One Month Old!!

I can't believe that my baby is one month old today. It hardly seems possible. The month has really flown by. Cliff and I have loved every single second. Each day brings something new and we feel so blessed. We know that there will be many more great memories ahead of us. To celebrate this occassion, Cliff and I went to our bank and officially opened up a college fund for him. Don't get me wrong, Cliff and I have been blessed with a wonderful education but these student loans just plain stink!! Before we had kids we promised each other that our children would never have to go through that same sort of stress. So, Happy Birthday Aidan. Just don't go to Harvard ok!!

Tag...You're it

I know some people hate these types of blogs, but I think they are so fun. My friend HOLLY tagged me. She is a friend I met while at ACU. Here is what you are supposed to do..

1. Go to the 4th album in the place you store your pictures on your computer
2. Select the 4th picture in that album (no exceptions)
3. Post it in this post with an explanation and link it back to your tagger (which I don't know how to do so I just linked her blog through her name above)
4. Tag 4 people to do the same thing

So here is my picture...



Cliff and I went to Disney World last March during Spring Break. We went at this time because we said we wanted to go on a vacation where it was just the two of us before any kiddos came. Funny enough, I got pregnant with Aidan in April:) This is Epcot, one of the four parks we visited while we were there. I now tag Erin, Ryla, Heather, and Beth. I'm assuming I'm supposed to tag four people because Holly did. (Beth, I know you don't like this stuff, but the last time I tagged you, you didn't do it either, so you owe me one ):)

Nanny Diaries

For those of you who don't know, last September I started nannying Wednesday through Friday from 8-5 for a family here in Spokane. I took 6 weeks off to have Aidan, including 2 weeks prior to his brith, and started up again yesturday. Cliff and I feel very blessed to have found this job for me. The family has been amazing and it almost seems silly to call them my employers when they really feel and have treated us like family. They have an adorable 4 year old girl named Holly and an energetic 3 year old boy named Jack. I was excited to go back because I missed the two of them so much but was nervous about how tired I was going to be. However, the last two days have gone by really smoothly. I get to take Aidan with me which has been such a blessing. However, since I have been so exhausted and my client load at my private practice has doubled in the last few weeks, I have decided to cut down to two days instead of three. Luckily the other nanny was wanting to go to three days instead of two so it worked out perfectly. I wanted to share some comments from Holly and Jack in the last couple of days. Kids really do say the darndest things!!

Jack: (patting my stomach) Miss Laura, baby Aidan isn't in your belly anymore right?
Me: No, your right Jack.
Jack: Then why do you still have a belly?
(and I thought I was doing good with only 7 pounds to go :))

Jack: Miss Laura, can you come play with us?
Holly: Jack, I told you, Miss Laura can't play with us when baby Aidan is drinking from her.

Holly: (watching me nurse Aidan) Ouch!!



Aidan about ready to start screaming from loosing his pacifier.


Kids checking in on Aidan.
A picture Jack took of me and Holly.
View from their back deck.
Holly reading Aidan a story she wrote.
Jackers
Travel crib I bought to take to work.
Thursday is movie day with popcorn!!

My Blue Eyed Baby

Well I thought I was doing a good job at posting on a regular basis...but I have still been getting requests for more pics...so, I grabbed the camera this morning while I was laying in bed with Aidan. He was wide awake which is so odd to me being that Cliff and I were up with him almost all night. Cliff came to bed at 2:45 in the morning after being up with him for an hour to get him to sleep after he ate. At 4:00 he started screaming for food again and I was up with him until 5:30. 7:00 came around and he got fussy...I was too tired to think by this point so I scooped up the little guy and put him in between Cliff and I in bed. Most people would say this is unsafe but as many moms out there know, you can't really sleep when your baby is in bed with you. He got up with dad at 8:30 ready to conquer the world while Cliff and I were just trying to keep our eyes open. Welcome to the wonderful world of parenthood!!!!

No longer a New Born

It was a sad day for mama Mullen today. This morning I got up to change Aidan and put a new sleeper on him for the day. I chose one of my favorites, his blue puppy dog sleeper. Just as I zipped it up Aidan let out a big stretch. It was then that I noticed that he could not stretch out all the way because there was not enough room in his sleeper. I called Cliff to come look and we both gazed at our growing son in disbelief. Three and a half weeks old and he can no longer wear his new born clothes. He has also moved into a size one of diapers. I thought that Cliff would be sad like I was but he was actually really excited. He is excited for Aidan to enter a new stage of his life, I however want him to stay tiny forever....

On a side note, since we are still in transition of helping Aidan know that he is okay if he is not being held, I had to wear him in his sling as I made cookies tonight. As I put him down, he seemed pretty content so I left him in his sling for a couple of hours. He seemed to like being all scrunched up. Must remind him of his time inside his mama...

You can't spoil a baby?

So I have always been told that you can never spoil a baby. I know this is referring to the amount of care and love you give a baby, however, I do think my baby has been spoiled....Aidan's nana and papa left yesturday after their week long visit. We all had a great time!! However, I am definitely seeing some behavior changes in Aidan since they left. Cliff and I realized that for the past week Aidan was hardly ever put down. Of course Nana and Papa took every opportunity to hold the little guy, as they should, and when they weren't holding him, Cliff and I were missing him so we were holding him. As a result, since my parents left, Aidan has not been able to sleep one tiny bit without being held. I rock him to sleep and he seems completely out and the minute I put him down he starts screaming!!! This is of course very tiring on Cliff and I but we are trying to figure out the best way to deal with it. It has been interesting.

The second way to spoil baby Aidan is through clothes. I had been meaning to post these pics awhile back but didn't get a chance. A little over a week ago, Aidan got packages from his Aunt Kelli and Aunt Beth. Both of which contained oodles of clothes for Aidan. They were so cute to!!!! There were so many that I had Cliff lay them all out on our guest bed so that I could take a picture. Now like I said, I know you can't spoil a baby with love and affection, but I don't think anyone can argue that he might have been a little spoiled over the last couple of weeks. Oh well, at least he is being humble about it:) Thanks Aunt Kelli and Aunt Beth!!!!! We will for sure find great use from these presents!!

Nana and Papa's Visit

Cliff, Aidan, and I had a special treat this week. My parents came for a week to visit us from Kansas. I could hardly wait for them to get here. They booked their flights for a week after Aidan was born because typically with you first baby you are late but since Aidan was a week and a half early, he was already two weeks old when they got here last Friday. They leave Thursday morning and I know it will be a hard goodbye. We are planning a two week trip to the midwest in April, however, to see both sides of the family so that will be something to look foreward to. We haven't done anything too exciting but I think that has been good. They have spent the majority of the time hanging out at the house and holding Aidan. I have never heard the phrase "I get to hold him first" so much:) They took us grocery shopping and my mom has been on a cooking frenzy stocking us up with meals for the next couple of weeks. They also babysat for us yesturday so that Cliff and I could go on our first date since we had him. We are so thankful to have the family that we do and know that Aidan will be loved to the fullest. The next step is to meet Grandma and Grandpa Mullen. We are also very excited for this visit. Here are some pics of our week.

Girl's NIght Out!

Last night I gathered up all my girlfriends for a night out on the town. I was a little nervous to leave Aidan for the first time but I knew he would be in good hands with his daddy. My friends and I met at Chillis and then headed to see Bride Wars. We had a lot of fun even though I got a little sick during the movie. Cliff said that he and Aidan had a great father/son night. Aidan even held up his own bottle for about 15 seconds. Here are some pictures of our night!!

Settling In!

The last few days have been fun, eventful, educational, and exhausting. On Saturday, Cliff and I decided to take Aidan our with us while we ran our errands. We went to Babies R us and picked him up a bouncy seat for my nanny job and also got a sling to help me carry him while I pick up the two kids I nanny for at school. We then went back to Apple Bees to finish our dinner that we didn't get a chance to the night he was born. It is so different going places with a baby. Definitely a new life phase for us.
He did so great Sunday morning. Everyone wanted to hold him. Cliff even had to take him away from someone!! This morning Cliff asked if he could take Aidan to get his lab work done by himself. When I asked him why he told me that he thought it would be nice if I had a few hours to myself. After they left I got what I would consider the best 2 hours of sleep of my life. I was very grateful!!! I am very lucky to have the husband that I do!! Here are some pics from today. Poor Aidan, he has to grow up with a scrapbook mom.

I'm Free!!!

We were excited to take Aidan off of his jaundice machine this afternoon. He only had to be on it for three days, which seemed like much longer, but was a short amount of time according to the nurse. His color is much better and he is much more active and alert then he used to be. Now that we finally have him on a regular feeding schedule we are exhausted. I was wondering why I felt so good the first couple of days when I was getting so much sleep:) Here is a picture of him finally off the machine. You can see how much better his color is. The video is the result of what can happen when parents get stuck in their living room for 72 hours straight and have to be creative with their time. Enjoy and try not to make fun of us too much.

Thanks Holly!!

Lots of people have commented on my new layout. Although I would like to take credit for knowing how to do it, I am not that good with computers. My good friend Holly Packer put it together for me and I think she did an amazing job!! Thanks Holly!! I wish you didn't live so far away so that we could see each other more!

Glow Worm Baby

We had Aidan's doctor's appointment yesterday. Everything checked out fine except his Jaundice level. It was 18.3. A normal level is 13 and a hospitalization level is 25. So our doctor went ahead and put him on an at home photo blanket to watch his jaundice levels. From what we understand it is pretty normal. The nurse came to our house yesterday to set it up. As you can see in the pictures below he is hooked up to a little machine. The blanket that goes around him is a "bili light" which breaks own the bilirubin particles in his skin into tow noninjurious particles which are removed by the kidneys. It is kind of a pain because he has to be on in 24/7 which means we have about a 3 foot area to work with him as far as feeding, changing, and bathing is concerned. He has been a trooper though and when the nurse came to do his check up this morning his level was down to 17.1. This means hopefully he will be off of the machine by Friday. Keep him in your prayers and Cliff and I as well. We have moved everything into our living room and set up camp there. It will be nice when everything is back to normal and he is in the clear.