Look at me, I'm three weeks old today!!

Great Friends

It's amazing how fabulous life can be when you have great friends!! I have truly been blessed this year and have met a bunch of amazing people who have turned into such great friends! This week while I thought was going to be awful and so hard ended up not being that bad after all and all thanks to a few amazing people. I had a friend invite me over for lunch on Tuesday and then we spent some quality time talking and hanging out. Make your own pizzas were delicious and so much fun to make. Oh and then for dessert we had turtle bars (Sorry you missed them Brian). It was fun to just relax and to be able to get out of the house for a while. Then on Wednesday I had an amazing friend come to the house and hang out and watch Nate so I was able to spend some alone time with myself. It was the first time since Brian left that I was able to take a shower without hearing a baby cry the whole time I was in there. It was so peaceful. Such a great help it was to have someone around to help me. It's the little things that I enjoy so much. Thursday, Nate had his second play date which meant another outing for Mom. We went to see his girlfriend and they both slept while the mommas watched a movie. Great company and great movie equal a good time. Today we went to visit Katelyn, our photographer, to pick up our pictures and she took a few more photos for us. So much fun. Then since it wasn't too hot out we were able to go out for a nice walk. Although it did rain on us a good bit. We walked 3 miles around Riverside and Nate enjoyed his jogging stroller. (Yes, Jeffrey and Jessica we are using it!) It was so nice to be able to spend the week with such great people. They truly made my first week without Brian go by so much faster and helped me get through the week. I am blessed to have such amazing friends. Thank you all...you made my week!!

Ahhhh, Sleep

Woo hoo!! We got some good zzz's last night! Things are getting better. Nate slept for almost 5 hours straight last night. It was amazing!! Then when he did wake up I fed him, changed him and laid him down wide awake and he went back to sleep for another 3 hours. It was a good night. Mom was able to get some rest and so was Nate. I could get used to these nights. I only hope that they continue and that Nate and Mom get more sleep!! :)

Oh Meals...

I have decided that we did this all wrong. While Brian was home we had tons of fabulous people bring us delicious meals. It was so nice. We didn't have to cook at all while he was home. Since then I have decided that I should have told everyone to wait until Brian left and to bring me meals when he was gone and then had Brian make dinner while he was here. :) Life is a little bit more complicated when you have to feed a baby and yourself. But I am getting very good at doing things with one hand. Although everyone made enough for a small Army so really one meal would have fed me for a week straight. I did have a friend nice enough to invite Nate and I over for lunch today so that was great. We got to get out of the house for a little bit and had a delicious meal in the process. We even had turtle bars!!! (Sorry you missed them Brian!! They were fabulous!) It was nice to have the presence of another person around, someone to talk to other than a baby and just a relaxing atmosphere. I am looking forward to other days out with friends. Hopefully Thursday we will have another play date with baby Cadence. On a side note Nate slept pretty well last night and slept a decent amount today during the day....I hope he still sleeps well tonight.

Nate's First Doctor's Appointment

Nate had his first doctor's appointment yesterday and he is doing great. He now weighs 7lbs 4ozs. That's 1oz more than his birth weight which is great. He is 20 3/4 inches long now...getting taller. :) They say everything looks good and that he is a healthy little boy. Nate did great with the doctor. He didn't cry at all and was very content the entire time we were there. Mom, on the other hand, was not happy at all and refuses to see this doctor again. To start our appointment was at 3pm and we didn't get seen until 3:45...ridiculous. Then I guess the doctor really wanted to get through our appointment so he talked so fast that I have no clue what he was saying. I was incredibly disappointed with him and since have filed yet another complaint with the department of the Navy. These people must love me. Mayport is terrible, I always have problems when I go there. His next appointment is when he is 4 weeks old. We will try a different doctor and see if it goes any better. Wish us luck!!

Nate's First Roll

Nathan rolled over for the first time today!! Brian and I have one amazingly smart and strong boy!!

Not So Lucky

I knew I wouldn't be lucky enough to have him sleep through the night. He was actually awake pretty much all night long. How are you awake for almost 24 hours straight??? crazy!! Needless to say I'm exhausted and I'm hoping those 2 1/2 hours of sleep I got through the night will hold me over today.

Wide Awake

Wow! Today has been insane. Nathan hasn't really slept a wink which means mom hasn't slept or had a chance to get anything done. He took a quick 20 minute nap just in time for me to make some quick lunch and eat it and ever since we have been wide awake again. I can only hope this means that he will sleep, sleep, sleep tonight. I think he knows that his daddy is gone so he wants to be close to me at all times.

Fun Pics!

Someone is not happy :(

Tummy Time

I love green!

Ahh, Daddy what are you doing to me?!

That's a lot of dirty diapers!! :)

Saying Goodbye is Never Easy

Well, Brian left this morning to go back to Iraq. It was a very sad and emotional morning! I still can't quite believe that he is gone. The adjustment for us has already begun. Nate and I are getting used to our new role for the next month as mommy and Nate time. Reality has already set in for mom! I no longer have Brian here to carry in the carseat. (I realized today just how heavy that thing is with a baby in it. I should have some pretty buff muscles by the time Brian gets back.) Brian's not here to take care of Dolce and Luigi either. Having a baby is one thing but having a baby and two little dogs is a whole different game. I had a decision to make today when I had a crying baby and two dogs that desperately needed to go out. But we worked it out and life is good. Dolce and Luigi, I believe, have already resorted to their old ways. They were completely different dogs while Brian was home. I am just amazed by them. They both do well with Nate but Dolce is back to guarding his food and Luigi...well, he's just crazy Luigi attacking Dolce. (That I don't think will ever change.) As I type this Brian is sitting in Atlanta waiting for his next flight. He has a 7 or 8 hour layover...something crazy like that. He called a little while ago and we got to talk for a little bit. He misses Nate and we miss him!! They both had the hiccups at the same time. It was kind of funny. Nate definitely gets the hiccups a lot. Brian should be back in Iraq in a few days and then we will be back to our normal routine of talking on Skype and the phone. I am so glad that we don't have much longer until he is home. I can handle a month on my own and I'm glad Brian won't be missing much of Nate's life! Well, Nate is calling...I will hopefully be able to blog again later. :)

Almost Two Weeks...

I can't believe that it has been almost two weeks since sweet little Nathan has graced us with his presence. These last two weeks have been such a blessing. Having Brian and Nathan together has been amazing. Brian is spending as much time with Nathan as he possibly can and we are taking LOTS of pictures of the two of them together. They are adorable. They love to sleep together on the couch. Oh and of course, since pre-season football has started they enjoying watching football together. They watched their first Steeler's game together already! :) I think we are doing pretty good adjusting to parenthood. We have found a swaddler that we can wrap Nathan nice and tight in and because of it he sleeps longer and better. Last night he slept for 4 hours. We fed him and changed him then he slept for 4 more hours....it was SO nice. Brian and I were both able to get some zzz's. Although, I do wake up a few times just to check on him to make sure he's doing ok. Brian and I often wonder what he dreams about in his sleep. He will be sleeping then start smiling then a minute or two later make an ugly face. It's really cute. Our friends Kristin and Shane think he's dreaming about colors...he smiles with the pretty colors and frowns with the ugly ones. I guess we will never really know. Since our last post Nate had his first playdate! My friend Jacki had her baby, Cadence, on August 3rd and we have already decided that Nate and Cadence will get married. They met for the first time yesterday. They didn't do much socializing though. Nate was chillin in his car seat and Cadence was relaxin in her swing. It was totally the Tostito's commercial. Jacki and I have decided we will have many playdates...mostly so we can socialize with each other, haha. Life is great right now! :)

Nathan's First Photo Shoot

Yesterday, Katelyn came to our house to take pictures of our brand new family. The photo shoot was exhausting but well worth it. Nathan managed to pee and poop on everyone multiple times; Brian didn't get it as bad, he only got pooped on once.

His timing was excellent as he managed to poop/pee while we were in the middle of shooting. It was funny because we still held the poses anyways (Katelyn insisted that it wouldn't show in the pictures).

Overall, Nathan was cooperative and an excellent model. Katelyn was nice enough to provide us with some samples of her work when she got home. We can't wait to see the rest of the pictures. Thank you Katelyn!

Pictures taken and provided by Katelyn Vonfeldt

Nathan's First Bath

Here is a video that we took of Nathan's first bath at home. He wasn't a fan, but he did make it amusing at the beginning. Babies are great.

Dolce and Luigi Meet Baby Nate

For those of you wondering...Dolce and Luigi did pretty good when they first met Nathan. Brian and I were both a little concerned. More about Luigi than Dolce because he seems to be much more active. Dolce, as Brian would say, is now just fat and lazy. The dogs didn't even realize for quite some time that there was a baby. I think they finally realized when they heard Nate screaming crying late at night. They were sleeping and all of the sudden there was a loud noise. I'm sure this scared them more than anything. But really they leave him alone. They will go up and sniff him every once in a while when we are sitting on the couch and Luigi likes to lick little Nate's toes but really they aren't too concerned with the new baby. This is a relief!

Welcome Home Baby Nate!

We arrived home safe and sound. It took us a little while to figure out the car seat but we got it after a few minutes. The car ride home was great. I sat in the back with Nathan...good thing because the sun was in his eyes most of the ride. Nathan slept the entire car ride. He seemed to love the movement of the car and was so content. When we got home we had tons of stuff to carry inside. Somehow I feel like we accumulated a lot of stuff at the hospital. We got inside and changed Nate's diaper because he was very fussy. This was a task. I had to try to remember where I put everything and of course Brian had no clue where anything was since he hasn't been here. So it took us a little while and we had one fussy baby in the meantime but we eventually got his diaper changed and then he went to sleep. ahhh....sleep..... This is when reality set in. We were no longer in the same room with him 24/7. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I walked in his room to make sure he was doing ok. I even had to touch him most times just to make sure he was still breathing. Luckily, this feeling didn't last too long and after a while I was finally able to just leave him alone to sleep. We didn't get much sleep if really any at all that night. We were up for hours just holding him trying to get him to go to sleep. I think all in all we probably got about 2 hours of sleep that night. Exhausting...

The Eigth Floor

Our new home for the next 48 hours would be the 8th floor of the hospital. After I could finally feel my legs again (this took a few hours) we were moved up to the 8th floor. It was about 10:30pm by the time we got up there. When we arrived up there Nathan was given his very first bath and was weighed, measured and checked out again. Nathan had a really fast heart rate so they checked him over and over again. Normal is between 40-60 and his was in the 80's or 90's. They said it normally goes down within 4-6 hours but it still hadn't gone down. They thought they might have to take him for a little while to test him but we were lucky because right at about 6 hours it had gone down to about 62 bmp and he was able to stay with us. We were given instructions, Nate was checked out and then we were pretty much left alone to try to get some rest. I don't think they came back in to check on him until about 4am and he was really cold. They asked us to do skin-to-skin with him to get his body temperature back up. Brian held him and then he was doing fine. We spent the next 2 days getting used to our life long role as parents. Changing diapers, attempting to swaddle him (we are getting better at this), feeding, dealing with the little and not so little cries, and everything else that goes along with a baby. We sat around a lot and Brian had to leave for breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday to get us food. The Naval hospital isn't really open on the weekends so I'm pretty sure they made all of the meals for the weekend Friday before they left. They were all terrible. And, of course, they don't feed Brian. We were so ready to go home though- fast food and take out get really old really quickly. Also, sitting in the same room gets very repetitive. Our experience at the hospital was a good one though. They didn't bother us much at all. They came in to check on Nate usually around 10pm and then again at 4am but other than they we were able to try to get some sleep as much as possible. It was good not to be woken up every two hours or so by people- although Nate took on the role of waking us up. :) On Sunday at 4pm we were finally discharged from the hospital- such an exciting time! We now embark on our newest journey- being parents at our own home with no help....

Labor and Delivery

Well, we ended up getting to the hospital at about 8 or 8:30am. I was having pretty regular contractions and they were pretty painful. Brian and I had a quick bite to eat in the morning before we left the house. I will soon find out that this was not nearly enough to hold me over the rest of the day. When we got to the hospital I had to sit in the waiting room for a while and wait for a room. It was a full moon that night so labor and delivery were very busy!! It wasn't long that we waited- maybe 30 minutes or so. Then I got checked out and was dialated 5cm so I got admitted and relocated to my new home for the next 12 hours or so. As we were walking to the room they asked if I wanted an epidural. Of course, my answer was YES! as soon as you get a chance. They had 2 emergency c-sections that apparently took precedence over me. (hmph...) So I had to wait a while. I'm sure I probably waited a few hours but it wasn't too bad. The pain was there but it wasn't completely unbearable. In the meantime Brian and I just sat in the room and watched TV and I got checked out every so often to make sure I was doing ok. In the meantime they had put in my IV and started giving me fluids. Eventually I got my epidural- I hate needles and was a bit nervous about this. But it wasn't too bad. Brian was my support and watched the whole thing- he says the needle wasn't as big as he thought it was going to be. It took a little while for the epidural to kick in but once it did life was great. My left side was completely numb and I still could feel things on my right side so they eventually kicked it up a notch and I couldn't feel anything from that point on. I couldn't move my legs at all- it was kind of funny. We continued to wait and wait being checked periodically by different people to see how far dialated I was. Waiting was the worst and I was getting really hungry! I could only eat so many popsicles and they really don't fill you up. Brian left for a little while to go get something to eat- no point in both of us suffering! And we just continued to wait- watching TV doing pretty much nothing. I think we both fell asleep too at some point in time. By 5:30 I was dialated 9cm and was in Stage 1. So they wanted to start preparing me for the real labor. Really I think this was just because a shift change was coming up at 6:45. At about 6pm my room all of the sudden filled with people. My two doctors the commander that was taking care of me the whole time and a bunch of other people. I started pushing at about 6pm and little Nathan arrived into the world at 6:24pm. It was truly such an amazing experience. During the pushing I couldn't feel any contractions so they had to look at the monitor to tell me when to push. Brian was awesome and counted for me and I just concentrated on pushing. Luckily, it didn't take long and I honestly didn't feel a thing. I don't think I really even knew that he was out until they laid him on my belly. Brian cut the cord and then Nate was cleaned off while I was holding him. It was so amazing. I, of course, had tears of joy. It was great!! Nathan Brian Weiblinger had finally shown his face to the world at 6:24pm on August 7th, 2009 weighing in at 7lbs. 3.2oz and 20.5 inches long!! :) He is absolutely perfect!!

Brian's Home!!

After 9 months of waiting Brian is finally home!! It was so exciting to see him at the airport and a very emotional time. We were both just thrilled that I hadn't gone into labor yet at that point. How exciting that he would be here when I finally went into labor and that he would be able to be here for the birth of our first child. After we got home my photographer that took my belly photos offered to come over and take pictures of Brian and I together since he wasn't here when I had them done. She came over and took some amazing photos. I was having contractions the entire time she was taking pictures. It was quite the ordeal. After Katelyn left we went and got dinner at Fresh Market...yum. I was still having contractions at this point and called labor and delivery when we got home. They told me not to come in unless the contractions became more regular and consistent. Which led us to about midnight that night when I felt like something just wasn't right. We went to labor and delivery where they checked me out. At this point I was 3cm dialated. They said I could either walk around for an hour or 2 to help expedite the labor or I could go home and get some rest. I most definitely opted for the getting some rest. The last thing I wanted to do was walk around and especially on the dark Navy base at 2am! So Brian and I went home and got a little rest.