Monday, January 31, 2011

Lots of posts. Weird order.

There are lots of posts to be seen, but you might have to scroll some. I'm a little off my game and late with some pictures. However, I am trying to be picky and put the "real" date on the blog. That will just help me remember the timeline in the future. So some things just got posted today, but they are old or fall in the middle of our "Sleep Series" from a little while back. If you are reading in the Google reader, enjoy the simplicity of only seeing the new stuff! If you don't subscribe to me, subscribe and become a follower! You'll be glad you did! :) Also, I'm working on Micah's two month post as we got his stats from the doc today. Come back later this week!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

First family outing.

Today was a great celebration of Micah's two months in our lives! The weather this weekend was so beautiful, and we decided to get out to make the most of it. Memphis has opened up this new walking trail that goes throughout the entire city called the Green Line. We've heard so much about it, and we often drive through the city watching avid hikers, walkers, and cyclists. Mr. C and I have been curious about it ever since it opened, and there was one particular path along the river that I wanted to try.

Daddy C was so excited to take his son on the very first walk.

Mama C posing in front of the sign at the trail head.

The river. Not too much to look at, but at least it was a change of scenery from suburbia land.

I thought this bridge was pretty, and at one point there was water on both sides of us.

This is Mr. C's Please Don't Take Any More Pictures of Our Walk Face.

The baby, the bridge, and the mommy.

Peaceful serenity. Good conversation and time with family. Can't really beat time spent in God's creation, can you?

Our journey across the river.

We were deep in theological discussion at this point, and since he would no longer pose for a picture...I ambushed him! Actually, we were in a theological discussion about the churches in America and where the Lord was moving us as a family at this time in our lives. Great memories!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Our first play date. (That I took pictures of anyway).

Micah went on his very first play date this month with his new friend Abbey. Abbey (Abigail Elizabeth) was born the day before Micah was in the very same hospital. Abbey's Mommy (Amanda) and I have been close friends since we were in ninth grade. Of all our talks of babies and husbands back then, we never could have planned our children actually being this close together! It's so much fun to have someone to talk to about milestones or stupid questions. These are some pictures of our day, and yes! Micah, you are very big compared to Abbey! (They weighed about the same when they were born, and both babies are nursing. Micah is a BIG BOY.)

Here's the funny but true story behind the day. We've been trying to get together for AGES. First when we were pregnant, before we were pregnant, then one other time when a heating repair man didn't show up after the babies were born. So I drove all the way to Amanda's house (about 30-45 minutes away) for our play date. When I get down there, I notice what I think is mucus coming out of Micah's ears and eyes. I mean, it is crusted on the side of his head. So I call the doc from Amanda's house (after I'd been there 45 minutes) freaking out. The nurse says maybe he should be looked at. So I leave, drive all the way back to the doctor where I find out he has ear wax and cradle cap around his ear! All that for nothing and we didn't get much time together. Hopefully we can get together again soon.

The mommies who carried the beautiful babies. We had no one to take our picture, so the first time the flash got covered by Amanda's finger.


Micah & Abbey

The next time, my short little arms couldn't get us centered in the picture.

My son is very, very long! Come back for his 2 month post to see how much he's grown in his stats! (Sometime later this week I'll finish that up.)

Chubby bunny (my son, not Abbey). Look at those cheeks!
And look--Micah is trying to hold Abbey's hand. He's smooth like his Daddy. Haha!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Sleepy baby.

Yesterday was a loooong day. I think there are times when parenting can be ridiculously "easy" and "fun" and everything is just clicking along, you know? Then there are days that seem endless. Never ending. Frustrating. Exhausting.

For some reason, yesterday was one of the long days for me. Micah was either in a mood or something. Every time I laid him down for a nap, he woke back up. He cried a lot which is unusual for him. I could not put him down because he just wanted to snuggle and be held. All of these things led to some frustration on my part because I just wanted a break, you know?

Cue dramatic music and drumroll.

THEN IT HAPPENED.

I fed him at 8:30 and started trying to put him to bed. Nothing worked! Nothing! The child had been up most of the day, yet he fought sleep. Finally around 9:45 he fell out. Silence.

And I fell asleep on the couch watching Grey's Anatomy just knowing that my catnap would be interrupted around 11 pm for our usual feeding followed by a stumble to our bedroom after making sure his monitor was on. Do you know when I finally woke up?? DO YOU?

Oh, that'd be three in the morning as my husband was leaving for work. Was my baby up at this point? Um, no. In fact, he hadn't been up since around 9:45 pm. What on earth? Immediately I thought he must be dead or something, so I freaked out for a second. Then I realized, wait. Maybe, just maybe he's getting bigger. Maybe, just maybe he'll start to sleep longer. Oh, I hope that day comes soon. Until then...

I nursed him when he awoke at 3:30. I happily laid him back down where he proceeded to sleep until 8 AM.

Glorious does not even begin to describe it at all. I am not jinxing myself, but anytime he wants to do that again is fine by me.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Play gym fun.

This month, I finally got out the play gym for Micah to try his hand at. He's getting bored here and there with just the swing and the bouncy seat. He's so active, I thought he might bat some things around on the play gym. He did! He also started grabbing at the toy hanging over his head on the carseat! What a big, big boy!


1 Hairdryer + 1 Baby = 2 Good Hours of Sleep.

When you take this

Plus this

You get that.
My child is definitely a noisy baby. Meaning he loves the noise to sleep not that he is annoying and loud. Well, yet. :) He gets this need for noise honestly as his father and I sleep with two fans at all times of the year. I absolutely can't sleep if it is silent. Pretty funny what will knock a kid out when you aren't even trying!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Show some love.

One of my favorite things to do? Go see a movie! Unfortunately, that doesn't happen much because I hate to pay for it. So expensive! However, my sis and I decided to go since I hadn't been out of the house in 88 years. My mom (AKA Kaykay) graciously agreed to watch the cousins while we went off to watch Country Strong. My sister lives about 5 minutes away from me, so she swung by our house to pick us up. On the way to grandma's house, guess who we saw holding his little cousin's hand? SO CUTE. I'm glad I got a picture, but the moment was gone before I could get a better one. Ebin loves his cousin Micah, and I know they'll be great buds one day!

Operation crib. Night 5.

Well, this will be my final blog post about the stats of Micah adjusting to his new bed in his own room. I know this has been very boring for you! So sorry!

Last night I put him down at 8. He did this whimpering thing around 9. Barely a cry just like in his sleep? It was so cute. But I was so thankful it was just a whimper and not a wake up!
He woke up at midnight.
He woke up at four.
He woke up again at seven.

I set an alarm to do the usual eleven feeding that seems to take him mostly through the night. I was exhausted yesterday after the day of MOMs Bible study followed by trying to catch up at the house on Friday from missing Thursday. So...I went to bed with him at 8. When my alarm woke me up at 11 (signaling I needed to wake him to eat), I totally ignored it. I just let us sleep. So he slept from midnight to seven with only one wake up! Not bad, not bad.

I'll keep "tweeking" and listening to him to figure out a schedule. Maybe by next week he'll be in a good sleep pattern in his room. ;)

Friday, January 21, 2011

Operation Crib. Nights 3 & 4.

Well, yesterday was my MOMs Bible study at Bellevue, so I didn't blog yesterday. I have a really hard time getting out of the door on time with an infant. I haven't been setting an alarm clock because Micah is as good as an alarm clock by himself. Then what did he do yesterday morning? He overslept!! So that meant I overslept, and we were running to get out of the door and to Bible study by 9AM. I'm exhausted just thinking what it will be like to leave to go to work. However, that is not today, so I'm not going to think about it quite yet.

Micah's stats Wednesday night were pretty good, but I was still getting up a lot more than I used to. I fed him at 10:30, and he woke up at 2 AM. Then he woke up at 4:30 AM followed by a 7:30 AM wake time leaving me about an hour to get us both ready for MOMs at 9. That is still two times getting up in the night when the booger used to give me ONE time.

Something (fingers crossed here) must have clicked last night because Micah did it!! Whoo-hoo! I put him down at 8, and decided to let him wake himself up. I set a backup alarm just in case. I really wanted to try for a late 11 PM feeding. That really seems to help him sleep a lot longer, and I've noticed I keep feeding him around 10. Sure enough, he woke himself up at 11. I fed him, then he woke up at 3AM and 7 AM. Praise the Lord! Even if he doesn't do this another night, it was just nice to get a couple of four hour stretches to make me feel human again. It was also nice to know that I wasn't dreaming. My kid can ALMOST sleep through the night! Amazing how I would have never longed for four hours of sleep in my old life. Now? That is like a miracle!

Maybe it is just taking some time for him to transition himself into his crib? We'll see how he does tonight. I'm not getting my hopes up, but I'm definitely going to stick to an 11PM feeding time in the future. At any rate, I'm so proud of my big boy sleeping in his "big boy" bed versus his bassinet. Way to go, Micah!!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Snow day #2.

When one thinks of Tennessee, they often think of the Great Smokey Mountain National Park, the Vols, Rocky Top, hillbillies running around barefoot. Anyway, most of Tennessee is rather beautiful and full of hills, valleys, and mountaintops. Where I live is not so. We don't get that much snow, and what snow we do get? It is usually melted within twenty minutes. Imagine our surprise after having snowfall that STAYED ON THE GROUND A WEEK we got more! I mean, come on, we never have snow. Snow twice in almost two weeks? Snow that stuck? Insane!

This time I just took two little pictures for Micah to cherish one day. Who am I kidding? He'll be like any other man and hardly care about this blog. Maybe his wife will cherish it. Anyway...

Micah is mad about Mommy sitting him in the snowy chair.

Micah is equally mad about being held in the snowfall as the wind whipped around us.


Hope your snow day was as fun as ours was!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Micah's nursery.

You may remember this post, this post, or perhaps this one? Well, all of those posts from my old blog came together to form Micah's nursery. Welcome to a tour of our home. Please be kind because I'm not an HGTV blogger, and I don't claim to have any HGTV style or money. I so wish I did. However, using the resources we had available, a little creativity, a little money, and a lot of generosity from grandparents...here is what the finished product looks like now.

All the pictures are taken clockwise going around the room from the left to the right. Enjoy the tour of his room!

When you come to his door, you will be greeted by this super cute wreath my sister created to place on his hospital door as a welcome for his birthday. I lurve it! Even though I've got a boy, it is nice to have a little bit of girly cute stuff while he's little.

Open the door, and you'll see the rocking chair, his crib, and peeking out is the changing table.

This is the chair that we borrowed from my sister, Keren. It was in Ebin's nursery for the past two years. It had a few stains on it, and the color blue had faded. Instead of getting rid of it, we (my mom actually) dyed it! If that hadn't worked, we were going to slip cover it, but I really liked how it turned out.
The quilt on the back of the chair doesn't actually go with Micah's set, but it had woodland creatures on it. My mom gave it to me as a shower gift. I like having something to cover my legs when I'm rocking Micah. It gets cold in his room! See the next picture for details.
Chair: Free plus dye.
Curtains: $12 a panel at Target. They are blackout curtains, and I love them for his naps!
Tree decal: I found it for $13 at Kohl's before Christmas. What a steal!
Table: This was actually from our living room. I bought it at Bombay Company so it was free.
Shelves: I bought these shelves for $2 a piece years ago at Old Time Pottery to use in our office. They were sitting out in the garage, so we figured it was about time to use them. Technically, we had them...so free! They are now filled with gifts given at showers including a handmade sign with Micah's name, a hedgehog from the bedding, picture frames, and the blocks I used in my maternity pictures.

I just love this little corner of the room!

Another favorite find from the nursery hunt was the crib itself! It was a floor model crib that my mom found for a steal. I love it, and I think it is beautiful. We also found it online for the actual retail price of $500 which we could never justify. (Sounds like The Price is Right talking.) Way to find a bargain and a beauty, Kaykay! She found the crib, and C's parents graciously bought it for us as a gift.

The letters were a Hobby Lobby project that I did myself. For about $13 I bought paint, letters, woodland creatures, paint brushes, and a glue gun. Tree limbs were free from my mother's neighbor's yard as they cut back the bushes for the winter. ;)

We hung the matching quilt as wall art for now. I hope to frame several of our Montana pictures in groups to hang on this wall. The swing was borrowed from my sister, my mom made the ribbon tabs to hang the bedding, and we used more tree branches to match his name. The bedding was a splurge because I really wanted it. I saved so much money elsewhere, I thought it was ok to spend what I wanted to get the bedding I wanted. In the end, my parents ended up giving us the bedding for a gift! We are so thankful for the grandparents and their generosity!
Another fun find in my decorating quest were these leaf/fall motif boxes and storage crates Target had this fall. I stocked up on those for storage since they fit the nursery theme so well. We bought some, and my mom gave us some, too for shower gifts. At some point, the swing will be gone, and I plan to replace that wall with toy storage unit of some kind in the future.
The bookshelf was built by my maternal grandmother (Micah's great grandmother) and was in my room as a child filled with all my books. My mother found the lamp ($75 online and in the store originally) for $16 at Babies R Us when it was going out of business this fall. Isn't my mom a wonderful deal shopper? I don't know how she does it! Right place, right time.
Micah's closet. It is a tiny, tiny space.

Target also had these clear storage containers, so that is how we are maximizing this small closet for Micah. I love that they are see-through bins.
It is hard to see, but there are even bins under the clothes in the floor of the closet. My goal is to cutely label them with printed address labels in the future.
This has nothing to do with anything, but my sister had this diaper bag made for me. I love stuff with his name on it!!
Now we are close to ending our tour, but this is our "changing table" for Micah. This dresser was C's grandmother's dresser that was in his room growing up. It is the perfect size and scale for this room. We placed a changing pad on top, and tada! Changing table. Another one of those shelves from the garage tops it off with the clock we bought for my nursing. In the beginning, I had to record specific times to make sure he was getting enough food. This way, I can see the clock from the rocking chair.
Just for fun, a closer view of the lamp.
A closer view of the Rubbermaid storage tote from Target.

There you go! I hope you enjoyed the tour of Micah's room in our home.

Operation crib. Night 2.

Thankfully, last night went much better than the first night Micah attempted to sleep in his crib. I think I mainly spent that night waking up with fussy pants every hour or so and putting him back down. Last night, I had high hopes of keeping him up until eleven so we could get back on our dream schedule. It seems like a dream that he was actually doing that now, but I am confident we'll get back there.

Anyway, last night was better, but I could tell he was super duper hungry at 9:30. So I fed him. Which means he was in bed by 10:00, but I really prefer to be feeding him at that time so he gets to go down between 10:30-11. However, he drifted off into a blissful sleep and didn't awake until 1:45 AM. I got close to 4 hours that stretch and then he woke up at 4:45 AM. So he is doing better, but he is still stubborn with that 6:30 AM wake time! I don't care if I lay him back down, he will wake up by 6:30 on the dot hungry. We held off eating until 6:45 (so it was at least 2 hours between eating), but I don't know why he wakes up at that stupid time. Oh, well. I think that I can't complain about last night since he forgo waking every hour to hour and a half. We're still not back to his 11-6 wake up once schedule, but we're getting closer. Surely after he gets used to the crib it will space out again. I have to admit, he's done well considering he is no longer relying on the vibrating bassinet anymore either to help him sleep. Progress is being made, so we'll see how tonight goes!

Hopefully, I'm not boring you with crib talk! Haha! Oh, well. I started this portion of my blog more as a family recording than anything, and these are the things I will most definitely forget twenty years from now.

Check back later! Since I'm talking cribs, I realized I never did a blog post with Micah's finished nursery! I'll have the complete tour for you later on today or tomorrow.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Operation crib. Night 1.

I didn't take pictures of this since I didn't want a flash to wake my son up. However, I thought I could record the happenings just so that I will be able to remember one day in the future. Last week, I started putting Micah in his crib when he fell asleep around 9 PM. Usually, I would wake him up or he wakes up around 11PM to eat. I like feeding him around 10:45-11:00 PM because he will give me a long stretch of sleep afterward until almost 3:00 AM, sometimes 3:30 AM! This follows a 3:30 feeding with a 6-6:30 AM feeding. Since I feel he's really only waking up about once to feed, now was the time to start the transition from his bassinet. Like I said before, last week I started to lay him down from 9-11 in his crib to get him accustomed to falling asleep in there. Then I'd feed him at 11 and put him down in our room for the rest of the night.

One problem has arisen with this method because our room has a sunburst window. It is that kind of window where all the light rushes in making Micah acutely aware it is daytime. Lots of times after eating at 6-6:30 AM, he won't go back down at all. It's bright in the room, he is happy and awake, we sing songs, and no more sleep for Mommy. So my mom suggested that I put him in his crib after that feeding since his room is at the back of the house and nice and dark with blackout curtains. I also started that last week, but I was getting frustrated this weekend playing musical beds with Micah. In the meantime, I've been sleeping on the couch since it it two steps from his bedroom. Since I'm still nursing, I'm especially lazy when it comes to walking across the house to feed him. I finally decided to try letting him sleep the whole night in his crib last night since he's going down nicely at the start and ending of the night. He's also sleeping so well at night, seemed like a good time.

Last night the booger woke up every hour, hour and a half, up to two hours crying. I guess he's just going to have to get used to it? Seriously, I was discouraged because I woke up exhausted. I'm not getting a full night's sleep at this point in time, but I do only wake up once from 11-6:30 versus his newborn days. I had flashbacks last night waking up so often. We're going to try it again tonight (I think) since he is seven weeks old today. Here's hoping for a better night tonight!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Our first time at church.

Today we got up and took Micah to church for the first time! (Ok, this is a lie because I took him to Bellevue for a Bible study on Thursday, and we took you to a church close to our home on Wednesday night. Let's just say it is your first SUNDAY at church.) Currently we are searching for a church home, so we decided to take Micah to my parents' church for his first Sunday. What better way to go to church than with your parents and grandparents? =) Micah did wonderful (as always) and slept the whole time. We are becoming well aware we have an extremely happy baby!! (Thank goodness, right?) We weren't brave enough to make it to Sunday school or put you in the nursery yet. We're waiting for Micah to get his shots, and even then, I may wait a while on putting Micah the nursery. I'm sorry, but I don't want a two month old with the flu. I really should have gotten that flu shot while I was pregnant. Oh well.

Micah's Grandmommy (C's mom) gave him this newborn church outfit. Thankfully, we still fit in it. (Although I'm not sure for how long since he is getting big!)
Micah and his first church outfit up close.

Mommy and Micah ready to leave for church.
Mommy is wearing her maternity/nursing shirt since I'm still nursing. It is not near as flattering as regular clothing. What Daddy should have taken a picture of is my pre-maternity skirt that I am also sporting that fits now!! Yay for regular clothing!! Oh, how I missed thee.

Daddy and Micah ready for church. I think Micah got his daddy's cheeks, what about you?

Friday, January 14, 2011

Week in review.

What were we up to this week, Micah?

1. You are smiling up a storm, and I'm trying to catch it on film. Here is a halfway smile...
2. You sat in your bumbo seat. Or attempted to.
I think you'll like it, but you might be a bit too little still.
3. You slept in the kitchen as Mommy did chores. You fight sleep with the best of them, so it took a washer, dryer, dishwasher, and a swing to knock your little butt out.
4. You talked a lot to your daddy. Can't wait until you really talk, but for now we are enjoying your "cooing" to us!