What I've Learned...so far...

In my short 8 1/2 weeks as a mom I have learned a lot of things - some of them about my son, some about my marriage, some about myself - all valuable lessons. Here are a few tidbits of my newfound knowledge...

* I have learned that while I didn't believe it when friends told me...the memory of the pain of pregnancy and labor really do disappear the minute you hold your new baby in your arms.

* I have learned that being a mom is a lot of work - it is the most rewarding and satisfying job I've ever had, but it's work just the same.

* I have learned that the bond Ryan and I have is stronger than ever. We have this amazing little person that's truly part of me and part of him - and while it really doesn't matter which traits he gets from me and which he gets from Ryan, I do hope he has Ryan's metabolism and not mine.

* I have learned that while Babywise and Becoming a Baby Whisperer were good resources, my own mother is the most valuable resource on motherhood that's out there - but if you'd told me when I was a teenager that I would one day make this confession, I would have thought you were nuts.

* I have learned that it is possible to wash, dry, fold and put away an entire load of laundry with only one hand...and I give myself extra credit for doing the items that go on hangers.

* I have learned that getting up in the middle of the night to feed and then sit and rock my crying child is quite possibly the most precious time I have ever spent doing anything.

* I have learned to quickly tell the difference between a good disposable diaper and a bad one.

* I have learned that I don't have all the answers and that I often don't have any idea what I am doing, but that I am trying to be the best mom I can be and that's all I can do.

* I have learned that while my child may sleep all day, I still manage to get nothing accomplished and be completely exhausted at the end of the day.

* I have learned that people are way less interested in me than they are in my baby - while I was pregnant it was all about me - I got all the attention. But, since Camden has arrived, all the attention is on him. And that's the way it should be...even I am more focused on him than I am on myself...which also the way it should be...at least for now.

* I have learned that one night of sleeping through the night doesn't necessarily mean that you aren't going to be up several times the following night...and the next...and the next...and the next...

* I have learned that watching the evening news makes me worry for my child and all children - can they really be okay in this crazy world?

* I have learned that my husband is quite possibly the most tender-hearted person on the planet. Just watching him comfort, talk to, or even just change the diaper of our child makes me melt. And when they take a nap on the couch with Camden asleep on his chest...I come completely unraveled.

* I have learned that it's okay if the majority of my conversations with other moms revolve around breasts, poop and sleeping.

* I have learned that sitting on the couch watching your baby make faces and coo at you is far more entertaining than anything on television.

* I have learned that while I didn't think I could love Ryan more than I already did, when he got the title of "dad" my love for him grew exponentially.

* I have learned that when you say "I may go to bed early tonight"...it's pretty much a guarantee that you won't.

* I have learned that nothing is better than a baby just after a bath - all warm, cuddly and they smell sooooo good. I have also learned that babies are really slippery when they get that bath and that we must need more practice...I am sure that much water isn't supposed to end up on the counter and on the floor.

* I have learned that my child knows me and loves me - even if it is almost 9 weeks out and I am no where near back to my pre-baby weight.

* I have learned that I love someone with a love so deep and intense - I never knew I could love like this - and I have learned that I would not hesitate for a moment to give my life for his if the need ever presented itself.

* I have learned that I still have a lot to learn and that it's okay if I never know it all.

I have learned that I love being a mom.

Long time...no post

So it's been a while since we've updated you all on our lives with "little man" - but we'll get you all caught up now...

My parents came to Omaha for a week just as Granna was wrapping up her visit. My Dad (aka Papa) spent the week lovin' up on his first grandson and my mom (aka Oma - who had already been here for a visit) spent the week helping me around the house. Both of these activities were greatly appreciated. My mom also spent the nights getting up and rocking Camden and putting him back to bed after every nighttime feeding - which I REALLY appreciated. After getting up each day at the crack of noon, we spent most of our time awake just hanging out. We did manage to eat at a couple of my parent's favorite places in Omaha and they both got massages while they were here. I guess you could say it was a pretty good visit for them.

On the day they left to head back to NC, we (Ryan, Camden and I) also left for Seattle. Ryan had a conference to go to for his job and we love tagging along. So - another first for the scrapbook...this was Camden's first trip in an airplane. He did wonderfully - I nursed him during take-off and landing so that his ears would pop and the hum of the engines kept him asleep during most of the flight itself. We spent our time in Seattle just sightseeing and eating at some fabulous restaurants. I even broke down and had a couple of glasses of this amazing wine that one of the members of our dinner party had ordered. I don't know if it was the wine or just the exhaustion from traveling, but Camden slept 8 hours that night...so if he has trouble sleeping in the future, I may have myself another glass...or 12. =)

I've tried to make all of these "events" learning experiences for me - learning about myself, about my son, about my relationship with Ryan...What I learned about myself on this trip is that I have totally changed my view of nursing in public. Granted, there are those that just flop it out for the world to see and I tend to be more on the discreet side...but now that he's eaten on a plane (we kept joking that there was in-flight meal service for some on our flight), on a ferry, in a car and in the women's lounge at Nordstrom's...there aren't many places left for us to try out. We're looking for a train so that we can say we've hit the trifecta - planes, trains and automobiles...

The biggest new thing for us now is that for the first time in his 6 weeks of life, we are totally on our own. Until now, I've had someone (Ryan, my good friend Judy, my parents, Jane...) here at the house with me and now it's just me and little man all day together. In some ways it's really nice...I actually get to hold my child during the day. I was teasing my parents and Jane that it was a good thing I was nursing or I'd never get to hold my child. In some ways though, it's really a challenge. I am learning a lot about him and myself right now and I will post some of those revelations soon.

Visit with Granna

The day after Oma left, Granna arrived - my child is going to be sooooo spoiled. I've already mentioned our trip to Mt. Rushmore so you know Granna was on cork duty - and did a great job with it, I must say.

Once we got back from Mt. Rushmore, we spent the remainder of the week just hanging out around the house. Millie got a new "baby" from Granna and we sent shopping at Babies R Us where Granna just couldn't resist getting Camden some new clothes.

We had a great week traveling and just hanging out. After a week here and also hearing about all of the time Granna has spent with her other new grandson, Jay, I have a feeling that retirement can't some soon enough for her. I also have a feeling that traveling is part of her retirement plan...she's going to wear a path between Raleigh and Dallas for sure!!!

First Road Trip

So, what do you normally do with a three week old? Feed them, change their diapers, rock them to sleep? Sure, all those things are great. But for us, we decided that packing up the car and driving nine hours to Mt. Rushmore would be a fantastic idea!

Actually, it was much less eventful than we had anticipated. We scheduled time into our travel for feedings and the fact that we were in the car most of the time meant getting Camden to sleep would be a piece of cake. His Granna Jane sat in the backseat so she was on "cork patrol" so any time he lost the pacifier, she was on duty.

We saw the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD and then stopped at Wall Drug because you just can't pass that by. We drove through the Badlands and then spent two nights in Rapid City where we saw Mt. Rushmore, drove the Needles Highway and saw buffalo, deer and wild turkey as we drove the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park.

Now we're feeling really brave and we're planning our May 2nd departure for Seattle. I am keeping my fingers crossed that Camden flies on a plane as well as he rides in a car.

Visit from Oma

My Oma came to visit last week so I just thought I would post a couple of pictures from her trip to Omaha.

We had a great time. We slept every day until noon and then we usually just hung out here at the house or went out to eat...well, mom and Oma went to eat...I just watched and waited for my turn.

One afternoon we went grocery shopping. My mom seems to want pictures of every time I do something for the first time...and since pretty much everything I do is for the first time, there have been lots of pictures taken of me. Here's one of us at the grocery store. Oma decided I should have my picture taken with some vegetarian soup...she said she's starting early on me. =)

















We also went for walks around the neighborhood with Millie on the days it was nice outside. A couple of days it rained and was cold, so we just stayed in the house and spent some quality time together.

I am glad that we spent a lot of quality time in my first house, since we'll be moving out of it soon. Mom and Dad put the house on the market a couple of weeks ago and had an offer on it only 8 days later! Now that all of the details of the sale have been worked out and there are only a couple of loose ends to tie up, it looks like they are going to close on the sale on June 6th and we'll head to Dallas.

Lots of things will be changing and going on for the Foster Family over the next 6 weeks or so, so check back again soon for more updates!!!

Rolling Right Along

So this past Sunday, we actually got up and ready in time to make it to the 10:30 worship service at our church. Okay, so we were about 5 minutes late...but we're usually that late anyway so we were really on time by our standards.

We started getting ready as though we were going to the 9 a.m. service figuring that would get us to the 10:30 service on time. I made sure to work in feedings so that I'd feed him right before we left and then wouldn't have to do it again until we got home...things were going great. I even remembered to wait and dress him in his first outfit for church (see photo above) after we'd done all the feeding and diapering...I really am getting the hang of this!

We packed everything we thought we could possibly need for the 1 1/2 hour excursion in the diaper bag (extra diapers, clothes, wipes, etc.), loaded up the car seat and headed down the road. Halfway there, Ryan (who's driving) realizes that he doesn't have his wallet or his watch...which he never leaves home without. We decide it's not worth going back for, since we're already running that 5 minutes late, and that I will just drive home. We get to church, find a great parking spot, and head into the worship center. This is when I realize that neither one of us have our Bibles with us. Of course, Camden slept through the entire service and I spent the entire service struggling not to join him (not that the service wasn't engaging...I just haven't slept a lot lately and it was nice and quiet in the worship center...).

Our 1 1/2 hour excursion ran longer than expected since everyone we knew wanted to see Camden and ask how delivery/coming home/learning to be parents was going. By the time we got home, he was hungry and in desperate need of a diaper change, but all in all, we survived.

On the heels of this success and feeling brave and adventurous, I have since been out to the mall on my own. It was almost weird to push a stroller through the aisles of Dillards...and I never realized how narrow they were until I tried to do so. I have also braved the aisles of Target and have been out to lunch with a friend. Ryan and I even went out for dinner with some friends Friday night.

Camden is such a great baby. He rarely fusses and when he does, it's only because he needs something (a diaper change, to be fed, a little lovin' from one of us) but other than that, he just hangs out with us, content as can be. During the day he naps a little but mostly just lays next to us and looks around at the world. And since he does such a good job at staying awake during the day, he's sleeping great at night - once he even slept almost seven hours straight - but that was only because his mommy slept through the alarm she set so she'd wake up and feed him (oops). While I felt guilty about him missing a feeding, I was really well rested the next day and that was probably good for him in the long run too.

My mom, his Oma, is coming to visit tomorrow, his Granna Jane is coming the following week, and then Oma is coming back again with Papa so I am sure there'll be lots to write about while they're here and lots of pictures to post. Until then...

The Learning Curve

Ryan and I are learning lots of new things about being parents. We thought we'd share a couple of those things with you...

First, much to our dismay, we learned that a baby isn't supposed to sleep almost every minute of his life that he isn't eating. This was a real bummer for us. We kinda thought he should cry a little more and be awake just a little more, but we were enjoying the peace and quiet we just thought we were blessed with. Sleeping is a big part of their routine, but being lethargic 90% of the time...not so much.

The next thing we learned, again, to our dismay, is that babies should be going through dirty diapers at an amazing rate. Our little munchkin wasn't having anywhere close to the 6-8 wet diapers in 24 hours like he should, but we were just counting that as another blessing...not realizing that it meant he might be having some issues...

The last thing we've learned is that aren't supposed to look like they have one of those bad fake spray on tans. Since we've never been parents and haven't really been around little babies, we really have no point of reference in which to compare and contrast our baby with...but we were pretty sure his skin color wasn't supposed to match the "mango tango" Crayola crayon.

All of that led us to the Internet (what people ever did before it is beyond me...) to look up these symptoms and that's when we learned what jaundice is and how it decreases the number of dirty diapers, and how it can make babies really tired and make their skin turn colors. I had been calling him "sweet cakes" but I guess a more appropriate name would have been "carrot cake". =)

So, like all first time parents, we immediately loaded up the car and headed straight for the doctor's office. After a few tests, we found out that he did have jaundice and that is was already "severe" enough to admit him to the hospital for a short stay of light treatment and observation. We also learned during this time that it's actually not an uncommon thing for babies, especially ones that are breastfed, and that as long as it's caught and treated, it's an easy thing to manage and recover from.

So after a 48 hour stay in the hospital and some bright light therapy, we've come down 8 points on the scale - we're eating like a champ, pooping and peeing like a rockstar and getting rid of that fake tan. We still have a little ways to go with it, but we're headed in the right direction and that was good enough for the doctors to let us come home.

The other thing that I have learned in this is that Ryan didn't find the lullaby I chose to sing to him as I was feeding him nearly as funny as I did...I just thought the lyrics "they call him mellow-yellow" seemed very appropriate at the time. =)