Growing Boy

Our little boy is growing so quickly. He now weighs 11 pounds! His newborn clothes do not fit him anymore. This makes me so sad. There are several outfits that I loved seeing him wear and I will miss him being in them-mainly all of his dinosaur outfits. Joey's friend from work gave him four onesies with dinosaurs on them. He basically lived in these for the first couple of weeks. I can't believe that I won't see him in them anymore. Would it be weird to frame them in my house?

Andrew is also able to do a lot more now. He picked up his hairbrush last night and started to shake it. He also works a lot on lifting his head. While my boys were watching the Alabama game on Saturday, he lifted his head for a good 30 seconds. It was long enough for me to grab my camera and take this picture of him. It is kind of hard to see in the picture, but he is completely supporting his head here. I know it looks like his chin is on Joey's shirt, but it was not.

We are not on a sleeping schedule, but he is a great (and really cute) sleeper. We have really only had 1 "bad" night since he was born.

We have been very blessed with friends and family members bringing us food and coming over for visits. Here is our children's minister from church, Lynne. She brought us a delicious dinner (with a homeade apple pie) and snuggled with Andrew. Thanks, Lynne! Notice Ralph in the background:)

Three years ago today, Joey proposed! That seems like forever ago. In the past 3 years, we have planned a wedding, gotten married, honeymooned in Antigua, vacationed in Italy, sold a house, bought a house, and had a baby! Marriage is wonderful, but I am quite certain that Joey's heart now belongs to someone else:)

1 month

Andrew is one month old today! Part of me feels like the month went by quickly, and part of me feels like we have had him forever. This month has been wonderful and hard all at the same time. I feel like Joey and I are just now starting to figure out what we are doing, establish some routines, and gain confidence in our ability to take care of him. Honestly, neither of us had much experience with babies before having Andrew so we have learned a lot! My body is beginning to adjust to less sleep and the demands of breastfeeding. Physically, I am feeling like my old self again which is allowing me to enjoy motherhood.

We are going to take a monthly picture of Andrew like the one below. Joey and I had a small disagreement (and I am pretty sure that he was right) about his weight. Our scale said 10.75 pounds. I was reading that to mean that Andrew was 10 pounds, 7 ounces. Joey said it was 10 pounds and 3/4 of a pound, which is about 12 ounces. Looking at it again, I think he is right. Regardless, we weigh him with the same scale each time so we are just looking for growth. We will compare our weight to what the pediatrician says at his next appointment.

We have gotten our bedtime routine down pat! Each night, Joey completely handles getting Andrew to bed. He starts "bedtime" around 8:30 each night. He normally has Andrew asleep by around 9:00. While he is doing this, I sanitze pump parts and bottles, clean the kitchen, do some laundry, or take a bath and relax. Joey and I both thought it was important for him to be in charge of bedtime so that they get some quality alone time together each day. Once Andrew is in bed, Joey and I will spend about 30 minutes together watching television or talking in our room. Because Joey has to get up so early each morning, I am in charge of all of the feedings (which there are normally only 2) throughout the night. I would have to get up to pump anyway, so it really works for us. Here are my boys starting their bedtime routine by reading Andrew's kitten book.

Speaking of kittens...

Cousins

I did not have any cousins growing up, so I am very excited that Andrew already has 3! Here he is with John Marshall before we had family pictures made. I love John Marshall's smile in this first picture:) Kissing his cheek:

Angel Face

This picture was taken with Holly's phone, so it is a little blurry.

Our little mummy

It is funny now how much Joey and I talk about Andrew. We talk about what he did each day, what sports we think he will play, what he will be when he grows up, and the list goes on. Sometimes I wonder what in the world we talked about before we had him?!? I tend to say things such as, "I can't wait until..." For example, I can't wait until he can talk to us, sit up, sleep through the night, etc. Joey is really good about living in the moment and reminds me not to wish away these special months with Andrew. He talks about how he already misses his newborn days. I need to be more like him and enjoy Andrew for who he is today instead of always looking ahead. So, I thought last night about something that I will really miss when he grows up. The first thing that came to my mind was how cute he looks when he goes to bed each night. Joey and I call him our little mummy because he is all swaddled up. I wanted to take a picture of him, but there was no way that I was going to flash a camera when he was sleeping. So, this is what I look at on my monitor each night while my little man sleeps. The last week has actually been very hard in our house--probably the reason why I have been looking ahead to the future. Andrew hit his 3 week growth spurt. For several days, it was hard to soothe him and he ate constantly. This was very stressful for me because I felt like I could not keep up with his demand for milk. He seems to be back on track now and is once again a calm, easy-going baby.

During his fussy moments, we are very thankful for the swing! He loves it! The only thing that really frustrates him is when he loses his pacifier while rocking. Joey and I have been working on showing him how to hold his "pappy" in his mouth. Look at our big man holding his pappy in his mouth!

The other thing that pretty much always soothes Andrew--his dad! My two boys are best buddies. Here they are hanging out in bed before Joey put him in his crib for the night.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a very busy Labor Day Weekend. Andrew spent time with his family from Virginia and some friends from Wetumpka. On Saturday, Andrew met his great-grandmother (Meemaw) for the first time. Here he is with his great-aunt, Barbara and his grandmommy.Andrew spent some time with his Uncle Marshall before the Alabama game. They are both dressed for the big win!

Andrew with his cousin John Marshall:

Some of our closest friends from Wetumpka stopped by to see Andrew before the game. Ashley, Blu, Mariella, Emma and Ella all visited our little man. Here he is with his grandmommy and Blu.

Because all of Mama's family was here from Virginia, we had a surprise birthday party for her. Her actual birthday is not until the 28th, so she really wasn't expecting a party. For her present, we all went in together and had professional pictures made of all of her children and grandchildren. I will do a post soon and upload some of the pictures that we had made.

After all of those visitors, Andrew needed a bath! Even though his cord fell off over a week ago, his pediatrician said to wait a few more days to give him an actual bath. After a week of waiting and several screaming fits during his sponge baths, we decided that it was time. Because of his sponge baths, I was certain that he would hate a "big boy" bath. I was pleasantly surprised, though. He seemed to really enjoy it. I got in the tub with him, and Joey sat beside us to help clean him. I'm sure as we get better and more confident that I will not get in with him, but we had fun together.

We were so excited that Joey did not have to go to work on Monday. We went for a walk around campus with our little man.

My boys stopped to look at the football captains' prints next to Denny Chimes.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend!

2 week check-up

Andrew will be 3 weeks on Sunday. He is growing up so quickly. On Monday, he went to his 2 week check up. He weighed 9 pounds, and half an ounce. The goal was to be back up to his birth weight (8 pounds, 10 ounces) by this appointment, so he is doing great! I was relieved by this because we are exclusively breastfeeding him. It worries me that he is not getting enough because I do not know exactly how much he is eating, but he is clearly getting enough. Of course, Joey and I had a long list of questions for the pediatrician. She checked everything on him, and he received a clean bill of health! Joey met us at the office and laughed when he saw that I had decided to dress Andrew as a bear for his appointment. Here he is before leaving for Dr. Roberts' office in his bear suit. Here are a few new pictures of Andrew. Enjoy!

Andrew with his favorite book about kittens:

His cousins are still not too sure about him:

Joey and I call this look--"crazy eyes" He does this all of the time, but I like the picture because it shows how brown his eyes have gotten. He is going to be his daddy's twin!