Life Just Doesn't Get More Precious

Lincoln's first smile caught on camera!!! How precious is this!! And it definitely wasn't a "gas smile"...ha. I can't tell you ho many times a day I go and stare at this picture cause it would be embarrassing!
So most of you know I started back work this week. Thankfully Jason's parents and my mom are keeping him these days before Christmas break, so the transition isn't all that bad...now January will be rough when we have to drop him off at his sitter! These past 2 days Jason's parents have been here and they have been wonderful!!! They cooked dinner for us and fixed our garage (it's been broken forever and we've had to park out on driveway). And if that wasn't enough, they even cleaned our entire garage out - and let em tell ya, THAT was a task!!!!!!!! So thanks guys for pending time w/ Lincoln and being so great!!
Just in case you are all there in suspense (ha), my talented husband has continued to lead the Panthers in an undefeated season...he's a stud, I know. And he has great help, to0. :) Tomorrow's another championship game in another tourney...I don't have my doubts.
Lincoln has been fun all smiling and playing this week- so precious and exciting!!! His only downfall is the hungry fella likes to wake up frequently for some milk - it's worth it, but man its exhausting!!! Tonight we're gonna try an experiment of giving him one bottle of formula right before bed and see if he sleeps longer. I'm not a huge formula advocate exclusively cause breastmilk is just so much better for the sucker, but we're gonna try one at night since it lasts longer in the tummy. We'll see how it goes. I will have to say I have LOVED breastfeeding and those moments!! Thanks to all of you who gave the advice early to "just make it through the first 2 weeks and it's wonderful!" SO true.

Birthday Photos

Yeah 2 posts in about 30 minutes...Might should have opted for the nap cause the little man is STILL sleeping. Oh well. I thought I would post some pics from my birthday...it was a wonderful night! I have the sweetest husband and he really set out to make the day special - from morning till that night. :) He gave me shoes, extra sleep, lots of help with the little man, a surprise visit at lunch, and a fabulous date that night. We went to dinner and then saw "4 Christmases" - SO funny. I wanna see it again...highly recommend it.

before the date (notice Papi in the left corner)

the babysitter :)

Lincoln Time

Yep. Thrown away all my watches...let the batteries run dead in all the wall clocks and since I can't really destroy the tv or microwave clock, I just ignore them and pretend they don't exist...why? My life is run on what I like to call "Lincoln Time". :) So I really didn't throw away all my watches, but ALL of them have dead batteries and I have made it little priority to replace them because of what I said above. So that said I usually battle between the great decision of "do I sleep, or get on the computer and play catch up on all my social networking sites??" Computer won today and here's why...whenever I try and take a nap when Lincoln's sleeping, his naps are WAY shorter than mine and I ind myself grumpy, trying to force him back to sleep (which is majorly futile) and then we're all upset. So I'd rather just be sleepy :)

The Benton County Basketball tourney was this week (which we won, of course)...and after the game Jason and the coaches went up to the school to watch film till about midnight. Being the precious husband he is, Jason offered to just keep Lincoln with him since he was sound asleep and let em go home and get some rest. I later found out that Lincoln only stayed sound asleep for minutes after arriving at the gym and then woke up to screaming and inconsolable tears...Jason was desperate cause they had to get through the film so what do him and his boys result to making Lincoln happy? Jason puts some of his cherry limeade slush on his pacifier! And of course, suck suck suck away Lincoln went! So now the child doesn't ant my milk anymore cause it's not cherry limeade flavored (joke).

Another cute thing Jason did, he was responsible for getting Lincoln ready and to church since I was singing and had to be there early. When I get of stage and join my husband for the service, I look down and he had dressed our little man as Santa Clause since it as the Christmas service! He look hilarious - and absolutely adorable. Leave it to the husbands. :)

Lincoln is starting to not cry as much anymore and has started smiling and making the cutest noises!!!!! It's so fun and I can't believe I have to go to work on Wednesday!

27 Years Ago...

Can you guys what great event took place exactly 27 years ago today???

I'll give you a hint...

Yup - Britney Spears as born!!! :)

But so was I and I tend to think that's a little bit bigger deal (even though the Today Show didn't offer to throw me a birthday party this morning on-air). So I am super excited (and you can tell I'm a new mom) b/c me and my husband actually get to go on a DATE - that is by ourselves - where we can enjoy a dinner and a movie without worrying if Lincoln's gonna wake up screaming for mommy's milk (who knew that could be s enticing!). My mom is coming over to watch Lincoln and I have milk pumped to ensure his satisfaction while we're away, and Jason and I are going to eat dinner and then watch "4 Christmases" to get in the holiday spirit - SUPER EXCITED!!!!

And I think Jason must have told Lincoln it's my birthday this morning because Lincoln has been on his BEST behavior today!! It's been wonderful and almost tear-free!! WOW! Our little tricks seem to be working and his digestive system seems to be getting better...now if we could only figure out what's wrong with poor Papi's! The poor guy farts out loud about every ten minutes and just smells like he has a constant, slow leakage down there! ha.

Isn't it crazy that today, 27 years ago, my parents were having the same overwhelming feelings I'm having now - amazing. What a phenomenal experience. Now I know and understand why my dad tells me the same story about the day I was born over and over and over again, as if he's telling it for the time each time. I hope you tell me again this year dad. :)

Turkey Pants

Ha. This picture belw was taken on Thanksgiving Day...Jason called his pants "turkey pants"...he was precious that day :)

So I went to write this post the day after Thanksgiving, but having a tiny tiny little one at your hip will delay things drastically, I'm coming to realize! I posted the pictures and then don't remember what happened as to why I was never able to finish the post, but I'm guessing it was either picking up screaming Lincoln cause his gas was bothering him (or cause he's just spoiled!), desperately search for the Mylecon, feed Lincoln one of his 8 thanksgiving dinners for the day, or change an icky diaper - nonetheless, I'm finishing the post now.

Thanksgiving was great!! Lincoln was very fussy that morning and we couldn't figure out what was wrong, but we thought it was going to be a LONG day at the grandparents house! But don't you know, that when we went over there (early - so they could take a shot a their soothing techniques!), he immediately stopped, and was angelic the rest of the day and night! Oh Lincoln. :)

The next day we went to my dad's side in the ole Fort...afterwards we took on the frantic crowds at the mall where my parents bought a beautiful coat for me for my birthday!!! It's red and I'm super excited about it! Jason and I went shopping at Pinnacle on Saturday and let em tell ya that Lincoln is quite the shopper! He just sleeps throughout the day and after we feed him he'll sit in his stroller and look at you wide eyed while making adorable noises! Love it. :)

Lincoln's seems to be getting somewhat better...we've figured out some tricks to help him get calm and reduce his gas problem that vary from positions when holding him to burping techniques. My favorite trick, however is Jason's invention that works like a charm!! He puts a drop of Mylecon on Lincoln's pacifier and he'll calm down IMMEDIATELY - literally. And it will usually last, too. Do all infants like medicine like this? He must be bored with drinking the same milk everyday - I would be.

Below are some pics from Thanksgiving...I also decorated my house yesterday wth my mom's help - it looks so pretty!! I'll post some pictures later.

Anyone Up For a "Baby Book Burning" Party??

Cause I think one of these would truly help my sanity and prevent any further damage from being done to my psyche (unless the damage is already too great beyond repair - Lord I hope not!). You see ever since I found out I was pregnant I was penciling advice given by friends, reading random parenting blogs, buying and borrowing any and every baby advice book I could get my hands on, then staying up to insane hours reading them in detail...all the while thinking "what's really so hard about putting your baby on a schedule? Surely we'll be able to figure this out and have a relatively "easy" baby...we're good with consistency...how hard can all this be???"
Then Melissa, the new mom, was given a brutal shot of reality - the reality more than anything, however is that I think I read too many books and now they're all running together and what one says, the other contradicts, and I feel like I'm in this never-ending circular mess of advice that really is now made a pile of mush out my brain that used to function fairly well (I thought at least). HOLY CRAP THE BOOKS ARE PUSHING ME TO THE BRINK OF INSANITY!!!!!!

Lincoln has had a difficult time this week transitioning to his crib and he's had really bad gas problems which result in hours of screaming bloody murder- not joking. So what do I do? I go to my trusty books....and I try everything they suggest - nothing works. So how do I eel? Like a terrible mom who can't figure out her child and is ailing because things aren't working like the books said they should. So by the end of the day yesterday, I had succeeded in to running in circles, plopping down on the couch and literally feeling like a complete failure. I mean, what would they say ("they" being the books!) if they knew my child still slept in a cradle swing at night because it was the only place where we could all 3 get sleep all through the night??? The SIDS police would be all over my butt and the books would put me in their "what not to do" book edition...or how the "wake time"?? Yeah, this work sometimes, but below is a classic example of our "awake time" yesterday after one of the feedings:

Put Lincoln on play mat for "awake time"....

5 minutes into "awake time"...

I know I'm not a bad mom and I don't want any books making me feel that way anymore...it's funny because things were going great until a few days ago when I busted out these books again and started feeling like I wasn't doing things right...why ix it when it wasn't broken at all!!! So instead of busting out the books last night, I prayed that God would help me not be frustrated and to trust my own instincts and to rely on Him versus freaking books.

Okay - I feel better. Now some more precious pictures from yesterday...I'll post about Thanksgiving tomorrow and put those pictures up. :)

Precious

I had to get up earlier than Jason this morning b/c Lincoln had a very early dosctor's appointment (I'll get to that in a minute). When I got out of the shower, Jason had gotten Lincoln and they had fallen asleep together...oh my gosh, the most precious thing EVER! I was scrambling all over the house for the camera and had a hard time remembering where I put it last, but thank goodness I finally found it to get the shots below...so freaking cute!!!

I took him to the doctor this morning b/c for the last three days he has been screaming (I mean the kind where whoever was walking by would swear I was abusing the poor child) after I feed him. He curls his knees up to his chest and I just can't stand to watch him do it! I know it's probably just gas and there's not much doc can do about it but I wanted to make sure. Well, he's fine...doc just gave us some tips on how to help his little tummy. He said it was more than likely due tot he fact that we've started giving him one bottle a day of breastmilk to get him used to a bottle for when I go to work. So the little sucker's fine...and still gaining weight - he's 8lbs 8 oz. :)

And today he has been angelic!!! Taking his naps and not being fussy at all! We're going to watch the Panthers again tonight - very excited about that!!!

And Bruce - just b/c he's pretty :)