Baby BBQ

Well, that title doesn't sound good, but it's appropriate.

At our church, there were 5 babies born between late March and the end of May, with Emeline kicking off the baby boom earlier than expected. Our small group hosts, David and Heather, who will add a 6th baby to the bunch in August, hosted a BBQ for those of us still too sleep deprived to fathom it. I think I told David that this was the longest amount of time I've been out of the house in 2 months. It was great. And so wonderful to celebrate the babies!

Here's Emeline, of course...And her new friends! Lot's of boys to choose from!

Noah

Josh

Jackson

and another girl to play with, Grace.

And here they are all together satisfying our need for baby cuteness. They are in birth order clockwise starting with Emeline, then Josh, Noah, Jackson, and Grace.

Do-over

This week I got a do-over. I made it to the breastfeeding support group, which unfortunately was not that helpful, but I guess that means we're making progress and need less help. But I also picked something up at the store, and stopped by my doctors office to go over some billing issues. All in the same trip! Yes, all those things were located in the same building, but hey, I'll take the success!

Since I don't have a hilarious rant for you, I'll give you some cute Emeline pics instead. Here are more from Auntie Tracey's photo shoot. Enjoy!

iPhone photo dump - May

Peace.

Knocked out.

Cuter than the fishies.

Looks like a pose, but probably uncomfortable after eating :(

Big eyes.

Practicing sucking.

Trying to catch a smile.

Tummy time on the blanket from Laura!

Sleeping in the carseat.

Two months

Two months. 9 lbs 15 oz, 20.75 inches long.

Faces

Auntie Tracey was in town...that's right, photographer Auntie! So Emeline had a photo shoot. We've got lots of good shots, but no time to blog. Here's a sampler of some of the sweet faces of Emeline.

Midweek Fails

Wednesday's goal: Go to breastfeeding support group at 10:30am. Possibly drop off a card to friends who just delivered at the same hospital, and possibly check on some test results we never received. 3 goals for one day...I should have known from that it wouldn't work. But I would have been happy with just accomplishing the first one.

I've been meaning to go for weeks, but something always gets in the way...too tired, timing not right, doctors apt, friends visiting, etc. But this morning I was going to go...armed with a hungry baby. Wes fed her at 8 so things were all set for her to be hungry from 10-10:30.

I laid in bed, trying to get my last couple hours of sleep, but was strategizing for the outing. Put disposable diapers on her, in case you need to change her there...she doesn't fit in the newborn diapers to make sure to switch those out in the diaper bag, get a card to drop off for friends who recently delivered (while at the hospital you know), remember to stop by to check on the screening results they never sent, make sure to wear something comfortable, bring the stroller, bring change of clothes for her, bring all breastfeeding paraphernalia.

Needless to say, I didn't sleep much, but woke up at 9:30 ready to spring into action to get all the above done before 10, so I could plop her in the car seat and go. And I did it...and a couple other things which I've forgotten at this point. I even fed myself and got dressed.

10am comes, plop her in the carseat...she's fussy and hungry...no worries, car will settle her down and we'll feed her when we arrive at the group. Ok. Grab stroller, breastfeeding pillow and head out to car to preload...

Beautiful sunny day...oddly empty driveway. No car...no car...right...Wes takes the car to work...unless we plan otherwise. Standing in the driveway, holding the stroller, pillow, etc, listening to crying Emeline inside...I turn around and head back. We'll, she's hungry. Time to feed her. Poor thing didn't understand all the prep and car seat placement for a simple breakfast.

Fail.

Wes had an epic diaper blowout last night too, not really a fail on his end, but I thought it would compliment this post well. She'd been grunting like crazy all evening. She grunts a lot, so hard to know when it means business or not. Guess this time it did. I was just about to head to bed for my first shift of sleep, and Wes went to change, then feed her. I hear a "whoa!" from the other room. Major poop. All over everything, her onezie, her legs, up her stomach, coming out the diaper, on the changing table, everywhere. Wes says, "should we just rinse her in the sink? Is that bad?". What the heck, why not? So I help him cart her over to the sink, trying to avoid dripping poop. We rinse her off, poor thing crying, and not knowing if the impromptu half bath is a nice surprise or not. Get her cleaned up, and we're done....or so we thought.

I wake up a few hours later for my shift, and Wes says, "She pooped everywhere." I'm tired and out of it. "Ok," I said. He proceeds to tell me 'everywhere' means 'everywhere'. He was changing her and she exploded while diaper open, shot poop on the floor across the room, on Wes, on the table, 'everywhere'. Poor guy had to clean it up all by himself that time.

But he was very thankful he had installed laminate wood floors and didn't have to clean poop off the carpet at 1am. I'm glad for that too.

First Mother's Day

For Mother's Day we made it our goal to get out of the house and make it to church for the first time with Emeline. We weren't sure if we were going to make it, but we did...half an hour late, un-showered, and without breakfast. We got Emeline in a cute little dress, but it ended up on her backwards (you can't really tell, except there is a little flower on the back that was supposed to be in front). I guess that's demonstrative of how we are doing right now. Tired, but plugging on through. She's 6 weeks old now...about the time things usually start to get easier, but just 1 week past her due date, so she's still eating and sleeping like a 1 week old...which means we still aren't sleeping much...and we haven't been for quite a while.

Thank goodness for coffee and donuts at church. Everyone who saw us was glad to see us, and glad to see Emeline. It was wonderful to see people we hadn't seen in a while, and to get some time to worship at church. Maybe next time we go, we can aim for a shower.

But of course, you're here at the blog to see the pics, so here's some from our Mother's Day photo shoot. She's wearing a sweater knit for me when I was a baby. You can tell by the end she wasn't that in to all the photos, but she let us have some fun for a while.



And now to enjoy a delicious dinner Wes is cooking for me. Turkey stuffed with cranberry stuffing from Trader Joes. Yum yum! And maybe a sip of champagne if I'm lucky :)