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.