Minnicks On Their Road To Ever After: May 2014

Lola says a big THANK you to everyone for caring and loving her and her family so much! We enjoyed presents dropped off at our door, dinners cooked for us or brought for us, phone calls, text, visitors who have yet to walk in the door empty handed, facebook messages from friends i have not heard from in years and the sweetest comments written on facebook about our sweet girl!

Even strangers seem sweeter lately, we can’t go to a restaurant, park or store without someone asking to see Lola or commenting on how cute she is! I find myself too starring at other babies, seeing if they are older or younger than Lola and admiring how sweet and innocent they are… I guess once you have a baby you see babies in a new light…. you really feel love for them all and you really “feel” for the mamas.... you know what they have been through, you know how hard it is, you know how in love and excited they are right now, you also know how long they have waited and lord knows how easy or difficult their pregnancy was!

It has a way of bringing you closer to someone who could be a complete stranger, i mean really you already have so much in common! i told mom a week or so ago, “I guess i now why other moms never really tell you what to expect after a baby comes, they just say enjoy every moment.. because you couldn’t explain it if you tried!” Hell even if mom had tried to explain it i wouldn’t have “gotten it”.

So in hopes of being more frequent with documenting life with Lola I’m hoping pics and bullet points will work… ok probably not but it’s worth a try!

Once we left the hospital life hit us! I think we are just now feeling brief moments of “oh yeah, life is going on around us”. You honestly FORGET everything else in the world because at least so far with Lola EVERY SINGLE MOMENT with her is consuming. It’s still an accomplishment to get my teeth brushed before noon!

I have to admit finding a pediatrician for Lola was one of the last things i did before my due date… but we lucked out! I spoke with Ellen, a former colleague and she referred us to PAMPA who we love, especially Dr. Morgan! He saw Lola in the hospital and we went back to see him our first day after coming home from the hospital!

- Lola’s 5 day old check up! She returned to her birth weight and gained half an inch! We also went through the Zaxby’s drive through on the way home which left us feeling VERY accomplished for some reason! You know just another day being mommy and daddy.. no biggie… Ahhhh!! Is my smile big enough yet!?!?!?

Lou’s is!Lou found his new napping buddy since i STILL have not given in… which i have concluded… it’s just not meant to be… if your not a napper your not a napper regardless of a newborn status!

We had tons of company that weekend but let’s be honest. We pretty much just drooled at this girl all day long!

My sister raced to Atlanta on Friday as soon as she got off work and Alex’s mom and Mike came to meet their newest grandbaby that Saturday! Lou and his absolute most favorite thing to do with Lola… have her lay on his chest! I told him he has to grow boobies so she can have a pillow! Lola definitely prefers girls chests’! The proud gramas!

Lola loves her boppy lounger and it makes for perfect photo shoots!

Lolas one week Birthday was so sad for her daddy, he had to return to work and leave us for a whole day! We sent him millions of pictures and videos to hold him over until he got home!

Can you believe i go to bed every night starring at this beauty….

We didn’t exactly leave the house for the first two weeks and I remember thinking i would be the happiest girl in the world to never leave the house again… I just LOVED sitting with her all day!

I got (and still get) NOTHING done…. I pretty much hold her all day long and then if i ever set her down or if she falls asleep i just stare at her or take her pictures of her…

A million things can be going on but when she falls asleep on me like this…. they all seem so irrelevant!

I was so sad the night before Lola turned two weeks old, her pictures were the next day and her umbilical cord fell off just before the pictures! Did i mention i get upset at EVERY milestone!

We celebrated anyway with her FIRST big girl bath!

I had a celebration of my own before her photo shoot… I was finally wearing JEANS again!!

My wedding ring still didn’t fit, that seemed to be the only pregnancy “symptom” that lingered… swollen hands… they stayed swollen for weeks after and i would wake up with them aching still just like when I was pregnant!Lola wanted to be held the entire day so pictures weren’t a complete success, thankful for a photographer with patience and offering to come back for a second try!

I’m not sure what it is about a baby and a full belly but if all else fails… feed them! IT knocks them out! Lola usually doesn’t even make it through the burping part…

Around this time (2 weeks old) is when we decided to go pick up dinner and ended up bringing Lola inside Lou’s favorite store Hobby Town.

Let’s just say i was a nervous wreck!!! Alex was so proud, he even asked the checkout lady if she wanted to see her, how old she was and informed her that this was her first outing….

When we walked off he asked “is that weird that i just did that” I pretended it was normal but really it was sooo not like him! You make your daddy pretty proud Lola!

Mom went home after 2 weeks of helping and then it got HARD! What a difference help makes with a newborn! Alex called me crazy but for some reason i needed to know i could do it on my own, she was mine and I wanted to know that i was capable of taking care of her… i know it’s weird but it was true.. and it was hard but i did it and then decided she should come back…. ASAP!

Thankfully Lou knows how to let a girl know she is appreciated ;)

In hindsight it was pretty dumb because newborns are so hard in the beginning ( especially mine who is a busy body girl and pretty much inseparable from me) and then things get easier… maybe i should have proved it to myself after she was a few months old! #oops. I have already learned so much!

Happy mama, happy baby!

Lola got her baby acne around this time too and it was the saddest thing ever to look at, it was even on her little eye lids :(

I believe this day i mastered blow drying my hair while holding lola…. pretty impressive i know! She loves the blow dryer!

I took full advantage of moms return and ran errands without Lola for the first time, I was in such a hurry to get it all done and get back home i realized when i got back home i forgot to even turn on the radio… One track mind… get home to my bay!

I did manage to send and receive plenty of snaps from mom of Lola though!So proud!

Typical grandparent faces….

When Lola hit two weeks we finally braved leaving the house with her on little mini trips and she began to have MANY firsts:

One of her firsts’ we decided to venture out and take Lola to dinner…

She was still VERY unpredictable and i was a nervous wreck taking her somewhere so i just hoped she would sleep the whole time as a matter of fact we circled the area a few times hoping she would fall asleep before taking her in…. no such luck…. They sat us under a damn inspection light! Oh the things you begin to do and notice with babies!

The first place we took Lola out to dinner was actually the last place we went before going to the hospital! Mom thought it was only appropriate to do a before and after….

Here i am in stripes on the way to the hospital and below is one day shy of two weeks later in stripes again-

What a difference 2 weeks makes!

Lola Eliza first official piece of mail!

We made a real HUMAN!

Lola’s first walk in the neighborhood, she loved the stroller!

Her first time in the Bjorn, she loved it and i got to use BOTH hands!!! What’s the first thing i did? Oddly enough, cleaned out my pantry ;/

A big FIRST TJ being cuddly with Lola! Lola’s round 2 photo shoot at almost 4 weeks old! 20140308_050315 This weekend Aunt Tara was back and we couldn’t wait to take Lola to do something fun outside… so we decided it was time for her first trip to the square!

I couldn’t wait to push her stroller in public… it was my first time using it and i felt like a “real mommy”! I also saw a ton of pregnant ladies walking around the square and felt so BAD for them… I knew i shouldn’t because they may have been happy as could be but i remember so many times while i was pregnant and we would go to the square and i envied all the people who already had their babies and got to play and enjoy them! I was so ready to be them!

The same weekend Lola’s finally got to meet Grampa and Jammie!

Bad news Lola…. it will more than likely be a very long time before you understand your Gramapa Minnicks humor…

Best “first” ever, Lola finally got to JOIN us at Cafe 33! We ate their almost every weekend of my pregnancy and everyone there was anticipating Lolas arrival, they were so excited to see what was in my big belly!

Happy One month Lola!!

You still love to move at all time, you love sleeping in your swing, holding hands and your starting to eat on more of a schedule!

Sadly we celebrated with another visit to sweet Dr. Morgan!

You weigh 9lbs 7 ounces and your 21 inches long! Oh and yes, daddy had to keep MOVING you UP and DOWN while we waited to see Dr. Morgan…. did we mention how tiring you are, good thing your cute!

Speaking of which, you and your daddy have a “thing”
now which i think is so important! For daddys it can be hard to have a “thing” with a newborn especially if the mom is breastfeeding… however your daddy has managed to wisk you away every chance he gets and take you for walks outside or sit on the back deck with you and watch for birds, airplanes or just watch the water! You LOVE being outside, it calms you!

After your one month appointment we got REALLY brave…. we took you to the grocery store! You actually did quite well!

The following weekend we took you to the square again for your first trip to the Marietta Farmers Market, the weather was perfect and you slept the whole time!

Then the single most AMAZING parenting story ever occured….

We went to the car so i could feed you before we went out to have lunch… just as you finished eatting you started to poop. No biggie i thought, i was letting you finish and then would change you.

Wrong, I felt something warm and wet in my lap… it was our first BIG BLOWOUT! your clothes were covered, Alex jumped in the back seat with me and we soon realized this was a nightmare.

The changing pad was covered in poop, your clothes, diaper and back was covered! What does your daddy do? pulls out his video camera and I start laughing bc basically i dint even know where to start to clean this up!

I held you up to wipe you down since the changing pad had poop on it and just as i hold you up you pee and then spit up.

When it rains it pours.

So the changing pad gets thrown out the car (literally) and somehow with only 8 wipes we survived!!

On a better note we did manage to go out on our first big date since Lola had been born and even better i had my first drink in 10 months!!

We tried not to talk about you on our date but who are we kidding, I’m still telling myself your too new to have any crazy rules like that!

Lola’s charm has Aunt Tara here almost every weekend and her Gigi as well and her mommy and daddy love the company… and HELP!

We had them enjoy some outside fun with us! Then Aunt Tara threw a photoshoot!

At 5 weeks Lola got to meet her Aunt Ney Ney and Josh!

Lola loved laying in Josh’s arms! He is such a natural daddy!

At 6 weeks i started getting more brave with Lola on my own… by this i mean driving her by myself,

That was it… literally we practiced just driving for a couple days and I eventually worked myself up to going into somewhere with her!

Happy 6 weeks Lola, mommy can’t believe how fast your growing, you love being outside, you never sleep during the day and you love bath time at night!

Lola’s Aunt Kayla loves to come over after work and do her P90x Lola workout ;)

As many pics as i have of Lola sleeping you would think it is something she does often… NO! She is the most awake newborn i have ever seen! So her are some of her cat nap chronicles… (side note: I remember this night so vividly.. Alex and I were SOOO TIRED, we were basically sleep walking after walking Lola all day long in her stroller to keep her happy earlier that day and i think we went home for ten minutes and realized we had to leave again to keep her content so we ran to wal-mart because that was all that was open… i remember asking him if my legs were still moving a one point because we had not stopped moving all day!)

My 6 month post baby check up was so exciting! I had been to this office and sat in this waiting room for 40 weeks with nothing but a growing belly… here i was back again with my little girl! They were so happy to see me and meet Lola, they all screamed and called Lola “90210 baby” when i walked in the door (90210 is what they called me every time i checked in…

Lou headed back to work and mom and i took Lola on her first big shopping trip at the mall! After mom went home I decided i could concur the mall with Lola too! I typically test everything I do with Lola in the presence of good baby handling company before attempting it myself!

Eventually Lola just began to be a part of every aspect of our previous life and things became more normal again… We love having her join us with everything we do! At 2 months you had to go see Dr. Morgan again for 5 shots! Mommy was sooo upset knowing we had to put you through pain and this was the first EVER appointment your daddy didn’t come to.. i think he did this on purpose ;)

You were so good though and thankfully had no fussiness, fever or side effects from the shots! You were however happy as could be before the nurse administered the shots and she literally told me she would not be able to give you the shot while you were smiling because you were just too sweet! You continue to be a celebrity there and everyone just LOVES it when you go.. they especially love your name!

8 weeks, 5 shots, first band-aids and you weigh 11lbs and are 22 inches long! You are so perfect that your in the 50% for both your height and weight!