Birth Announcement

I was so excited to finally get Sam's birth announcements in the mail! A special thanks to my sweet friend Martha Grace Gray (www.marthagracegray.com) for taking the precious picture and Bridgett Monistere (www.cutiepiedesignsms.blogspot.com) for designing the announcement. We love them!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Sleepy Heads

My two boys on a lazy Saturday

Sam's First Piece of Mail

Sam's social security card came in the mail today!

One Month Old!

Happy Birthday to Sam! I can't believe he is already one month old. Sometimes it seems like just yesterday we were at Woman's Hospital and other days I can't remember what I did before he got here. He is such a good baby and is a strong little boy! For the past week or two when we put him on his belly for some "tummy time" he will lift his head and turn from side to side. He also likes to show me how strong he is when I try to burp him on my shoulder. He just won't lay that head down and has to keep looking around. He has also become much more alert and stays awake between some of his feedings during the day. I can't wait to see how his little personality develops in the coming months. Happy Birthday sweet boy, we love you!

Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This....

...there'd be days like YESTERDAY my mama said. Well, nobody promised that parenting would be easy but I can only hope there aren't many more days like yesterday. We were in pitiful shape! Poor Sam has had a time with what we were thinking was reflux. Every time he would eat he would fuss from the time he finished his bottle until it was time to eat again. It is such a helpless feeling to watch him hurt and all I could do was hold him and walk around with him. This led to a few sleepless nights this week. To top it off, I woke up yesterday morning and felt like I had the flu! It didn't take long to realize that I had developed mastitis. My first phone call of the day was to Sam's doctor to make an appointment for this morning. I had to try and get some relief for this sweet boy. Next phone call was to my doctor to get an antibiotic. As the day went on I started to feel worse so Adam and Bobi were nice enough to take care of Sam once Adam got home from work until late last night so I could get some rest. I woke up around 11 last night and had a fever of almost 103! Since Bobi had kept cousin Banks all day and then been on "Sam duty" from the afternoon until after midnight it was time to call in Lili for the late night shift. Lili had been here all during the day yesterday so I could rest but she was sweet enough to come back and spend the night with us and take care of Sam.

Sam had his appointment with Dr. Sherwood at 9 this morning and she definitely thinks he has reflux. She gave him some Zantac and we are hoping this will help. The pharmacist says it could take 24-48 hours of the medicine to really see dramatic improvement if his reflux is bad enough so we must be patient and hope this brings our little guy some relief.

For the weak stomached readers out there, this should probably be where you head off and stalk another blog. =) My furry son decided in the midst of all of the excitement last night that he wanted some attention too. What better way to do this than to bring us a "present" and leave it in the middle of the living room floor....

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Three Weeks Old

Wow!! I can't believe we have had our little man three weeks - he is such a good baby and we can't get enough of him. It seems like he has changed so much in the past few days and is growing so fast!

The past week has been pretty exciting with Sam's first bath and a new air conditioner motor! Yes, it's true, Sam and I woke up around 4:30 last Friday morning to eat and heard a loud buzzing/wires sizzling noise while we were standing in the kitchen. Shortly after that the air conditioner came on and the house started to smell like smoke...ahh! I ran and turned the unit off and called Climate Masters right when they opened at 8:00. I was quick to tell them that I had a brand new baby at home and since the burning smell started I had not been able to have my air on. They were super nice and were at our house by 10:00. It took the guy a while to figure out what was wrong. I even think for a short while he thought I was a sleep deprived crazy lady that was hearing things. After about 30 minutes he discovered that the motor was burned up. Fortunately the house was plenty cool with just the fans going and they had us a new motor installed by lunch time.

After almost three weeks of sponge baths, we were so excited when Sam's cord fell off during his bath on Friday night! We were able to put him in his little tub for a real bath on Saturday but I don't think he was too thrilled about it. He was just ready to eat!

I was also excited to get to hang the big canvas our friend Angie painted for Sam's nursery. She did a wonderful job and we love it! The link to her blog "Painted Blessings" is to the right - go check out all of her painting - she is so talented!



Here are a few more pictures from the past week - enjoy!

Goodnight!

2 Week Checkup

We took Sam to see Dr. Sherwood today for his two-week checkup. It was so neat to be able to take our baby back to the sweet lady who was my and Adam's pediatrician growing up. She couldn't believe that two of her "babies" were back with their baby! She thought Sam was a cutie and he looked great. She said he was very spunky and active to be so little. It looks like I am going to have a very busy little guy to chase after very soon. He had also gained up to 6 lb. 14 oz., which was a good increase since last weeks weight check at Woman's Hospital. The bad news was that I cannot let him sleep through the night until he wakes up but must wake him every 3-4 hours to keep feeding him. Had he made it to his due date, August 13th, she thinks we would have had a big baby on our hands so we are trying to make up for lost time and fatten him up! She also told us that we did not need to take him out of the house to any public places and to limit visitors to really only grandparents for a while since he was a preemie. Until then I will keep posting lots of pictures for everyone. I will leave you with one we took while we were waiting at the doctor.

Freeze..come out with your hands up!!

2 Weeks Old

I can't believe that my sweet boy is already two weeks old! The time has flown by and we have enjoyed every minute with him. I have to admit, getting up in the middle of the night has certainly taken some getting used to but I wouldn't trade that time with him for anything. Adam has been so helpful when it comes to taking care of Sam and he is always a good sport about nighttime feedings even though he has to get up early and go to work. He came home one afternoon with this beautiful necklace for me and I love it!

The past week has been filled with sweet friends and family visiting and bringing wonderful food. It has been a huge help to not have to worry about meals and I could certainly get used to someone doing our laundry all the time (thanks Mom!). We also had to go back to the hospital twice for checkups. The NICU at Woman's Hospital requires all babies to come back 2 days after discharge. We went on Tuesday so they could check Sam's weight and jaundice. His bilirubin had gone way down since we left the hospital on Sunday but he had lost a little weight. He was 6 lbs when we were discharged on Sunday he lost down to 5 lb. 14 oz. So from Tuesday until we went back on Thursday for another weight check we were setting alarms and eating every three hours all day and night. The hard work paid off though and he was back up to 6 lb 2 oz. when they weighed him on Thursday. We go on Tuesday for his two-week checkup with our pediatrician. I can't wait to see how much Sam has grown!

Resting with Rusty

Who is that cute boy in the mirror?

Dressed and ready to go to the doctor

First walk in the neighborhood