Another prayer if you will....

Our family is so blessed with the presence of Reese. Our lives have been changed forever and the blessing of loving her is an honor.

Unfortunately not all parents are able to bring home their little ones from the hospital two days later like we did. Some parents spend months in hospitals and eventually....the worst possible thing happens. Not too many months ago we asked for prayers for the Stamps family and their little girl made it home healthy and happy. We'd like to ask again for you to lift up complete strangers because they've just lost their little girl after 11 months of struggle. Their story will be on the "Doctors" on Wednesday and their blog can be found here.

We don't know them and haven't been following this story long but their family needs prayers and we sympathize with their pain. We couldn't imagine anything happening to our sweet little Reese.

Just because she's here....doesn't mean you should stop praying for our little girl everyday and please lift this family as well. Time heals many wounds but theirs is a very deep one. They could use the love.

***NOTE - I probably didn't make this abundantly clear in the post but its the Freeman's that have lost their daughter...Not the Stamps Family. Just responding to a comment left here.

Happy Mother's Day

I met Kim a long time ago...almost 18 years ago to be exact. In that time we've literally grown up together and faced so many things as a couple. But today we celebrated the fact that she is much more than my partner in life...she is my daughter's mother as well.

We both love our own Mothers very much but since this is Kim's first day dedicated to being Reese's mom, I'll keep it brief and just say that I love you very much Kim. If I'd only known that we would have had Reese....we would have done this a long time ago. I love you tremendously and can't say thank you enough for giving this little girl life.

Love to each of our Moms and to all of our family members. Enjoy the pics from the day.

Hanging with Dahddy on Saturday

My girls....

Both smiling....

And then something happened...and I got the look. Or maybe I just caught her at the wrong time

Another good shot of my girls

Reesie Pie

My Grandmother, my Mom, Kim and Reese

Kim, her Mom, and Reese

Is this really necessary?

For those of you that haven't had kids in the past 3-4 years...I think.....the apparent "new" bottle to have is the Dr. Brown bottle that reduces air and in turn some think reduce the chances of colic in your newborn.

Any evidence to the contrary? Any studies on this? Nah...it just works.

And I suppose like all things baby/kid related, word of mouth and personal experience mean much more than any print out or study could ever relate. So....we use them too.

Let's lay out the issue here....this is the simple unassuming bottle. Pretty functional looking huh?

Reese uses 4oz bottles now and will likely graduate to 8oz bottles over the next month or so in order to feed around 6oz per feeding versus 4oz. Our life since 3/27/09 has been focused on feeding our precious little one every 3-4 hours during the day and random hours at night but I'll stretch and say two feedings at night. Starting there and planning on feeding by the day time schedule, you're looking at 7-8 bottles during a given 24 hour period. Easy enough right?

Check this out....This bottle turns into one of those Matryoshka dolls (egg shaped stacking dolls - in case I jumped ahead of you)







































SIX pieces to this bottle.

Six pieces that have to be washed, dried, put together, taken apart, and on and on and on every day. Oh sure, you can wash all of this in the dishwasher but who in the hell has the money to afford 50 bottles so that you can do that? So we hand wash....and our sink now looks like this.

Oh...and all those bottle brushes like the one to the left that have spongey tops on them. They suck too. Munchkin bristle brushes all the way.

Such is life to keep the adorable one happy and healthy but its just stuff like this that nobody tells you about. We'll cover a few more of these over the next week or so but this one has got to be the #1 sucker punch. MIND YOU....we don't want to change. Because what if our daughter DID develope Colic and Dr. Brown was right all along. Well, then we'd never be able to look at ourselves in the mirror again.

So we keep washing.

It's Reese's pieces....

The many faces of Reese....

What to post Wednesday....

I'm telling you...this little book of our blog has flat sapped any creativity that I thought Kim and I had in our bones. We normally spot things or recall stories or simply live life and some things become "post worthy". But recently, post worthy-ness hasn't been coming so easily - aside from baby pics of course. We like to put a little "tale" with our pics and it just hasn't been happening.

We've got some stuff in the can regarding our hideous chair in the baby room....the mystery that is Dr. Brown's bottles and the problem that washing them presents...could they have any more pieces? We've got normal baby stuff to talk about but do all of you really care that Reese clinches her fists of fury when she's making brown? She also stares right through you when she gets the "mean browns". That little stare she gives you means you'll find an ASS-plosion (another addition from blogger Tara - check out her baby stuff website. We love her bibs and plan on buying some goodies.)

I think it boils down to time now. I mean Reese sleeps very well. (Please don't jinx it...please don't jinx it) and we can plan on getting reasonable amounts of sleep with her each night but we go to bed early regardless - sort of hedging our bets that she might not sleep well. So after eating, feeding Reese, changing her, getting some stuff done around the house....THEN all of the sudden it's bed time. That leaves about 10 minutes to post something and my mind doesn't work that fast. The end result is that Reese is such an amazing little girl and we love her so much. We know we've been blessed beyond words and we can't express it enough.

Anyway... enough chatter about nothing. Enjoy some Rooting, Tooting, Pooting Reesie-Pie pics.

HEY....WHATCHU DOING?

I'm mildly obsessed...

We get some accolades every now and again regarding the writing in this blog and while those things are good to hear...I've never acted on the desire to write. Until now...I'm obsessed with our new book. No, no...it's not a real published book but rather our blog in book form! I found this really cool website call Blurb and you can publish your own book.

I really borrowed the idea from Tara's blog and her book looked awesome. So, I've been busy grabbing EVERY post and putting it into our new book. I believe that we'll do this from here out every 100 posts or so just to keep this blog safe and sound for Reese.

Since I have little...to no...creative juices flowing right now (the book has sapped me dry) I thought I would share some pics from this weekend and call it a night.

How freakin' cute is this?

This is a scan of one of the pics that we had made the other day....ADORABLE!!! We're starting her off right Paw paw and Nana! There will be no UT orange and white on this baby.

No more fevers...

Little Bit is on Amoxicillin for the ear infection and we have been fever free since we left the doctor's office. I certainly respect our Doc for explaining the worst case scenario but man does that scare the hell out of you. I think the color left both of our faces when the Doc mentioned meningitis.

Just a small update for the fam.

We're going to try and post some pro pics that we had made the other day. We'll have to scan them in and I sort of suck at scanning stuff since the new PC. Anyway...you'll know them when you see them.

One month check up and a trip to Calhoun....

While I've been on the road this week....Mommy took care of birthday posts and then let the little one stretch her legs a little in Calhoun. We have a pretty decent following at the Calhoun City Hall since my Aunt works there and Kim's Mom does too. The ladies there wanted to check her out...the girls at Kim's old office wanted to check her out...and my Grandmother - newly appointed Great Grandmother - got to meet Reese for the first time as well.

Kim said that all went well and at the end of the day, Reesie Pie was spent.

I got back yesterday and Reese greeted me with a very restful night back at the homestead...she slept almost 9 hours before she woke up looking for some food.....But as we found out at the doctors appointment, that may have been an indicator of something.

We pack up, go to the doctor and check all the vitals. She now weighs 12lbs 7oz and she is 23 1/4 inches long. That's up from 9lbs 10oz and 20 1/2 inches at birth! We got a growing baby!

But...she had a fever of 100.4 on the first check and then another check was something like 99.4....Our doc checked her out pretty well and determined that she has an ear infection in her right ear.

Already? AGGGGHHHH! She also put the fear of God in us about her temperature since babies her age cannot sustain a temperature - low grade or not - without being checked out thoroughly. Meaning blood work, urine, and a possible Spinal tap due to fears of meningitis. Doc said she didn't think that was an issue as her fontanel was not swollen...I guess a typical sign of something serious there.

Kim has checked her temp once and I did when I got home and so far - nothing major. 99.2 with me and around that with Kim. The Doc did give us some meds for the ear infection to knock that down but I'm a little concerned about that because Kim and I both are allergic to penicillin and that's what they gave her.....we're checking with Doc in the morning to see if our allergies may carry over to her. Oh well...I had bad ear issues as a kid so it wouldn't be fair if Reese didn't as well....right?

Enough talk....check out Reese in her Nike outfit and Bubba Gump shirt.

Happy 1 Month

Happy 1 Month Reese!

It is so hard to believe that it has already been a month. It really just seems like yesterday when Daddy and I brought you home from the hospital. You are growing like a weed and changing daily. You are such a joy and our love for you grows stronger every day. We are so blessed and thank God for our answered prayers.

1 Month Birthday eve....

We....or more like I....was confused on the whole one month thing. In my mind, four Fridays meant one month. Right? Apparently no.

Friday was the four week mark so we documented that...and Monday is the "One month" mark so we'll document that too. Anyway, I'm on a bit of a post drought since the day of reckoning last Thursday with the landfill diaper that Reese gave us and the storm that rolled through. On top of that, Monday is my first trip away for any length since Reese has been here so I'm not really on top of my creative game to put up an interesting post full of details and humor. So instead of stories or weekend happenings...its a Reese-a-palooza pic session.

She's acting cold but the water is hot....we're not bad parents.

No pictures please.....












Sup?

One heck of a night....

So, tonight has been interesting....we're waiting on the earthquake to come next so be sure to find a sturdy doorway to stand in.

First - It's Thursday. That means Pint Night at Taco Mac. I'll save a long winded ramble about what it is and why I like it but suffice it to say I love Taco Mac. And yes...Pint Night means cold beer. We'll just call it "fruit of the vine" so everyone feels better. K?

So I went to Taco Mac to enjoy some libation with my co-workers....all is well. I come home and grab Kim and Reese to go get some chow at our local Chili's and Reese was phenomenal. Calm, quiet, and awake...Wow. Little did we know that two storms were brewing. One is a weather related phenomenon, the other is a bowel related event. Dun dun duuuuuun.

We eat, and it thunders...Reese smiles and her bowels thunder. (we couldn't hear that) Reese did start getting a little fussy toward the end so Kim takes her to the car and I wait for the bill. Finally get the bill, run to the car...Weather is on the way. I get into the car and Reese has Kim singing a song about MAMA LOVES REESE, DADDY LOVE REESE....on and on. Man she was ticked. We wonder what come un-hinged to cause this?!

We fly home...the skies look pretty rough. This is like the third or fourth stormy night in two weeks or so and we duck into the house for cover. Bax is busting down the door to come in, we get him in, and I check on Kim................................

Hail on the back deck.

It was a bomb. A poop bomb. Ohhhhhhhhh Lord. Her onesy is stained....her pants are stained. The poop has run its way out the belly of the diaper. It stinks. Oh my gosh does it stink. It is quite possible her biggest poop in her one month existence. No wonder she was angry! We clean her up and she finally cools down the bloody murder screams. I think that mess would make me scream too.

Hail, poop, thunder, lightning.....what else? Well, how about some cool pics of Reese!

I've learned something about posting....

I've FINALLY figured out how to shrink photos in Picasa so now I don't have to wait for 10 minutes everytime I upload a picture.

SOOOOOOO.

I'm on a pic trip for no other reason than just because I can post tons of pics in like 2 minutes. So here are some pics from this weekend....

My girls chilling on the bed.

Reesey-pie stretching it out....Looks like an E.T. moment.

She's starting to smile....

And its not always because she's tooting...

How adorable is she?