JuJu's visit

JuJu came up this Thursday to help me out a bit.  Tuffy is in Cambodia for 2 weeks.  Lately at night Tatum has only been sleeping while being held and waking up at 3 or so every night.  Well since JuJu has been here the little one has been sleeping by herself a lot longer in between feedings and then...last night...October 23rd....Tatum slept from 10-7:30!!!  By herself!!!  We are so excited about the progress!!!

Tatum has had a big weekend.  Friday night Eric and Holly had a photo shoot with Eric's new fancy camera.  I'll post some pics of that soon once he is through editing them.  After that Tatum met her Aunt Lauren for the first time.  Lauren's in town for her couples shower.  Then Saturday as usual, Tatum laid with Philip and watched football while mom and I redid flower beds.  I am so thankful she has been here to help me out in the yard and around the house.  Saturday night while Philip and I went to Lauren's party, mom took Tatum to Minden to visit with the grandparents.  That's her first road trip with JuJu.  

That's just a bit of what's been going on lately with Tatum....will have some pics soon.s

Currently....

I was telling Tuffy about the blog and how I wanted to start it as a way of "scrapbooking." One thing that Tuffy was wishing he did was keep track of things that happened in the world while we were growing up. So here are a few things going on currently in the world.

~33 miners were stuck in a mine in Chile for 2 months.  The whole world watched on TV as they were rescued

~the most popular singers right now are...Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Bruno Marz, Nelly, Beyonce and of course your mom and dad's favorite....Dave Matthews.  We get music off of itunes.  Everyone has ipods or iphones.

~The Saints won the Super Bowl the year you were born and your dad wasn't very excited about it although the rest of Louisiana was!

~The Lakers won the NBA playoffs

~Popular TV shows are mostly reality shows like Keeping up with the Kardashians, American Idol, Bachelor, and Jersey Shore.

Other popular shows are Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Glee, Modern Family, Gossip Girl, 90210

~the president is Barack Obama and Congress is also a majority of Democrats.  Health Care is a big issue these days along with immigration.  

The NICU and Your Homecoming

Here are a few pictures of you when you were first born in the NICU.  Notice how big he soothie pacifier looks next to you.

Daddy and Papa checking you out.

Your daddy is in love!

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MeeMee holding your hand which was huge in comparison to the rest of your body.

Mom and Dad getting ready to take you home.  This was your last bottle in the NICU.

We got you all dressed up in a dress from Sara Margaret and your headband had a pearl in the middle and a feather coming out the top.  We had to tie a knot in the elastic so that it would fit your head.

You were ready to go home!

Walking in the door at HOME

My last day at home with you

Well Tatum...today is our last day at home together before I go back to work.  While I was at home we had a fun time together.  You slept a lot.  You would do well in your bouncy or your swing.  Sometimes you did well in your bed too. ;)

We had lots of visitors at lunch time.  Rachel and Lainey were good to us and brought us Cush's and Newk's frequently.  Daddy would come home for lunch from time to time too.  Lola did well with you throughout the day and only would lick your hair (which made your hair a mess) or sniff your diaper.  I have however gotten a little stir crazy not being able to take you anywhere. Every day we watched Regis & Kelly along with whatever show I had on DVR from the night before.  When you read this later in life I'm sure we'll laugh at DVR because there will be something better than that then.  We also watched a season of Dexter.  I wanted to catch up on LOST but couldn't find it anywhere to watch.

 I know I would enjoy it more if we were able to make a little Target run or Hobby Lobby visit throughout our day.  I will miss this special little time of us hanging out.  I know it will make me appreciate our nights and weekends even more.

Baby Shower

So this past weekend I had a shower for Tatum.  This shower was originally planned to be Sept 11th but....she came early so we had to reschedule it since we weren't sure when she or I would be home.  We had a great time and Tatum got a ton of good stuff!  Lots of cute clothes, stroller, bottles, sheets, and the biggest hit at the shower....Hooter Hider.  That really was a hit with the older ladies who hadn't heard of such.  Here are a few pictures from the event.

Here are a few of the hostesses.  Aunt Shea couldn't make it so she's not in the picture and Gretchen wasn't in the pic. The cake was DELICIOUS!  So was the punch.  The flowers were beautiful too!   Overall it was a GREAT shower!

Ellie thought that the shower was for "her baby."  Tatum will probably be really good friends with Ellie's brother or sister...we will find out soon!  

Aunt Janie made the shower and was looking cute in her pink.

Here are a few people who came.

A quick family pic.

a few pics from the hospital

One day while you were in the NICU your bilirubin was high so they had to place you under the lights to help get it down.  You got to wear these shades ;)

This is you the day you got to come home from the hospital.  

Today is your due date

So today is the day that you were due.  It is so weird that you have already been in our lives for over a month.  Here are some highlights from the first month.
The first 9 days of your life you were in the NICU.  When you were first born, you didn't have enough fat to keep your body the temperature it was supposed to be so you had to be in an isolette.  Your dad was the "milk man" and brought your milk to you every 3 hours.  8-11-2-5 both am and pm.  I didn't get to come see you in the NICU for a day because I was still on medication.
After a few days, you had absolutely no trouble eating.  In fact the nurses bragged on you being the easiest baby to feed.  Once you were home you stayed on the schedule of every 3 hours.  You love your bouncy seat.  The swing is starting to grow on you a bit.  You hate having your diaper changed or changing clothes.  Anything where you are naked....you are not happy.
You loooove having your hands by your face or spread out in front of you.  The longest you have slept is 6 hours which I really appreciated.  Your first road trip to Baton Rouge was very successful.  You didn't make a peep.  That's your first month of life in a nutshell.

In the Beginning...

So this is my first post...obviously.  I thought I would start with how we first found out that Tatum was going to be a part of our life.  I had thought that I might be pregnant a few days and actually took a pregnancy test.  The test showed two negative signs so I thought that the test was negative, threw it away and went about my business for a week.  Then I decide to take another test.  Same kind.  Two negative lines.  I then start worrying that something is wrong with me.  I go to throw away the box and then see that two negative lines is a positive pregnancy test.  All I do at that point is laugh laugh laugh laugh.  You would think that the PA who has delivered babies and passed board exams in OBGYN could read a pregnancy test.  But no....I am the 1 out of the 1 in 4 women who cannot read a pregnancy test.....

So I then call Philip and tell him in between laughing that I cannot read a pregnancy test and once he realizes that I am pregnant I could tell he was smiling from ear to ear by the way he was talking.  I vividly remember sitting on the ledge of our tub in the bathroom talking with him and just laughing.

That night we made a slide show of the family over the last few years and the last picture said "More to come in 9 months."  We went over to Philip's parents house to show them the slide show and some girls were over watching the Bachelor.  Everyone was thrilled and crying and laughing.  So then we headed over to Shalane's house to tell them.  By this time it was 10:30 and they were all asleep.  We woke them all up to show them a video.  Jeremy thought someone had died or we were pregnant.  Thankfully it was the latter.

I couldn't wait to show my parents the video so they just got to hear it over the phone.  And that Tatum is how we found out and told everyone about you.  ;)