Wishing the Happiest Birthday to Our Favorite Guy!

Happy Happy Birthday to the most amazing husband, daddy, and my very best friend! Today Barrett turns the big 3-0!

We celebrated this past weekend with a night out on the town. We were so thankful that our families could come to visit and spend the weekend with us. Susan came to town from
Florida for the weekend; Matt, Jenna, Landon, and Lola came from Greenville; Rachel and Bubba came from Raleigh; Barrett's cousin Brooks came from Richlands; our friend Doug came from Charleston; and my mom came from Burlington.

cousins.

Aunt Rachel, Uncle Bubba, Ellison, Bambino, and Buddy

Ellison and Doug

The grandmas were awesome and stayed home to watch Landon, Lola, and Ellison while we went out to celebrate. A few of Barrett's friends joined us and we went out to a delicious dinner at The Liberty. After dinner, we hit up Strike City. We rented a few lanes and provided beer and wine for our guests. We had a blast! Then, we continued the night at a couple of bars uptown. We even stayed in a hotel uptown! Quite the milestone for these new parents!

Bubba and Rach

Ready to celebrate!

Doug, Me, and Jenna

Barrett and Brooks

Brooks, Barrett, and Jenna

fairly certain this ended up in the gutter.

High School Buddies -
Charlie, Barrett, and Doug

Best cupcakes in Charlotte - Polka Dot Bakeshop

High Score - Matt
Low Score - Brooks
Photo Bomber - Barrett

Barrett continued celebrating Sunday morning by heading out to tailgate and attend the Panthers/Cowboys game.

Tonight, we're having jalapeño popper chicken for dinner and enjoying our little family now that our guests have all made it back home safe and sound.

For Barrett's gift, I went out and selected 30 different beers - 30 Beers for 30 Years! On each bottle, I put a little note telling him why we think he's awesome. Ten notes each from me, Ellison, and Buddy. :-). I also think its fun that he gets a card from sweet Ellie Bean this year too!

30 Beers for 30 Years

 

I mean...how perfect is this one?

 

Barrett came home to spend his lunch break with us!

Barrett - we love you more than you can ever imagine. Thank you for loving us with your whole heart. You take such good care of all of us, and we hope the next thirty years are as fulfilling for you as the first. You're our best friend. XOXO

Still here!

Blogging has obviously taken a backseat lately! The days go by so fast and it seems like there's never enough time to sit and catch up. Seven weeks in, and I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of this mommy thing, so I hope to find a few extra minutes here and there to update!

In addition to not having enough time, there are a few other reasons I haven't been blogging lately.

1) Ellison is too cute. I can't stop looking at her, snuggling her, or hanging out with her. :-)

2) I broke our Internet. We have an air card with AT&T and after a certain amount of megabytes or gigabytes or something, they cut you off. I've been uploading giant photo files, and I used up all our Internet. Twice.

3) I spent what little time and Internet we had (see above) uploading photos to Shutterfly. They had photo books 50% off through yesterday, do I wanted to make one of Ellison's newborn photos.

So, excuses aside, I'll be back. I've been keeping a running list of things I want to blog about, so there is more to come. I may be doing most of my blogging from my phone though, so please excuse any spelling errors or grammatical faux pas in advance.

Here's a little iPhone pic (cause lets be honest, that's easier than pulling out the fancy camera) of our little one to tide you over...

One Month

Dear Ellison -

You are one month old now and we just can't believe it.  It's really gone by so fast and it seems like it can't be that long ago that we welcomed you into our lives.  You have been such a blessing and we are loving every second with you.  You are getting bigger and bigger every day and we are learning more about you every minute.  Here are some things that have been happening...

- You had your one month checkup with the pediatrician on October 1.  You weighed in at 9 lbs 4 oz (20th percentile) and are 21 inches long (28th percentile)!  That means you've gained exactly 2 pounds and grown an inch since your birthday!  You are still wearing newborn diapers and we are slowly transitioning into your 0-3 month clothes.  Some of them are still huge on you, but your newborns are way too short for you now.

- We have been dealing with two angry baby monsters lately - gas and reflux.  The Enfamil Newborn formula you were originally on was making you super gassy.  You would cry and scream for hours every night!  We tried to switch you to Enfamil Gentlease, and you wanted no part of it.  Apparently it doesn't taste very good and you let us know that you weren't going to be drinking it really quickly.  We switched you to Similac Sensitive and started giving you gas drops, and it seems to have helped your gas issues tremendously.  After we got that under control, reflux reared it's angry head.  We self diagnosed you...you were screaming with your feedings, spitting up after every feeding (sometimes three or four times) and it would often have pieces of partially digested milk in it, gagging and coughing, arching your back...all the classic signs.  We tried lots of things to help you.  We switched your bottles to Dr. Browns, bought a Rock N Play Sleeper (which by the way is amazing!), bought a wedge for your crib, and held you upright for 20 minutes after eating.  None of that really seemed to give you any relief.  So, we mentioned it to your doctor at your appointment and she prescribed Zantac.  Hopefully we will start to see some relief soon.  It makes us really sad when you're sad and we can't help you!

- Your first night sleeping in the Rock N Play was awesome!  You slept from 9-2 and then again from 3-6!  Of course, the next night you were up every two hours!  :-)  We are starting a bedtime routine with you to try to get you to sleep longer stretches at night.  Starting at around 8:00, you'll get your Zantac, take a bath, get a good bedtime lotion massage, have a little snuggle time while we read a book, get swaddles nice and tight, have a warm bottle, and then straight to bed.  Last night was our first night trying this, and you slept from 9-2, 3-4 (?), and then from 5-8.  If we could just cut out that random middle of the night wake up, we'd be good!

- We have been doing more tummy time and you are tolerating it for longer periods of time each day.  Sometimes, you'll just lay there, and other times you'll push with your feet and move your head around.  You really do have great head control though!  When we're holding you, you're always looking around and holding your head up straight.  You also have super strong legs and are always trying to "stand" while we're holding you.

- You took your first nap in your crib.  The first time, you only slept for about 15 minutes, but the next time you slept for about an hour!  We're going to slowly ease you into your crib, starting with your daytime naps.  We're not 100% comfortable putting you in there at night until we get your reflux under control.

- Mommy and Daddy went out to dinner for the second time!  Aunt Anna came over to sit with you for a couple of hours while we got out of the house.  It does get a tiny bit easier to let other people love on you for a little while, but we definitely miss you when we're gone!

- You had your first real outing.  We went to an event that mommy's work was putting on at the park.  The weather was nice and it was good to get out of the house.  You got to meet a lot of mommy's work friends and they all think you're the best!  We still haven't taken you out in public otherwise though yet.  The pediatrician made me nervous and said that we really shouldn't have you in crowds until you're 6-8 weeks, so I guess we're homebound again!  We do plan to get you outside a lot more though now that the weather is getting nicer.

- Happy One Month, Sweet Girl.  We can't wait to see what is in store...

Week 3

Dear Ellison -

You are three weeks old now!  You are getting bigger by the minute!  Let's slow down a little bit, OK?  Here are some fun happenings from the last week...

-You are slowly growing out of your newborn clothes, but your 0-3 months are still big.  The biggest issue with your newborn clothes is that they are starting to get a little short.  You aren't really filling them out, but you are getting almost too long for them!

-You had your newborn photos taken this past week.  You were 15 days old and slept the entire time!  The pictures are so beautiful and we will always treasure them.

-You had your first real bath this week!  You didn't hate it nearly as much as you hated your sponge baths.  I think the warm water was soothing. 

 

-Nana came to visit from Florida and got to meet you for the first time!  We had lots of fun with her and she was such a big help to all of us. 

 

 

-Your daddy and I went on our first date night.  It was so strange leaving you!  It was the first time I'd been away from you since you were born.  Well, I guess technically it was the first time I'd been away from you in almost 11 months!  You were with Nana, so we knew you were in good hands, but it was still a little sade!  Everybody says it will get easier to leave you, but I'm not sure I believe it just yet!  We just went to dinner (Cowfish for sushi...yum!) and were only gone about 2 hours, but we couldn't wait to get back to see you!

 

 

-You are such a sweet snuggler!  I could just sit and cuddle you all day...and sometimes I do!  You tend to wake up to eat at night around midnight, 4:00 am, and 7:00 am.  You've been taking shorter cat naps during the day, and you're eating smaller meals about every two hours or so. We have had our first experience with you being a little gassy this week and it has not been fun!  We gave you some gas drops which seem to help a little bit, but we may need to look into getting you some formula for sensitive tummies.  We plan to talk to the pediatrician about it at your appointment next week.

 

 

 

-Your eyes are getting lighter!  When you were born, they were a smoky, gray blue.  Now, they are definitely bluer, especially when they catch the light.  We're excited to see what color they'll end up.  Green like mommy, hazel like daddy, or something different?!

 

-Happy Three Weeks Baby Girl

 

 

 

Breast vs. Bottle

I always thought I would breastfeed Ellison.  Afterall, "breast is best" says the American Academy of Pediatrics, your pediatrician, and even the containers of formula.  I work in pediatric healthcare.  I get it.  I know the benefits.  That's why the plan was always to breastfeed.  I knew that breastfeeding wasn't always easy though.  Not everyone can do it, for a variety of reasons.  I promised myself that if it didn't work out for some reason that I wouldn't beat myself up over it.  Well, it didn't work out, and I did beat myself up a little.

We tried really hard from the day she was born to breastfeed.  When we were in the hospital, we started working on it within the hour after she was born.  Without any help or coaching, she latched right on and I thought we were in business.  We'd taken a breastfeeding class before she was born, so we had an idea of how it was supposed to go and things seemed to be working.  Fast forward about 18 hours or so, and things were starting to get uncomfortable.  Ellison just couldn't quite get it right, and it was becoming very frustrating for all of us.  She'd either latch really well, but would just sit there and not suck, or she'd suck really well but would have a tight lipped, pinched latch.  We worked with three different lactation consultants in the hospital.  We tried every trick in the book.  Here's what we learned...


-Ellison has a high palate.  Touching the palate is what triggers the suck reflex, but her's is so high that it wasn't being triggered.

-She didn't like to stick her tongue out.  Apparently that's a problem too.

-It was taking us so long to get a good latch that Ellison was getting over hungry which made her angry, and it made us really sad.  She's just start to wail, and then I'd cry, and then we'd be in a mess.


So, the final word from the lactation consultant was that we needed to just try pumping, feeding her breastmilk with a bottle, and supplementing formula as needed.  We were going to still try to nurse at every feeding, but if it was taking too long and if Ellison was starting to work herself up, we were supposed to just follow the pump/bottle plan.

Once we were home, things did not get better.  In fact, they got worse.  At first, I thought that maybe we could make the pumping thing work.  If we couldn't actually breastfeed, at least Ellison would still be getting all the benefits of breastmilk.  And, other people, including Barrett would get to feed her too.  Let me say this, if you are exluxively pumping, I've got major respect for you.  It is hard.  Really hard. 

The biggest problem was simply that I couldn't keep up with her.  She was eating more than I was able to pump.  So, I was pumping every two hours just to get enough for her next feeding.  Once Barrett was back at work and our family wasn't here anymore, doing this on my own was nearly impossible.  Every two hours...Ellison would eat, I'd spend just enough time with her to get her settled down enough so I could pump, I'd wash and dry bottles/pump parts, and then Ellison would be up again.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  Over and over again.  All day and all night.

I didn't feel like I was getting to enjoy my baby at all.  I didn't get to spend quality time with her because I always needed her to fall asleep so I could pump and clean parts.  I was always watching the clock.  I didn't have time to eat, brush my teeth, play with my baby, sleep, or do anything other than feed her and pump.  Not fun.

So, after lots and lots of tears and discussion, we made the decision to wean Ellison from breastmilk and switch her over to formula exclusively.  I have to believe that there is more to her being happy and healthy than just breastmilk.  I truly believe that once I'm able to spend more time with her and less time pumping, that we will all be happier.  I can't just stop pumping cold turkey, so I'm weaning myself too.  I went from every two hours to every four hours to every six hours and now to every seven hours.  I went from 15 minutes to 13 minutes and now to 12 minutes per session.  She's still getting mostly breastmilk at this point, so we may even make it to six weeks with her still getting some.

I felt really guilty about it for a few days.  It just seemed like something I should be able to do for her.  I feel much better about it now.  We're not watching the clock all day.  We get to play and snuggle and rest!  She's happy, so I'm happy.  I was formula fed, and I think I turned out just fine.  At least she was able to get some breastmilk.  That's more than a lot of babies get!

So, if you're able to breastfeed your baby...good for you.  If you can't, don't beat yourself up over it.  Our babies need to be loved, they need to be cared for, and they need to be fed...it doesn't matter how it has to happen.

Ellison's Newborn Photos - Sneak Peek!

Ellison had her newborn photos taken today by the fabulous JP Soto. She was the perfect little model and slept through the whole shoot. The sneak peek we got today is so perfect. We can't wait to see the rest!!

Week 2

Dear Ellison -

You are 2 weeks old!  The days go by so fast around here!  We are trying to soak up every sweet minute and every snuggle because we know they are only going to go by faster as you grow.  We are starting to find our rhythm, but we definitely don't have a real schedule or routine quite yet.  We're all flying by the seat of our pants, but it's working for us for now!  Here are some highlights from your second week...

-You actually got to "watch" your first ECU game.  We played South Carolina.  We lost...it was ugly, but you were the cutest Pirate in town for sure!

 

 

-You met your great grandpa Pa Paw Tom and Bea too.  They think you're just as awesome as we all do!

 

 

-Your daddy went back to work this week.  He doesn't like to be away from you.  I send him lots of pictures of you throughout the day though!

 

-You lost your umbilical cord stump on Monday of this week.  You were 10 days old.  Your daddy was sad to miss this...so he took the next day off of work.  :-)

 

 

-We went for our first family walk and stroller ride.  You really liked it!  You slept the whole time.

 

 

-You are still wearing newborn clothes and diapers and still have a good bit of room in them.  I honestly wasn't sure you'd wear your newborn clothes at all!  Your daddy had me convinced that you'd be a big baby, so I didn't even wash your newborn clothes before you were born!

 

-You are a really great eater...although breastfeeding has not been what we hoped it would be (more on that some other time).  Basically, I'm pumping and we're bottle feeding you breastmilk.  We're supplementing a bottle of formula here and there if you're still hungry after a feeding.  You are eating as much as 4 ounces sometimes!  You are probably averaging about 3 ounces every 2 to 3 hours.  We're still waking you every three hours during the day and every four hours at night.  But, you usually wake up on your own before then.  You make the funniest hungry baby bird face when you're hungry!  You give us about 4 seconds to get a bottle to your lips before you start to fuss.  Once we're ready to go, you close your eyes, open your mouth, and shake your little head back and forth looking for the bottle.

 

-We spent some more time on your play mat, in the mamaroo, and learning our colors this week.  We talked about the toys that hang from your playmat.  We especially like the brown dog because he looks like Buddy.

 

 

 

-You really like to be swaddled, but only if your arms are free.  You like to sleep with your arms up by your ears.  If you're feeling sleepy but not quite settled, your pacifier will usually soothe you off to sleep.

 

 



 -Happy Second Week Love.