First Flight

Mom and I had not seen Grandma since she had fallen and ended up in the hospital. I was 37 weeks pregnant and there was no way I could travel. She wasn’t getting much better so Mom and I wanted to go up to see her as soon as possible. With Michel only 4 weeks I didn’t want to have any connecting flights. Savannah doesn’t fly into Ohio non-stop so we flew out of Raleigh on May 25^th. Gosh to take a baby and car seat and stroller through security… PAIN! Why must the stroller and car seat go through the scanner, beats the heck out of me. I guess they wanted to make sure I didn’t tape a weapon on the stroller?!? Or stash cocaine under my kids butt?!?!  Eh whatever!

It was a short plane ride but Michael did wonderful! I nursed him on the way up so his ears wouldn’t pop. On the decent my plan was to nurse him but he slept the whole time sucking on his pacifier so we let him sleep. I was so proud of him and everyone on the plane were quite impressed! Proud to say he is mine…

First Road Trip to Raleigh

On Sunday May 22^nd Michael and I packed up and started our trip up to Raleigh. This was his first long car drive and we all were anxious to see how he was going to do. I fed him 3.5oz of breast milk from a bottle hoping to knock him out for  couple hours of our drive. I was sad to leave Joe, I could tell he was sad to see us go too but he would never admit it! But I could see it in his eyes.

Michael slept for about 3 hours! Wonderful! He started to crank up so we stopped for dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. While we ate I fed Michael to put him back to sleep. After he finished eating mom and I took him into the bathroom to change him. While I was going to the bathroom she watched him. I guess his diaper was super full because he started to leak all down mom! Hehe… oops! So I went out to our table to inform dad that mom needed a new shirt and I grabbed another outfit for Michael.

We got back in the car hoping to make it to Raleigh without another stop. About 30 min from home he started crying again. Poor baby! Mom kept leaning back to give him his pacifier and we held him off until we got to the house. The trip wasn’t all that bad! He did pretty good, but I think he started to lose patience towards the end. I don’t blame him of course, the end of a car trip is always the hardest!

Michael’s Dr. Appt

On May 20^th Joe and I took Michael in for his circumcision follow up and check-up. Britt stayed home to take a little nap. Helping with Michael sure does wear out our visitors!

Stats at visit:

Age – 3 weeks 2 days

Weight – 9lbs 0oz

Height – 21 in

Everything has been healing nicely for him. She said he was on par developmentally so that was great news! Dr. Cantave asked how he often he was eating. I said (excitedly) that he eats about every 3 to 4 hours. She then chimes in and said that we shouldn’t go more than 4 hours. That’s when I decided not to tell her how long he sleeps at night (5 to 7 hours). I did not want to hear he tell me to wake a sleeping baby, she must be out of her mind. The way I look at it, he’s gaining weight so there is no reason I can’t let him sleep as long as he wants at night. During the day he eats his fare share.

Mom and Dad came down here to Beaufort for the weekend. The plan was to spend the weekend here and then they were going to drive me and Michael up to Raleigh for our flight to Cleveland. We spent some time at the Tanger Outlets. I love shopping… Joe on the other hand could have found a better way to spend his day. He is just not much of a shopper. He did get Mellow Mushroom though so that made the trip so worth it to him!

Morgann Visits with Jeffery

On Wednesday May 18^th Morgann came to Beaufort for a visit. I met Morgann in the Birth Center Class. We shared the same due date but she had her son a week before I had Michael (lucky!). It was nice to have her come hang out with us. We grabbed lunch at Firehouse subs. After lunch I brought her on base to show her Parris Island.

When we got home of course I took out my camera to document Michael’s play date with Jeffery! Of course I also took a few photos of just Jeffery (I can’t help myself!) Once we were done, Joe and Britt made dinner while I edited some photos and designed a birth announcement for Jeffery.

Brittany Meets Michael

Brittany was not able to come down to Beaufort for Michael’s birth because she was in a show at school. I know she wishes she could have been there! She did get to watch the birth (most of it at least ~ Ash was holding up her iPad and skyping with Britt while I was pushing. She watched intently so I hear and apparently just before I pushed him out the connection was lost. Ash got some good photos so I showed Britt so she could fill in the blanks!).

Anyhoo, once she finished school she couldn’t get into the car fast enough to get down here. She got here on Monday May 16^th and the second she got through the door she went straight for Michael; then I got a hug! No hurt feelings of course, he is so much cuter than me so I would want a hug and kiss from him first too!

Britt planned to stay for a week. She was so great with him! I think kids weird her out just a bit; fear of them not liking her. Not the case with Michael. He fell in love! Anytime he was fussing with Joe or I, she would take him and instantly he was calm. Pretty amazing! He fell asleep on her the first night, I think she enjoyed that moment a lot! There would be times I would come out of the shower and I would find them cuddling on the guest room bed! Many times I would hear her singing songs to him. It would either put him to sleep or he would lift his head and look at her. I think I even saw/heard her reading him a book or two.

It doesn’t mater who you are or how much Michel likes or dislikes you, warning you probably will get peed or pooped on. We were sitting on the couch, Britt holding Mike and she looks down and sees bright yellow poop on her pants! Too funny! One night Britt offered to take ‘night duty’. So we put the bassinet in her room and she planned to get up with him throughout the night so Joe and I could get some sleep. It was so wonderful to have this! I woke up the next morning to learn that Michael pooped all over himself and the sheets in the bassinet. Britt just got up, changed him, cleaned the bassinet and put on new sheets. Love her!

I had a great week with Britt. We gave Michael his first bathtub bath! I was anticipating a scream fest but he LOVED it! He was just so happy to be laying in the water, very calm. If he understood what a smile was for I am sure he would have smiled throughout the whole thing! I think Britt enjoyed participating in this ‘first’ with us. You can see the video here

I set up a family shoot and I gave Britt a quick lesson in my camera. I think she did a pretty good job for a newbie!

Ashley comes for a Visit

Ashley came down for a short weekend visit. She came for the birth but had to leave 2 days after to go visit Brittany and see her show. She (and us) were anxious to spend some more time with her. She is so good with kids and I love watching her with Michael.

We didn’t do anything special, mostly just hung around the house. We did make a trip to Target! It’s our favorite store and it was a lot of fun to do a little shopping… and bring Shmikealicious for the first time!

It is always so nice to have another set of hands around the house. I have so many things to catch up on that I can’t do it all on my own. Ashley was great when I needed her to hold Michael… she had no problem at al taking him off my hands!

Joe’s 1st Day Back to Work

Bright and early morning on May 9^th Joe had to go back to work. No more help from Joe at night… it was all up to me. Of course Michael didn’t get to sleep much before midnight that night. I do think Joe was a little tired but what do you expect. It was going to take some getting used to.

I woke up to Michael’s cries around 6 to feed him. We laid back down in the bed for a quick nap. I had my alarm set so that I could take a quick shower so that Michael and I could go on base to have lunch with Joe. Michael slept throughout my shower thank goodness! Amazingly we got out the door early and we showed up at the office at 10:55. I was quite proud of myself! We had Subway, like usual. I think Joe enjoyed showing Mikey off to some of his coworkers!

Going to visit Joe made his first day back at work a lot easier for us to swallow! I am sure he missed us just as much as we missed him!