Mason's First Month

Y'all, we have a one month old!!!

At our appointment (which we actually had at 5 weeks), Mason weighed 10lb 6oz and he was 23in long. He's growing so fast!

I haven't blogged much since he's been here. I've really been enjoying my time bonding with Mason - and really with Josh and Bailey too. We're all adjusting well and I love our little family! Here's an update of our past month together. 

Daddy's Lion King intro of Mason - he was just a day old here!

Week 1 

For the majority of our first week, we had one of our moms staying with us. Josh's mom stayed the first 2 nights and my mom stayed the next 2. We weren't sure if we would want to have anyone staying with us at first, but in the end, we were really grateful to have someone around to help out. It gave us both the time to focus on getting to know our brand new baby! The first week was interesting. It was so much fun! Even though we were tired and exhausted, it was so exciting to take care of Mason...even in the middle of the night. We were waking him up every couple hours to feed him and change his diaper. He slept in the rock n play beside our bed for the first couple nights. The first night or 2, Josh had to wake me up. I didn't hear any of Mason's noises or the alarm clock. I was surprised that Josh heard so much. I've watched him sleep through a fire alarm before, so I never thought a little baby noise would wake him up. Haha. Josh would get up and change Mason's diaper, then bring him to me so I could feed him. He would bring me snacks and make sure I had water. He even brought me breakfast in bed one morning (we don't eat in bed...ever - so that was actually kind of weird) and fed me while I fed Mason. lol. We had our 2 day visit with our nurses from the birthing center. Mason and I were both doing great! Mason ripped his umbilical cord out when he was 5 days old! It was scary, but he was fine. We had some newborn pictures taken and I love them! Here's a link to Tristin's website with his pictures.

We had some latch issues to work on and one of the midwives at the birthing center recommended trying a chiropractor. Mason had a high bite and his chin was set kind of far back and she was able to help us out SO much! Once we got the latch issues taken care of, breastfeeding has gone pretty smoothly.

Later in the week, we had Mason's first appointment with the pediatrician. That also went well.

On his way to the pediatrician. He was 4 days old here.

Here are some of my favorite newborn pictures

Week 2

We started getting out a little during Mason's 2nd week. We had a 2 week appointment with his pediatrician. Since it's right across the street from a shopping center, we decided to grab Chic-Fil-A for breakfast and stop to pick up some clothes for me. I didn't plan postpartum clothing as well as I thought I had!

First walk in the neighborhood

Mason had his first real bath this week!

Pre-bath...not so sure about this...

 Post bath. He did great!

Week 3
We continued to get out a little during Mason's 3rd week. When he turned 3 weeks, we celebrated by going to Lake Johnson for a walk and getting ice cream.

Milk coma

Daddy with his mini-me


Mason's first trip to NC State (outside my belly) and Bailey's first trip back since she was just a puppy!

Week 4
Week 4 was daddy's last week at home. We tried to make the most out of it, but we also relaxed a lot. We went to the beach for the day during this last week. We stopped by Ferguson's in St. Pauls on the way so we could get some food and Mason could meet some old friends. Mason did great on the ride to the beach and didn't get fussy unless he had a dirty diaper or got hungry. We went to Carolina beach and walked on the boardwalk, relaxed on the swings a little and walked on the beach. Mason slept through all of this. We grabbed a late lunch/early dinner after this and Mason stayed awake to stare at the fans the whole time. On the way back from the beach, he was a little fussier. I think he was just tired of being in his car seat. He was also starting to get hungry before we made it home. We enjoyed ourselves, but we were exhausted!

We went to visit Josh's co-workers and go out to lunch with them later in the week. Mason was great and he enjoyed his first trip to Daddy's office!

Mason also started sleeping in his crib through the night this week!

 This little guy just melts my heart!

Back yard progress - SOD!

Last summer, we planted grass seed in our back yard, then in the Fall, we got our patio put in. The grass seed didn't come back as well as we hoped it would this year and we were starting to have some erosion issues near the patio, so we decided to put sod in around the patio. We were also not very happy with the grading around the patio, so we wanted to build it up a little so there wasn't so much of a drop off. Josh sprayed out all of the grass and weeds the week before last and we spent this weekend putting in new sod! This is something we've talked about doing for quite a while, but Josh has gotten really motivated to get it done over the past month or so. I guess this is his form of nesting. :-)

These are a couple before pictures. Unfortunately, this is all we had. There are definitely some in between photos, but this will do. 

 This is what the back yard looked like shortly after we moved in. This area is where we now have a flower bed and patio. 

This is immediately after the patio was installed. Pre deck extension and pre erosion issues. 

I had Friday off and Josh took it off. We spent a good portion of the day prepping the area. Josh picked up top soil and dumped it in the area we would be sodding and I raked it out. We ended up getting 3 loads of soil, so that was lots of wheel barrel loads for Josh! After we got it about how we thought we wanted it, I walked on it a bunch to pack it in a little since it was supposed to rain that night. Next, we went and picked up the sod! Josh arranged for Bryan to come help put the sod in on Saturday morning, so we wanted to make sure everything was ready to go. We went to Home Depot to rent a lawn roller and it POURED while we were gone. We were worried we would get back home and a lot of the topsoil would have washed away. Luckily, it pretty much stayed in place! Yay!

 At this point, we were pretty much finished with the grading, we just needed some nice, fertile soil for the sod.

 This is after one load of 50/50 compost/topsoil. That dropoff at the landing below the steps used to be HUGE, so we built that up quite a bit. It's MUCH better now.

From the other side.

 This is our sod right after we picked it up on Friday. 

Josh decided he wanted to get one more load of soil (we used a 50/50 compost top soil mix for the top 1/2 inch - inch), so he and Bryan went to pick up one more load Saturday morning before getting started with the sod. They ran over it with the lawn roller to pack it down and level it out before putting the sod in. Once they started putting the sod in, they made really fast progress! 

 After one more load of 50/50

 All packed down and ready to sod!

 Getting a good start on the sod!

 After LOTS of hard work!

After all the sod was laid, Josh and Bryan took turns going over it a few times with the lawn roller, then it was time to water. It looks so much better! We still have quite a long way to go, but we're one step closer to having the back yard we want!

Since the baby is coming so soon, we're not planning on doing any more sodding this year, but we do plan to eventually do the whole back yard. This Bermuda should spread a bit between now and when we're ready for another pallet, though.

Bryan was a HUGE help this weekend. I could have helped Josh with some of this, but he would have been left to all the heavy lifting himself and the process would have taken SO much longer. We're very thankful to be close enough to family so that they're able to come out on a weekend to help us out like this!

Friday Favorites!!!

Happy Halloween & Happy Friday y'all! This has been a ROUGH week, so I'm glad to see Friday finally here! Here are my favorites!

1) Family Visit - Some of my family got to visit this past weekend. My dad, sister, niece & nephew came down last Friday morning and stayed through Sunday morning. We enjoyed catching up with them all. I can't believe we hadn't seen them since MAY!!! We hung out around the house a bit and went to the park. The weather was beautiful, so it was really nice to get to spend some time outside! My back had been bothering me, so I was kind of useless part of the time, unfortunately.

2) Chiropractor - Since I had been having problems with my neck/back, I decided to go to the chiropractor. I have some issues with my spine that are totally correctable and I've started regular visits to work on those. I can already feel an improvement! 

3) Sunday Walk - Josh went in to work a few hours on Sunday. Since it was SO beautiful outside and I was feeling better, I took Bailey for a walk at a nature preserve about 10 minutes from our house. It was a very nice time to get outside and enjoy some sunshine! I let Bailey splash around in the water for a bit and she loved it!

 

4) Bailey's new friend - There's a small, fenced in area in our neighborhood that we let Bailey run around in every once in a while. Monday afternoon, I took her in there to run around a bit and she met a new friend, Loba! She got SO dirty, but she had a ton of fun, so it was worth it!

 

5) Birthday - My 28th birthday was yesterday!

 
I got flowers and cupcakes from my awesome coworkers!


And my awesome hubby got some new cookware for me! I have an unhealthy obsession with cookware and this is a beautiful enameled cast iron skillet that I've been drooling over for a while. I thanked him with a big, juicy that is patiently waiting in the Crockpot right now!

Josh and I went to Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian steakhouse, for my birthday dinner last night! The food was really good, but we ate way too much! Especially me. I was literally in pain from eating too much meat. It was a really fun experience and a great way to try lots of meats, but I don't know that we will do it again. By the time we left, I felt like I had overstuffed myself at a buffet. Ouch!

6) Jamicures - I haven't done a great job of posting these, but here are some of my latest Jamicures! 

 

Boysenberry Chevron and Icy Boysenberry Polka. This was almost a week in, when I FINALLY took a picture of them. I really need to start taking pictures at the beginning too!

This is my latest one on day 2! I LOVE this combo! It's Venus and Raspberry Sparkle. I'm really enjoying this one, but I'm already planning my next one...my gameday Jamicure for homecoming!!!

2013 Recap

2013 was a pretty eventful year. Here's what happened...

January

We spent New Years at home with the Smiths. Low key, but a great time!

We paid off the last of our student loans!!! Woohoo!

February

Bailey turned 2. I can't believe how much she has grown!


The Ravens won the Super Bowl and we took off a day of work to go to the parade.

March
Our friends Nikki & Bryan had their beautiful triplets 2.5 months early, the day before our dating anniversary!

We celebrated our 12th dating anniversary! We went to Flying Dog for our first tour then out to dinner with friends. We had a great time!!!

Josh's cousin got married in VA.

Love weddings!

We FINALLY finished our bar.


We got the biggest snow of the "Winter" on March 25th.

April

We got sod put in and our yard looks SO much better!

Before and immediately after. It's still pretty green in January!

We celebrated Easter with my family here.

Natalia stayed a week with us.




We updated our master bathroom by painting, replacing the light fixtures, faucets and mirrors, AND by painting the cabinets and adding new hardware.


Cabinets Before                                                   Cabinets After


We went from this...


To this.

May 
Our niece, Ally was born!

We celebrated the 2nd anniversary of us buying our home!

We went to NC for Sherry & Aaron's wedding!

We went to NC for Natalia's 6th birthday party


We had to replace our HVAC.

I finally reached my goal weight (then put it back on over the next few months).

June
I hosted my sister's baby shower.

We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary in Mexico!


...during hurricane season


July
I ran my first 5K/Mud Run!


Baby Zachary was born


August
Our nephew, Jaden was born!


September
We took Bailey for her first hike.


We updated the guest bathroom.

I ran my first 10K.

I finished in 1:08:10. My goal is to finish in less than an hour this year.

October
We went to Busch Garden's for Jen's birthday.


We flooded our kitchen and ruined the ceiling in the State room.


...then we fixed it


We went to Raleigh for the State v. Clemson game.


November
We went camping with Bailey for the first time.


We went to California!


December
We bought our SUV!


We celebrated Christmas at our house.

I got a Vitamix AND we got a new camera. We got a Canon 60D! Now to learn how to use it :-)

Bailey posing for the new camera :-)

We went to NC to spend Christmas with our family and friends.

Then we ended 2013 just the way we started it. Hanging out here with the Smiths. Except this time, baby Zachary was with us!