I can’t go and make a long post about my friends and then not acknowledge my wonderful husband (I hope this makes your day, I love you!)

He truly is a wonderful husband and father … I could not ask for anyone better.  Not only was he understanding throughout my pregnancy, especially at the end when I was bitchy, emotional, hormonal and probably a pain in the ass to deal with, but he’s been extremely helpful since Emelyn has been born.  He’s done it all in the last few weeks - cooking, cleaning, helping with both kids as much as he can.  He bathes Hayden most nights and puts him to bed; they both sleep in Hayden’s room every  night so that they can get the sleep they need.  He spends lots of time cuddling Emelyn, especially when I need a break to take a shower or do other things.  He even offered to let me have a night of uninterupted sleep Friday night while he takes care of Emelyn!  I can’t even list everything he’s done to help out and try to make things easier for me.

He’s truly just the greatest guy.  I’ve always known it and I actually think about it quite often, especially lately.  There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t find myself thinking about how much I love him and how lucky I am to have him … what sucks is that by the time he comes home in the afternoons, I’m usually so tired or frazzled or busy, that I forget to tell him … so I guess maybe I should just click publish and turn to my left to tell him instead of telling all of you guys, huh?

Love you :-)

I’ve had the greatest friends around lately :-)

First, I’ve been able to see Dana and Rebecca not once, but TWICE in the last few weeks, which is something that hasn’t happened in probably 10 years or so!  Rebecca is a nurse who works a pretty rough schedule, so its very rare that we can coordinate times to get together.  And Dana lives on the Northshore, which is a pretty long drive for me.  We manage to see each other a bit more than Rebecca and I, but still not often enough.   So for the 3 of us to get together 2 times in a matter of a few weeks is pretty monumental :-)  Tobie was also able to join us for the last get together, so I’m really happy that 3 of my good friends were able to meet Emelyn when she was still a newborn!

Then there are my Morgan City friends … Mary invited us over for lunch a couple of weeks ago - a MUCH needed outing for both Hayden and I.  We hadn’t really spent time with her and her boys in months mostly due to hectic schedules and general pregnancy exhaustion (both mine and hers), so it was really nice to see them.  I know the boys were thrilled to see each other and as always, it was fun to see how differently they interact with each other from when we first met them over a year ago.  She gave us the CUTEST little pink case to pack Emelyn’s things in when we travel!

Stephanie and her little girl, Raelee were finally able to come over last week as well.  We’ve been trying to coordinate it, but something always came up - either an illness or me just being sleep-deprived and not up for company :-)  It was nice to see them as well, since it had been a few weeks.  Raelee picked out the softest pink blanket for Emelyn - she’s actually sleeping with it right now.  Stephanie brought us a pink crib mirror that Emelyn loves.  Its got little ribbon tags around it and she was reaching out to grab them and staring at her reflection for a long time.  They even brought Hayden a big brother gift - a set of Cars, which of course, he LOVED!

Then I got a phone call a few days ago from my friend Anita, offering to cook us dinner one night this week.  I was pretty surprised by this because its just not something that I’ve had a friend do for me, ever.  So tonight, we had an amazing Mexican dinner (feast LOL), compliments of Anita!  She came over right at dinner time, bearing tons of food and awesome presents!  The food was seriously delicious, all 3 of us thoroughly enjoyed it.  Even Hayden gobbled it up!  There were even some fresh baked cookies!  (Thanks Anita, I really don’t need those extra calories right now LOL)  There was even a tray of food for us to eat tomorrow.  This is one of the best gifts anyone could have given me at this point b/c even though I’ve managed to somewhat cook dinner every night (canned beans and boxed pasta LOL), its time that I could have been spending doing something much better.  So instead of spending the time cooking, I was able to sit down with Hayden while Emelyn napped and play sticker books with him, something he really needed from me.  As for the gifts - it was a ton of stuff that we’ll defintely use - diapers, wipes, lotions, bath stuff, breast pads and a couple of baby toys.  All very much appreciated!  And of course, Hayden got a great big brother gift - markers, coloring book and a really neat super hero book that he loves.  The markers kept him occupied the rest of the night!

So I’m feeling pretty loved by my friends these days and I’m really looking forward to spending more time with them soon.  We’ll be getting toghether with Mary and the boys again tomorrow.  Next week I really hope to meet up with Christina and have made plans to go see Twilight (woohoo!!!!) with a few friends as well.

I love all of you guys so much and thanks again for everything you’ve done for us over the last few weeks!

Yes, of course I have some photos to post, but it will have to wait until tomorrow.  Last night was a pretty good night, its amazing what an extra hour or so of sleep will do!  Emelyn gave me two blocks of about 3 hours in between feedings, which was a big improvement from the 1 1/2 hours she gave me the night before.  She’s getting bigger and stronger every day, I can’t even believe how much she’s grown already.  She can hold her up pretty steady for a good amount of time when you hold her sitting up and we’ve started doing some tummy time with her.

A few days ago we received a fun little surprise in the mail.  I had joined an internet site called Generation Mom when Hayden was a baby and occasionally you get the opportunity to test products and fill out surveys for them.  We never got one for Hayden, but I got an email that we’d be getting a product to test for Emelyn, so we now have a completely pink and VERY girly bouncey seat for her.  Its nothing out of the ordinary, just some little toys on a bar and it vibrates.  She doesn’t particularly care for it, but since its smaller than the swing and baby seat (she loves both of these and I especially love the infant seat, its so cool that its raised off of the ground!) that we already have, its convenient for when I need to be in the bathroom for any reason, for short amounts of time.

I’m getting a little better at fitting more things into my day.  I’ve been taking both Hayden and Emelyn for walks around the block every day.  Emelyn rides in her stroller and Hayden rides one of his bikes in front of us.  He’s finally learned how to pedal really well!  He’s been pedaling a bit for months now, but he had trouble sometimes going forward.  He does great now, though!  Maybe a real big boy bike will be on his list for Christmas!  We all enjoy these walks b/c its nice to get out of the house, even just for a little while and especially since the weather has been nice.

Today we also got out to McDonald’s because Hayden asked me to take him there to play.  It was actually a pretty memorable trip b/c not only did he sit down first and completely eat his entire meal without me having to ask him to, but he also ventured up into the top of the play area!  He’s always been to nervous to go any higher than the lowest tube, ever since he went way up to the top of one and got scared / stuck (I think he was about 2 at the time).  Today, though, there was a little girl that he was playing with and as he started to go into the tube, she started to chase him and I guess he figured he had to be “macho” and he let her chase him all the way to the top!  I could tell he was still really nervous up there, he crawled the whole time and wouldn’t stop to look at me once he was at the top.  He came down pretty quickly, but I was still proud of him and told him lots of times!

We’re still having somewhat of a rough time with him, but its getting better.  I’m trying really hard to be consistent with him when it comes to discipline as well as trying to fit a few minutes of “us” time in our day.  I find it so hard to do this.  I always intend to sit down and play a game with him or take him outside, but then Emelyn needs to eat, or she’ll start to cry and need to be picked up.  Then there’s always the laundry to do or dinner to cook.  I know as Emelyn grows and we get on a better schedule, I’ll figure out how to fit more Hayden time in, but in the meantime, I feel incredibly guilty every night as I think about how little time I was able to spend with him throughout the day.  I really hope my time levels out soon!

on sleep.  I’m feeling much better this week than I was last week.  Emelyn is getting a little better with sleeping at night, though its still not ideal.  I get about 6 hours of very interupted sleep at night, usually in 2 hour blocks.  I am dealing with some pretty bad soreness from breastfeeding, so I’m hoping to get to a lactation consultant soon to figure out whats going on.  At night I’ve been having to take medicine for the pain but it makes me sleepy, so I don’t take it during the day.

We spent the weekend at my parents’ house while Wade took his boat out for the first time.  It was a nice, relaxing weekend.  I got to do some shopping and even went to dinner and had a margarita with some friends.  I left Emelyn with my mom and it was only about an hour, but she did well.  She took a bottle and was sleeping when I got home.  Hayden’s been doing pretty well, too.  He still has his moments, but its getting better.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

I can’t believe its already been three weeks since Emelyn was born … where is the time going???  It truly seems like the days go by so fast.  By the time I wake up, feed Emelyn, pump, get Hayden breakfast, get dressed and feed Emelyn again, half the day is already gone!  Its so sad that it has to go by so quickly :-(

Emelyn is still a pretty good baby.  She still sleeps the majority of the day, but has been getting a  bit fussier and hard at night.  She’s still spitting up large amounts almost daily, so I’m starting to think it may be something I eat, possibly dairy, which would really suck b/c there is dairy in pretty much everything!  She threw up all over herself, me and the bed at 3am after grunting and making a lot of noise for over an hour, so needlesstosay, I didn’t get much sleep last night.

Here are some pictures of Emelyn from the last week or so:

“Daddy - Pickles Chest Time”

Emelyn is developing quite an attitude at times.  Its not too often, but when she doesn’t like something, she lets you know.  There isn’t much in the way of an in-between cry with her … when it starts, it starts full-on.  Especially in the car, she goes straight to this ear-piercing, hoarse cry that sounds painful :-(  I have had to pull over immediately a couple of times to feed her because it sounds so terrible!

She’s getting so big and chunky!  Her cheeks are so fat and she’s got so much meat on her little thighs now!  even her little fingers are fat and look like little sausages.  I could just squeeze her!

Today I took Emelyn to Lafayette for a check-up with the pediatrician that saw her in the hospital.  Its the same doctor Mandy uses and I really liked her in the hospital, so I decided to start taking Emelyn to her.  I may switch Hayden over to her, too, but I haven’t decided yet.

Emelyn now weighs 8lbs 9oz and is 21.5 inches long … she’s obviously gaining weight really well and doing fine in all other areas.  We’ll see the doctor again at 8 weeks and she’ll get her first shots at that time :-(

Another “milestone” that we just reached is that Emelyn just got her first bottle from daddy!  I started pumping yesterday to build up a supply so we could start working on getting her to take a bottle.  Wade was trying to get her to go to sleep tonight and she was being fussy, so I figured I’d warm up an ounce of milk to see if she’d take it.  No problem at all!  She drank it down and cried for more, so I warmed up a couple more ounces and now she’s happily laying on daddy’s chest.  I’m so relieved that we won’t have any bottle problems, though I still need to make sure she doesn’t start to prefer the bottles.  Not only that, but I’ll probably have to pump tonight to make up for the missed feeding … I HATE pumping, I’d so much rather nurse her than have a machine attached to me like a cow!

Emelyn is now 2 weeks and a few days old; so hard to believe how quickly time is going by.  It makes me so sad, especially since I know this is the last time I’ll have a teeny tiny newborn to love on.  As my friend Emma said, I’m “trying to squeeze every last newborn drop out of her.” (Thanks for that Emma!)  Her little “belly raisin” fell off the day she turned 2 weeks and although she has had a couple of baths in shallow water, I gave her a bath that day, too.  Of course, she hated it, like most newborns do!

I just adore her expression when I finally get her out of the tub and all wrapped up, though.  She looks up at me like “thank you so much for saving me, mommy!”  Then she gets mad all over again when I take the towel off to lotion and dress her!  LOL

Here is a wide awake photo of her at 2 weeks old:

And one with her big brother, who still loves her and thinks she’s “so so cute.”  He still asks to “pet” and “soft” her all the time (because we tell him to be “soft, soft” with her.)

Wade’s dad came to visit this weekend to help him get some things done on his boat, so we just stayed around the house and relaxed.  All day Saturday, Hayden was outside helping with the boat.  He seemed fine all day, but by around 5pm, he asked to come inside and told me he was tired.  He was acting really whiny and clingy.  He crawled up onto the couch with me and just layed there; I figured he must really be exhausted b/c he fell asleep that way.  Wade brought him into the bedroom and about an hour later, he got up and was crying.  When I pulled him onto my lap, I realized he had a fever and when I checked it, it was almost 103.   He was crying like he felt miserable, too, though he said nothing hurt.  He probably hurts all over and just can’t pinpoint a specific place.  Anyway, after some Motrin, he was feeling better, but he’s still running fever today.  I’ve been keeping up with Motrin every 6 hours and hope that its nothing to worry about.  He has no other symptoms, other than being tired.  He’s taking a nap right now and has been sleeping for a couple of hours now.

This was us on the couch last night … don’t look at me, I look just as miserable and tired as Hayden!

Today was just as lazy and relaxing as yesterday … Hayden spent a good part of the morning outside again, so Emelyn and I just hung out in the house.  She tried out her crib for the first time and enjoyed watching the mobile for a bit:

So far, so good … though I’ve only really been alone with them a handful of hours so far.  Monday, it took me HOURS to get us all packed and ready to head to New Orleans.  My morning went something like this:

- pack a few things
- Feed Emelyn
- pack a few things
- Hayden’s breakfast
- pack a few things
- Feed Emelyn
- pack a few things
- Dress Hayden

You get the point.  Then on Tuesday, my good friends Rebecca and Dana spent pretty much the whole morning / afternoon at my mom’s visiting with us.  I haven’t seen Rebecca in months and its been years since I’ve really been able to sit down and chat with her one -on- one, so it was really nice to just spend time with the two of them.  We had lunch at Chevy’s while mom kept Hayden and Emelyn came with me.

Wednesday was a few more hours of packing then we headed back to Morgan City and now today, Thursday, was my first full day with both Hayden and Emelyn.  We even ventured out to the grocery store!!  So far, things are pretty good.  Hayden’s been relatively well-behaved and both of them are now napping (I really need to wake up Hayden though, he’ll never go to sleep tonight.)

Anyway, here are a few quick pictures from the last week before I have to run:

Emelyn is such a good baby, most of the time, she’s content to sit anywhere you put her.  Whether its in her bouncy seat, swing, boppy or even just laying in her pack-n-play, she’ll just sleep or look around at whatever she can see

Hayden playing with his little sister:

I love when she purses her lips like this:

Sleepy newborn smile

I already see that she’s grown :-(  She’s filling out and doesn’t have skin wrinkles anymore!

This is from today, 2 weeks old already!

When Hayden was a baby and even more so today, all I hear is that he’s a little Wade and I have to agree.  He looks so much like his daddy, down to being shaped exactly like him.  Now, since Emelyn is here, I’ve been hearing quite a bit that she looks just like me.  I actually kind of see it, too.  I’ll have to try and get a picture of her wide awake and sitting up like I am in this picture, but the resemblance is pretty obvious!  And we keep wondering where she gets her lighter colored hair from, but it seems like Wade had the same color hair as a baby.

Here is myself as a newborn, probably no more than a few weeks old … same round face and pouty little lips that Emelyn has.  Even her eyes are very similar and she has a smaller version of my birth mark between her eyes - its not quite as obvious.

And here is baby Wade … not sure how old he was in the photo, probably a few months, but it looks JUST like Hayden.  They have the same eyes and bowtie lips and despite everyone saying Hayden has my family’s chin, it looks like Wade had the same chin as well!  Sometimes Emelyn’s eyes look like they’ll be shaped more like Wade’s, though.  I guess we’ll just have to see!

Nope, we’re not talking about his new baby girl (though he’s just as thrilled with her, we hope LOL) …

Wade finally got the boat he’s been dreaming about for years … he and Hayden couldn’t be happier!  Its a Flats Cat and that’s about the extent of my knowledge, so if you want more details, you’ll have to ask Wade!