Well February certainly was a fun month for our family! We all enjoyed getting to know Mr. Greyson and learning all the ways to make him happy and enjoying his sweet self. Because of him this month was quite full of excitement and family, family and more family!
Since we now live a bit further from most of the family, I decided to have a post-baby baby shower so everyone could meet Greyson instead of just "seeing" him in my belly. This idea was great and turned into a weekend full of fun and family time. It was great to see everyone and I'm sure everyone enjoyed the opportunity to meet the lil man. Luckily he got through his super fussy phase just before the festivities and was a relatively good baby - enjoying all of the love and attention he received.
This month was also a big deal for Miss Raegan as we took her to see Disney on Ice. This year was much more exciting because she was a bit older and definitely into all of the princess stuff and since the theme was all princess, we just had to take her! As with the first time we took her she was a bit overwhelmed at first, but quickly warmed up and sang along to all the songs she knew and was mesmerized by all of the theatrics. It was a great treat and we're sure she enjoyed it immensely!
Valentine's day was also a fun activity this year. It's great to have traditions and to watch Raegan enjoy them more and more each year as she gets older. This year was pretty neat because she was able to write out her own valentine cards. She practices writing a lot at school, so it's fun to see the results at home. Although, writing 13 valentine cards was a bit much for her, so I did have to help a bit!
We also finally enjoyed some winter weather this month and had a good amount of rain, which mean PUDDLES! Hayden decided to get Raegan out in the rain and mud and get dirty. She wasn't too excited with the idea, but once he got her out there, she enjoyed every second of it. And as the pictures show, she got pretty muddy...head to toe!
And because of the awesome winter weather, we finally were able to get up to Tahoe and enjoy the snow! Better yet, Uncle Frankie came to town and we made a big trip of it. The first day however there was a big storm and we thought we weren't going to be able to make the trip. Luckily the roads cleared up and were were able to go the next day. We all didn't want to risk driving in a storm, especially rookie snow people like me and Hayden! Raegan LOVED the snow and was able to play right by the hotel. There was the perfect amount of snow for her age to sled and build snowmen. It was so great! And for me the weather was perfect - not too cold and definitely bearable. We are eager to go back again!!
These months are flying by and soon enough I'll be back at work :( I'm not looking forward to it too much and certainly enjoying my time with our new lil man.
Enjoy this month's photos and videos!!
I find myself saying this all too often, but time is flying by. Our lil man is already a month old...how did that happen! I guess when you're in pure survival mode, spending all day and night trying to learn what a newborn needs and fitting in time with a 3 year old, it can easily slip away!
Greyson has definitely kept us on our toes and proved to be a challenging little guy this first month. When he was born he had the same breastfeeding problems as Raegan - I call it small mouth syndrome! They ended up cutting his frenulum to see if that would help him get his tongue out further. It didn't seem to change things much, so I opted to use a nipple shield to protect myself and continue with the breastfeeding. He seemed to take to it well and we did good for a while. The big hiccup was we couldn't figure out why he was so gassy. The poor guy would cry all day and night. If he wasn't sleeping or eating he was screaming and so incredibly uncomfortable. We tried it all - gas drops, diet changes, etc. and nothing worked.
At my breaking point, I stopped using the nipple shield and he seemed to be an entirely new baby! Apparently he was getting in so much air through the shield that it was causing excess gas. Thankfully, he had learned how to breastfeed effectively and I no longer needed to use the shield. I thought that was a solid cure, but the poor guy is still a gassy one, but no where near how bad it was before. It has changed things for the better overall, but we still find ourselves searching for ways to rid him of his gas. Poor lil man!
My recovery is going great and I feel amazing! The first 2 weeks were tough with Raegan around, but overall I am feeling more and more normal every day. Thankfully I can now move around more and can do more with Raegan. I think that was the hardest thing for her to understand, but we got through it. And since I was feeling so great, we did a lot more than I thought we would this month - we went out to a party at a friend's house, visited co-workers and took a trip to Folsom lake. Greyson was a trooper and did okay for the most part. It is a challenge to go out in public when you're still learning how to care for the little one, but we all survived! He'll need to get used to all the outings anyhow, so we started him early!
We also had the opportunity in his first month to get some professional photos taken. They turned out far better than I could ever imagine and we're so excited to have captured both him and Raegan in the beautiful shots!
This month was a normal challenge when you have a newborn and I think we all adjusted well. We're still learning, but we are enjoying it all!
