Puppy love

I chose Riley from the Spencer County Humane Society about a week before Josh and I got married.  There were four puppies bounding and leaping through the grass. One puppy even followed me around the yard playfully licking at my heels. That is not the puppy that I chose though. I chose the shy little guy, keeping his distance, and hiding behind the others. The one that would have been easy to miss, easy to overlook and leave behind. He walked clumsily, cautiously, taking in everything around him. He is the one that I chose. Riley. Long legs. Chocolate colored fur. White markings on his neck. Skeptical. Slow. He rested his head on my lap on the way home. I knew that I had made the right choice.

I kept that in mind when he chewed up the remote control, dug in the landscaping time and time again, helped himself to my chocolate and my gum, and our leftover rotisserie chicken from dinner. I remembered that when he did his business in the living room  on the shaggy brown carpet after eating that chicken. Yuck. I kept that in mind later when he chewed up baby clothes and got sick on the rug that I had spent hours upon hours working on for the nursery. He was still the right choice for us.

When I was pregnant, he was my constant bed rest companion, resting his head on my belly. He never left my side and he loved Eden even before she was born.

When we brought her home from the hospital, he stood like a guard at her pack n play, watching, wondering about the tiny little creature that we had brought home. He was curious and skeptical, but it was love at first sight. When she cried, he looked at us, as if to say, "Help her!"

As she has become more interactive, he has become more interested in her, and she in him. Luckily she enjoys it, smiles and laughs even, when he sneaks in a lick.  :)





 

As I was writing this blog today, Riley was laying his head on the edge of her activity mat, watching her play. Eden was reaching for him and trying to get closer to him, and she happened to have her first back to belly roll over, trying to get closer to her puppy, her best friend. How perfect!

 

 

 

June 28th

Today was such a great day. Holly, Robin, and I walked 7 miles at the mall. Then Eden and I went and visited Cassie, Edie, and Tucker. It was good to catch up. After that, Eden ate at home and played a while, and then we went to visit Kelly and Miss Harper in the hospital. She is such a doll! This is definitely the season for babies, and I love it!!

This evening, Josh and I had pizza casserole for dinner, and then went to orange leaf to celebrate me teaching my pre-baby weight/post pregnancy goal weight. . What a treat! We also did our grocery shopping and Eden was a happy girl most of the time.

Today was just a good day.

Baby Harper and me.

My treat for reaching my pre-pregnancy weight. Peanut butter and brownie batter with brownie pieces, chocolate chips, reese pieces, and hot fudge. DELICIOUS!

Anniversary Date

Josh and I celebrated our three year wedding anniversary yesterday. It was also our first evening leaving Eden for a date night. We had a great time and she was in good hands. We had dinner reservations at Angelo's, one of our favorite little Italian restaurants on Main Street. It's also the place we went to dinner the night that Josh proposed, so there's just something special about going there. I had shrimp scampi and Josh had chicken Alfredo. Both were delicious. Everything is wonderful there, as it is all made from scratch and specially prepared.

After dinner, we got a bottle of Summer Sangria for home, and then went to see Man of Steel, the new Superman movie. It was pretty good, and I surprisingly stayed awake. :) We had a great date night, and I feel so blessed. Each year with him just keeps getting better. I look forward to our next year together and walking with Josh not only as a married couple, but also as parents to the sweetest little girl. Sweetest little girl, who by the way was sound asleep in her crib when we got  home. We are definitely blessed. :) (Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Bowman for watching her!)

Josh and I before heading out for our date.

My amazing Shrimp Scampi. YUM!

June 25th

Today has been a good and productive day so far. Eden was still asleep when it was time to go walk. I woke her up at 7:15 and she woke up happy, but I am thinking that we need to start putting her to bed a little earlier so she can wake up on her own before our walks in the morning. We walked 6.5 miles at the riverfront with Robin and Holly and it was hot, hot, hot! I wore a short-sleeved cotton shirt and the sweat was just pouring off of me. Yuck, but it felt good to know that I had worked hard. We have added an extra leg to our walk, as well as additional inclines, and it is a great walk. Eden has a fan that I hook to her car seat handle, so she seems to stay cool enough, and she usually naps on our walks, at least some of the time.

Speaking of naps, Eden has been so much happier since I started putting her in her crib several times a day for naps. She usually takes a long one in the morning and in the afternoon and a few smaller ones in between. Glad we finally figured out that more sleep was what she needed. I was hesitant at first about putting her down for extra naps, because she sleeps so good at night, and I didn't want to mess that up, however, she has been so much happier since we started the regular naps. She is rarely fussy now. AND, I have tons of time to get things done throughout the day, and a happy girl most of the time. It's a win for both of us!

Today when we got home from our walk, we played on Eden's activity mat for a while. She is so close to rolling over. It is surely going to happen any day now! After we played, I did some cleaning up around the house and laundry. I also gave the dog a bath, and baked a loaf of healthy blueberry zucchini bread. I plan to go on another walk this afternoon, and I am hoping for 5 miles, but I am not so sure that the heat is going to allow that, so we will see. I'm also going to do some grocery shopping. Tonight we are grilling. I am looking forward to that. Love these summer days/evenings.

Rainy Summer Day

Today is a rainy June day. Eden and I started our morning out with a six mile walk at the mall. I decided to run by the Fresh Market to get some Tomato Basil Soup and then I stopped at Starbucks and got a Tall Hazlenut Machiato. Perfect for this dreary, rainy day. It doesn't even feel like summer. Eden has been quite the little napper lately. She had a bottle, played on her activity mat, and now she is taking a nap in her crib. It is the perfect day for a nap! I am thinking about curling up on the couch with a book and relaxing myself. They do say to sleep when the baby sleeps...Is that still true when the little one is such a good and frequent sleeper? I somehow think not. I could begin to put away Eden's 0-3 month clothes. *tear.* I put her in the first 3-6 month sleeper last night. Our little baby is growing up so fast. OR I could put away my "big" clothes, now that I am almost back to my pre-pregnancy weight (woo hoo!) I have chicken tacos in the crockpot and I am going to boot camp tonight. I am really enjoying every minute of my time being at home with Eden.

On Sleep

We are very blessed when it comes to Eden's sleep schedule. We loosely adopted the Baby Wise philosophy after hearing success stories from friends and reading the book. Basically, Eden was put on a non-strict schedule where she ate, played, then slept, from the time that we came home from the hospital. Babywise is a parent directed feeding concept, where there is enough structure to bring security and order to a baby's word, but offers enough flexibility where we could still respond to Eden's differing needs at any given time. This works for us. I have never felt like I am on a rigid schedule with Eden, but I also do not feel like she is the one completely running the show, and let me tell you, Miss Eden is a good little sleeper! Around six weeks, she began sleeping through the night from around 9pm-6am. She has consistently slept through the night ever since. When she first came home, she slept in a pack-n-play in our bedroom, but we soon learned that she preferred to sleep inclined, so we bought a rock-n-play sleeper, and it made sleep better for her and for us. It was nice being able to lay in bed and rock her while still being half asleep. She was happy and mommy was happy too. Around 2 and a half months, we moved Eden from our room to her crib. She sleeps in a sleep sack, because she startles herself when she isn't swaddled. She also has a night light, and a noise machine, and she sleeps soundly all night. She is such a morning girl too. I love seeing her smiling face wen I go to get her out of her crib in the morning. I also love being rested enough to enjoy the smiling face. :) God sure has blessed us with her.

On Recovery

On recovery..
My C-section was surprisingly easy. I was barely in any pain (except when I laughed...or bent over to tie my shoes, which Josh helped me with most of the time.) I really don't feel like I was that "out of it" either, as I feel like I can remember most things from the hours following the surgery. The Morphine made me feel sick, and I did throw up a couple of times. Since Eden went to the newborn nursery for observation, and then from there was taken to the NICU, I  was thankful that the nurses wheeled me down to the NICU to see Eden for the first time outside of the operating room. I was up and walking around within 24 hours, and probably would have been sooner, had I not been hooked up to all sorts of machines. I started walking down to the NICU to visit Eden multiple times a day, as soon as I was able to.  My incision also healed perfectly and had no problems whatsoever. It wasn't until 3 days after the surgery, that I began to get a terrible headache. I have never felt anything like it. It was pounding in the back of the head, down into my neck and back. No medicine would even begin to dull the pain. The only thing that brought any relief was laying down, so I laid down often, and barely made it down to the NICU. I was miserable. I was given caffeine which is supposed to help a spinal headache, migraine medicine, and other painkillers. None of it worked. Finally, the headache slowly began to fade after coming home, and after a few days it was gone completely. I was just excited to begin adjusting to life with our precious little one.

Bedrest (March 7th)

The lab results came back negative yesterday for Preeclampsia. Praise God. I was sent home and am now on bedrest. I am also scheduled for twice weekly Non Stress Tests until delivery. The first one is tomorrow and I am hoping to get more information from my doctor.

Josh has been great. He went to the store last night and stocked up on easy lunch meals for me, fruit, yogurt, cheese, and other healthy/easy snack foods. He also brought home some pretty pink roses for the table and cleaned the entire house. I am so blessed with him.

5 weeks old

It is so hard to believe that my sweet Eden is already 5 weeks old! These weeks have flown by! I love being a mom and everything that comes with it. The first week of Eden's life was a blur. She was in the NICU for the first seven days of life, and I was suffering from what I now think was a mild Spinal Headache. The headache was relieved when lying down, but when I stood or sat up, the pain was excruciating.  It was hard to hold Eden and I was so frustrated! For several days, my head was in so much pain that I couldn't even focus on my sweet daughter who was fighting one minor problem after another in the NICU. It started out with some breathing difficulties/fluid in the lungs, which is common for C-section babies, followed by Eden not wanting to eat and some blood sugar issues, as well as not being able to regulate her own body temperature. While in the NICU, she also had some issues with Jaudice, as well as a heart murmur and some popping in her hips that sent us to a specialist. Now, at 5 weeks old, all of the issues have resolved themselves, and our little girl is doing great. We are getting into a routine, enjoying our time at home together, and getting to know each other.