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Thursday, November 27, 2014

16 Weeks on Thanksgiving Day

Buckner turns 16 weeks today on his first Thanksgiving Day!  In honor of my sweet little punkin's first 16 weeks of life coinciding with a day to be thankful, I have been thinking of all the many precious moments I have been thankful for in Buckner's life so far. Sixteen of those moments are listed below.

16. A couple of mornings ago at 3:30am, I heard Buckner stirring in his rock and play beside me. I looked over from the bed to see my very wide awake baby staring at me. When he saw that I was now awake, he gave me a huge smile still holding on to that pacifier in his mouth. He continued to flash those sweet smiles as if to say, "Hey mommy! Let's play now that you are awake!" We are so lucky that Buckner is generous with his smiles, babbles and laughs. He lets us know that while we are new at this parent thing, he is happy with our efforts.

Love looking into his eyes!

15. The ability to be able to afford what Buckner needs. I don't know why but every time I am measuring out formula to make a bottle, I am overwhelmed with emotion that something as simple as filling a bottle with formula is a challenge for some parents. I feel tears every time as I pray for other parents who may be suffering financially and therefore struggling to find ways to be able to provide for their babies. I now know how much a parent loves and how much I would sacrifice to keep Buckner healthy and happy so I pray that all parents can provide for their babies. We are grateful that we can provide formula, diapers, clothes and medical care for our sweet baby boy.

14. We are grateful for family time. It is in the lamplight of the early morning and the golden glow of home in the evening that we get to cuddle with Buckner and hear his babbles as he  tries to tell us about his day.  We definitely have a talker!

13. Our little hercules is a strong one! He can already roll from his back to his stomach which is something that I have read is not suppose to happen until month five. And it isn't a fluke because he does it several times a day. He also can scoot in circles in his crib. It is amazing to see how strong and capable our baby boy already is at only 16 weeks.

12. I love dressing him up. Right now he is at a really cuddly stage and the weather has been cold making his little outfits even cozier. I think my favorite thing to put on him are his sweet, footed sleepers. But he also looks adorable in hooded jackets!  Actually he looks adorable in pretty much everything!

11. We are having so much fun marking his first holidays. So far we have had his first Halloween (I put him in a pumpkin onsie) and now his first Thanksgiving. Of course, he will be dining on his usual meal of yummy formula during this feast day but we will make sure to take lots of pictures to mark the occasion.


Our little punkin

10. He loves bath time.  It is one of our special moments of each day. No matter what kind of mood he is in (which is usually happy), he flashes huge grins when I start to prep him for his bath. He loves the water and it completely relaxes him. Recently he has learned how to kick and make splashes which has added a new step to after bath clean up!

9. After bath time, we read a book together. He pays close attention and looks at the pictures. I want to give him a love of reading and help him be an effective communicator so I try to read to him nightly but most importantly it is just another great excuse to cuddle.

8. Before I ever even thought about being pregnant, I always imagined my child's christening. I wanted it to be attended by our family and close friends. Before I knew we were having a baby boy, I would daydream about his christening party and always saw a white cake with blue icing. No matter how hard I tried, I could never see anything but blue icing...guess I knew I was having a boy all along. His christening weekend was a beautiful celebration of welcoming our baby into the Catholic faith and it was attended by our sweet family and friends. And of course we had a white cake with blue icing!

7. I enjoyed every moment of maternity leave. I let projects go and pretty much sat and held Buckner for a little over 8 weeks. Even though I would have loved to have longer, I made the most of every moment and would not change how we spent those first weeks getting to know one another.

6. Family and friends made life so easy for us by helping us during those first few weeks. Ed's mom cooked for us so when we got home from the hospital we had food waiting in our refrigerator. My mom stayed with us for about a week and a half. She cooked, washed clothes, made beds and helped me learn how to be a mom. After she went home, she came back on a daily basis which I was so grateful for because I was sick and going through a touch of postpartum emotions (not really depression but more anxiety). Friends brought us food and more food and even more food. If you know new parents, bring them food - it is the best way to take care of them!

5. I love when life slows down enough for us to be able to lay on the floor on his quilt and play tummy time. He use to hate it but is getting so much better at it. Play is so much fun and we are enjoying getting an excuse to be able to play again since both Ed and I are just big kids.

Tummy time!


4. I waddled as long as I could while pregnant. We made many laps around the neighborhood with neighbors asking, "Where is that baby already?" So it was very sweet to finally put him in his stroller to take a walk around the neighborhood to say, "He is here!"

3. I am tired but no matter how tired I am I always am grateful to wake up in the middle of the night to those sweet little eyes.  I love being able to sit in the rocking chair that my mom once rocked me in as a baby. Now 36 years later, I sit with my baby boy in the middle of the night feeding him with just the hall light peeking in. It is enough light to see him staring at me, just the way my mom said I use to look at her.

2. Buckner reached every milestone in pregnancy as if he was following textbook orders. Now he is doing the same as an infant. He is smiling, babbling, rolling, kicking, grabbing, laughing, trying to sit, holding his head, recognizing faces, tracking objects with his eyes, responding to our talking, etc. We are amazed with how we are watching him grow and develop. Every day is an exciting new day!

1. A healthy baby boy. About two weeks after he was born, he developed a staph infection on his nose that required an ER trip and pediatrician follow up. The bump was drained and some antibiotics were administered but he stayed healthy through it all. Now at 16 weeks he has caught his first cold but he allows me to give him saline spray like such a good little boy.  Overall, with the exception of these two little incidents we have a healthy, thriving baby boy and we are so overwhelmed with gratitude to God for allowing us to be his parents and get to share in his life.

We are loving every moment and are grateful to God for allowing us to be parents. Happy Thanksgiving!

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