Welcome Auntie Shannon and family!

Craig's sister Shannon and her husband Mike and their 2 beautiful girls are in town visiting us! They are staying in Ormond Beach in a resort right on the ocean, and they were kind enough to get a 2 bedroom so we could come down and stay with them while they are here. We are having so much fun already, and we are especially loving seeing Alisa, Abby, and Porter together!

Meeting Auntie Shannon for the first time.

Reading a book with Auntie Shannon and cousin Abby.
Snoozing in the car on the way to Ormond Beach today, snuggling with my lovey from Granny.
OH MY GOSH! He has to be the cutest little bathing beauty... check out those matching sandals!
Getting ready to get in the pool for the first time!

Swimming with the family.
First dip! He loved it!
It got a little windy and chilly, so we opted for the indoor pool which was like bathwater. Much better!
Drying off. He was so happy! It was adorable!
Watching a little tv with Daddy.

11 week pictures

More pictures...woo hoo!

Craig helped out by taking Porter in the wee hours of the morning so I could shower before work. I came downstairs to this...how cute?!

I just wanna kiss those lips!!!
Checking out his fishies in the swing. Handsome boy!
This is the first pic I have of Christopher, Brooke, and Porter. Porter wasn't too happy, but two out of the three ain't bad.
This is what really goes on during the day...no, really, they are gentle and they love him so much!

10 week pictures

Sharing some pics from Porter's 10th week of life....

This is the only picture we have of Porter with Mila. Notice the tiny piece of ham I had to use to convince her to get close enough to him for a picture. Clever Mommy.

This is Brooke loving on Porter. She's not acutally making out with him, although that may be how it seems. She's just gingerly lying on his chest. She sure does love him!
Porter is just starting to really enjoy his bouncy chair, and sometimes even grabs the toys! What a big boy! He sits in there and smiles now...so nice to be able to put him down!
Chub-a-rific....need I say more?

Happy Birthday to me!

Just wanted to share my excitement for my early birthday present from Craig's parents! (Don't worry...you didn't miss it!) I LOVE my new pots and pans! I have been using a mismatched set, and I have been dreaming of nice pots and pans...pretty cool, huh? If only I had time to cook with them...

Mila enjoyed the box they came in. Thanks Mom and Dad! XO

Hurricane Season

As many of you know, I am quite the weather hound, and I adore me some severe weather. I would prefer not to have it right on top of my house, but I strangely invite the tropical storms and possibly the category 1 hurricanes to come on through! I know, I'm crazy. I was pretty darn excited about Tropical Storm Fay when she blew through here, and I obsess over the weather channel and watching the radar to see what is happening. We got lots of rain and wind here. I was SOOOO disappointed when our cable and internet went out preventing me from viewing my ever-so-beloved weather channel on tv or on the internet. That was the point that I started to go stir-crazy. I spent a lot of time on the back porch watching the rain and wind. High quality entertainment.

I was a meteorology major at FSU up until my senior year when I changed to Child Development...maybe that will explain some of the craziness here...did you know that about me?

Anyway...I have spent countless hours with the weather channel on watching for Gustav and Hanna out there. I am excited to see every update, but I do count my blessings that Gustav will steer clear of Jacksonville. I'm not that crazy! We hope that his impact won't be as terrible as they are predicting, and we are praying for those in his path.

Here is a picture of some tree-bendage going on out front from Fay.

During one of my many trips out to the back porch, it seems a little someone was looking for some refuge from the rain and wind. We were alerted of this little tree frog by our sweet kitty, Mila, who tried to jump up the wall over my head to get him.
Rescued from the ferocious Mila!

Wind and Rain from Tropical Storm Fay!

First Shots

Friday morning, Porter went to the doctor again for her to check his breathing (A-ok!) and to receive his first shots. I was REALLY dreading this... no one wants to see their little baby get jabbed with needles! He received the Pc and Hib vaccine, and will return in two weeks to receive two more, as we are spacing them out. (He does need to play catch up a little, though, because at his 8 week they were out of the shots, and then he got sick.) Well, it was pretty much just as horrifying as I predicted it would be. Craig had to hold him down (I'm SOOOO glad he came with me. I never could have done that!) and when they gave him the shots I stood behind Craig's back and cried. It was awful! I was already prepared to nurse him (covered of course!), and I scooped up that baby so fast and gave him his favorite thing in life to make us both feel better. I can't believe how many more times we will have to go through that. Ouch! He slept ALL day after that, and was good as new the next day.

He weighed 14 lbs. 10. oz... keeping us entertained with his crazy weight gain! He is just under the 90th percentile for weight.


Mommy and Porter prior to the torture.
We took him out to lunch afterward, and he was surprisingly happy before he passed out for the rest of the day. What a good little pudding pop.

How do I love thee?

How do you love someone who deprives you of sleep so badly that you run into walls in the middle of the night? How do you love someone who needs you endlessly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? How do you love someone who threatens to tear off particularly sensitive parts of your body while he is eating? How do you love someone who has turned your whole entire life upside down? How do you love someone who you can't even remember doing anything without planning on when that person ate, slept, and pooped last? My answer....how do you not?

The benefits of having a child make me wonder why someone would choose not to have one on purpose. Despite the difficult times, and trust me, there have been many, I can't even imagine my life without my son. I have never loved someone the way that I love him, and nothing in life can compare to the joy that one little man brings into our lives. Some of you know from being in close personal contact with us that Porter is not the easiest of babies, and I suppose I'm just beginning to admit that to myself. When the doctor said "colic" I was actually a little defensive and I thought she might be a little nuts. MY baby? No way. I have since humbled myself...he really is a handful...

This being said...you'd think that one may have a hard time being as excited about a baby who is cranky most of the time, and who requires endless hours of soothing. Not so. I am obsessed. I'm actually pretty sure he is the greatest thing on the face of this whole planet. Call me crazy. I am obsessed with his little smiles that we work harder for than most parents, I think. I am thrilled when we get a 4 hour stretch of sleep at night, and I think he's a genius for it despite all the other babies his age sleeping 6 or 7. I get a rush every morning when he opens his big blue eyes and I get to start another day with him, despite being up all night. I just love him. I appreciate my parents more now knowing how much love I am capable of having for another human.

I guess I was just feeling sentimental about my little boy tonight as I ever-so-gently put him in his crib. I love being a mom. I LOVE being his mom.

Tracheomalacia

Yesterday, I called Porter's pediatrician to inform her that his congestion had not improved from last week when he got sick. She wanted to see him in the office yesterday afternoon. Porter has been diagnosed with Tracheomalacia, which basically means that the tissues in his trachea are floppy instead of rigid like they should be (visit http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001084.htm for more info). This makes his breathing louder all the time, and can complicate issues when he gets a cold or an upper respiratory infection (which he doesn't have now, thank goodness). She prescribed him his very own nebulizer and breathing treatments every 4 to 6 hours for the next 5 days. Hopefully by then this congestion will clear out of our poor baby! He doesn't seem to mind getting the breathing treatments, so that hasn't been difficult at all, which is a blessing. We just want him to feel better already!

On a chubbier note, our "little" man was up to 13 lbs. 14.5 oz. yesterday, up 10 oz. from 5 days earlier. I haven't been through his clothes yet to even take the newborn stuff out of his dresser, so I fear that we have probably missed a good chunk of what he has in his closet. Bummer.

Happy Birthday, Craig!

Happy Birthday yesterday, honey! We are SO blessed to have you in our lives! Porter and I could not be luckier to have such a wonderful husband and Daddy. You are so amazing, and we hope you had a fabulous day yesterday! We sure had fun! Here are some pictures from Craig's birthday dinner last night. It was DELICIOUS food and we had such a fun time with our friends! Porter was an especially good boy even though it was past his bedtime!

The birthday boy! (sorry the pics are weird, this is how they came off of email)

This picture had to be edited for content...thanks, babe.
Mommy and Porter...don't think he really enjoyed that bright flash too much! He looked so handsome in his big boy outfit!
Our besties!!! We love Suz and Cam! I think they are sending us more pics from last night, so I will update with new ones if they are good...

We LOOOOOVE you, honey! Happy 28th!!! XOXOXOXOXXX

Our new baby

Our new baby was born today...or should I say Craig's new baby. He has been wanting a new tv for SO long, so he saved his pennies and brought home this 42-inch beauty today. I haven't seem him this excited over something in a very long time, so congrats to him on a big accomplishment! Luckily, I get to enjoy his new toy as well...thanks, honey!

Here is a picture of the Craig and Cam basking in the joy of the huge tv right after they put it all together. I have to admit the olympics are pretty darn cool in high definition!

Sick baby

Unfortunately, Porter has come down with his first cold. He is pretty congested, and has even vomited a couple of times because of all the mucus in his tummy. We had a very rough and scary night on Thursday, then Friday morning I took him to the doctor and she checked him out. She even said his little throat was red and sore. Isn't that the saddest thing ever?! I feel so bad for the little guy. We are keeping him home this weekend and keeping the house quiet so he can get as much rest as possible, and also running the humidifier 24/7 and giving him saline nose drops, which does seem to help him breathe a little easier. My sister said there is nothing like the first time your baby gets sick, and she is SO right. I know it's not life-threatening, but I am so upset! He seems to be doing a smigde better today, but we hope tomorrow brings bigger changes.

On a good note, he is gaining weight like a little champ. His doctor is certain that I am making cream instead of milk. He weighed a whopping 13 lbs. 4.5 oz. on Friday morning. Here are some recent pictures of our little dumpling.
Funny story...Last Saturday, Craig got up and dressed and took my car in to be serviced (sweet guy). Porter and I got dressed and went to pick him up to run errands. It was in the middle of Target that we realized that all three of us were wearing solid chocolate brown shirts. We were pretty embarrased because it totally looked like we did it on purpose! Not so. Here's a pic of the matching boys.
Here's a shot of him in the chair with his puppy named Porter (it really is...it's on the tag!) that his Aunt Shannon gave him. We take one of him on his month birthday so we can see how big he's getting!
Such a sweet face.
I'll have to think back to this picture when he does things that make me mad in the future. Maybe I should have it printed and keep it in my purse. The face of pure innocence.

GI Procedure

Porter had his Upper GI procedure done this morning at Wolfson Children's Hospital to see if he has been suffering from reflux. He had to be fasting, so I could not feed him past 6 this morning. I woke him up at 5 to eat, and of COURSE I couldn't get him to wake up to eat! How ironic! Every time he would start eating he would fall right asleep. I ended up putting some breastmilk in a bottle so I could squeeze a little in his mouth to get him to start sucking. I got him to drink about 2 oz. like this, and that took until 6, so we had to be done. He went back to sleep until 8:30, so we only had to hold him over for an hour before we were able to leave for the hospital. He was SUCH a good boy! I was totally surprised at how well he was handling not being able to eat. It helped that Craig took him most of the time because he knows Daddy can't feed him, and also because it is ridiculously heartbreaking not to be able to feed your baby when he is hungry. It goes against every maternal instinct. Luckily, it wasn't too bad. He took the pacifier like a champ this morning, which he doesn't usually do, so that was a small miracle. Here he is with Daddy at the entrance to the hospital. (Don't make fun of me for taking pics! I knew I would blog about this!)

Here he is being such a good boy right before they started. He was lying on this giant x-ray machine where I had to hold his arms back and feed him a barium substance that showed up black on the screen. It was so cool to watch it go down into his very empty tummy and see him swallowing and his belly filling up. After a couple of minutes, his belly opened into his bowels and we could see it travel into his intestines. Cool! He pooped right after that :) They were watching to see if any of it came back up into his esophagus. We didn't see any at the time.
Getting ready. You can see the bottle of goo on the table. It was about 4 oz.
Tiny baby, big machine!
After we watched him swallowing the liquid, the doctor had me stop feeding him so he could take more pictures. After a few minutes he had me hold him and give him the rest so they could take another series of pictures. Here I am in my super awesome leopard skin x-ray apron feeding him that nasty stuff (which he ate like it was going out of style.) Craig says Granny Cathy would love my apron!
He was such a little champ! I nursed him for a few minutes when we were done, but he was mostly full from the barium. Daddy and I stopped by the hospital cafeteria to grab a quick bite to eat, and little man fell right asleep after his busy morning. We couldn't have asked for it to go any smoother. I received a call from his pediatrician this evening with the results and we are happy to report that Porter does not have reflux!! I immediately felt bad for putting him through all this, but we are so happy to know that all his little parts are working well. I am also vert grateful that she ordered this procedure for him instead of just medicating him like most pediatricians do. We love her! All in all things went very well, and Porter doesn't seem to mind that he still has quite a bit of that goo in him. He hasn't acted bothered by it at all :) This whole experience has helped me realize how grateful I am that nothing was really "wrong" with him. I hated being in that hospital and I am so sad for parents who have to take care of their sick babies. I am so unbelievably grateful that everything turned out great.

The Porter Paparazzi

Yep...that's me! The Porter Paparazzi. I just can't help myself! Here are some pictures from today, August 6th. He is changing SO much! I wish time would slow down...

8 week appointment

Porter had his 8 week checkup yesterday, August 5th. He is getting to be such a big boy!!! I was totally shocked when they weighed him! He tipped the scales at 12 lbs. 7.5 oz... That's 3 lbs. in 4 weeks! He is a healthy little man, that's for sure. I was concerned that Porter might have reflux, as he has some symptoms of it, so when we discussed this with his doctor, she agreed that it did indeed sound like reflux. She advised us to have an Upper GI procedure done where they can see exactly where his food goes to see if he has any coming back up. We are going to have it done tomorrow morning at 10:15. The hardest part is that he has to be fasting, so he can't eat after 6 a.m. I am so worried about this! He is going to be starving! Hopefully he will fill up really well beforehand and be okay for the procedure. He has to drink a chalky substance and then they will take pictures to see where exactly the food goes. I have no idea how long it will take, but I hope it will be painless and quick so I can feed him and make him happy again!
I included this picture for comparison...He doesn't even look like the same baby! What a chub!
Here are some other pictures from yesterday. This was in the waiting room at the doctor. Look at those gorgeous baby blues that he gets from his Daddy.
Hanging out in the livingroom with Mommy and Daddy. I just thought he looked like a little stud in this picture!
Sleeping like a sweet angel in his favorite place - the swing (thank you, Erin!)