The Little Things

Jaynah is working today and I'm home with the baby, trying to get some studying done between her naps and quiet times.  Even though I haven't gotten too much productive done, we've had a great day.  

The clip below just amazed me, thought I'd share.

Work Hard, Play Hard, Merry Christmas.

-A,MD

Quick update

Quick update to share some pics and video with you.

Check out our awesome pics from Altmix Photography by clicking here!

And a new video of sweetie pie Peyton



Andrew had to work Thanksgiving night so we cooked ourselves a little Thanksgiving meal that day and headed home to be with family when he got off on Friday.



Our little Thanksgiving meal



The food



Everyone seems to think Peyton is really starting to look like her Daddy...what do you think? ;)

More later....Andrew's finally off night shifts and working 8-5 for about 2 weeks so we are enjoying spending a little more family time together :)

Happy Half Birthday Peyton!

My sweet little girl is 6 months old today. I'm not even sure how to wrap my mind around this fact. It seems like such a short time ago that I wondered if we would ever get pregnant, and being pregnant....seems like it was just yesterday. I remember wondering every second of every day what she would look like, how she would act, and how I would ever be able to tell what she needed. 6 months later, I now know that she is more beautiful than I could have even imagined, that she has more personality than I ever expected, and somehow, I am able to tell what she needs....most times :) One day, I hope she is able to pull these words out as she holds her own sweet baby.

Dearest Peyton Anne,

You have brought a love to mine and your daddy's life that I never knew existed. You came into this world more anticipated and loved than you will ever understand (until you are a parent yourself.) In the early months, your slightest grin or yawn made us get the others' attention and while I thought that would have disappeared by now, I still find myself whispering..."look, Andrew" at your smallest accomplishments. We have watched you learn to smile, roll over, push yourself up, try new foods, sit up by yourself, squeal, and my favorite by far, laugh. There are no words to describe the feeling I get when I walk into your room in the mornings and you kick your feet and smile in delight. How can a day be bad when it starts that way?

We've had our share of hard times...I'm not one to sugar-coat things and the early months weren't easy. You hardly ever slept longer than 20 minutes during the day and no more than 3 hours at night. You were fussy after almost every feeding and breastfeeding was HARD. I felt so inadequate as your mother and always answered other people's suggestions with .."I don't know...maybe?" You cried a lot, I cried some, and Daddy tried to keep us both happy. But, slowly, we got the hang of it. Switching bottles made all the difference with your colic/gas issues and letting you cry a bit at bedtime quickly flipped on the "sleep switch." Breastfeeding turned into exclusive pumping and made a happier mother and baby.

Through all the hard times, I would stumble out of bed muttering to myself something about needing more sleep, pick you up and you instantly calmed down and after eating would smile and coo at me. I would head back to bed smiling knowing it was all worth it...until the next time you woke of course :) I believe that God allows babies to smile so early because sometimes it is all that get us mothers through those nights.

Staying home with you has made me the happiest person in the world. Again, not every day is perfect, but overall I would trade nothing for the precious time to spend with you. You start my day off with a smile and end it snuggled on my chest. There are nights where I feel like I could hold you all night and not get tired of looking at the content look on your face.

Your daddy and I love you so very much and your arrival has brought us closer than ever. Each new stage you go through leaves us wondering in amazement at the miracle God has allowed us to raise. I pray that we will have the wisdom, strength, and knowledge to raise you as He would desire. We love you so very much and look forward to watching you grow into a sweet little girl, a beautiful young lady, and a confident woman.

Love,
Mama

Morgan Hoe-down

For the past seven or so years, Andrew's parents have thrown a "Hoe-down" at their place. Everyone heads down to the barn to enjoy a night of bluegrass music, barbecue, ribs, and Brunswick stew. We look forward to this event every year to see family, relax, and enjoy the farm during the beautiful fall weather. Fortunately this year, it fell during Andrew's night call rotations. While it has proven to be a very taxing schedule during the week, he does get weekends off which is so nice....so we headed to T-town last Friday after he go off and spent the weekend enjoying time with our families. We are so blessed to have our families live within 5 miles of each other...makes it easy to see everyone as often as possible! Last year, most people were just finding out we were expecting a baby, so everyone was excited to see little Peyton! Here's a few pics of the weekend....



Peyton and I



Aunt Kitty from California and Peyton



Andrew, his brother Ben, and Paw Paw Bass





Andrew and Peyton



Peyton's "Barbeque"



Andrew and Paw Paw Bass

Photos overdue.....

So Jaynah mentioned a few posts ago that I had a good schedule LAST month, being September and had time to get the camera out.  Well she promised, and finally I'm delivering some of my favorite photos from the month.  Enjoy.

ICU almost over.

Hope you enjoyed these as much as I'm enjoying our little lady, but I know there is no way that is possible.

STTN

STTN: no, it's not the acronym for the latest reality show, but it is an acronym that most mothers of infants will recognize. It is letters you run across with tired eyes and unwashed hair as you GOOGLE: infant....sleep....night. Sleeping Through The Night. 

I first ran across it when Peyton was about 6 weeks old...and there were mothers who said their babies had been sleeping through the night since 2 weeks old! What?!!? Obviously something was wrong with my child. She came home from the hospital sleeping 4 hour stretches at a time which seemed great. Until that lasted FOREVER and four hours turned into three and then to an hour and a half. You just can't function as a normal member of society with that kind of sleep record. At her two month check-up, I mentioned it to the doctor who recommended a book for me to read. Read?!?! Honestly, did he know I had gotten up that morning at 4:00am just so I could have a shower for that day? I dismissed it as normal for her age and decided that she would surely start STTN soon. 

Everyone has a different milestone that they believe babies start sleeping better.....6 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks....10 lbs, 12lbs, 15lbs......drinking 6ozs...7ozs...8ozs.....eating cereal, drinking cereal. Peyton passed all these milestones and yet, still not sleeping good at night. At her four month check up, I mentioned it to the doctor again and again, he recommended the book. Ok, at this point...whatever...I'll read it. 

WOW...it made so much sense! It described my child perfectly and laid out a game plan. Basically it suggested the "let them cry" method. Well, we had already tried that to no avail, but it had been awhile and the book suggested 4 months was a good time to let babies learn to soothe themselves. It made me feel better by explaining how important sleep was to babies and how important establishing good sleep habits now would be in the future. So, we decided to give it a go. She cried for about 10 minutes when she woke up the first time, about 8 minutes the second time, and about 10 minutes the third time. The next night? She woke up once and cried for 5 minutes. The next? She woke up once for about 3 minutes. Of course, it took me several nights of going in her room after she fell quiet to make sure she was alive, to realize that she was OK. This might actually work. 

For about two weeks now, I have been the mother to a different child: she goes to bed around 8 or 8:30 and sleeps pretty much 12 hours straight. She still wakes up every now and then and I hear her on the monitor, but there is hardly ever any more screaming...just small sounds as she gets herself back to sleep. She is a happier baby all the time and when she is fussy, it's usually because something's wrong...not just fussy all the time like before. I feel like a new woman and I have discovered an even deeper love for her now that I have re-entered the world of well-restedness. The book has "game-plans" for all ages so I intend to keep it around for teething, terrible twos, and every other milestone that might affect the sleep of this family! Crazy long post about a small subject, but a very important subject for new moms and babies! Here's a few updated pictures to reward your commitment to this blog :)

UPDATE: sorry, I forgot to include the name of the book! "Healthy Sleeping Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth

She loves to eat! Wonder where she gets that from?!?!?



She loves playing on her tummy and now that she has learned to turn back to front, I can hardly keep her on her back anymore



We started baby food and have conquered carrots and green beans so far...she loves carrots..still deciding about those green beans. And she sure is messy!



She loves doing baby push-ups and is getting so strong!



We went to Atlanta on Friday where "Aunt Les" and "Aunt Doris" helped find Peyton a very fashionable outfit for our upcoming Altmix shoot....hope you are as excited as I am! Until next time....

Videos

A couple of videos for your viewing pleasure...

Peyton LOVES talking to herself...so cute!



She also LOVES Daisy...as you can tell, Daisy is still deciding what she thinks about this little one :)

Mothers sleep lighter

Peyton and I made is home safely last night. Lots of blogging to catch up on, but I thought I would share a quick story with you.

I'm sure all mothers out there, especially the new ones, know that sleeping soundly through the night hardly happens anymore. At approximately 1:20am this morning, a loud beeping sounds throughout our house. I jump out of bed, yell "Andrew, FIRE" and proceed immediately to Peyton's room. I'm pretty sure I didn't breathe again until I got to her room and found her sleeping soundly in her crib. At that point I realized that the heat had come on for the first time and that yucky smell/smoke was in the air. Apparently the smoke detector had picked up on that. In the meantime, Andrew has stumbled out of bed and is walking around in a daze in his boxers. We make it back to bed and he promptly states..."man, I didn't know those baby monitors had built in fire alarms." WOW. I quickly explain that it was not the monitors...it was our SMOKE DETECTORS. Geez. He falls quickly back asleep while I get up several more times to check on Peyton and allow my heart to reach a regular pace. It's a good thing he doesn't have to wake from slumber to treat patients...oh wait..what happens on call night?!?! I hope somewhere between his call room and the patients room, his head clears and he remembers how to run a code! :) All joking aside, I decided this is the origin of "mommy brain." We mothers never even make it to this deep sleep that seems like a thing of the past! All's well that ends well...no fire and we now know the smoke detectors work which will make all the firemen in my family proud.

4 months old

Peyton turned 4 months a couple of weeks ago and boy has she grown up. She keeps me on my toes with new accomplishments each day. She is smiling so much and laughs when her daddy is being silly. She has successfully turned tummy to back and most recently back to tummy. It is so sweet to look at her face when she does it...she is so proud! She is trying so hard to be a big girl and doesn't like to lay around anymore. She sits up in her Bumbo to play with toys and she is learning to love her new Exersaucer that she can stand up in. We went in for her 4 month check-up and shots and she weighed in at a hefty 15lbs 5ozs which puts her in the 80%. She grew quite a few inches and is now 25" and in the 75%. She loves eating her rice cereal and I have to keep her from trying to feed herself and shoving the spoon down her throat in the process. She loves holding her bottle herself and we have transitioned to using the sippy cup when it is time for juice. She still hasn't been the best sleeper so we started a new routine after talking to the pediatrician and the past few nights have gone much better. Hopefully before long, we will have day and night sleep conquered. Bath time has become especially fun now that Peyton loves to kick her feet and splash mommy & daddy...she finds this HILARIOUS. Andrew took some great pictures over the past month which he promises a return to the blog to post....in the meantime, a few from mommy's mediocre skills.

Holding her bottle



Sitting tall in her Bumbo seat



Enjoying her new Exersaucer



During the flood of Atlanta, my friends Doris and Leslie escaped the torrential downpours of the ATL for the hot humidity of Augusta and their first glance of Peyton's nursery. Doris was bummed to not be performing surgery, but Peyton and I so enjoyed their visit!



Don't ask what Peyton was doing here...pretty sure it was something influenced by "Aunt Doris."



We love taking evening walks and last night was the first time Peyton needed a little jacket



Bath time is also known as play time



Today marks the end of Andrew's elective/vacation month and he headed out early this morning for his first day in the ICU. Overnight call every 4th night won't be fun, but hopefully it won't be as bad as August. Peyton and I are looking forward to hitting the road again to visit friends and family to keep us from going crazy in this house.

San Diego

Part of what made September so exciting for us was Andrew's week of vacation. We decided to cash in our miles and take a much-needed vacation. We narrowed it down to a few options and decided on San Diego because of the activities available and the fact that neither of us had been there. My mom happily agreed to keep Peyton and with Daisy boarded, we were off. We flew out on Saturday morning and stayed until late Wednesday night. We had such a great time...I'll let the pictures tell most of the story:


We landed, got our rental car, checked into the hotel, and headed straight to the beach for my first view of the Pacific.



We couldn't be in San Diego without visiting the zoo.



We saw lots of great animals and Andrew enjoyed reading/listening to EVERY single fact about each one :)







I was a good sport and also took a tour of the USS Midway with Andrew, the history buff. He had a great time and we learned some interesting stuff.



The ship had a great view of the bay area:



While walking around one day, we saw people on Segways being given a tour....we decided that would be an awesome way to see the city and ride Segways for the first time.



It was so much fun; we loved it! Of course, ever-cautious me had a slightly longer learning curve than the others, but once I got comfortable even I enjoyed it!



Andrew was brave enough to take pictures/video while riding the Segway, whereas I was just holding on tight!



We were a little disappointed with SeaWorld as a whole, but the Shamu show never disappoints...such beautiful creatures.



After enjoying breakfast and lunch (and lots of sweet tea!) at Matt's Chickfila in San Diego, we picked him up for a drive up the coast to visit new Californians Sean and Erin. We missed their going away party in Atlanta, so we had a little welcome party at Laguna Beach.





A new love of mine...the Pazookie!



The whole group:



Us enjoying the beach and the beautiful sunset







And finally, brunch at the Hash House before we left...recommended by Matt and Jessica....so good!



We had such a great time...thanks so much to Gran Jan for taking such good care of little Peyton while we were gone - we were counting down the days to get our hands on this little girl!