my other babies

jennifer sent us a bunch of pictures of the kiddos. every single picture came out sooooo cute! haha. they're all coming to visit in a couple weeks. i can't wait!!!

strolling

since i have been itchin' to get out of the house more, and since the doctor recommended we live an active lifestyle to set a good example for reesey, we went to wilson park today for an afternoon stroll. he cried the first few minutes but then fell asleep for the rest of the lap. haha. i was happy to squeeze in a bit of exercise, too!

big boy

reese had his 2 week "well baby" check up this morning. he is in the 50th percentile for weight, height, and head! perfectly normal baby! we were also surprised (but not really) to find out that he grew 2.5 inches and gained 13 ounces since birth! haha. we thought he seemed a lot bigger, but were thinking it was just our imagination. apparently not! haha. big boy!!

out of the house

anthony wanted to go to the bike store today, so reese and i went along for the ride! haha. it was my first time leaving the house in over a week! we went through the chick fil a drive thru to pick up our lunch, and then i drove home because i wanted to try driving the new car. all this probably sounds pretty unexciting but it was exciting to me! =P

memorial day

we had quite a few visitors today! luckily, reese's feeding schedule just happened to be perfectly timed with everyone's arrival times. and he was eating like a champ today, so he was nice and mellow and actually AWAKE for each visit. yay!

his craziest visitor of the day was auntie toni! she had a layover in LAX and asked denise to pick her up really quick 'cause her flight home was delayed. they were probably only here for 4 minutes. haha. crazy!!!

btw, while the gilberstons were here they gave me the youtube link to chad's newest video. chad first brought the video over and played it for us four days after reese was born. i had no idea what it was going to be about, so almost immediately after it started i was so surprised that i started crying! haha. they kept saying that nothing even happened in the video yet, but i was already sooo touched!! it's such a cute and sweet video of our journey.. through uncle chad's eyes. see for yourself! thanks, chaddy!

regular clothes

go ahead and call me vain for getting excited about this, but today was the first time i've felt like ME in quite a while. towards the end of my pregnancy, it became harder and harder to get dressed without just wearing the same maternity clothes over and over. and as much as i tried to stay active and watch what i ate during the third trimester, there was only so much control i had over how much my body changed. people would always say, "you're pregnant, you're supposed to look that way." but unless you're the one personally going through it then it's not so easy to accept. and THEN after giving birth, i was severely bloated (i was hooked up to an IV during labor due to the complication) and extremely sore, so i had anthony go to target to buy me every color nursing cami they had. that's all i've been wearing ever since.. simply because i'm too sore to wear anything else. well, today i finally started to feel better physically. i stopped taking my pain meds yesterday, and am slowly becoming comfortable again. i've also been watching the scale and am pleased to say that the pounds are dropping. obviously it's going to take time (and exercise) to get back to where i was, but so far i've lost 20 of the 42 pounds i gained during pregnancy. i decided to try some of my old clothes on just for fun, and was amazed at how GOOD it made me feel. yes, pajamas and maternity clothes are practical, but putting on regular clothes really made me feel ten times better. as much as i love my new role of being mommy, it was nice to have a temporary escape that made me feel like ME again.

fooood

we have been so blessed that so many people have been bringing us food to eat! this morning my mom brought us some arroz caldo! thanks for all the food, everyone!

me time

with anthony FINALLY back in business, things have really started to pick back up. baby blues are no joke, man! i always feel paranoid to say that things are good, because i always seem to jinx myself. so let me just speak for the moment and say that i feel good! as tough as these past 9 days have been, i know there's a reason for everything. i believe God presents me with challenges to keep me going, and to help me overcome my fear of breastfeeding. without them, i might have given up by now. so anyway, since anthony had a quick errand to run this afternoon, he decided to take reese with him. it was good for anthony 'cause he got some bonding time with his boy. good for reese because the car ride relaxed him and made him feel better after being fussy. and good for me because i had some much needed ME time. i'm happy to say that today was a good day!

p.s. that is cabbage hanging out of my shirt, and it is the best discovery yet in my BF'ing journey. haha. google it!

my hubby

anthony's not quite 100% yet, but felt well enough to come out of the room by evening time. i know it's only been a couple days, but in newborn time it has seriously felt like weeks! i can tell reese has been missing his daddy, too. and of course anthony has been miserable just locked away not being able to help or spend time with us. i'm so happy he's getting better!

good fortune

anthony is still sick, and i still have daily anxiety attacks regarding breastfeeding. denise came over to spend the afternoon with me and help me feed. we were doing fine, but by late afternoon i was back to panicking and once again, threatened to give up all together. this is really hard. whenever i think i've got the hang of things, something else happens that makes it frustrating again. my mom took over after denise left (and is still here spending the night) so once again i am so thankful to have help (both in person and in text from everyone who has been checking up on me). after my anxiety attack, i realized that i DO want to keep on trying, so here we go again.

emilie stopped by this afternoon to visit reese and drop off some chinese food. i ate a fortune cookie before going to sleep, and thought this fortune was totally meant for me. it is always darkest before dawn.

patience, karen!