Noah takes a dunk

We took our little man into the swimming pool tonight. It took 20 minutes to get him loaded up with sun screen, hat, clean booty...all for a grand total of 2 minutes in the pool! Anyway, it was a good experience for the little guy!

Whats Growing On

Its has been a while since a garden post...but the garden has EXPLODED!!! Here is what we have going on:

Green beans: (don't they look cool!?!)

8 tomato plants and 1 cherry tomato:

1 eggplant (with 3 beautiful eggplants growing on it!)

A plethera of peppers...bananna, bell, and jalapeno:

Strawberries:

A neighbor offered to give me a canning lesson when the tomatoes are good and ripe!

I love my healthy, (mostly) low maintenance garden!!!

Noah's Bad Day

On Saturday, Noah had a very bad day. He screamed on 4/5 of his naps...the entire time. My "babywise" baby was not cooperating, even though I was doing everything right!!! I was so tired from being up all night and all day, and I was not enjoying my baby.

Sunday morning didn't start out any better. After Noah screamed throughout his first two naps, I called my sister Danielle for suggestions. Danielle's baby, Charlotte, was very successful with the Babywise program...so tired and frustrated, I was looking for some advise. :)

Danielle suggested doing a better job swaddling Noah, because he was breaking out of his swaddle very easily and getting woken up by flailing arms. Danielle sent me a link to a youtube video which showed how to swaddle more successfully. Noah is very hot natured, so I had to modify it with the "escape proof swaddle" some (be warned...corney video!!!), but Noah loves it!!! He slept straight through 3 naps yesterday, and 2 already today! I took a few pictures of my straight jacket swaddle (though they are not very good pictures, you can get the point).

Noah is much more rested, and we are both much happier! Yeah for sleep! Now...who wants to swaddle me for nap time?!?!

6/26 Haul

Grand total: $4.36 (although I did use some of my register rewards, but most of these items were free or close to it).

Stash includes:

1 big bag of wipes

4 boxes of 100 ct. Puffs

2 tubes Crest toothpaste

2 cases 24 ct water

2 bags twizzlers

1 bag crystal air fresheners

2 bags of tortilla chips

4 cans of pringles

2 disney sippy cups

2 24 ct excedrin migraine

4 rolls packaging tape

lots of laffy taffy (filler item)

Stores included Walgreens and Rite Aid. Out and back home (without baby) in 1.5 hours. Thanks to Anna and Robby for babysitting!

Have I mentioned that I love couponing!

By Myself

Our company is gone and I am by myself. With 9 weeks of maternity leave left, I am officially on my own with the little guy during the day. Being by myself requires confidence...confidence in making the right decisions for Noah, confidence to make good choices with time management and confidence to make good choices to take care of myself and my little boy. When there is someone else here, I have someone to help me make decisions, and if nothing else, someone else to pretend like they agree with me. But Jeremy is back at work, and our company is gone. :) So it's just me...wish me luck!!!

We have been alone for 2 hours, and so far so good. Noah is napping, and I am picking up, and washing the sheets, comforter, duvet cover, mine and Noah's clothes (all things that he destroyed during a major blow-out in while sitting on my lap the other day). Also, it is 11:20, and I have already brushed my teeth and my hair, which is a significant improvement from yesterday!!!

On a side note, Danielle inspired me to try making freezer ready breakfast burritos, which I made yesterday. We both had one for breakfast, and they were pretty good! They took 30 minutes to make and clean up, and we have 16 burritos all ready to go!

Happy Friday to you...if I have time, I will post a first-day-alone update later! :)

Bode and Noah

Thanks to Jeremy's mom for these adorable July 4th shirts for the boys. :) We loves them...though with two little ones, we had to work hard to time this picture so that they would both be clean at the same time! We got a few cute pictures, and lots of not-so-cute pictures...but here they are! (and even the not-so-cute pictures are still pretty adorable!)

Here is Noah and his cousin Bode!

Lesson Not Learned

A lesson that we have yet to learn:

First Bath

Noah had his first bath this... and fortunately for us...he loved it! :) Here are a few pictures of the occasion!

Noah also had his first swim in the pool today! There were no pictures of that since all hands were on deck for that. Noah liked the pool some, but it was a lot colder than the bath tub!

Favorite Dog Award

My parents left this morning...but before leaving my dad gave out an award. You will never believe this, but the one and only RIO got my dad's award for "favorite dog". Rio was fairly social with both my mom and dad throughout the week...and he even brought my dad a rope to play tug-of-war with! :) Who would have thought!?!?!

Dear Mr Sleep Sack

Dear Mr. Sleep Sack:

I love you. You are the most wondeful invention ever. Confession: I thought these were girly when you were given to me.

Then we tried one out. And Noah has worn them to bed ever since. They are a little big for him...sometimes they ride up towards his head when I am feeding him. But, it is pretty wonderful just to slide that little elastic up over his booty for a 3 am diaper change.

Alas, I have fallen in love with you, Mr Sleep sack, and there is no going back. Please never let my boy get too big to fit. However, please don't let my boy get married and still be wearing a sleep sack.

Seriously, I can't rave enough!!!! :) Go sleep sack!!!

Sincerely,

one tired mama

G-ma and Poppy

G-ma and Poppy came to visit on Saturday! After a week with Grammy and Papa (Ken and Terry), we have the explosion that happened in our house under control (thank you Ken and Terry!!!), so this week has been more relaxing. I'm still tired, and Noah is still peeing all over me, Jeremy and himself. I had to use 5 diapers in ONE diaper change yesterday due to a major explosion. :) I'm learning, and so is Noah! It is getting easier by the day. :)

Noah was playing with Poppy the other night, and we got a few adorable "smiles" out of him. I realize that they are not actual smiles, but they were still super cute.

Pounds

What interesting things we have in our house!

40 pounds of sawdust, 10 pounds of poop

Infant Photography

Noah was a champ at the photographers yesterday! He was put into all sorts of poses...he was tired and cranky at the end...but we got AMAZING pictures of him. Here is a sneak peak...we should get the whole CD in a few weeks!

PS- I'm not really that skinny. The photographer told me not to worry, that she would photoshop my belly out of the picture. All after I was so excited about fitting into non-maternity clothes (not buttoned of course!) :) Small accomplishments!

Intentional

This beagle's behavior is totally intentional. He must have known that we were taking Noah to get his infant pictures done today. He must have known he was coming along for a few shots. And I know that he was still clean from his last bath the day before.

That is why his behavior is totally intentional. It was intentional when he trotted to the nearest sand pile. It was intentional when he looked over at us and it was intentional when he dropped down and rolled his face in the dirt.

What a rotten little beagle, Another hose bath for you!!!

Another Noah Blog

I promise not every blog that I do will be about Noah. But since he is so stinkin cute, I just had to do another blog.

It just doesn't get much better than this. This little dude is awesome. Even when he gets up in the middle of the night to eat, he is still awesome. He is awesome when he screams during a diaper change. He is even awesome when he poops in his brand new clean diaper. He is awesome when he is peeping his big blue eyes open. I never want to put the little fellow down!!!

Who does he look like???

He has big monkey feet like his mama. :)

And his chin(s) are like his daddy.

Either way, we just can't stop staring at him...cause he is all ours!!!

Couponing After Noah

Well, the big question/comment everyone had for me was....will I continue to coupon after Noah is born?

Well, I will confess to a significant increase in time planning for my shopping trip, but couponing was in full force today! I had to plan the trip around feeding time for Noah...but I still managed to make it to Walgreens, Rite Aid and to the grocery store (we had expired milk!). :)

Noah and I planned together (with many interruptions), and I was super excited about today's deals.

Out of Pocket: $26.11 ($18.12 after rebate check that is coming yet)

Total saved: $121.82

My stash included 10 bags of chex mix, 4 boxes of cereal, a razor, 4 body washes, eye drops, 4 manual toothbrushes, 3 battery toothbrushes, face wash, a chocolate bar (which didn't make it home) and gift bags (on clearance 21 cents...I used that as my filler item). Because I didn't make it to the store till later than usual, some of the good stuff was already gone, but I thought I did pretty well!!! I got tons of register rewards back, and I can't wait to use them again next week!

Headed Home

This morning we got the passing grade to take our little fellow home. Can you believe he is all ours??? We loaded him up into his carseat, brought the awesome nurses and doctors doughnuts and headed home. (I think the Mississippi humidity was a shock to Noah).

I wore my "New Mom 2011" (clearance, Walmart, $3.00) shirt for the occassion.

After arriving home, Noah had a full day of visiting with Grammy and Papa. :)

He rode in his swing for the first time, visited with neighbors, and met the dogs (they are only somewhat interested).

He also got to hang out with mommy alone while everyone else went to Walmart. He did fantastic, and he even got to spend a good amount of time showing me his pretty blue eyes. :)

What a full day! We are so glad to have our little man at home!!! He is just the best thing ever!!!

Birth Day

Today, Jeremy, Noah and I are here for the first time blogging together. :)

Noah made his arrival into the world yesterday at 12:41 pm. We had such an awesome day...Noah's birthday! Noah was 7 lbs and 14 oz, and he was 21 inches! This little guy is all Jeremy...from his eyes to his cheeks to his chin! He does have my dark hair, though not a whole lot of it! He smells so good!!!

Noah started arriving last night at 3:45 when my water broke in the hospital. After 2 hours of contractions (while waiting for the anesthesiologist who was doing an emergency c-section), I was able to get an epidural. During those two hours, I was surviving on IV medication, which made me a little crazy (telling Jeremy that I didn't want to play frisbee and other nonsense conversations like that). In the 5 hours after the epidural, I was able to sleep, rest and chat while waiting for Noah to arrive. That was awesome! :) Noah arrived at 12:41 pm after about 30 minutes of pushing. Jeremy was an awesome coach, and he even cut the cord!

Overall, it was an awesome experience. We were so blessed with wonderful nurses, doctors, and CNAs. The hospital has been very comfortable, and we are so happy to get to bring Noah into the world here!

Looking at little Noah, we feel so amazed and blessed that God has choses US to be his parents! He is such a sweetheart, and we are so excited to be able to KEEP him! We are so thankful for him and for all the happiness that has and will bring us!