Sunday, November 18, 2012

5 years

Exactly 5 years ago yesterday, on a beautiful November Saturday the 17th, I married my best friend.  
The day and weekend were absolutely perfect and we were so excited to be celebrating with all of our family and friends.  
We have been thoroughly enjoying every single day since then.  Whether it's been good times or bad, I'm grateful for all of it and how it has gotten us to this point.  
After 5 years of marriage and about 11 years together, I can honestly say that I feel so incredibly blessed and lucky to be married to Ben and have my best friend along for this ride of life with me.  
Wells has been the most incredible addition to our little family this past year and has shown me a whole new level of love for Ben as a father and for this little life we have created together.  
 I can't wait to see what the next 5, 10, 20, 50.... years will bring as well :)  
 Ben outdid himself this anniversary with a gift a day for 5 days leading up to the actual anniversary day yesterday:
Tuesday: Sunflowers
 Wednesday: Clothes
 Thursday: A dinner date gift certificate and a babysitter (his parents) arranged for Friday night
 Friday: dinner, wine, and VS
Saturday: a new mattress (some coworkers of Ben told him this was a bad gift, but I assure you it was an awesome gift... our mattress is about 15-20 years old hand-me-down and I have been begging him to get a new one since I was pregnant)- it gets delivered tomorrow and I am so excited! 
We had an incredible week and weekend celebrating this awesome occasion.  
The Lord has blessed me immensely and brought this incredible Godly man to be my partner for life and I am so thankful for that.  
I LOVE YOU BEN!!!!  

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

3 months

Where you can find Wells many times a day playing the day away!  
Holds his head up SOOO well but doesn't love tummy time
 Daddy snuck this Bama onesie on him one Saturday football day.
 Smiles in abundance
and laughing too!
 Finding my feet
 Daddy smiley times
 Loves bath time!
 This picture is the 1st time I have looked at Wells and thought he looked like me (i think there is a picture of me as a baby looking very similar to this after bath time).  
 We've had a little cold snap so we tried out our "baby legs"
Aunt Amy babysat Wells while we went to Polo at the Point (a fun work event for Ben) and Memommy babysat while we grabbed dinner- it was a LONG day away from the baby boy and I almost cried when we got home and I realized how much I had missed him!  Memommy sent us this picture of Wells loving his swing- and how he has started putting his hand in front of his face when he sleeps! 
 We've been practicing sitting up and he is doing great
 We sent this picture to Mimi & Doc (Mississippi State grads)
 Momma loves our smiley times every morning when Wells wakes up! 
 We loved wearing our Halloween PJ's and had such a fun Halloween dressed as a Doctor
A big event approached when Wells turned 12 weeks old... Momma had to go back to work.  :( I previously worked part time from my office (20 hours a week), and with Wells' arrival my boss agreed to let me have 12 weeks maternity leave and then start out by working 2 days from home and a half day in the office while Wells goes to Mother's Day Out.  So I started working from home on Monday October 29, and then the day came for Wells to go to Mother's Day Out.  
I got his bottle ready with new inchbug labels
I put a monogram on his school bag at the last minute (the night before).  Then the morning came, and I got up super early to get everything ready, and we took our 1st day of School pictures!!! 
Wells did great for the 4 hours he was at school and his cousin Jacob is in his class so I know he kept an eye on Wells. :)  We were both exhausted (mentally and physically) at the end of the day though, so it will take some getting used to.  
 and then Wells turned 3 months old on November 2nd!  
Age: 3 months old
Weight: 14.5 pounds
Height:  25.5 inches
Head:  41 cm
(we didn't have a doctor's appointment this month so all measurements are from home approximations)
Likes: sitting up in your lap, watching the TV, napping in his swing, paci when sleeping, smiling at momma & daddy, sucking on his hands & blowing bubbles, playing on his play mat
Dislikes: tummy time, burping (or the process of being burped), when he stops moving when in the car seat (whether in the stroller or the car- just keep moving!)
Eating:  Breastfeeding: every 2.5-3.5 hours during the day, with first feeding 7-8am and last feeding 8-8:30 pm... each feeding lasts from 6-9 minutes total for both sides.  (starting to feel like my supply isn't keeping up- he seems hungry after he gets done eating and I sometimes have to supplement with a pumped milk bottle).  Will drink between 3 and 5 ounces when fed from a bottle.  
Sleeping:  usually asleep by 9pm and gets up around 7-8am... the first part of the month Wells went back to waking up once around 3-5am to eat or get his paci back, but by the end of the month he was sleeping 11-12 hours a night for a week straight! :)
Diapers: Size 1 Pampers- think we will be moving to size 2 soon
Clothes: 3 month dressy clothes/bubbles and 6 month play clothes/pajamas
Other things to mention from this month:
  • Sat in Bumbo seat for the 1st time and did great with it throughout the month
  • Has pretty much complete head control and very rarely bobble-heads it
  • Sucks on his fists any time paci falls out for momentary soothing
  • Finds his feet on changing table and acts like a wiggle worm but doesn't grab his feet yet
  • Making a lot more babbling sounds and will mimic you "oooh"ing at him
  • Rolled from his tummy to his back 1x mid month and then again at the end of the month!!! 
  • Blowing bubbles and drooling a LOT (may have to break out the bibs)
  • Grabbing toys on play mat now instead of just batting at them
  • Napping much better in crib and if he wakes up and won't go back to sleep in his crib, he will usually finish out his nap in his swing
  • Still sleeps with hands in fists up by his head and sometimes with open hand over his face (like in a picture above)
  • Seems left-hand dominant and is always kicking his right foot
  • Noticed his hair growing back more (hair is a light brown... used to be auburn-ish colored but doesn't appear so anymore) and eyelashes are much longer & thicker (which I LOVE)
  • Still follows a pretty good and predictable routine:  eats approximately 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm, 8pm.  If we're at home he plays on play mat after every feeding and then gets moved to his crib for about 45min-1hr nap, wakes up and swings in swing until next feeding! He loves running errands and sleeping in his car seat. 
We are so in love and enjoying every single step along the way!  

Friday, November 2, 2012

Wells' 1st Halloween

We had a wonderful 1st Halloween on Tuesday!  Wells started out wearing his pumpkin jon-jon to run errands with mommy.  
 Then we went to Natalie's house to get ready for the night.   Originally Wells was going to be a WHALE for Halloween.  Not a killer whale but just a really cute blue whale.... because there has been this running inside joke with Wells and Whales- because someone thought his name was spelled like whales and from making whale noises when he was little to calm him down.... but I couldn't find a costume anywhere.  So I bought this robe, but it turned out grayer than it was supposed to be and as a 0-6 month size, it was WAY too short on Wells.  I realized that no one would be able to actually tell what he was... and he didn't seem to like it.  
 So, we went with Plan B which should have been Plan A from the beginning because it was precious! Wells was a DOCTOR!!!  One of Ben's customers sent us this as a baby gift and we thought it was perfect for Halloween!  
 So we got all of Natalie's babies dressed up too and took a group picture before we went our separate ways!  
and then we went over to Will & Amy's house.  Wells was asleep at first but Cowgirl Leigh still looked precious and took a picture with Wells.  
 We went to only 1 house (some friends who lived 2 houses down) but trick-or-treating with Wells would have been kinda silly anyway.  After pizza dinner and hanging out, Wells woke up and we got more pictures!  
Dr. Wells
We were so glad Grandmother came in town and was here for the celebration! 
 and we had to get some last minute pictures in our pumpkin gear on the front porch with all the Halloween decor!  
 Wells says Happy Halloween!!!