Portraits

As mentioned in previous posts, Andrew is extremely busy these days. Besides being the resident blogger around here, he is also the photographer. He has taken some really nice pictures of Peyton, but he hasn't had time to sit down and give them the editing that they deserve and require to print, post, etc. Along with that, I have neglected to nail down our friends Matt & Kate to take some of their awesome photos of our family (don't worry, this WILL happen). We are so in love with our Maternity Pics from these guys, we won't let Peyton get past her first year without some Altmix love :) With all that said, I wanted some nice pics of Peyton and I knew the grandmothers would love me to show up with hundreds of prints for them to choose from. So....I bit the bullet and chose a cute outfit, took her to one of those mall places, and ta-da.....we have billions of pictures of our little pumpkin. She did great...she has lots of practice as a print model courtesy of dad and I think the photos turned out great for what they were. So, here ya go - little miss priss!!



Look at those pouty lips...she gets those from mom :)



You know that's cute!!



"Mommy, don't drop me!!"



And, after my wardrobe change ;)

It's Friday night, I'm up late with a sleepless little girl letting the swing put her to sleep. Andrew's expecting a short day tomorrow, so maybe the next post will be about the fun things we got into over the weekend.

July 4th

So my friend Courtney over at Always Room for Moore is making me look bad by getting her July 4th pics up already and her little girl is only 3 weeks old. Guess I better get moving huh? :)

Since Andrew was on call during the weekend of the 4th(which requires him to stay at the hospital), Peyton and I decided to head to Thomaston and spend the holiday with family. We just relaxed with my mom since both the boys were out of town and rode over to the big city of Manchester for fireworks with the Etheridge side of the family. We had a great time...Peyton loved (slept through) the fireworks and Mommy ate the complete carnival diet consisting of funnel cake, ice cream, and hot dogs...if only they had been selling cotton candy! I'm pretty sure this was the first 4th I have spent away from Andrew in like 10 years so he was definitely missed.....

Peyton of course had about 10 4th outfits...we made it through 2!



Precious watermelon outfit with matching sunhat



Flag dress that Gran bought me....and my cute headband!



Peyton and Mommy



Peyton, Mommy, and Great-Granma (my mom's mother)



Peyton and her Great-Pawpaw (my dad's dad) They are such early birds, I was still in bed and Peyton still had on her PJs



Peyton and her Great-Grandma (my dad's mom). She is absolutely in love with this little one! :)



Andrew's pitiful view of the fireworks :(

Happy 4th! (a little late)

Pictures!

Not a lot to update you on this post so it will be mostly pictures (of Peyton, how did you guess?!?). Andrew has started work and it is pretty hardcore as both of us anticipated. He leaves early in the mornings (6ish) and gets home late at night (9ish on average) most nights. He gets one day off each week (usually a random day, not a Sat/Sun like normal people) and we spend that day just enjoying our whole family being here. Peyton and I are getting a schedule down and I have been able to fit a shower in most days ;) We are trying hard to cook dinner as well and are making progress there too. There are definitely still days that require Andrew to grab fast food on the way home from work, but that will probably be a trend for awhile. I love to cook, but doing it with a baby who only allows me 15 minute intervals is quite challenging. And the cleaning up, I can always do without. Ok, enough rambling...here's the pictures.

Andrew will probably kill me for this one, but this is what he looks like after being at the hospital from 6am on Friday to 2pm on Saturday :)



The rest are of you guessed it Peyton! Who can blame me when she is so freaking cute?!?! This is her newest outfit from BabyGap (my favorite!) and the pants are capris! how adorable!



Hanging out in the nursery: in her crib



Isn't that a pretty face?!!?



In my favorite rocker



Pretty pose. Already working on her modeling skills :)



Enjoying her bouncy seat



And, finally one of her cute smiles!



Does life get better than that?!!? I think not.

6 weeks

So, my sweet baby girl is 6 weeks old today. It seems like just yesterday I was nine months pregnant eagerly awaiting her arrival. She is growing like crazy and a part of me just wants to scream "slow down!" Yet, I know that this is how life goes and I just try to hold on to every detail of these sweet moments. Peyton will now look straight at us as if she knows exactly who mommy and daddy are and at occasional glorious moments, she will break into a full face smile in response to whatever crazy antics we can come up with. She is a sweet baby and has been the equivalent of a world traveler for her first 6 weeks. We have made multiple trips to our hometown to visit with family and several trips to the lakehouse to enjoy the summer weather. She has done great...as long as we plan driving around her feedings, she does great in the car. She and I are slowly adjusting to not having Andrew around as much; I have taken over the night feedings so that he can get a good night's rest before handling peoples' lives (yes, the world has me to thank ;). We are also learning to become quick "day buddies." 

Her schedule is now pretty much eating around 9:30pm and sleeping until 2-3am which gives mommy an hour or so to get things ready for the next day and then several hours of sleep at a time. Peyton is like her mommy in that she is not a morning person. After her 5-6am feeding, she is perfectly fine with crawling (ok, being placed) in the bed beside mommy and sleeping until the 8-9am feeding. She doesn't usually nap much during the morning so a lot of our time is spent together in the rocker! In the afternoons, Peyton will take a nice long nap in the swing and mommy can get things done or we run errands which she is great at :) When she is completely content, she will just stare up at us and coo...Andrew likes to call her his "gossip girl".

So, there is Peyton's six week update. We are going to try to do video clips every 4 weeks, but I know it will be nice to have these details written down for future enjoyment (sorry if it is boring for you readers). The creative writer has a new job (and it's a paying gig...woohoo!). I won't be returning to work full-time; if I work at all it will be 1-2 days a week so I am looking forward to spending these sweet years with Peyton. 

Andrew started work today as Dr. Andrew Morgan so say a quick prayer that all goes well and hopefully the day won't unravel as MCG days are famous for ;) 

I'll leave you with a few photos from the past few weeks to reward you for reading this boring post!

Father's Day at the lake

My cute little bathing suit (just for fun...she didn't actually get in; maybe next year!)

Cuddling with mommy :)

Cuddling with daddy (they were both not into this photo shoot...can you tell!?!)

Cute even when I'm fussing

Greenjackets game with Andrew's new co-workers

Sweet Peyton

I made Andrew pose for his first day of medical school so of course I had to have his first day as a real doctor too!

Disclaimer for all photos: I'm sure I have not edited them correctly so please blame me, not my dear husband, for poor photo quality! Until next time.....

Daddy

So this is my (Jaynah's) first entry to The Morgan Mantra. Andrew has been on me for awhile to contribute to our blog and I have resisted mainly because I am neither the writer or communicator that my husband is. However, I felt that this was an appropriate time to make an appearance due to subject matter and the fact that Andrew is about to become very busy but that will not stop our many fans (ie, our mothers ;) from wanting the blog updated. With that warning out of the way....here we go:

The term "daddy" has always held special meaning for me. I don't know at what point a father or "dad" becomes "daddy" and most likely this is entirely a southern term, but in my family it is just what dads are called. From the earliest age of remembrance there was a saying that stuck out to me regarding fathers. It was printed on a frame that sat in our living room. It was a wooden frame that had a picture of me and my dad on one side and the other stated: "Anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a daddy." Now as a little girl I didn't understand that not everyone had fathers like mine, but I was smart enough to know that mine was special enough to be called daddy. My daddy was one of those men that you could only know a small part of him from looking at him. He was a big man, strong and quiet to most that approached him. However, to those of us who were lucky enought to be close to him...he was so much more. I was the firstborn and I was his little girl from day 1. My mom laughingly tells the story of how up until the day I was born, my dad would say..."Hamby's don't have girls" and how surprised he was when I arrived on that day. It didn't take him long to adjust....I was "Daddy's little girl from that day on." I remember so many things about my daddy that I could share (and take up hours of your time to read) but I will simply say that my daddy loved me in a way that gave me confidence. He never let a day go by without telling me he loved me at least once (usually many more). He never let even the simpliest right decision made by me go by without telling me he was proud of me, and he told me often that I could do or be whatever I wanted.  I always remember the worst part of being punished by my daddy was the dissapointment in his eyes. Don't think my dad did all these things himself....my mom is an amazing woman who has taught me more than I can ever say, but there is something about a daddy/daughter relationship that defines how a girl sees herself. For me, he made sure that I saw myself as beautiful, confident, and unstoppable. For that, I will always be grateful.

April 3, 2005, I lost my dadddy. Many of you know the story, many I'm sure don't, but the main point is that it was sudden, completely unexpected, and devastating to my entire family. It was a month before my wedding day and a time that was supposed to be the happiest of my life suddenly became the hardest I could ever imagine. I don't bring this up to talk about the sad things, but to say that it defined another major relationship in my life...the one with my future husband. Andrew and I started dating in high school and we went through the typical struggles that any two people together that long go through....trouble with friends, jealousy of other girls/guys, communication difficulties, the transition to college, etc. I never imagined spending my life with anyone but Andrew and when he asked me to marry him, I couldn't have been happier. Neither of us imagined the loss of my daddy or how it would affect us, but it showed me a side of my husband that I will forever be thankful for. I often wonder what those first few months of marriage would have been like without the loss hanging over us. Andrew was given a huge duty of being there for me; there were many days that I would burst into tears at the smallest things and he often found me crouched in some part of our house crying my eyes out. He never once got mad, he never once gave me a look that said get over it, he always just held me and told me he was there for me. Never have I been so sure of our relationship that during those times.

If you read this blog, you know our pregnancy story; We wanted kids, we had a plan, our plan didn't work. If you are a woman wanting a baby and it doesn't happen it's not easy. It feels unfair every time you hear of someone becoming pregnant and every baby you see brings you to the brink of tears. It wasn't easy for me but once again, my husband was up to the challenge. He never made me feel it was my fault and he never let me believe we wouldn't end up with a baby. Once again, you know the story....it finally happened for us and we began the best journey of our life. He was there for me during the early weeks of sickness, he was there when we were faced with our baby having a genetic disease, he was there when every visit to the specialist presented another "slight problem." I went to the doctor at least once a week almost the entire pregancy and even though he was still finishing up med school, Andrew was at every one. I love being a mom; it is a joy I could have never imagined but my favorite part is watching my husband become a daddy. Every time I look at my daughter I am so thankful for her father. I smile when I catch them both asleep with little smiles on their faces and when nothing else will calm her down, laying on daddy's chest will. I can't wait for Andrew to experience all the things that daddies and daughters do and I am so thankful that he was in my life long enough to see my relationship with my dad and realize how much a father defines a daughter's life. I have no doubt he will be a hands-on dad; he already is. He doesn't blink an eye when a diaper needs changing, a bottle needs to be given, or a heavy carseat needs to be lifted. He has walked Peyton at night more times than I can count and when we are both exhausted, he sends me to bed saying "I'll take this shift." He's about to become very busy but I have complete confidence in knowing every free moment will be spent loving his little girl (and the dog, with hopefully a little left over for mom!) I can't wait to see what the future holds for our family and I pray that Peyton will realize what a treasure she has in her daddy. I pray that the two of them will share all the things I missed sharing with my daddy....walking down the aisle, college graduation, the birth of her own children, and the birth of her children's children. 

Daddy, I miss you more than words can describe and I wish more than anything you were here to hold your sweet granddaughter. I know you would be a better grandfather than you were a father which is hard to imagine :)

Andrew, you are the love of my life and I have only fallen deeper in love with you over the past few weeks. You are an amazing father and I look forward to experiencing the joys of raising this little girl with you. Happy First Father's Day. I love you.

Videos Pt. II

K, so I'm having fun with these videos, enjoy.

MILK COMA, or at least the transition toward a milk coma.

Peyton hates getting dressed, HATES IT.  I am hoping deep down that this means she will hate shopping for clothes, shoes and the dreaded PURSES.  I'll probably have no such luck, but this is a funny thing she has done a few times.  We put a little blanket around her while we are changing diapers and getting her clothes ready to put on.  This seems to keep her from going ballistic, but not always.  One thing that has worked everytime is when she hooks her little arms under the blanket and pulls it over her head.  Then its lights out, and so is the crying until we're done.

Don't worry folks, we are always standing right there and when we put her to bed or nap, we make sure that she can't do this and possibly suffocate.  Just a weird little thing she does.

Have a great day.

Andrew

Video extravaganza

Well, Peyton is one week old today and we've had a great week at that.  We've been home about 4 days and every night has gotten a little bit better.  Peyton is feeding really well (breast) and now that she is getting good meals, she sleeps really well between feeds.  

I'm gonna post some pictures soon, but I wanted to share these two videos which I really enjoyed this week.

The first is a clip I shot about 5 minutes after Peyton was born.  Jaynah had the C-section and after the baby was born, I had to accompany the nurse to the recovery room so that she could get the baby all cleaned up, put a tag on the baby, a tag on me so there would be no switch-a-roo, as well as get the baby's weight and measurements, etc.    The cool thing was that someone had taken all the stuff the nurse needed out of the recovery room and so while she went and gathered everything, Peyton and I had several minutes, just to ourselves, to get introduced.

*I had been up for over 36 hours straight and so my days were confused.  Peyton was born on 5/20/09.

Next, my brother had been following Twitter since we'd gotten to the hospital, and decided that I needed some support since we hadn't made it to the "birthing class" prior to Peyton's arrival.  He put together 3 videos of tips for a successful delivery and sent them to my phone.  Probably the funniest thing I've ever seen besides SNL's DIAB, and ML.

Thanks brother.  He and his wife also totally surprised us showing up to the hospital right after the baby was born.  He'd originally fed me lies about he had to work yada, yada, which was totally fine, however we were so excited to see them.

More to come, hope everyone is well, and thank you again for all of your love, gifts, support, prayers, and encouragement, not only during the birth, but throughout the whole pregnancy.

THANK YOU!

Loving it.

Andrew