walked in he just lit up. It was so precious. I thought he'd be shy or fuss a little, but he was all smiles. It doesn't hurt that Seth and Alicia are kid magnets. Samuel knew he liked them right away. Tyson snapped these pics of Seth talking to Samuel.

Ready for the cold

Nanna Deggs sent this cute hat with matching mittens. We're ready for some really cold weather now. I'm glad the hat isn't too snug or you would see him puckering up in these pics.

There's room to grow... Maybe we can wear it next year too.

Happy Birthday Big Pop

We love you Dad aka Big Poppa and hope you have a great Birthday today!

Warning: Very Cute Video

Samuel has discovered he can make splashes by kicking in the bath water. He loves it! I caught some of it on this video. As you can see he was all smiles. I can only imagine how much fun he's going to have when he graduates to the regular bath tub and I can only imagine how wet our bathroom will be afterwards.

A Boy and His Bear

A Texas Thanksgiving

Samuel was doted on with lots of love and attention from his three Texas cousins:Kyler, Klaire, and Khloe (and of course all the grown ups too). They met for the first time on this trip. You could tell he knew they were kids. He watched everything they did and they loved him so much. They each wanted to hold him over and over.

Little Traveler

I have so much to catch up on, so I guess I'll start with this video and a travel report. Samuel did great flying to and from Texas for Thanksgiving. I took him a few days early by myself and then Tyson joined us Thanksgiving day. Needless to say I had a little trepidation about flying with a then 6 week old on my own. It was a lot of work, but I am SO thankful that the little guy himself was a breeze. The airplane was literally like a tranquilizer. I was worried about his ears popping, so I made sure he was either nursing or sucking on a pacifier at the take offs and landings. It seemed to do the trick. He never flinched. I guess next year will be a different story, huh? I was sitting next to a really sweet first grade teacher, so she's the one who did the filming for us. More to come on our visit in Texas...

Feeling Better-Can You Tell?

Not Feeling so Well

I (Gina) am in Texas with Samuel visiting my family and the poor little baby has come down with what we think is a cold. It started out with congestion in his nose and lots of drainage. By yesterday afternoon he had a fever of 100.1, so my mom and I took him to a pediatric clinic. He tested negative for the flu and his oxygen level was fine. We're giving him Tylenol which is helping the fever and keeping a vaporizor going. He seems a little perkier this morning, but has a little cough today. It's been difficult watching him be so miserable. I had a bit of a cold last week, so I'm assuming I passed it along to him. A well baby is definitely not something to take for granted I'm learning. Please keep us in your prayers. We're believing he's going to be well very soon.
On a side note, he was an awesome traveler and slept on both flights getting here. I have a cute video I'll upload later. Everything went smooth with our travel.

Play Time

We received a new book recently from a family friend of Tyson's. "My Cow Book" is adorable and Samuel loved it. We had him propped on his boppy pillow on our bed with us the other evening and Tyson started reading it to him. He was enamored by all the bright colors and the sounds the pages made.

So serious ...

The picture is blurry where he's trying to move his hand to touch the book. He loved the crinkly sound.

Check out the tail coming off the back. Too cute!

A new used toy I grabbed at one of my favorite consignment stores.

Bath Time Favorites

Road Trip

Samuel and Mommy took our first road trip together to go see his NC grandparents. I (Mommy) decided Christmas was way to long for grandparents to have to wait to see this bundle of love, so we packed up and headed to Statesville for an overnight stay. Samuel also got to meet his Aunt Erin and cousins, Ethan and Gavin for the first time. We had a great time with everyone even though it was a quick trip. I wasn't on top of my picture taking as much as usual, so I didn't get any pics of Nana, Papa, or myself on this trip. Don't worry, we'll make up for it at Christmas.

By the way, Samuel did great in the car by sleeping almost the whole way there and the entire way home. Yeah!

Samuel loved looking over CiCi's shoulder into her backyard. Sweet Picture.

Ethan loved holding Samuel and it doesn't look like Samuel minded either.

Aunt Erin with Samuel, Ethan, and Gavin

Trip to the Park

We had beautiful weather on Sunday, so we ventured out to one of our favorite spots, Pullen Park. We have a few pics and some video. For those of you not from NC. Pullen Park is a landmark around here. It's just beautiful year round. It has a large pond with ducks and paddle boats, a train, an old fashioned carousel, a playground, etc. Needless to say it's packed with families when the weather is nice. We took Samuel for a stroll and took some pics. He mostly slept or enjoyed looking around at everything.

Little Stinker

I ran to the grocery store tonight when Tyson got home from work. I made sure Samuel was well fed before I left. It's amazing how much fun grocery shopping can be when you don't get out much. I could sense a holiday spirit about the place as all of the different holiday foods and ingredients were front and center - pumpkin pie filling, pie shells, eggnog, etc. As I'm leisurely perusing each isle, about half way through my cell phone rings with Tyson and a screaming baby on the other end. He informed me that the little guy fell apart shortly after I left and hadn't been a happy camper. Tyson was out of ideas for soothing and just needed a couple of suggestions. He assured me that he was fine and not to abandon my cart and come home. I told him to try swaddling and sure enough that did the trick. Tyson called back shortly and said he went right to sleep. He usually thinks of swaddling but after 30 minutes of screaming I guess it was hard to think of much. Needless to say my fun filled stroll around the store began to look more like that show The Grocery Game where you scurry around throwing things in. I grabbed my last few items and headed out.

Here's what I found when I got home. Little toot!!

One Month Has Gone By...

Dear Samuel,

It has already been four whole weeks since we laid our eyes on you for the first time. Time is really flying by. You are such a sweet baby. We know the books say you won't smile for a little bit longer, but we have noticed you smiling on purpose for at least a week now. It's not just gas! You really do like to smile and grin alot at us when we talk to you. Dad read the book, Snuggle Puppy to you with lots of animation and you smiled the whole way through. You are very attentive to people and objects. It's amazing how much we've already gotten to know you in such a short time. You love to have a bath. You like to have the warm water poured over your belly and you are totally content the whole time. That is until we take you out. That's another story. You are very happy in just a diaper. It seems you're a little warm natured. You like to coo and make little sounds. Your arms and hands are constantly busy when you're awake. You're a great eater or should we say drinker and you've gained over two pounds already. We could go on and on. We love you so much and sometimes still can't believe you are here with us. Bless you baby boy.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Beginning to like his bouncy seat

First time to wear blue jeans

So handsome!

Tigger Hat

I love this sequence of pics... I guess wearing the Tigger hat was just more than he could handle.

Tuesday Tales

I just put Little Bit down for a nap (11 am) and snuck in here to post some tidbits. He has a sniffle right now. We noticed it on Sunday evening, and he had a pretty rough night with congestion. It sounded like a lot of drainage in his throat and kept making a gagging sound. I pretty much sat up and stared at him all night. It seems to be much better today. I've been giving him saline drops in his nose and we slept with a steam vaporizer last night. Is this another little notch on the belt of parenthood?

I wouldn't say by any means we have much of a set routine around here, but our nights are pretty predictable for now. He's still nursing every two or two and a half hours at night and we go ahead and get up after our 5:30 am feeding and spend time with Daddy before he goes to work. Then it seems Samuel is ready for a morning nap around 8 and it's usually for at least 2 hrs. Okay, I guess there is a little routine beginning to happen. After the night and the morning nap there's nothing set in stone from there. We just eat, sleep, change diapers, and play as this little guy gives his cues. Why is it though that already as soon as Tyson and I sit down to eat dinner, Samuel can be sound asleep but immediately pops up wanting to eat or be held, etc. ? I guess he doesn't want to miss out. Already he totally checks us out while we're eating and starts holding his mouth open like a little bird like he's hoping to get a little taste. He's so cute!

Here are some of my favorite pics as of late.

He's a good sport about Mommy doing so many little photo shoots.

I took him to the lake the other day for a stroll.

Look at those cheeks!

So Observant

I took this video about a week ago. Samuel loves to look at this Baby Einstein light up crib toy. It looks like a fish aquarium and plays classical music. After I change his diaper on the changing table I lay him down in the crib and turn it on. This gives me a chance to clean up our mess or take a quick potty break. He really like it. In fact he turns and stares at it before I turn it on. Sometimes I forget and I'll look down and see his eyes fixed on it like "when are you going to turn it on, mom?"

Tummy Time

At both of our check-ups last week(the birth center and the pediatrician's office) we were asked if we had been giving Samuel "tummy time." I had to laugh to myself thinking, "are you kidding? We've only been at this parenting thing for two weeks and you guys are asking if we've given tummy time?" At that point, we'd just been trying to survive and keep the little guy fed. Anyway...what does this developmental therapist do? I quickly get home and start giving my super star some time on that tummy each day. He actually tolerates it very well. He's tried to lift his little head up a few times. It was mostly fun to take these pics. If you're wondering what the big deal is about tummy time it helps strengthen their neck and core so they'll be able to

hold their heads up better, sit, crawl, etc.

I just thought it was a little eager of them to be asking us about it at the two week check up. Oh well... BTW he's already grown alot since I took these photos. I can't believe it!