My First Mother's Day

Today I celebrated my very first Mother's Day and it was such a great day. Nick and Cole gave me a couple gifts....Nick got me a digital photo frame and Cole got me a cute "mother-child" necklace. It's so fun to have another holiday to celebrate and get presents for!!!! weeeee!!!!!
We started off going to church as usual and then we had a wonderful brunch with Nick's family. Here are some fun pictures from brunch.
After brunch we decided to do a little shopping and Nick was nice enough to come along and push Cole around for me....I guess this is the only day this will happen so I had to take advantage of it! Who knows what Nick will make me do on Father's Day...probably go golfing with him and open all his beers for him! :)


Now on to something else....I started back at work last Thursday, normally this coming Monday was supposed to be my first day back, but our school district decided to open early from that whole swine flu thing. As bummed as I was that our "free week" got cut short, I truly think going back to work for the first time was best started on a Thursday like mine was, it made for a short week so it wasn't such a shock. Plus, Nick's mom came up to our house and watched him which made it nice that I didn't have to get all his stuff packed up. My first couple days back were actually pretty good, I only cried a little bit on my drive into work....however, I did become a big cry baby that first night after I put him to bed, I just crawled into bed, pulled the sheets over my head and cried! I think that's pretty normal at first....
THANK GOD that I only have 4 more weeks till summer! Plus, my mom and dad are coming in less than 3 weeks. My dad will be here for the long weekend and my mom is staying over a week to watch Cole. It will be so great to have them here!
Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!!!!

Chubby!!!

We took these pictures today and it shows you just how chubby our little Cole is getting. I feel like just in the last couple weeks he has just porked up....I mean, no neck, no wrists, roll after roll!!! He is just so darn cute!!

Here is Cole doing some tummy time and you can see how much he loves it! ha! Although it's pretty funny because Roxy gives him a big kiss in the video. The best time to do tummy time with him is in the morning right after he has eaten. It is getting a little more tolerable each time we do it, but he still isn't crazy about it.

I'm one lucky gal

Now, as bad as I feel for those families that are having to deal with this Swine Flu stuff, I am pretty excited deep down because they have closed my school district all of next week and we don't even have to make it up! I was supposed to be returning to school from my maternity leave this coming Monday, but now I get one free week! I have been so lucky with my maternity leave, I was only intending on taking 12 weeks off, but it has now ended up being 14.5 weeks all together. We had 2 snow days my first 2 days of maternity leave so that didn't count against me, then spring break and now this swine flu stuff...pretty sweet deal for me.
Although, I have been anticipating my return to school for so many weeks now, and now it's just kind of just delaying the inevitable. I was kind of ready for it to be here just to get it over with. I know I'll be a complete basket case the first week, so now I just have one more week to think about it. ha!
I talked to our babysitter and she said I should maybe bring him up one day, or at least part of the day so when my first official days comes it won't be such a shock. I may do that, then I can go get a pedicure and maybe take a LONG nap that day.

Oh, and Cole has been doing pretty good in his own room now...I think it's probably good for all of us to have him in there.

Happy 3 Months Cole!

Today, Cole is 3 months...yay! So Cole, what have you been up to this month??

• You weigh about 15 pounds and are 25 inches long
• Size 1 diapers are getting a little snug on you, almost graduated to size 2
• Tummy time is getting a little more bearable, we don't scream AS hard anymore
• You still aren't sleeping through the night, you consistently sleep 5-6 hour spans. ONE night you slept 8 hours, but that was because you were going through a growth spurt
• For some reason this past week, you went through a little nursing strike, not sure why but we are almost back to normal
• We have started putting you in your own big boy bed at nights, no more sleeping in mom and dad's room...kinda sad!
• You are so fun to watch in the mornings, you just smile and giggle and make the best noises
• For some reason, you sort of by-passed all your 3 month clothes and went straight to 6-9 month clothes...porker!
• You still love your baths, but hate to get out...you usually cry while putting lotion and clothes on
• You have really taken to eating your hands
• You have peed and poo'd many times in mom and dad's bed...we sure have to wash our sheets quite often

Any Ideas??

So, does anyone know why when we were in Corpus Christi for the weekend, Cole slept for 7 hours before waking up, but when we get back home he goes back to his 5-6 hour spans?? Hmmm....
I have a couple theories:
1. Corpus is extremely humid and right now in Dallas it is extremely dry, so I'm wondering if the dry air here in Dallas makes him more uncomfortable. When we are at home, he sounds congested sometimes...maybe we need to get a humidifier.
2. I think Cole got fed more while in Corpus...we had to do a lot more bottles because we had rehearsal dinners, the actual wedding, receptions, etc. When he takes milk from a bottle he takes in a lot more than if he is nursing, so maybe the more milk got him through more of the night.
3. Or, he just flat out is used to a certain routine while at home and is used to that

So....what does everyone think??? Any ideas????

Little Update

It has been so long since I have posted, so sorry! Quite a bit has happened in the last week or so. Cole took his 2nd plane ride to Corpus Christi for Beau and Stacey's wedding. He did awesome on the way down there, but on the way back, it was a little rough. First off, the plane was SO dang hot and it was one of those small planes that gives you no leg room, so we were all a bit uncomfortable. Second, I had yet to nurse Cole on a plane, or in public for that matter....so this was my first experience with that. Third, he had a huge poo explosion and this plane had nowhere to change a diaper, so the flight attendants let us go to the way back and I sat on the attendants seat and put Cole on my lap and Nick changed his diaper...ha! Oh good times! THEN, to top off the already eventful afternoon, we few into DFW airport and then Nick had to leave 45 minutes later for Chicago. He is gone the whole week for training, so being home alone with Cole for a week is kinda stressful. However, Ryan and Rachel are flying into town on Thursday for a long weekend. It will be great to have them here. They were able to spend time with Cole while I was home last, but with everyone wanting to see him, they didn't get to spend as much time as they would have liked.
I have also come to the realization that I have less than 2 weeks till I have to go back to work!! Boo hoo!!! I am so bummed out that I have to leave Cole, but at least it's only for 5 weeks, then I'll have the whole summer off. I wish so bad that I would have just taken the whole semester off, but that would have meant no shopping or fun outings for us for awhile :-)
Cole will be going to our babysitter on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then Nick's mom will come up here Thursday and Fridays, and then the last week and a half of May, my mom will be here. I think what I'm going to miss the most is our mid-morning time. That is when he is so happy and we just play and play. I get him dressed, he watches me eat breakfast and then we'll go into his room and either listen to music or I'll read to him and he is so attentive and just smiles and giggles...it's the best! I'll be sad to miss that, but at least I'll have the weekends to do that!
Sorry I don't have a whole lot of new pictures to post, I'm sure after Ryan and Rachel are here I will post some fun ones.
This picture is funny, Tracy's cousin Charlie and his wife Molly were in town and got him this onesie...it's a 6-9 month, but it is already pretty tight on him so he probably won't be able to wear it that much longer. It's cute though, and boy does he look like a little chunk!!

Holy Moses!!!

Well Folks...believe it or not, Cole slept ALMOST 6 hours straight last night!!! I couldn't believe it...he woke up extremely hungry, I fed him, then went right back to sleep for another 3.5 hours. Now I'm wishing I would have gone to bed earlier because I'm pretty tired today.

Another hurdle we are going to have to tackle in the next month or two is breaking him of his swaddle blanket. That seriously is the only way that he will sleep more than an hour at a time. We mostly use the miracle blanket b/c it basically secures his arms down so he can't move them because we would use other swaddle blankets and he would wiggle his arms up to his face and wake himself up, but the miracle blanket does not allow that. NOW, I ordered a swaddle sack called The Woombie, which is a zip-up swaddle sack that is good for weaning babies off of being swadddled. It kind of looks like a tight sleeping bag. It gives them more movement capabilities, but won't let their hands up by their face. Then you can gradually unzip the bag, an inch or so a day till they are out of it. Oh, I sure hope this works!
I really like swaddling him, but my good friend Angela warned me that once he is able to rollover, that he could flip over like her little guy did, and that is scary because he could suffocate.
This is a picture of what the Woombie looks like....this obviously is not Cole. :-)

First trip to Colorado

Cole made his first trip on an airplane to Colorado. Ryan, Ross and Rachel had not yet seen Cole so it was about time we made the trip. Everyone asks, "how did he do flying?". Well, he did great! On the way there he fussed a little at the beginning, but I gave him some bottle and he went right to sleep. I carried him in a sling which made it super nice because I had my hands free. Although, he is getting a little big for the sling now, guess next time we will have to use the baby bjorn.

We saw so many friends and family while we were there, sometimes in the evening Cole would get a little overstimulated and Nick would take him in the other room to get away from all the comotion. We were definitely sad to leave though, our next trip will be mid June and that will be for 10 days...can't wait!

Here's some pictures of our trip...

Cole finally able to wear his cute winter hat

Uncle Ross holding Cole

Uncle Ryan holding Cole

Aunt Rachel, she got a leg workout bouncing you around!

Me and Nick watching some basketball

My cousin Lauren holding Cole...he looks so comfortable huh? :)

Happy 2 months Cole!!

Look who is already 2 months! Hey Cole, what have you been up to?

• You have finally graduated to size 1 diapers, for being a little porker, you sure have a little booty!
  
• You have doubled your percentiles in height and weight, we are just loving all the rolls.
  
• This past week you have been smiling at us so much. The mornings are the best because you are so happy and just smile all the time. Even though the evenings are our cranky time, we still get a few smiles out every once in awhile.
  
• The doctor tells us that we now need to start giving you a "bedtime". Till now, I have always just put you to bed when I go to bed, but now we have to start putting you to bed at 8:00. Kinda sad! That means daddy won't get to spend as much time with you...but that also means that mom and dad get to spend more time alone.
  
• You still won't sleep more than 5 hours at a time at night, but after getting up and feeding you, you go right back to bed, so I usually feel pretty rested.
  
• At night you are getting so good at putting yourself to sleep. The doctor says at night to feed you and just put you to bed, even if you aren't completely asleep...you are a champ at that! Although, sometimes I do breakdown and rock you because I love that time together.
  
• The puppies just love you, sometimes when I leave you on the bed for a few minutes, I'll come back and find Benson cuddling with you. Roxy is like the mother hen, if she hears you crying, she will be the first one in the room, the only problem with her is that she wants to lick you all the time.
• You rolled from your tummy to your back...at 2 months! Wow! Mommy didn't do that till I was 4 months.

Here is a picture of Cole with a big smile!!! Wait, is that a booger in his nose? ha!