First Day of School

 Today was Mommy and Nicholas' first day of work and school.  Nicholas did great!!!!  He slept all night last night, I even had to wake him up to get him to school!  The incredible non-napping baby even took three and a half hours worth of naps today!!!!  I almost told them they could keep him when I heard that! Ha!  I did ok dropping him off.  I was more worried about how he would do during the day than I was about leaving him.  He is just across the street from my office and I know if he has a problem they will call.  There were no tears from either of us!  As a matter of fact, he was smiling and laughing when I dropped him off and when I picked him up!  I called around noon and got the report that he was a very happy baby and doing great!  That made my day...until I picked him up and he started smiling and laughing as soon as he saw me!  That was the greatest thing he has done so far!  I think it actually made my month!  He took a quick nap on the way home then was happy until bedtime around 8:30.  I couldn't have asked for a better first day for either of us!

The only downside was that he was SO sleepy this morning.  I had to actually feed him with just a diaper on to keep him awake.  He was NOT feeling the dark, cool, rainy morning.  Then, once I got him dressed and was putting him in his car seat I noticed he had made a poop.  So, out of his seat he came and we had to have a wardrobe change.  He had poop on his onesie.  So, luckily he still had a "N" onesie clean, so this is what he ended up with instead of the brown and blue "n".  Ha!  I was happy to see that he was still in it this afternoon when I picked him up!  This was tonight when we got home.

We will be doing it all over again tomorrow.  I do not have any patients, so I am going to have a full day of reorganizing my office, working on some charts, and doing some paperwork tomorrow.  Hopefully Nicholas will have a great day just like he did today!  Keep praying that we get into a routine, we both do well, and that he continues to sleep well at night.

Happy Birthday Grandad!

Nicholas woke up early today just to wish his Grandad a VERY Happy Birthday!!!!! 

Happy Birthday Jeff, hope you have a great day!!!!

12 Weeks

I have such a hard time believing my baby is TWELVE weeks old!!!!  First, I am sad that he is that old and not a little baby any longer, but I'm also sad that mean I have to go back to work on Monday.  I'm ready, but still sad to leave him.  It seems like this was us just yesterday, waiting to leave the hospital.

This is us now

Nicholas, you have been such a joy in our lives, even when things have been hard and you were not feeling well.  Mommy and Daddy are SO VERY thankful for you and have forgotten what life was like without you.  We love spending time with you and we love our Sundays as a family with you.  Things are going to change next week, but nights and weekends are going to be all about you (but who are we kidding, they always have been! Ha!).  We have some very fun things planned to do with  you over the next month and we are so excited about them!  I can't wait to celebrate your third month birthday, take you to your first Birthday party (for sweet little Lauren), and a pumpkin patch (I've been praying for the day I could take my baby there for years!!!).

You are a very sweet, happy baby most of the time now.  You are starting to enjoy playing and especially love tummy time on your boppy.  You are sleeping all night long!!!  We start your bedtime routine around 8 with a bath, bottle, then you are ready for bed.  You lay in your bed watching your mobile until you fall asleep.  You have been sleeping until 7ish for about a week.  A true blessing to Mommy.  I prayed that you would sleep through the night before I went back to work to help us with our routine. You are still struggling with a nap schedule, but you do take at least one decent nap a day.  I'm a little worried about your nap schedule at daycare because you are such a light sleeper.

Wordless Wednesday

The Many Faces of Nicholas...

The Goofy Face

The Surprised Face

The Content Face

The Sad Face

The Happy Face

Where Are You Fall?!

I don't know about you, but I am beyond ready for Fall.  I have spent the past eleven weeks inside my house because it is just too hot to take a baby anywhere.  I thought I would have at least a couple of weeks of cooler, nicer weather, but I'm thinking not, here is our 7 day forecast from Monday!

Notice it does look a little cooler just as I go back to work! Haha!

Anyway, I am ready for 60 or 70 degree weather and things like this...

Mums and pumpkins on my porch.  I'm afraid if I buy them now they will almost certainly die before Thanksgiving with these temperatures!

Pumpkin Spice lattes and Caramel Apple Spice!  Although I've already had my first Pumpkin Spice, I have to have cool weather for the Caramel Apple Spice!

Pumpkin Patch!  I found this one that is about two hours away online and it looks fun!  We are planning on taking our little pumpkin there sometime mid October!

Then there is always my favorite cool weather food, chili!  I have everything I need to make a big pot, just waiting on the weather!

Couldn't you just die at this cuteness?!  This is Nicholas' Halloween costume that I bought at BRU when he was three weeks old!  I knew I wanted him to be a giraffe and couldn't pass it up in case it wasn't there when I was ready to buy.  Well, it was still there this weekend!  Haha!

Cute Babies and Shoes

I've had a great day!  Michael was off today, so I took advantage of his last day off before I go back to work by running a few errands and having lunch with Courtney!   I am absolutely, positively obsessed with the taco salad at McAllisters.  No idea why, but it is SO tasty (sorry for the crazy pic, took it with my phone)!

While I was at the mall, I picked up a new pair of shoes for work.  I have plantar fascitis since I was pregnant (apparently a result of being on my feet with the swelling and extra weight, how nice!), and I needed some new, good, supportive shoes.  Are these not too cute!  I'm loving them for Fall!

This morning one of my best friends had her 2nd baby girl, Baylee Montgomery Castleberry!  I ran by and saw them on my way home.  She is absolutely precious and adorable!  She looks just like her sister McKinley did when she was born!  She looks so tiny, but she was 8 pounds, 8 oz, and 19.5 inches, just very petite (unlike my baby, Mr. Huge!).  I stole this picture from Facebook, but just had to show you her cuteness!!!!

I came home and told Nicholas that his new girlfriend had arrived and he wanted to send her a message. He is loving all these cute little baptist girls that have been born lately!  I think we are going to have plenty of good prospects for him! Ha!  Baylee, he is coming to see you Friday, so get ready!

UPDATE: I am terrible because I just realized that today is the ninth anniversary of the day Michael and I met on a blind date!  Happy Anniversary Michael!!!!

Family Pictures

Here are my favorites from the latest set of Family pictures we had taken by Melissa.  Enjoy!

Wonderful Monday

We've had a pretty good day.  Nicholas slept until 7:30 for the sixth day in a row!!!!  He even took a looooooooong nap this morning!  After he woke up and ate a bottle we had a fun photo session.  I've realized that I have not taken as many posed pictures I would have liked, so I did a few today.  Here are my favorites.  I am loving the way his hair stands up by itself!  Totally cracks me up!!!!

Isn't he just the CUTEST thing you've ever seen?!  We think so!

I LOVE this one, but N was moving like a wild child, so it came out super blurry.

We even had a little visitor today.  Little Jackson from across the street came over for about fifteen minutes when he got off the bus until his dad came home.  Nicholas was asleep when he got there, but woke up after a minute or two and was excited to see him.

We had an awesome dinner.  I found these kabobs yesterday at BiLo and they were very tasty!  I'm starting to look for quick, easy, workday dinners.  Any suggestions?  We will eat just about anything and I love crockpot recipes, but I need some new ideas.  

Our Weekend

I just realized that I am totally slacking on my blogging and mommy duties and only took ONE picture all weekend!  Don't worry, I plan to take a LOT this week since it is my last week off.

Nicholas stayed fever free all weekend and seems to be better from his virus last week.  Saturday I had the intention of going to BRU for a few things that Nicholas needed to start day care and to Dillards to get some new shoes and makeup for me to start back to work with.  Well, apparently Nicholas wasn't in the shopping mood.  He had a major meltdown in BRU and we ended up just going over to my parents and he spent some time watching football with his Grandpa.

Saturday night Michael and I had a date night and went out for sushi and Thai.  It was good to have an evening to actually be able to talk and not have to take care of the baby for a couple of hours.  When we got back to my parents house he was asleep in his crib and he didn't wake up as we moved him in and out of his car seat and into his crib at home!  He has now slept five nights in a row until 7-7:30!!!! 

Nicholas has also started enjoying his toys more this past week and I got this picture Sunday morning.  How cute is he?!!!!

We spent most of Sunday watching football and hanging out with Nicholas.  This is my last week on maternity leave and I want to spend as much of it with Nicholas as possible.  Part of me is ready to go back, but the other half is very sad.  I am just ready to go if I have to and start getting into a routine.  I think the fear of the unknown of how it is going to go is part of what makes me anxious and a little sad at this point.  I will say that the fact that he now sleeps through the night makes me a lot less anxious than I was a week ago.

Happy To See The Weekend!

What a crazy couple of days we have had!  First, the good things.  We have now had THREE nights of sleeping until close to 7am without a 5:00 feeding!!!!!  I actually had to wake him this morning so we could get ready for the day!  Ha!  Second, our GI dr, Dr. Devoid, wanted me to try to find Pregestimil on ebay or craigslist to save money.  Well, I found an ad on Tuesday night for 4 cans for $50 (it retails for $30/ 16 oz can!)!!!  It was from a girl that baby has to have the most broken down, $50/can, formula, so she needed to get rid of the remainder of the case she had bought of our formula.  I LOVE getting a good deal and getting a good deal on liquid gold was AWESOME!

And now for the bad.  Nicholas had his first trip to the sick waiting room at the pedi office yesterday. :-(  He had increasingly become fussy and sleeping more and more until when I got him up from his afternoon nap yesterday he seemed very warm.  He had a 101.3 fever and pulled at his ears while eating his bottle.  I was convinced he had an ear infection so I called his pedi and we got an appt for 3:45 at 2:45!  Let me just tell you that was the beginning of a fabulous experience (well, as good as it gets with a sick baby!).  I LOVE his pedi.  Even though she was not my first choice (due to insurance), I will never see anyone else (unless she is out of the office of course).  When she finally got to us around 5:15 she spent the next hour and fifteen minutes with us.  We were her last patient and she was very concerned because he was almost lethargic and didn't want to wake up.  After we got some labs on him he woke up, but still didn't want to eat so what did she do, fed him!  I was so impressed!  Then she even brought me a diet coke!  After all that we still don't know exactly what was wrong, but he perked up and was diagnosed with a viral infection affecting his throat and ears. :-(  By 9:00 his fever had broken and he was feeling better.  This morning he was back to his old self! Yay!  I am to continue to watch him over the weekend in case it happens again, go to the ER, but otherwise, should be better!

After a Dr appt for me this morning, Nicholas and I went to BiLo.  I found some pretty good deals!  My neighbor Andrea had a pretty big surgery on Tuesday, so  this afternoon Nicholas and I made lasagna for her family and for us.  I will be posting the recipe over on my recipe blog soon, so check it out.  It is VERY tasty!

What do you think of my new hair color?  I wanted something new for Fall.  It is my natural color with red highlights.  I love it!

Also, a BIG CONGRATULATIONS to my blog/twitter friend Jennifer, Josh, and of course Brody, on the birth of gorgeous Jillian!  Jillian was like Nicholas and just couldn't wait for her scheduled arrival and made a grand entrance a little early!

Wordless Wednesday

Seriously, this just says it all! Haha!

Calling All Working Moms

HELP!  I need to know how you do it.  I'm starting to freak out a little bit about how I'm going to get everything done that needs to be done at work, home, and still spend time with Nicholas.  Any advice?  Also, if you could share your normal routine with me that would be awesome!  I'm thinking our routine will go a little like this based on our schedule now, but I'm sure that will all change when I'm actually doing it for real.

5:30 Nicholas wakes up for a bottle, feed, put back to bed

6:00 Mommy gets a shower and gets ready for work, breakfast

7:15ish Nicholas gets up and dressed

7:30 Leave for daycare/work

7:50 Drop off at daycare

8:00ish Mommy gets to work

5:00 Daycare pickup, go home

5:30ish Arrive home, bottle, play with Nicholas, laundry

7:00 start dinner

7:30 Michael comes home and dinner

8:00 start bedtime routine

8:45 Nicholas goes to sleep and mommy cleans up kitchen and living room

10:00-10:30 bedtime for Mommy and Daddy

GI Update

We had a very busy day as a family today since Michael was home.  We had our daycare orientation at 11 then Nicholas' follow up GI appointment at 2:30.  I am so happy with our daycare decision.  I am very sad that I have to return to work and leave him everyday, but I love our daycare and I know it is the best place for him if he cannot be with me.  I am very fortunate to have such a good place to take him and it is very close to my office.  We met his teacher and his new little friends and they are wonderful!  His teacher has been there for three years and does a great job.  We met two of the three babies that will be in his class with him.  They were so cute!  There are only four babies in his class and they will all be boys, one of which is the child of a girl I work with.  In January my parent's neighbor's baby girl will be with them.  I think that will be good when they get older that a friend from "school" will be available to play with when he goes to their house.  This is a bad picture because I took it on my phone and my flash did something crazy, but he looked so big in his polo shortalls and socks!

After our orientation we came home, ate a quick lunch, then back in the car to go to the GI dr.  Nicholas now weighs 13 lbs, 6 oz, and still 24 in long!  He is a BIG boy for sure!!!!  Dr. Devoid was very happy with his progress.  He has made a 90% improvement in just three weeks!  I'm so proud! Ha!  Seriously, I am so happy with Dr. Devoid and as hard as it was when we first started the pregestimil, it has been the miracle solution for us.  We have the go ahead now to order a case on ebay (where everyone including both the GI dr and pedi are telling us to get it) because he will be on the "liquid gold" until he turns twelve months old.  We also have the go ahead to try to wean him off the rice mixed in with his formula.  We'll see how that goes.  He doesn't have to see him again until December!!!  Yay!

Weekend Wrapup on Monday

What a weekend at the Ledfords!  I love being busy, but this weekend was crazy busy!  For those of you who may not know, my mom has lost a LOT of weight, as in like 6 dress sizes and she is my size now and needs an entire new wardrobe.  We got the stroller out and made a trip to the mall.  We both found some cute things at Ann Taylor Loft and Gap, my two favorite stores.  Gap had a sale and all black pants and jeans were $35!!!!  Needless to say, we both bought a pair of long and lean, my favorite jeans ever!  Nicholas was so good at the mall, I almost thought I had someone else's baby. Ha!  He slept almost the entire time except for when he had a dirty diaper.  We went back to my parents house and he watched some football with my dad (I have got to start taking pictures when we go over there, I never have a camera).  We're sure he is destined to be a great player! Ha!

Saturday night we got our orange on and went over to Mark and Anne's house (our neighbors) for football and an awesome dinner.  Look who was happy the first half when his team was playing well!

Sunday was another very busy day.  We got up around 8 to go have our picture made by Melissa.  She was doing a mini session and we signed up for the 10:00 spot.  It was at a park in East Brainerd and from the two pictures I've seen already, I CANNOT wait to get my proofs later this week!  They are so good!  I'll share our sneak peek with you.

We are doing another session in about two months at Courtney's house on the bluff for our Fall/Christmas pictures.  I am so excited about those because I know Nicholas will be so cute as he gets older in pictures.

After our pictures we went to Maryville (about two hours away) to see Michael's parents for Grandparents Day.  They just bought a home from the 1930s and are currently renovating it.  It is so cool to see all the awesome work they've done and see how much it has already changed.  I love it because it has so much character and can't wait to see it all finished!  We had a good afternoon and another fabulous day with Nicholas!  

Nicholas is starting to be on even more of a schedule and it is making it a lot easier.  He is waking up every morning right at 5:00, going back to sleep after a bottle then waking up around 8am and going to sleep on his own in his bed right at 8pm!  Now, if I could just master at least two naps in his bed during the day or sleep through his 5:00 feeding and wake up earlier, this would be one happy mommy!