{6 Weeks}

Our little Peanut is growing so fast and has already grown out of her newborn clothes and is into 3 month clothing! It makes me so sad to think she is already growing so quickly but it's so fun to see her develop new skills and learn new things everyday! She has even already gotten a tooth, yup that's right a tooth at 5 weeks old. Here are some of my favorite personal photos we've taken over the past few weeks...

 playing with her big brother!

I've started letting her nap in her crib on occasion and she does so well!

Savoring a sweet moment...

Mother's Day 2014

My in-laws were able to come into town for Mother's Day this year and we also had a special visitor all the way from Del Rio! Our good friend Ant came to visit us and meet Baby C this past weekend. It was great to see him and the family and to have some extra hands to help out.

On a side note, what is it about mom's that they are always so selfless and constantly giving of themselves? She drove all the way down on a special weekend meant to celebrate HER and instead spent the whole two days she was here taking care of her family by cooking, cleaning, and even babysitting little C for a few hours so we could get away to the beach. I have never felt so blessed to have such a sweet, kind, caring, and compassionate MIL.

Mother's Day has been a bittersweet day for me over the past three years since my mama went to heaven. This year it was especially hard knowing that she couldn't be here to share in the joy of being both a mother and grandmother to her newest granddaughter and my first little one. That being said I can't emphasis enough how truly blessed I was to be able to call her my mother here on earth even if was for only 22 years. I was lucky to even call her mine for a day in retrospect. As the anniversary of her passing draws close here within the next month I'm constantly reminded how truly selfless she was and how I strive daily to be as much of a blessing in C's life as she was in mine.

I'd also like to send out a HUGE thank you to all my amazing friends that reached out yesterday. I received countless Facebook messages, text messages, and general notes of encouragement from so many of you and it truly meant the world to me. I'm so lucky to have so many people willing to love on me and to remember me on what they know was a challenging day, although it is a time of celebration for most.

Baby C with Uncle Ant :) He's a natural!

Happy Peanut!

Love my family!

{1 Month}

Our little peanut is one month old! I can't believe how fast these past four weeks have flown by and I know that time won't be slowing down either. It makes my heart so happy that she is growing and thriving, but it also makes me sad to know that she won't stay this tiny forever. This past month has been challenging, yet so rewarding, and we are so excited to continue to watch her grow :)

Newborn Shoot

The week after our little peanut was born we had a newborn photographer come to the house to take some photos of her and our little family, Winston included! Before C was born I contacted Adria Peaden of Adria Peaden Photography here in Panama City about doing some photos for us and she was so enthusiastic about helping us out! She came to our home, which was so amazing. I seriously couldn't have imagined taking her somewhere to have them done when she was only 10 days old. Adria was so patient, kind, and did a fantastic job of making us all feel comfortable despite our major sleep deprivation and me still recovering from giving birth the week before.  Sweet little C was an angel the entire time and didn't wake up until right after the very last shot. Here are some of our favorites that she took for us!

Postpartum Hospital Must Haves

Another post for the expecting ladies, so all others please feel free to tune out until next time! Now that our little peanut is over a week old I thought I would post a list of some of the items I felt were must haves while we were staying at the hospital after labor and delivery. I wanted to post this as soon as possible while things are still fresh in my mind in hopes it would help some of you ladies that are getting ready for you own little one's arrival in the near future!

Wet Wipes: Our hospital didn't provide moist wipes ,therefore I was very glad I brought some to "freshen up" every time I made a trip to the restroom. The last thing you want to do is use hard toilet paper when you nether regions have been traumatized for hours on end. Plus, the thought of taking a shower or bath, at least for me, was so traumatizing that I preferred to use these for the first 24 hours until I felt up for getting in to clean off after the initial delivery bath.

Pillow: I would highly recommend bringing your own pillow, and one for the hubs. The hospital pillows are limp and awful and having your own makes you feel a little more like you're at home. Make sure and not use a while pillow case though so they don't get confused with the hospital ones.

Robe: I was so glad that I brought my own lightweight robe from home. The nurse wanted to me to get up and walk around the hospital halls a few times to get my "sea legs" back so I was thankful when I didn't have to wear that awful hospital gown around and have my bare bum exposed to the world.

Water Bottle: At our hospital they only gave us these teeny tiny styrofoam cups that could be gulped down in one sip. I was very thankful to have my camelback, which has been mentioned in a previous post.

Nursing Pillow: I took our Boppy to the hospital and was thankful I did. The nurses and lactation consultants tried using the pillows from the hospital to position Baby C when I was learning how to nurse which just didn't work. Using the Boppy made a world of difference and helped the process along immensely. 

Gatorade: A good friend recommended that we take some gatorade to the hospital for dad, but I was also very thankful to have some on hand postpartum. I got sick of drinking water after 24 hours and felt the electrolytes really helped me feel better. Buy a 12 pack and keep it in the car until you get moved to your postpartum room. 

Mittens: Your little one will have insanely long finger nails right out of the womb, so make sure and bring some for when you take them home! You'll regret not packing them when they claw up their tiny little face on the way home.

Folder: The hospital will send you home with all kinds of paperwork that will need to be taken to your pediatrician and insurance company so it's a great idea to have somewhere to store it all so it doesn't get lost!

Trash Bag: Let's just say that if you're water breaks before or on the way to the hospital, this is a good thing to have....for obvious reasons.

Blanket: Bring a blanket from home. We didn't have an extra bed in our postpartum room so the hubs was so thankful to have a blanket that wasn't paper thin to sleep with while I was recovering. 

{Sweet Baby C}

We were incredibly blessed to welcome our new baby girl last week! She was born on April Fools Day, exactly three days before her expected arrival. I was blessed with a fairly easy and uneventful (if there is such a thing) labor and delivery and she came into the world at a tiny 6lbs 10oz. We could not be more excited to finally have her here with us and are already head over heels in love with her. I have been blown away by the amount of love I feel for this tiny human and could not imagine life without her. God has blessed us immensely and we could not be more thankful or feel more honored to be her parents. 

Meeting my sweet baby girl for the first time.

First family photo!

First time daddy held baby C.

Grumpy face.

Proud daddy.

Leaving the hospital!

Photo Update 3/28

For those of you waiting on pins and needles, no Baby E is not here yet! Instead I thought I would placate some of you with some photos of what we've been up to lately as we wait not so patiently for her arrival. Things have been pretty calm around here, especially with the odd weather we've been having in Florida (sun, rain, cold fronts), but here area few snapshots from over the past two weeks...

We were able to take the boat out last weekend
and  had another dolphin sighting out in the bay! These
guys are so adorable and this one swam right up to the boat without much prompting!

I noticed our milk expires on Baby E's due date! Things
are getting more and more "real" everyday!

We make pizza on the Big Green Egg almost every weekend
and this view never ceases to crack me up. The hubs makes and rolls out the dough and always ends up with his backside looking like this...it never fails ;)

Finally saw a bear on base! Yes, there are wild bears on base,
as well as turkeys and coyotes. 

Little Winston has enjoyed the sunshine when we have it!

 I don't normally post sonogram photos of Baby E. I figure most people probably have no interest as to what the inside of my uterus look like besides our family members, but this one was too cute not to share...

Baby E's 3D photo. She was being cantankerous and didn't want
her photo taken the other week, so this was the best we got. She's definitely got the Etheridge nose!

And here is a video to round off the post of Little Winston being a "real" dog. This was his first trip to the ocean where he could go off leash and actually enjoy the water. The hubs and I got a good laugh out of his "bobbing" technique to get his ball out of the water...

Love,

The Etheridges