The Good Life

Just a fun game of "get to know Renee" :-) Who was your favorite celebrity as a child? I guess my favorite celebrity as a child was Reggie Miller. I was pretty obsessed. What type of pets do you have? I have a beautiful German Shepherd named Scout. What is your favorite color? Blue has always been my favorite but over the past few years Green has really moved up the list and I think it might actually be tied with Blue for that #1 spot. What is most memorable about your high school years? Our basketball season my sophomore year. I had the opportunity to share some amazing moments with some pretty special people (including my big sister). What one word describes you best? Real What is your greatest accomplishment? Hands down - my greatest accomplishment is giving birth to my son. What drives you every day? My drive comes from being a new Mommy and knowing that I have a little person to care for every day! What is your favorite food? This is a toss up bet...

Today one of my favorite people, my cousin Jody, turns 40 years old and my sweet little munchkin, Colton turns 12 weeks old. Happy Birthday! At 12 weeks, Colton is still making progress. I'm amazed at how much he grows and learns each day. Right now, two things are his main focus - his hands and his feet! He can bring his hands together, look at them and then put them in his mouth. He's starting to figure out that his fingers and thumbs allow him to grab and he's getting really good at hanging on to things that interest him (usually my hair and necklace). Colton's feet have become a point of interest to him just in the last couple of days and it's so adorable watching him reach forward to grab them. A lot of times grabbing for his feet results in falling over, but this does not discourage him from trying again and again. I can't wait for him to get those little feet in his mouth because this seems to be his ultimate goal. :-) 12 weeks have come and gone a lo...

While I was pregnant with Colton, I heard stories about horrible diaper changes where poop and pee attacked parents. It seemed that the worst stories came from the parents of little boys because they tend to spray pee everywhere. I thought my chances were about 50/50 in getting peed on, but now that I’ve been changing a baby boy’s diaper, I say the odds are greatly in favor of the pee. So, for all of you who have experienced this before me, just sit back and enjoy the laugh. For those of you who are expecting a baby boy – here are a few things I have learned. First of all, Colton is on formula so he only poops about once a day now (as opposed to every feeding) and when he does, it’s usually a substantial amount of “yuck” in the diaper. Naturally, I want to change him as soon as I hear a loud poopy noise escape from him but I have learned that every time I do this, he seems to let out more waste once the diaper is down. I have a perfect example but due to the graphic content I wi...

At 11 weeks post birth, Colton is not the only one hitting "milestones". He is continuing to grow every day but there aren't any MAJOR changes from last week. He is still sleeping well through the night (with a few rough nights here and there) and holding his head up with ease. He did add standing (with help of course) to his list of favorite activities and he can sit (against the couch) with no help at all now. He is a strong little guy and I'm amazed at how active he is. I guess he has had a few changes since last week. I feel like I'm hitting a few milestones myself. The absolute chaos that was every day is now organized chaos and starting to feel more like a daily routine. I feel like I've learned more about baby poop colors, textures and smells than I ever thought I would and to my surprise, I'm actually interested in the subject. I find myself singing "you are my sunshine" and "twinkle, twinkle little star" even when I'm i...

Now that I'm a Mommy, worry is my middle name (I'm sure you other Mommas out there understand, right?). I could make a list a mile long of all the things I worry about in one given day, but I think the one thing I worry most about is being a good example for my kids. I not only want my children to grow up having good manners (saying yes ma'am, no sir and thank you), respecting their elders and being accountable for their actions but I want them to know Jesus Christ and grow in a relationship with Him. How do you start teaching your children about God? Of course the most obvious answer is to teach by example, which brings me back to my #1 worry, being a good example. I feel like I live a pretty clean life. I try to be conscious of others' feelings, I don't use bad language and I say "please" and "thank you", but is that enough? Probably not. I want Colton to have the opportunity to know Jesus Christ and learn about the love He has for all of u...

We made it to double digits!!! Colton turned 10 weeks old on Thursday, which totally blows my mind. We had a very good week. Little man slept in his cradle every night this week and his nighttime sleeping stretches are averaging about 6 hours a night now (hallelujah). His bedtime routine seems to be working for us and I'm so thankful that he is resting better through the night. We have also been able to reduce his Mylicon drops and Gripe Water intake to nighttime feedings only. It's amazing the difference just a couple of weeks can make. Mr. Colton is changing every single day. He is growing out of the newborn stage and getting what I call a "regular baby" look. At one time I thought Colton had enough clothes to last him a year or more, but as fast as he is growing, he will be out of all his clothes by 9 months. Our big guy is already wearing a lot of 6 month clothes, and it's a little bit sad packing up the newborn and 3 month clothes he has already outg...

I feel like I blog about Colton a LOT these days. I don't know if my readers get tired of hearing about him - if so, sorry but not sorry :-) Since my life pretty much revolves around his schedule right now, there's not much more happening in my life (not that taking care of a new baby isn't as much excitement as I can stand)! But, even though my days are mostly committed to taking care of Colton, I do still have a few other things going on - well, sort of. I turned in my resignation to Alo last week, and as of March 15th I will officially be a "stay at home Mommy". I realize that this subject is still somewhat linked to Colton, but hey, that's my life! If I were to go back to work, my 12 weeks would be up already - that happened way too fast. Staying at home has so many pros and cons. I'm so thankful that I get to be at home with Colton. I was so worried that I would miss his "firsts", like his first real laugh, first word, first crawl across...

At Colton's first doctor's appointment back in January, I had to fill out paperwork for him. Since he was no longer in my belly, he was officially the "patient" now. It was so strange writing the word Mother under the question "what is your relationship to the patient". Since Colton's birth, he has received several packages and gifts in the mail. I love seeing packages with his name on it, because it's a simple reminder of just how "real" he is - he's actually a little person in this big world now! Yesterday, Colton got a book in the mail - "The Little Engine That Could". It was addressed to Colton Neal and it was from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. I had heard of the imagination library, but had (in the craziness of having a baby) forgotten all about it and not signed Colton up yet. I am guessing that since Colton was born here in East Tennessee, that his name made the list from the hospital. Whoever or however he ...

Today was a big day for Colton. Starting things off right, he slept for 7 and 1/2 hours straight last night!!! Yes, I said 7 and 1/2 (that half is a huge deal). Because my internal clock is set for 3 hour increments, and it seemed extremely weird that he was sleeping so long, I did not sleep as long as Colton BUT I am still much more rested than normal and encouraged that we are (fingers crossed) headed in the right direction. Colton turned 9 weeks old today and had a well-visit appointment. I was equally excited and dreading the appointment today. I was ready to talk to Dr. Woods about my list (and yes, I actually took a written list) of questions, concerns, observations and other odds and ends. I was so anxious to see Colton's progress but I was not very excited about my sweet baby having to get his vaccination shots. I was happy to hear that Colton weighs 13.5 pounds (75th percentile), he is 24.5 inches long (91st percentile) and his head is...well, I forgot to remember the ...

It's snowing today, and I hate snow. I really don't like sounding negative, but I am so tired of winter. It feels like it has been rainy/snowy/cold/windy forever and it seems like it's never going to end. I guess I can blame part of these feelings on the fact that I have a newborn baby and I can't easily get him in and out of the house in this crappy weather - so I feel like we're never going to be able to un-hibernate. Spring - or better yet Summer - where are you? In happier news, Colton stayed in his cradle all night again last night AND for the longest stretches he has slept since birth. I laid him down at 9:15pm, hoping to just at least make it through Justified ( http://www.fxnetworks.com/justified ) before waking up. I knew that I was sacrificing valuable sleep time to watch TV and not go to bed, but not only did Colton sleep thru the entire show, I actually got to sleep until almost 2:00am. The arms-in swaddle method seems to be the winning ticket for us a...

I have to be honest, the first night of "operation crib sleep" went way better than I was anticipating. Maybe it's because I had prepared myself for the possibility of getting even less sleep than normal, or maybe it's just that Colton felt sorry for me, but either way he slept in his cradle throughout the entire nighttime hours. I had decided that this week would be the week that I would try every option. There are several things that we haven't yet tried with Colton, for several reasons, but he is a little bigger now (in other words, he is less new) and we are getting more comfortable with him and now is the time to try them all. I have swaddled him, but never with his arms down. We haven't put his arms down because he seems most comfortable with them up by his head while he sleeps, but if needed, I am open to trying the arms swaddled method. Colton did not like the pacifier given to him at the hospital, so we tried a couple of other brands, only to realiz...

"How is your baby sleeping?" - this is the question that popped up in my email inbox today. Isn't that ironic? My biggest challenge, right now, is getting Colton settled with a nighttime sleep pattern that works for all of us. The struggle I am facing, is to be sure that Colton is getting enough "snuggle time" to feel comfortable and safe but make sure I'm allowing him to form good sleeping habits (i.e. self soothing, be able to put himself back to sleep, able to sleep by himself, etc..). It's really tough for me to determine when I need to let him cry (I think because he cried so much during weeks 5 - 7) and when he really just needs Mommy to hold him. It's a fine line that I'm sure most new Moms face, so I'm just trying to listen to my motherly instincts, keep my mind open to all options and my ears open to all helpful tips and tricks. Another challenge I am facing with Colton's nighttime sleeping is the fact that he does not like to ...

So, our sweet little boy turned 2 months old today - hooray. We have made it 2 whole months without any major catastrophes (I don't consider his grumpy, fussy, colicky-ness a major catastrophe, just a minor one) sickness, or injuries and I REALLY hope we can keep this particular pattern going. At two months old, Colton is gaining more control over his little body. He can hold his head a little steadier while lying on his tummy or when we hold him upright. Research tells us that in the second month of life, babies continue to have a strong sucking reflex. I have noticed that Colton likes to suck on his fist, trying hard to get the "thumb sucking" perfected. This is one of the best ways babies have of comforting themselves. Colton doesn’t have the coordination to play with toys yet, so it's becoming a challenge to keep him "busy" but he does bat at his bright, orange bird and VERY briefly holds his shaker toy tha...