I Have Adult ADD

I just had to write about what I did yesterday morning. I was getting ready to get a shower. I gathered my clothing and went into the bathroom. I remembered that I needed a new can of shave gel, so I walked out of the bathroom and down the hall to the linen closet. I got the can of shave gel, walked back down the hall and into our bedroom. While walking into the room, I noticed a Baby Gap bag on the floor that had been sitting there for about 9 days (remember... we have a newborn in the house, so don't judge!). I picked up the bag and took it over to the bed. I put the shave gel on the bed, too. I pulled everything out and spread it out on the bed to admire the new things I had bought for Fenn. I walked into the bathroom, started the shower, and got in. When I got to the point of needing my shave gel, I reached for it but it wasn't there. Hmmm... what did I do with it? I looked outside the shower curtain to see if I had put it on the sink. Nope, not there! Hmmm.... I know I went to get it. Hmmmm.... I decided to get out of the shower (dripping water everywhere) and look in the bedroom. Hmmm.... I still didn't see it sitting on the dresser, side table, or any other obvious location. Hmmmm...... I walked over to the bed where I had spread out Fenn's new clothes. I picked up one of the items and there it was. I swear, I was already bad about doing that kind of thing before Fenn was born. I would be cleaning one room of the house and think of something I needed in another room. Then while in that room, I would see something that needed to be done. You know the drill.... you finally get back to the original task at hand after a couple of hours of being distracted by other things. Anyway, my adult ADD seems to be even worse since becoming a Mom.

Fenn's First Easter

Fenn had a really busy Easter holiday weekend. On Saturday morning, we went to his first Easter egg hunt at the park ~ the 2nd annual neighborhood hunt. Daddy helped him find some eggs, and then Fenn met the Easter bunny. Is it my imagination, or is the Easter bunny a little creepy looking? After the Easter egg hunt, Daddy had to go back to work for a little while. When Daddy got home, we all went for a walk... Asha and Petey, too. This wasn't just any old walk... it was Fenn's first walk sitting upright in his stroller. Instead of just looking up at Mommy and the sky, he got to look around. Of course, he seemed to focus mostly on the dogs' rear-ends! Maybe it was their tails that got his attention. Whew! What a day. After all of that excitement, Fenn was all tuckered out. Easter morning, we got all dressed up in our Easter clothes and went to Church. Afterward, we went out for brunch. It was great because Daddy took the whole day off from work. After several weeks of working 7 days a week, Daddy was able to spend the whole day with us.

Fenn's Luck 'O the Irish

Fenn says, "Happy St. Patrick's Day!" He's our little good luck charm.

My Friend, Gabe

Fenn met his friend, Gabe, over the weekend. Gabe is the 16-month old son of our friends, Kama and Jim. They got along great, and we can't wait until they're able to play together. I'm sure we'll have some fun stories to tell. Funny... Gabe had a little bit of a reaction when he saw his Mommy holding another baby! But he was actually really good about it. We had a great time over the weekend, and look forward to more family get-togethers in the future.

Fenn at Three Months Old

This is Fenn at Three Months. This is the third installment in the "12-month onesie" series. I'm so glad I saw this idea on Martha Stewart one morning shortly after Fenn was born. It is amazing to see how much he changes each month. By the time we get to 12 months, I think this onesie is going to be a little tight! We may have to break out the crotch extenders.

We're not due to go back to the pediatrician until April 29th, so he hasn't been weighed since his two-month checkup. But we think he weighs approximately 15 pounds now. He's still not sleeping completely through the night, but he's close. He'll wake himself up once or twice during the night ~ not sure if he's having baby dreams or what. What do babies dream about anyway??? When he wakes up, I usually hear him pretty quickly. Guess who usually sleeps right through it??? When I walk in there, he'll have his blanket kicked off, so I'll re-swaddle him and give him his pacifier. It usually works, but sometimes he just has a restless night. We're still trying to figure out what causes that. We're getting tempted to start putting rice cereal in his bottle at night to see if that will help him sleep more soundly. All in all, we consider ourselves very fortunate that he's such a good baby.

Babies, Babies, Babies

Fenn met his first girlfriend, Audrey, on March 6th. She was just 3 days old. Audrey was out for a stroll with her Mommy and big brother, Miles. They live right next door to us. We also ran into our across the street neighbor, Heather. She is expecting her first child, a boy, in June. There's something in the air in our neighborhood. Keep in mind this is a 1950's neighborhood where (probably) the majority of its residents are retired and the original owners of their homes. But there are a lot of young families moving in... for many reasons: location, size of lot, schools, quality of life, and safety. Another family just down the street had their 2nd child, a girl, in August. And then another who live around the corner had their second child, also a girl, in late September. And, there's another family down the street expecting their first baby sometime this year. That's 6 new babies within a 12 month time period ~ 5 of them on the same street.

More Faces of Fenn

Fenn's First Snow

Fenn got to see his very first snow this morning. It was the first "stick" we've had all winter. Because Knoxville is in a valley, we actually don't get a lot of snow. But you can drive 15 minutes in almost any direction and see snow several times each year. Since we weren't sure of how long it would last, we took a picture of Fenn with Daddy around 7:00 a.m. before Daddy went to his Wednesday morning meeting. Then Mommy got Fenn all bundled up in his cute hat and sweater and asked our carpenter, Larry, to take a picture. (Larry was working downstairs tiling our hallway and bath.) When we walked outside, Fenn turned his face up toward the sky with his eyes closed... it seemed like he was enjoying feeling the snow hit his little face. I wish I had gotten a picture of that! (If you look closely, he's actually looking up in the picture with Mommy.) Not satisfied, I took Fenn back outside and sat him in his Bumbo seat in the snow. He's a little scrunched up sitting there, but it's still cute. At least we got a picture of him in the snow.

Fenn at Two Months Old

This is Fenn at Two Months. This is the second installment in the "12-month onesie" series. He is definitely starting to fill it out more. Look at how much "plumper" his arms and legs are. He went to the pediatrician on February 12th for his two-month checkup. They started his immunization shots at this visit. He did so good. They had to stick him 3 times, and he only cried briefly. He weighed in at a whopping 13 pounds! And he was 23" long.

By the time he was 2 months old, he was starting to sleep through some nights ~ not every night, but we'll take that. The first time was Friday, February 1st and then he did it again on Wednesday, February 6th... we put him down around 11:00 p.m. I heard him "talking" around 4:00 a.m. and went in to check on him. He had kicked off his blanket and was partially awake. I gave him his pacifier and then went to the kitchen to start his bottle. When I came back into the room, he was asleep. So I put the bottle back up, re-swaddled him, and went back to bed. The next thing I knew, it was 6:00 a.m.! So that's what it feels like to sleep through (most) of the night! We hope that's the beginning of a trend.

Fenn meets his cousins, Piper & Sydney

In January, Fenn got to meet his cousins, Piper & Sydney. Of course, Uncle Mark and Aunt Debbie came, too! The girls were really excited and anxious to hold Fenn. Sydney got to be the very first person to hold him! I think Fenn was a little worried at first because they brought all of this "girlie" dress up stuff. He was afraid they were going to try and dress him up! But they didn't try.... at least not this time. Give them time. We're bound to have some embarrassing pictures of Fenn dressed up in some of their "girlie" stuff!

It was a fun few days... Uncle Mark and Aunt Debbie babysat so Mommy and Daddy could go out to a movie. We were really tired and not sure if we even wanted to go, but it probably did us good to get out. Thanks, Mark & Debbie!

He Smiled at Us!

These are some of Fenn's first smiles... talk about making your heart melt. The first time I knew it was a real smile (and not gas or a signal that he was about to spit up) was on Thursday, January 24, 2008. He was 6 1/2 weeks old. I'm so glad he did it before starting daycare. I worried that his first smile would be to someone other than Mommy or Daddy. I dropped Fenn off at daycare a couple of times for a few hours the week before he started full-time. That was mostly so Mommy could get used to the idea of someone else keeping him. His first full day is Monday, February 4th. Fenn seemed to really like Ms. Taphne when he met her. She's really cute and bubbly.... and she talks really loud (which kids love!). All the kids seem to respond well to her. She keeps Fenn and 3 other boys ~ Jackson (almost 4), Braden (2), and Andrew (1).

Fenn at One Month Old

This is Fenn at One Month. For those of you who don't know, I'm taking a photo of him each month in this "12-month" onesie ~ always on this blanket and always on the 10th of the month. It will be interesting to see how he changes and how he "fills out" the onesie throughout his first year.

It was an interesting and exhausting first month for Mommy and Daddy. We got off to a shaky start. I was trying to breastfeed exclusively for the first 3 months, but for some reason Fenn wasn't getting enough to eat. He seemed to be a really slow eater. And we had trouble keeping him awake. Because he wasn't eating enough, he wasn't gaining weight fast enough. We kept having to make trips to the pediatrician to have his weight checked. Before he was even two weeks old, we had to start supplementing with formula using a syringe. Then when he still wasn't gaining weight quickly enough, we had to start supplementing with a bottle. He got the best of both worlds because I mixed breastmilk with his formula up until he was 3 1/2 months old. The bottle supplements really worked ~ he gained 6 ounces in 2 days! Hooray! No more trips to the pediatrician until his 2-month checkup on February 12th.

Now, back to the "pure exhaustion" I mentioned in an earlier post. Oh....my....gosh!!! I had no idea what it felt like to be that tired. And no one can really explain to you what it feels like. They tell you it's really hard to get through those first 4 or 5 weeks, but you really don't understand until you experience it. We are so happy to finally be parents. But I have to admit there were times in those first few weeks where I wondered "What have I done??? How am I going to get through this?" We laughed, we cried (well, I cried)... and somehow we made it through. To me, giving birth was much easier than taking care of a newborn the first month or so. Anyway, it has been hard, but it is totally worth every sleepless night. I think it is natural to mourn your former life... and for Dan and me, we've had a lot of years to get attached to that former life... picking up and going somewhere whenever you want, sleeping in on a Saturday morning, meeting friends for drinks, quickly running errands without a baby in tow, etc. But now that I'm a mom, I wouldn't want to go back to that former life. I have the best life now!

So, to sum up that first month.... we made it through the sleepless nights, the pains of breastfeeding, being peed on while changing a diaper or during baths, having pee run down the wall behind the changing table, having poop on your hands, washing numerous loads of clothes (now that you're washing baby stuff), learning to plan WAY ahead before you can take the baby out, trying to NOT be late for appointments, learning to take a baby's temperature (rectally),... the list goes on. I think I'm going to like this motherhood thing!

More "Month One" Photos of Fenn

Just a few more pictures I wanted to include here. These were all taken during Fenn's first month. Enjoy!

What a Big Boy You Are!

He's only a month old in these pictures, but look how strong he is. He holds his head up pretty good and even turns to look up at Daddy. Amazing! I am in complete awe of this child.

Fenn's First Trip to Chick-fil-A

If you know how much Dan and I like Chick-fil-A (about as much as Uncle "G" loves Milo's in Birmingham), then you know why I'm posting this photo. This is Fenn's first trip to Chick-fil-A. We do try not to eat a lot of fast food, but we have to admit that we love CFA and go an average of once per week. In this photo, Fenn seems completely unaffected by the aroma of chicken cooking.... but give him time!