I am a bad blogger

I bet anyone that ever looks at my blog assumed that I had given up on it. My last post was May 24. That was 1 week before I started work. Since then I have been extremely busy and on my days off spend them playing and taking naps with my baby boy. He is growing up way way way too fast! He is now 8 1/2 months old. He crawls all over the house and stays at my feet if I try to walk out of the room. He greets us in the morning by standing up in his crib and waiting on us to come get him. He is really the sweetest little thing I have ever seen. (I know every mother says that) I love his personality! He is so happy, which I really wondered if I would ever say that during the first couple months of his life. Campbell sleeps great most nights, from 8:00 to around 6:00. His first 2 teeth came in at 6 months and now the top ones are coming through. It looks like all 4 on top might be coming in. It sure would be nice to get those over with at the same time! His laugh is the sweetest sound I've ever heard! It has defintiely been an adjustment since I've started working. I work 3 days a week from 6:45 to 7:15. I don't get to see my family much on those days which is really hard, but it is so nice to have a nice break in between my working days. The first 2 weeks of work were so hard on me taking Campbell to daycare. I cried every day. He is now at Christ Methodist day care in Memphis which is close to our house so Brett is able to take him and pick him up. He is such a great daddy and is so in love with Campbell. It is obvious how crazy Campbell is about his daddy too. Some of his firsts since my last blog ages ago include: trip to the beach in Pensacola, Florida; first experience in the grove in Oxford; first trip to the zoo; meeting his new cousin Slates; eating fruits, veggies, and some finger foods; standing up; crawling; says "baabaa" and sometimes it sounds like "byebye"; he has friends at daycare, he loves the little girls and playing with their hair! Already a ladies man! I am going to really try to get serious about this and update once a week. I want to be able to remember everything that is happening in our lives right now. It is such a wonderful time in our lives with so many blessings from God every day.

The picture above was taken today when Campbell woke up from our nap :) Sweet baby

The past month

Yet again, I have waited a whole month to make a new post! I have got to get better at this. I will try to sum up the past month as short as I can. May has been a fun month for us! We celebrated my first Mother's Day. It was such a special day for me. Being a mother has really made me realize and appreciate the true unconditional love my mother has for me that I now have for Campbell. Brett's parents spent the night with us and we went to church together and then ate a wonderful brunch at The Inn at Hunt Phelan. I highly recommend trying it sometime! The rest of the day was spent relaxing with my two boys. There is no place else I would rather be than spending time with Brett and Campbell. We celebrated my birthday the next week. We had a fabulous meal at The Melting Pot and went out afterwards for a little bit while my parents kept Campbell for us. As much as we love being home with our little boy, we thoroughly enjoy our nights out as well! Brett got me the best birthday cake from Miss Muff'n. It was delicious! But it wasn't too good for my weight watchers! Today is our 2 year anniversary. What a wonderful, crazy busy 2 years it has been! In this short time we have together survived nursing school, moved into a new house and made it a home to welcome our baby boy. God has truly blessed me way beyond what I deserve. We went to Arkansas this past weekend and stayed in a cabin in the woods on a river and had a fabulous relaxing fun weekend! It was hard being away from little bit for 3 nights though! It is amazing how I could see how he had changed in those 3 short days. He has gotten much stronger holding his head up, enjoys tummy time much more, he holds his bottle by himself, loves cereal, and looks like he's packed on some pounds too. He is almost 5 months old and already looks like a little boy instead of a baby. He giggled out loud for the first time last week. I had him in the baby bjorn while I trimmed a vine in our backyard and each time the leaves would fall in front of his face he would get really tickled and laugh out loud. It was so funny! As our busy month of May is quickly coming to an end, I am trying to soak in every minute of my last week as a stay at home mom. I start work next Tuesday and am not quite sure how I will survive this transition. I keep telling myself that this will probably be harder on me than Campbell. I hope that's true! I have barely put him down all day because I just want to hold him as much as I can. This pretty much sums up our May in a nutshell. I will try to do better about blogging sooner!

Recent pics

He thinks it is so much fun to fly like Superman! We hold him up and call him Super Campbell and he smiles so big! You better watch out though. With that wide open mouth comes drool dripping down towards your face!

In his beautiful christening gown. The picture doesn't really do it justice. Brett said that's the only time I can put him in a dress.
My sweet family at the church for his baptism.

Campbell loved Easter! Not a good picture of me but it's funny of him!

Uncle Slates!

With his best friend the alligator. He will lay in his crib and just laugh, smile, and "talk" to it.

There were a few other things I meant to mention in my previous post. Campbell rolled over from his back to his stomach for the first time April 17 at 14 weeks old! He is constantly squirming now. He loves the television and will almost break his neck to look at it. I try not to let him too much. I don't want him to grow up addicted to television. He loves for us to play like we are eating his feet. He thinks it is too funny! He has gotten his first freckle, right above the left side of that sweet bottom. I don't think I ever mentioned his birthmark either. It is on the inside of his right calf. I noticed it the day he was born and it is still there. He still loves to suck his thumb and looks so sweet doing it. I am a little worried though how we will break him of it one day. He goes to the nursery at our gym every day while I exercise. The girls that keep the children say he is already a flirt! His little toes are so long that he can grip your finger with them! These are all little tid bits that I want to have written somewhere so I can look back and be reminded of what he was like at different stages of his life.

It's been toooo long!

It has been too long since my last post! Almost a month, and we have done quite a bit in this past month. I believe I left off in my last blog about our trip to Dallas we were about to take. Well it went wonderful! Campbell was great in the car, could not have been better. He slept the whole time except for when we stopped to eat lunch both ways and that is when we fed him, and we had to stop one time each way to change a diaper. He was pretty fussy the first night in Dallas. I think he was out of his element and a little worn out from the long drive. It was a great trip and made us all really excited for the upcoming arrival of Slates junior! Only 2 more months left! We spent a whole week in Senatobia with my parents while Brett was out of town working. It was so nice to spend that much time with them and I know they enjoyed seeing Campbell that much. We sure did miss Brett though! Campbell and I were so excited to see him when he finally got home. 9 nights away is way too long. We took Campbell to his first bonfire at the Boone's. He was an angel. He slept the entire time we were there. It was wonderful to see some friends I don't see very often! That was Easter weekend. We went to Clarksdale for Easter this year. After church we went to Brett's aunt's house where there were about 50 family members. Campbell was the main attraction and looked precious in his Easter outfit. The next weekend was a very special one, Campbell was baptized. We had around 30 family members come to be a part of this special day. I knew it was going to be a special day, but I didn't expect to be emotional. It made me feel like he is already growing up so fast! I have always thought that being a parent is the most important, rewarding, and challenging job a person can have. Listening to what all the priest said during the baptism about mine and Brett's duty to raise Campbell the way God would like for us to made me slightly panic inside. What have I ever done for God to have faith in me to raise one of his children? I feel so incredibly blessed that he did, though. I know I won't always know what the right thing to do is as a parent, but I do know I will try harder than I every have at anything else to not let God down. After the baptism everyone came over to our house to eat lunch. It was an all around wonderful day! About 2 1/2 weeks ago Campbell started sleeping from 10:00 pm until 7:00 am! My prayers were answered! He has done that pretty much every night since then except for when we have been out of town either in Senatobia or Clarksdale. He doesn't sleep well when he is not home and in his own bed. We went to Clarksdale for jazz fest and had a very fun weekend. We ended the weekend by going to Moon Lake Sunday afternoon with Brett's parents to grill burgers. Campbell enjoyed his first trip to the lake! I told him the story about that being where his Daddy asked his Mommy to marry him :) We took Campbell to his first Ole Miss baseball game at the Redbirds stadium in Memphis. He seemed to really enjoy it for a while. After being there for a couple of hours something happened in the game to cause the crowd to suddenly cheer very loudly and it terrified him. It was really pitiful! I have never seen him look so scared like that. So we called it a night at that point. I had my first girls night last week at a friends house for a pampered chef party. I really enjoyed spending the evening with a few girls and having a margarita! He was on my mind the whole time though, and I was very excited to see him when I got home. I think it is good for Brett and Campbell to have their alone time too. This past weekend we went to Senatobia to celebrate my dad's birthday. We had dinner at their house and then played a game of pictionary. I did not remember that game being so challenging at all! Saturday was supposed to be Double Decker in Oxford but it was rescheduled for Sunday due to bad weather. It stormed pretty bad the first part of Saturday but ended up being a beautiful day. Brett and I went to Oxford Saturday afternoon and went to the Ole Miss baseball game. My parents decided to bring Campbell to Oxford too so after the game we met them on the square. He looked so cute in his little outfit and matching hat! I wish I had taken a picture. We have got to get better about taking pictures when we are out places. Campbell actually had his first trip to the Library on the square! My parents took him by there to see some of their friends. They said he got quite a bit of attention from some of the college girls. Already a ladies man! My parents took him home and let Brett and me stay to enjoy a night out on the town. We had so much fun and it was great to be able to go out as a couple like that again. All new parents need to have a night to themselves every once in a while to keep their sanity. I felt like we had just started dating it was so exciting to be out together! We went back to Senatobia after being out on the square for a while. Campbell did not sleep good last night so I ended up sleeping with him on my chest in a recliner all night. I definitely didn't sleep as good as I would have in bed, but I so loved having him snuggled up to me all night. We took him back to Oxford today for Double Decker. It was a beautiful day! It was so fun to stroll my baby around and show him off :) I started weight watchers last week to help get off this last bit of pregnancy weight. I have been exercising really hard too so I am praying that I will be back to my "old" body before too long. We have a beach trip planned in June so hopefully I will be ready to get in a swimsuit by then. I am still waiting to hear something about the job I applied for. I have talked to them and they said they want me to come interview, but they haven't started the interviews yet so no clue when they will be calling. Good thing I'm not in a huge hurry to start working! I am cherishing each day I get to spend at home with Campbell. I know this won't last forever. He is getting the cutest personality. He has turned into such a happy baby, which we never thought would have happened during that first month or so. He has such a big smile and his big brown eyes squinch up just like mine do. I must say though, he is looking more like his dad each day. He has gotten to where when I hold him up against me on my shoulder he wraps his arms around my neck and it feels so wonderful to get that little hug from him. I can't wait until when he gives me a real hug and to hear that sweet voice say "I love you too Mommy." I wouldn't be surprised if his first words were "I love you," as much as I tell him that all day every day. I hear the little guy right now just waking up from a much needed nap. I'll try not to let my next post be so far from this one!

Well it has been a few weeks since I have posted. This little munchkin keeps me mighty busy! He is still quite fussy, but we are hoping that he will out grow that soon. Since my last post he has discovered his tongue, constantly sticking it out and blowing bubbles, discovered his thumb, gotten much better at holding his head up during tummy time, and has rolled over several times except for when we get the camera out! It is amazing how fast he is discovering new things and changing. There is nothing sweeter than the innocence of a baby. As excited as I am to see Campbell grow up and for him to talk to us and begin playing with us, part of me wishes I could keep him this small and innocent forever. He is totally dependent on his dad and me to care for him and protect him. There will come a day though when we are not able to protect him from all the world has to throw at him. I pray every day that we will be able to teach him to be a Godly young man and how to handle the obstacles of life. We both have been blessed with great teachers on how to be parents so hopefully we can do as good a job as they have. I wish I could keep him from ever falling down and skinning his knees, from getting teased at school, and getting his heart broken. I know those things will happen and he will be stronger because of them. I just hope that he will always know he can come to his mom and dad for anything and know how much he is loved.
One update on my side is I might be starting work soon! I am very reluctant to write that with an exclamation point though. I know I need to start working, and I know Brett will be thrilled for me to finally contribute to our finances! Although, I must admit I cried all day last week after I found out there was a potential job for me to start soon. Not because I don't want to work, but the thought of leaving him with strangers in a day care leaves a pit in my stomach right now. He has spent 99% of his life with me so far and I know he will be fine without me for a few days a week but part of me pictures him crying all day because he misses me and being mad at me when I pick him up in the evening. (I know that is silly and he won't really be "mad" at me or cry because he misses me all day, but I guess that is just the extra worry that goes along with being a mother.) So we will see what happens with this soon!
We are leaving in 2 days to go to Dallas with my parents for Campbell to meet his Uncle Slates and Aunt Whitney! He loves his carseat so hopefully the ride will be easy. After this trip the next time we see them I will have a sweet nephew, Slates junior! I can't wait! Brett is also going out of town and it will 9 days before we see him again. I am not looking forward to that at all! It is time for me to feed my sweet boy now. I will update on how the trip to Dallas goes next week!

I love my baby!

Things I love about my baby:
- I love his mohawk hairdo. It is always the first thing people comment on. It is precious. My little rock star!
- I love his toothless, exposed gums, mouth wide open smile. The most beautiful smile I have ever seen.
- I love his sweet voice. We spend lots of time every day laying beside each other both of us cooing back and forth. (I read to imitate the noises he makes to encourage him to "talk" to me. I know I sound silly but he doesn't mind)
- I love his frowny face. It is so funny when he makes the biggest frown right before he shows off his powerful lungs.
- I love his hairy wrinkly back and shoulders. Hence the picture above.
- I love how long his eyelashes have gotten. He had no trace of lashes when he was born, but I promise I can see them get longer each day.
- I love how hilarious he is when he is going #2. His face turns as red as a tomato and I can hear him grunt from the other end of the house. (Only his mom would think this is funny)
- I love taking naps with him laying on my chest.
- I love how I am the person that seems to calm him down quicker than any other person. Must be a mother's touch.
- I love seeing him with his daddy. He gets more kisses from his dad than I do now!
- I love how all his toes are so skinny except for his big toe seems really big compared to the others! He gets that from me unfortunately.
- I love how he stretches so big when he wakes up and arches his back into a backbend and wrinkles his forehead all up. We have got to get this on video. Priceless.
- I love how he seems the most content when he is naked. He could lay there all day on his changing pad in his birthday suit and be perfectly happy.
- I love how he floats in the bathtub. I hold his head when I bathe him and the rest of his body floats.
- I love everything about him! I could go on and on and on but I will stop for now :)

Where we come from...

Campbell has been able to meet lots of new friends and family lately! The first picture above includes 5 generations, not many people have a picture like that! The people in the picture are Campbell, myself, my mother (Grammy), my great uncle (Bebo, he is my grandmother's brother. She passed away 3 months before Campbell was born so Bebo is the link in chain for our 5 generations), and my 96 year old great-grandmother (Gigi). The second picture is of Campbell, Brett, Brett's father, and Brett's grandfather. He also got to meet my sweet friend Whitney and her mom! We are so blessed to have such wonderful family that loves us all so much! We have spent a lot of time with the grandparents lately which is wonderful help! The 3 of us went to Senatobia the weekend before last to spend the night while Gigi, and Davie Leigh were in town. Brett and I woke up Saturday morning and went to Oxford to spend the day. It is still hard to leave Campbell even when I know he is in good hands. I think about him constantly and wonder if he is missing me, I'm sure he is because I am his favorite person in the world :) While in Oxford we went to the basketball game, ate lunch at Ajax, had a drink at the library, and did a little shopping on the square. It was torture to be shopping on the square again! I still have a good ways to go to get my pre-pregnancy body back and seeing all those beautiful clothes was very depressing knowing that I can't wear them like I used to. But I am sooo determined to lose all this baby weight plus some! It will take hard work and time but it WILL happen, I keep telling myself that. We went this past weekend to Clarksdale because Brett was in a wedding. It was a really fun weekend! We had the rehearsal dinner on Friday night and stayed out a little too late. It is a mighty exhausting to stay out late and come home to stay awake with a crying baby. We can't complain about being tired though when we choose to stay out late! Brett and I went to the woods Saturday and rode the 4-wheeler. I think he really wanted me to go with him so I could throw the corn out though. Saturday night was the wedding and we went to Ground Zero afterwards for some dancing! Two fun weekends!!

Campbell is changing and growing up so fast! It makes me sad, he will be going off to college before we know it. I have taken him to the pediatrician almost every week he has been alive now. His doctor summed it up very nicely, he said "Parent and paranoid do begin with the same letters." I have definitely become paranoid since I have been a mother! Much more so than I have ever been about myself. Every time I have had a concern we go to the doctor to find out that everything is perfectly fine. Better safe than sorry! He is smiling and cooing and almost laughing a lot now. His voice is the sweetest sound ever. Brett swore he almost said a word the other night when he was up with him. That might have been Brett's lack of sleep talking. We have not been able to get on any sort of schedule whatsoever. Some nights he will sleep from 10-4, and some nights I don't get him to sleep until 5 in the morning. I want to be able to remember all of these precious memories we are making together. I can't believe he will be 2 months old already tomorrow!

Campbell --> Sleep Deprived Mama

I forgot what the definition of sleep is on January 6! What you see happening in the picture above, a baby sleeping, has not happened tonight for sure! Campbell made the decision that we were not going to sleep tonight. I was finally able to crawl in bed around 3 this morning. He decided I had had enough sleep at 4:30. So here we are at 5:29 watching Married With Children reruns and feeding this precious baby hoping he will fall asleep in the process with a full and satisfied tummy. 2-3 hours of sleep would be great! It's funny (not literally) how my perception of a good night's sleep has changed so quickly. I love sleep. Up until 6 weeks ago I enjoyed getting 10 hours of sleep a night, and maybe 1-2 hours more on a really good night! Now I am thrilled to get a total of 5 hours in 2 hour increments. Though as much as I love my sleep and almost have to hold my eyelids open the majority of the time now, I do enjoy every minute I'm awake with Campbell. Even at 5:00 in the morning after only 1 hour of sleep. I know that I will wake up one day and he will be too old and big for me to hold in my arms. Mothers have survived on little to no sleep for as long as man kind has been in existence, so I know I can do it too! "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can," as the little red engine said. But I do daydream about the day when I get to sleep through the night.

Today is Ash Wednesday. It is also Campbell's 6 week birthday! I can't believe how old he is already! He had his first date last night. With an older woman! We went to Abuelo's with Drew and Elizabeth Doughty and their precious 19 month old daughter Anne Reeves. He wasn't too exciting of a date for her though. He slept through the whole thing! We have been lucky so far with each of his outings. His car seat puts him to sleep the entire time we are out. Our first date out was to On the Border 2 weekends ago and it has never felt so good to get out! He slept in his car seat in the booth with us and it was very enjoyable. He went to his fist party on Valentine's Day eve at Briana and Drew Cowan's home. I was nervous taking him since we are the only couple that was going to be there with a baby. I wanted him to behave so bad so we would be invited next time. He was a perfect angel! He slept on Briana's bed the entire 3 hours we were there. It was a great evening. Briana is really good at entertaining. She had balloons blown up everywhere, red table cloths on the tables, white tulips as centerpieces, and mini bottles of champagne at each seat with a heart shaped name tag on it. Too cute! I know it won't be like this every time we take him somewhere though, so I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

It is now almost 6:00 and he is asleep so I am going to call it a night and try to get some shut eye myself! Good night!

Powered by GoodWidgets.com

Finally!!!

My first post on my first blog! Where do I begin? This is something that I have been thinking about doing for a while now and finally have time so here we go. I will give a quick recap of this past year to lead up to where we are now. I began an accelerated nursing school program in January of 2009 and graduated in December of 2009. It was extremely fast, busy, and very stressful at times. But I made it to the end with the help and support of Brett, my parents, and many other family and friends. We found out this past May (on my birthday actually!) that we were expecting our first child! It made for an interesting and at times stressful experience finishing nursing school while pregnant. I made it though! I graduated from school on December 12. Campbell Lowrey Soldevila was born on January 6, 2010, at 12:58 pm. He was 7 pounds 4 ounces. It was truly an amazing experience. The delivery was quick and easy. Well, the easy part came after the epidural! He was born a short 4 1/2 hours after we arrived at the hospital. Brett, my mom, and Brett's mom were all in the room to be a part of this miracle. Seeing him for the first time was true love at first sight. He has big brown eyes and a head full of dark hair that stays in a mohawk. I love it! It was the most wonderful moment to have Brett, Campbell, and myself together for the first time. We stayed in the hospital for 2 nights before coming home with our new family member for the first time. It was snowing the day we brought him home. I thought it would be a good idea for our first night at home to be just the three of us. Well, needless to say after a night of no sleep I called my mom crying first thing the next morning and said it was time for her to come! She came right away as well as Mrs. Anne. Brett was and still is an amazing help! It was nice to have some experienced help for something so foreign to us though. The first couple of weeks were very exhausting to say the least. Campbell definitely had his days and nights mixed up. Mom and I would take turns staying awake with him the first few nights since he would not sleep one bit. I tried to let Brett get as much sleep as possible through the night since he had to go to work in the morning. Campbell didn't give us much of a break during the day either. He wanted to nurse what felt like constantly and if he wasn't nursing, he was crying. I felt totally helpless not knowing what to do to calm him down. We finally found something that would calm him down though. He loves for us to sit with him on my exercise ball and bounce. I have spent many many hours bouncing on that ball now. It has gotten a little deflated from all the bouncing. After 4 weeks of this, we finally took him to the doctor to seek any advice on how to make our little guy happy. His weight gain was not very good so we were told to continue nursing and offer a bottle of formula afterwards. He has been a totally different baby since then. Poor thing just wasn't getting his tummy completely full! He gained over a pound in 4 days! Brett has been a wonderful father. It melts my heart each time I see them together. Brett loves to kiss on Campbell's sweet cheeks. One night while kissing Campbell, Brett said, "I wonder how long he will let me kiss on him like this." I thought about that that night while I was awake feeding him and cried. Up until that point I had not thought about him growing up and getting to a point where he does not want his Mom and Dad to kiss and love on him. I want him to stay my little boy forever! I know each stage of his life will be wonderful. I just want to cherish and remember each second I have with him. On top of all the sleepless nights and exhaustion that comes along with a newborn, I have had to prepare to take boards to get my nursing license. I took the test this past Friday, February 12. I found out yesterday that I passed!! So now that that is behind me, I have time to start my blog I have been wanting to do! The purpose of this blog is for me to keep track of my experiences as a new mom and all our wonderful memories as a family.