Monday, May 30, 2011

How is our baby boy already 7 weeks old?

Time has FLOWN by. Carter is already 7 weeks old and I am having a hard time coming to grips with that. Some days have crept by slowly when I am watching the clock tick and it reaches 6pm and I am asking myself, "Where is Daddy? Hurry home!" But then most of the time, I am relishing in every sweet moment with my baby boy.

Brian and I are baffled that Carter is already 7 weeks old. It is just wild. We have experienced so much life and love in these past few weeks. I have been a bad blogger, so I will try to catch everyone up. The first few weeks of recovery for me were VERY difficult. Having the last minute c-section was really rough. Brian stepped in and took COMPLETE control. He had to tend to not only me but to Carter, too. I had absolutely no ab muscles (still don't, let's be honest!) and Brian had to lower me and lift me off the bed at night. Along with not being able to take care of my own self, I had a VERY difficult time just sitting there knowing that I couldn't help Carter either. I couldn't lift Carter out of his crib or bend over to change his diaper or burp him because his legs would hit my stomach and could only nurse in certain positions. It was heart wrenching. BUT having the most wonderful husband in the world definitely made it easier and I was able to fall in love with Brian in a whole new way. I LOVED watching him take complete care of Carter - changing diapers, burping, swaddling, rocking, singing, and bathing. I am forever grateful that Brian was able to take 2 weeks paternity leave and be at home with us.

The day Brian went back to work was VERY tough and as you can imagine I cried. I still wasn't "up to par" in my own personal recovery so my wonderful mom, who Carter will call CiCi, stepped in. CiCi and I have spent A LOT of qt together these past few weeks as we both tried to tackle the day "shifts" until Brian got home. CiCi has been a HUGE help with cleaning, laundry, dishes, making meals, letting me nap in between feedings, and giving Carter some special grandma love :) I am trying to "wean" off CiCi and am now spending most of each day alone with Carter. I still need her help for a few hours each day so I can shower and nap (gotta love my once daily nap!!).
CiCi is VERY in love with her grandbaby
Papa and Carter wearing matching shirts
Aunt Deb and Carter
Mimi was thrilled to be in town for the birth and actually won the "bet" we had and chose April 7 as his due date!

Carter is TOTALLY the love of our lives. He is beautiful and perfect and we find ourselves staring at his precious face all the time. We discovered that he has reflux :( and is now on Prevacid every day. The meds as well as propping up his mattress and holding him upright after each feeding really seem to help. He has his nights and days figured out and ON AVERAGE will sleep from 930p-7a and only waking once to eat. Obviously it'd be much nicer for him to not wake at all to eat, but I'm not complaining at all!! Anything is better than those 1 hour "naps" we used to get at night! At our last doctor appointment, Carter weighed in a 9 pounds 14 ounces and was at the 50th percentile. He is a long and lean boy with Brian's body type for sure. We have also been taking Carter to see Dr. Salminen (my spine doctor/chiropractor who practices NUCCA) and he has been adjusting Carter. Dr. Salminen diagnosed Carter with torticollis from the c-section but with just two adjustments Carter is "perfect" now :)
wearing a cute little onesie
I am SO in love :)Penny is VERY protective of her baby brother

We have had SO many wonderful friends and family over to the house to visit and meet Carter. I will put pics of all our visitors in another post. Carter also has quite a few friends his age nearby - Abigail (born in early March), Everett (born in late March), and William (born in late April). We have had SO much fun hanging out with his baby friends and I have certainly enjoyed the "mommy talk" with each of those moms. I feel like I bore my friends who don't have kids to death with all the baby talk. I can attest to that because when I wasn't a mom and would have to hear all about my friend's child's sleep schedule or eating habits I was a bit bored. So it is quite nice to have a mommy to bounce ideas off of and chat with! Although I will say most of my friends who aren't moms have been WONDERFUL and have crocheted blankets and made little onesies and brought over meals and loved on Carter. Obviously, I have fabulous friends!!!

Looking back on these past 7 weeks, I am shocked that we have made it this far. Carter is a WONDERFUL baby and we have been truly blessed to have been given a healthy, happy boy. I will try to blog better from here on out, but just bear with me, I'm a new mom :)

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Newborn Photo Session

We had a WONDERFUL 4 hour long newborn photo session with Elizabeth Smith, who owns Libbie Wicket. She did a fabulous job and Carter was on (semi) good behavior. We were immensely impressed with the images she captured and had a very hard time deciding which images to purchase. Here is a link to Elizabeth's blog about us and our photo shoot :)