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Wednesday, October 23, 2013

It's Pumpkin Time

My favorite time of year is upon us. Fall. I love Fall and all that it has to offer--mainly pumpkins. I love anything pumpkin. I love regular ol' orange pumpkins, cinderella and heirloom pumpkins, green pumpkins, pumpkin scented candles, pumpkin spice lattes, roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin pies...you get the point! Needless to say, I was so excited to take Chapman to get his first pumpkin.  I wanted to take him to the pumpkin patch, but we decided he is too young to go to a real pumpkin patch {the kind that's on a farm and has a hay ride, etc.}. We will do the real deal next year when he is a little more aware of what is going on in his little world. This year we stuck to the trusty church pumpkin patch. We visited Glenn Memorial's pumpkin patch, and Chapman was none the wiser that there was no hay ride or farm animals. We found 3 perfect pumpkins...now we can't wait to carve them on Sunday!
Getting ready to leave for the pumpkin patch...this baby was so excited!
 Daddy and Chapman found a pumpkin!
 These two melt my heart. 
 Chapman was over taking pictures. Bless his heart.
There were lots of pumpkins! 
 I loved the one in the front.
Our three pumpkins!
 After we left the pumpkin patch we stopped for dinner at Hobnob. Chapman hung out while Mommy and Daddy ate! 
Happy Pumpkin Time to you and yours! -j,b,&c

Saturday, October 5, 2013

The New Normal

Last time I posted we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of our baby.  He has now been with us for an entire month. I can't believe it! It's amazing to me how different life can be in just one short month {or day, for that matter, our lives turned upside down the day he was born--in a good way, of course}.  One day it was just Britt and me.  We came and went as we pleased. Our house was spotless all the time. We went to bed late and slept in late if we wanted to. We hopped in the car and ran errands when we decided. And then, on September 4th all of that changed. Our lives aren't "normal" anymore, but day by day it's becoming a new kind of normal for us. We don't get to sleep late anymore. We don't hop in the car and go somewhere on a whim. Our house is no longer spotless. It's a new normal that we would not trade for the world.

On September 4th God gave us the most beautiful gift we could ever dream of. He gave us our son, Chapman Alvah Smith.  Chapman was 9 days late the day I was induced, and he STILL did not want to come out. After lots of pitocin, an epidural, and 15 long hours of labor the doctor came in around 10:30pm and decided I was stuck at 9 cm, and she thought it was best for me to have a c-section. I was crushed at that news. I wanted to deliver my baby the "normal way".  I cried, but my mom and Britt's mom assured me a c-section was not a big deal and that it was probably best for me and the baby. So we decided to go with it. Early that morning our nurse had us make a goal for the day...our goal was to have a baby ON September 4th. The doctors and nurses knew that was our goal so they did everything they could to make sure Chapman was born that day. And he was--at 11:59pm and 45 seconds. It was a close call, but we made our goal and we have been completely smitten ever since!

The rest is history. Some days are a blur; others I feel like we have been got this parenting thing under control. We are still getting used to having another little person to care for every minute of the day, but it is such a blessing to have Chapman here with us.

We spent the first 3 days of his life at the hospital. That was hectic, and we could not wait to get to our own home and begin our own routine. Now that we've been home and living as a family of three for a month we are beginning to establish a semi-routine. We are trying to follow the Baby Wise "plan/schedule", but obviously not exactly--we do what is best for Chapman when we need to.  Our day usually begins between 6 o'clock with a feeding, then diaper change and awake time, then it's back down for a nap after about 10-20 minutes of awake time. We repeat that every 3 hours, approximately.  The first 2 weeks were h.a.r.d. I won't even lie. I felt like I had no control and I was more exhausted than I had ever felt before. But things are getting better. Much better! During Chapman's naps I try to pick up around the house, fold laundry, do the dishes, take a shower, etc., and also sneak in a nap of my own at least once a day. It usually works out pretty well!

Now our tiny newborn has turned into a one month old little baby. I want to document his growth and milestones so that one day I can look back and see what all he accomplished in such short amounts of time. I'll call this Chapman's Month One Month Review! 

Weight: 10.3 pounds. We have a healthy baby! He has gained 2.2 pounds since he was born.
Length: He's growing like a weed--he's grown an inch since birth. Now he his 21 3/4 inches long.
Clothes: Sadly, we have packed away the newborn clothes {tear}. Now Chapman is wearing 0-3 month clothes. We recently got a ton of cute new outfits and pajamas at a local church's consignment sale. If you aren't a consignment shopper I highly recommend it. You can get so many great deals!
Sleep: Chapman naps after each feeding and awake time. He is starting to nap for shorter stretches of time, though. The doctor said he may be starting to take cat naps! And as far as sleeping at night goes...Well, it took a couple of weeks, but he is slowly beginning to sleep like a pro at night. We had a rough patch with lots sleepless nights around week 2, but now he's getting the hang of sleeping during the night. We feed him around 11:00 before we go to bed, and he sleeps until about 3:00 or 3:30. After the 3:30 feeding he will sleep until around 6:30 then we get to go back to sleep until 8:30 or 9:00--I can handle that! He slept in his bouncer for the first week or so, then he moved to the swing for the greater part of the first month because that's the only place he would sleep. He is slowly beginning to sleep in his bassinet.  Hopefully he will be able to move to his crib soon. Actually, I'm not sure how I will handle the night he sleeps in his crib for the first time!
Eating: Whew wee...we have a little  boy who loves to eat! He now eats 4 ounces every 2-3 hours. Occasionally we have to supplement the my milk with formula because I just can't produce quite enough :( Chapman uses Dr. Brown's bottles because the Avent ones did not agree with his tummy!
What he loves: Chapman loves the outdoors. We sit outside almost daily to rock and look at nature. It calms him to be outside! He also loves his hands. If he is not swaddled, those hands do not leave the sides of his little face. Bath time is another favorite. The warm water soothes him, and he just sits in the bath and looks around and smiles! One of his favorite things to do while he is having awake time is to lay on his play mat and look at all of the animal toys hanging down. We always talk about the animals and different colors on the play may. He has recently started trying to bat at them and has successfully made them move several times! Other things he enjoys: looking at rattles when we shake them, sitting in Daddy's lap, and listening to us sing songs {He doesn't realize how awful we sound yet!}.
Accomplishments: I like to think we have a smart little boy on our hands! Chapman has learned to smile, laugh {a tiny bit}, and coo--it melts my heart every time :) He is also able to lift his head up and look around really well.
Firsts: Chapman had his first babysitter at 2 weeks old while we went to dinner to celebrate Aunt Kelsey's birthday. We are thankful to have a dear family friend who LOVES our Chapman and begs to keep him every week. I would NOT trust my baby with anyone besides family and Mrs. Cynthia right now, so it is nice to have several babysitters so we can be normal human beings and have some time to ourselves every once in a while! He went on his first shopping trips to Target, Publix, Lowe's, and Babies R Us, went to his first little street festival, and made it through lunch at Newk's--all by his one month birthday!

Now for my favorite part...I take about a million pictures a day. Okay, thats an exaggeration, but I do take a lot. I love looking back through these pictures and seeing how much Chapman has already changed. These are some of my favorites...
And now this sweet baby is one month old...I can't even believe it! 
Mommy: Since I had to have a c-section I was worried I'd have a longer, harder recovery than if I'd given birth "naturally".  I'm not so sure about that though. I think I may have been in just as much pain either way--only I'd have been hurting somewhere else-somewhere I'm not sure I'd want to be hurting at all!  With that being said, my recovery has been great. I was able to stop taking my pain meds about 2 weeks after Chapman was born, and I finally felt like going for easy walks after about 3 1/2 weeks. I'm proud to be able to say I am finally back in all of my pre pregnancy clothes--and it only took 4 weeks! I lost 20ish pounds in the first 2 weeks, but the last 10 is still hanging on. I am going to assume I'll be able to lose it once I can really start exercising again. I go to my 6 week postpartum checkup on October 15th, so hopefully I'll be cleared to start running again--fingers crossed! I'm thrilled to be back to my old self after 41 weeks of growing a baby inside me!

We are completely in awe of this tiny miracle. I never knew we could love someone so much, but we do. We love him more than life itself. We can't wait to see what the next month has in store for us!