Precious Moments

I was taking Morgan to her room to put on her jammies and she was already very much asleep. When I was carrying her to the room, she was all snuggly in my arms with her head resting on my shoulder. Before I lay her down in the crib, I just stood there and held her close and tried to make a strong mental impression of the moment. Me, holding my little, sweet baby girl, so close and tight in my arms. I stood there for a full minute and I felt that warm, wonderful feeling...the sound of her breathing and her special baby smell. I wanted to capture the moment to play back in my mind for the rest of my life. With happy tears in my eyes, I put her in the crib and changed her into her jammies and the sands of time resumed their flow. I think that's the only way I'll be able to handle the fact that time passes so quickly. I must take a moment now and then and just feel and take in everything, so I won't have to feel so bad about the fact that she'll grow up so fast.

Morgan's First Playgroup

Morgan had her first "Caterpillar Playgroup" on Thursday. The Stay at Home Moms Playgroup that I belong to has playgroups for the different ages/stages. I hosted the "caterpillars" playgroup for babies that cannot yet walk. I was all excited and totally rearranged the living room so I could lay out all the various tummy time mats and toys.

I also made a cupcake caterpillar to commemorate the occasion:

The mommies and babies played on the floor, but Morgan was worn out from the excitement and slept through most of it:

It was really nice to talk to the other mommies, though, and see the other babies at the various ages and developmental stages. I had a house full of cutie pies! I can't wait until Morgan can sit up and play with her toys and the other babies.

I have...

As I was up the other night, feeding Morgan after only 30 minutes of sleep, I was thinking about how I don't have time to sleep much these days. I was also thinking about how I don't have much time to get things done during the day. Then a voice in my head gave me a verbal *smack* and said, "HELLO! How about thinking about what you DO have?!"

It can be hard to think about life's many blessings when you're sleep deprived at 4 a.m., but in the light of day I see how I am pretty much the luckiest, most blessed person I could be.

So, let's talk about what I *do* have...

I have...a wonderful father who paid for my college education, so I could earn my BBA and my MBA...

I have...completed 5 1/2 years working for the City of San Antonio, which allowed me to save up enough money to stay home with my beautiful baby...

I have...an amazing husband who supports me, both emotionally and financially and makes it possible for those savings to be enough for me to stay home. He does the laundry, cooks dinner, feeds the baby when I'm down to my last drop of energy...

I have...generous parents who come over at a moment's notice to give me a break in the day...

I have...a miraculous baby girl, who makes everything worthwhile and lights up my life...

I have...good friends to share it all with...

I have...my good health, without which I wouldn't be able to enjoy all these blessings...

I need to remind myself of these blessings often, because I have so very much. If I had to come up with a list of problems in my life, I think I would have quite a bit of trouble coming up with anything big. Even the small problems are outweighed by the wonderful small things, like Morgan's "ah goos" or her smiles and faces that are becoming more expressive by the day. I often ask myself why I ever even complain at all. I guess it would be against the law to be as happy on the outside as I often am on the inside. :Þ How can anyone be unhappy when they have this little one to look at and be with every day:

...not to mention her Daddy who helped bring her into our lives...

Morgan's First Out-of-Town Trip

(Click on any of the images to enlarge...)

On Saturday we took Morgan on her first out-of-town trip by car. We went to Victoria to see Greg's parents and other relatives. We also went to see some of our friends at Brian & Melissa's house in Edna.

The plan was to get on the road by 8:00 a.m. The night before, Greg and I began packing things little by little. As most parents know, you have to pack nearly the entire house when you travel with children. Also, a lot of things you want to pack will be used up until you leave the house, so that makes it a little tricky. We managed to get on the road by 8:30 a.m., and I think that's pretty good. Morgan slept almost the whole way there, except for one minor fit when we stopped at a gas station. I left the car to go to the bathroom and when I came back, I asked Greg to pop the trunk. When I opened the trunk I could hear that Morgan was crying, so I got in the car to find that she had woken up and she wanted to know where in the world her milk was at and why wasn't anyone feeding it to her?! I promptly popped the milk in her mouth and we got back on the road again.

That day, only a couple of relatives came to visit. Everyone else was coming on Sunday. In the late afternoon, we headed out to Edna, to Brian & Melissa's house. It was SOOO cold and windy! When we got in the house, it was Baby Central. Christy had Addyson, Nicki had Karsen, Melissa had Kendall, and there were some other friends of theirs with their babies, too. There were also older kids playing outside. I don't see how they could play in the cold - brrrrr! Shannon & Sam also came and I was glad they decided to make the trip. We had a gift exchange (this was our "Christmas in January" party...) and I got The Notebook on DVD. Morgan had a "diaper blowout" and I didn't have a change of clothes, which is silly, because I learned from Melissa that you should always have spare clothes. I had packed several outfits, but they were all at the house in Victoria. (A lot of good they were doing me back there...) Thankfully, Melissa lent me one of Kendall's old outfits.

All the babies were so cute and it was interesting to see the different stages of babies. Morgan is 2 months, Karsyn is 3 months, Addyson is 5 months, Kendall is 9 months, etc. After a few hours it was time to get back in the car and head back to Greg's parents' house in Victoria. Greg's mom had set up the crib that Greg slept in when he was a baby and Morgan slept pretty well in it. I slept in the same room with her and boy is she noisy! She grunts and wiggles and babbles in her sleep. I don't use the monitor any more at home because of all those noises. She's not awake when she makes them and I would always go check on her, only to find her sound asleep.

Sunday, we went to church and several people got to meet Morgan. She was all smiles and being quite the cutie pie. I think she likes all the attention. (I wonder where she gets that from...) Ann Korinek, a friend of Kay's, was there and it was really good to see her. Last year, she was on her way to my baby shower and was in a car accident and her leg was broken in two places. I felt so bad. She's doing so much better, though, and she looked well. She also has a granddaughter named Morgan, who was there so Morgan Elizabth got to meet Morgan Rae. Here is a picture of Ann holding Morgan back at the house:

When we got back to the house, Aunti and Jerry arrived, followed by several other family members. We all had a great time and they got to hold Morgan and she took so many naps in people's arms. She fussed a couple of times, but was pretty much an angel baby. Here she is having a great time in Aunt Margaret's lap:

Here we are with Greg's parents:

She slept most of the way home and was still asleep in the carseat when we got home. Greg put her in her crib around 8 p.m., which is early for her and sure enough, she was up at 11 p.m. wanting to eat. Then, she woke at around 2, 4, and 5 a.m. Greg got up around 5 and was sweet enough to give her a bottle while I went and pumped and then he took care of her so I could get a little sleep. I was SO very tired.

Overall, I think her first trip went very well and I love taking her around to meet new people and see new things. I was worrying that she was getting bored being cooped up in this house for 2 months, staring at the same things day after day.

Confusing...

I'm sitting here pumping and I can hear Morgan crying in the other room. We're in Victoria, TX visiting Greg's family. Anyway, as I'm sitting here pumping, it seems a little confusing to me, because I'm pumping to be able to give her breastmilk which is good for her health, but all this pumping time is taking away from my time to be with her and soothe her cries. I know it's only 15-20 minutes at a time, but sometimes it seems like forever. I hear her crying now and it pierces me. I know she OK, and is just have a minor fuss in there, but I do feel conflicted from time to time. Whoever thought that feeding a baby would be so complicated?

Back so soon?

Just when I think it's time to go back to sleep...WAH! I was all finished processing the milk, and thought, "hey, let's upload a few pictures before getting back to bed." I clicked on the pictures and then I hear Morgan crying. I guess she didn't get all the milk she wanted at the last feeding. I think she's back asleep for a while now, I hope. I had to come back here and do a "brain dump" since I might not remember things in the morning. Oh, what's that I hear? She's stirring. *sigh* I wonder why she can't get to sleep. It's 4:15 in the morning. Oh well, let's go see what I can do. False alarm...she's asleep. I thought she'd sleep really well since she was out and about today. I met up with Sarah, Abby and Karrie in the park and she got to be outdoors for a while. She also had a huge poopy diaper blowout, which cut our outing short, though. OK, well I'm going to slip back into bed and hope that she sleeps until 6 a.m. Please, oh please! Oh, seriously - I was just about to click "publish post" and I hear her...OK, baby, Momma's coming...

It's Blog:30

We're going to Victoria today to see Greg's parents and other family and we're also going to see some friends in Edna in the evening. I'm really excited about it, but I'm nervous that I'm forgetting something. Now that "baby makes 3," we have to pack the whole house. I fed Morgan around 7:30 last night and she fell asleep in my lap. I put her in the bassinet around 8 for a bit so I could do some packing. Well, she stayed asleep the whole time and that became her bedtime for the night. I was worried about that, because she would only sleep about 3 hours at a time. I didn't get to bed until a little after 10 and sure enough, she woke up at 11 p.m. I was SO sleepy, having slept less than an hour. I fed her and got her back to sleep, then I woke up at 3 a.m., realizing that I had slept through my 2:30 pumping time. I listened for any activity in Morgan's room before sitting down to pump. I was juuuust hooking up when Greg came in and said he could hear her sucking vigorously on her hand. Aw, she's hungry! So, I unhooked and took her to the living room to feed her. I got her back to bed pretty quickly and now I'm hooked back up to the pump.

As much of a pain as pumping is, it does give me 15-20 minutes to sit down and write my blog and do some things on the computer. It's a bit of a "forced break" albeit a little uncomfortable one. It's also giving me a little time to try and think of what I'm forgetting for the trip. Well, I guess anything she needs, we could buy in Victoria. I'm glad she's not at the point where she has a "binky" or special toy that she cannot be without, because I feel like I'd forget it, being so tired.

On another note, Greg said I could buy the Fisher-Price Precious Planet All Around Musical Playtime Gym (http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3243095), so I went to Target yesterday and got it. I'm so excited about it - it's SO cute! I'm pretty sure I'm more excited about it than Morgan is, but she did seem to have fun playing with it yesterday. I'm going to be hosting quite a few "caterpillar playgroups" for the Stay-at-Home Moms group I joined, so an extra tummy-time mat will certainly come in handy. I can't wait until May when she hits 6 months and can play with all kinds of toys! She has recently become aware of these colorful objects hanging from strings around her and smiles and coos at them.

Ah, times up on the pump. I need to go process the milk and get back to sleep. I need to keep reminding myself that I won't be tied to this pump forever. I am so ready to go to Victoria, yet so sleepy at the same time. *yawn*

Morgan's First Visit to the City of San Antonio

I used to work for the IT department of the City of San Antonio. Since Morgan had her shots, it was time to take her out and introduce her to the people I used to work with at the City. I got her dressed and she slept for most of the drive. We arrived and she woke up and was all smiles. She handled all the adoring fans very well and gave them grins and coos. After a while, though, she was tired and slept through most of the visit. She was a sweet baby, though, and only fussed a couple of times when she was hungry. It was nice to see everybody. Some asked me if I would come back, but I said, "how could I leave her?"

We got in the car to head home and about 5 minutes from the house, she started crying - she was hungry! I don't know why she has to fuss when we're so close to home, but I guess it's better than fussing the whole time. So, we get home and I get in the back seat to give her some milk. She drinks some and then appears to be done, so I get her out of the car and into the house. My visit lasted longer than I thought and it had been over 5 hours since I last pumped breastmilk. I'm supposed to pump every 2-3 hours, so I really needed to pump. Morgan had other plans, though. She wanted her miiiiiiilk! So, in my haste, I took off my shirt for ease of pumping and hooked up to my double electric, hands-free (thank goodness) Medela Freestyle pump and tried to wash some bottles in the kitchen. Morgan didn't want me to do that - she wanted to be fed. So I have one hand on a bottle, and one hand in the sink. Since I hadn't pumped in several hours, I had a lot of milk backed up and I had to change collection bottles. All the while, Morgan is fussing. I get the bottles switched and the other bottle back in Morgan's mouth. She also decided that it was time to make a huge poopy diaper. I'm going quite nuts at this point, because I was also fumbling with her bottle to add more milk to it and the drop-in liner wasn't in place properly and I spilled some milk. Whomever said "don't cry over spilled milk" never pumped/breastfed! I still had a few minutes of pump time, so I had to pick her up out of the bassinet, still hooked up to the pump and take her to the changing table. I get her changed and back in the bassinet. Finally, my pumping time was up and I had made 11 ounces! (That is a lot...) I'm trying to get all the bottles sorted, while feeding Morgan at the same time. I notice she's pushing the bottle away, though. So, at this point, I'm unhooked from the pump and I can pick her up. I haven't had a chance to get a shirt, so I'm still in my bra and jeans. I pick her up and try to burp her and she lets out this big burp...followed by a river of spit up. Remember, I have no shirt on, so it's all over ME and I look at my back side and there's spit up on the back of my jeans, as she spit up all down my back, basically. I'm wiping everything off and about to lose my mind. I put her in the bassinet and turn to look at her and she is SO happy. I think spitting up made her feel better and she's there smiling and cooing. She starts saying "ah goo", which I always love to hear and she said it 26...yes, twenty-six, times! I counted. ;) My heart was melting and I briefly thought about getting the video camera, but I couldn't tear myself away from the cuteness. Instead, I called my husband on the phone and let him hear the "ah goo fest" that was in progress.

I guess that's the nature of motherhood - on the brink of insanity one minute and totally happy and in love the next...

I do have video of her "ah goos" from other days, though:

So far so good...

Well, it's almost 3 in the morning and Morgan had her first feeding for the night. She went to sleep at around 9:30 p.m. and woke up at 2:20 a.m., which is a normal interval for her. She seemed her usual self when I fed her, so I'm guessing she's feeling OK. I gave her a second dose of Tylenol at 6:30 p.m. last night and haven't given her one since then, because she doesn't look like she needed it. There are no signs of a fever and she doesn't seem fussy or anything. I'm really glad she isn't feeling as badly as I anticipated. I've always tolerated flu shots and the like pretty well, so I'm hoping she has inherited that quality from me. :)

Back from the doctor's office...

We went to Morgan's appointment with the pediatrician and they did their assessment. She's in the 90th and 95th percentiles for weight and length and head circumference. She used to be in the 50th percentile, so the doctor was pleased. Since she was gaining so much, I was wondering what he was going to say. She was born 7 lbs. 3 oz. and today she weighed 13 lbs. 10 oz.!! He just said she had quite a few growth spurts and it was OK for her to be eating a lot.

Then came the time for the vaccinations. The first was an oral administration for rotovirus. I could tell it tasted funny to Morgan, but she drank it anyway. I then saw the metal plate with the shots on it. Oh, man, they were LONG needles. I've had many shots and had blood drawn about a zillion times in my life and even I was wary of those things. I had to lay Morgan on the table and the nurse gave her the shots and it took a second for the pain to register and then Morgan wailed and cried louder than I've ever heard her cry. :( When the nurse was done she told me I could pick her up and I was thinking to myself, "don't cry, don't cry", because I didn't want to add to Morgan's stress by bawling myself. I gave her a bottle and she settled pretty quickly - thank goodness. She was pretty calm after that and didn't cry again. She does seem a little tired, so we'll just have to keep an eye on her to see how she reacts.

I can't believe we have to do this again in another 2 months, then at 6 and 9 months and a year, etc., etc. *SIGH*

Dreading baby's first shots...

Today at 2:30 in the afternoon, we're taking Morgan for her 2-month pediatrician visit. I'm curious about how long she is and how much she "officially" weighs. I am NOT looking forward to the vaccination part of the visit, though. I know that she needs them, but I'm worried about how she's going to be feeling the next day or so. She's so happy and smiley this morning and I feel awful knowing what she has in store for her this afternoon. I'm glad she has no idea, so she won't be dreading it all day.

Inspired to Blog

Good very early morning! I've been inspired by Carrie's blog to create a blog of my own. I spend quite a bit of time, lately, sitting in front of the computer pumping breastmilk, so this is something I can do with that time to log the events going on in my life as Morgan's mommy. I need to get to sleep now, but I'll be back soon.