My first Mother's Day

I had a wonderful 1st Mother's Day! Saturday night we went to our church and had a wonderful church service and then Sunday morning we headed to Sheridan to spend the day with our moms. Reed and I went with my Mom and Josh's Mom to a Mother's Day breakfast at the church I grew up in and then we went to church with Josh's family at the church he grew up in. After church we had a wonderful lunch at Josh's parent's house and my Mom and Steve also came.


Josh was so sweet! He got me a beautiful diamond fleur de lis necklace. Reed's birthstone is diamond (I planned that well...wink, wink) and Josh said he wanted me to have something special to remember my first Mother's Day. I love it! We don't give gifts very often, so it was very special!

Me, my Mom & Reed

Josh with his brother Branden, Mom & Reed

The Baker Family

All the Moms

Me & Baby Reed...my first Mother's Day!

1 Month Old

I can't believe Reed is already one month old! In so many ways time as flown by and in other ways I feel like I have been a Mom for much longer than one month. Reed has brought so much joy into our lives and we already can't imagine life without him. He is growing like a weed and getting chubbier and chubbier every day. I took a few pictures on his one month birthday to show how much he has grown.

I had to have a naked picture so we can compare each month.

Sitting up in the chair....he looks so little!

Sitting with "Joshua Bear" This is a bear Josh gave me back when we first starting dating, I have always called it "Joshua Bear!" I thought it would be good to take pictures beside to show Reed's growth.

Looking at the camera

Hey Mom!

Smiling for the camera....one of the first smiles caught on camera

Just chillin'

Would you get this camera out of my face!

What Reed is up to at 1 month....

Still eating great about every 3 hours. During the day it may be a little less, I try not to feed less than every 2 1/2 hours. At night he is going up to 4 hours between feedings. He normally nurses 8 to 9 times in a 24 hour period.

He is also sleeping in his crib. We have had a few bad nights where I have had to hold him all night, but for the most part he is sleeping in his crib. He makes to many noises to sleep in the pack n' play beside the bed, that only lasted for 2 weeks.

Still working on him taking good naps during the day. He will normally nap good in the morning after his first feeding around 6:00 - 7:00 (enough for me to take a quick shower and get ready), but the rest of the day naps are slim to none in the crib. I am either holding him or if we are out and about he will sleep in his car seat.

Reed will now turn his head towards noise and voices when he hears something, he would do this with Josh and I from day one, but it is neat to see him do it with grandparents, the dogs, etc.

He is much more alert during awake time and awake for much longer periods of time. We try to keep him awake for about an hour after he eats and then he normally naps until it is time to eat again.

Smiling! Especially in the mornings when I am talking to him he will just smile and smile.

Talking (more less, making a lot of funny noises)! When he is awake he constantly moving his arms and legs and making a kinds of noises

Gaining much more head control. It seems like each day he is getting stronger and stronger

Starting to enjoy baths much more. He normally will not cry at all while we bath him. He actually seems very relaxed. His belly button didn't fall off until 2 weeks and 2 days. So we are just starting to get use to him being able to get completely wet.

Doesn't really like pacifiers. We have used one several times to calm him down when he is still fussy after eating and a diaper change. Sometimes he just wants to suck for a little while to calm down.

Still wearing newborn diapers but getting very close to moving to size 1

I washed all of his 0-3 month clothes this week. He is getting to chubby for newborn clothes.

We are still not sure what color his eyes are going to be. Some days I think blue and some days they are so dark I think they will turn brown. Right now they are still a dark blue color that most babies are born with.

I have to add that my favorite thing that Reed does (has been my favorite since the day he was born) is his sneeze. It is so loud and he will normally always sneeze more than once. It is the cutest thing ever! I have been saying every day, I have to get this on video tape and it finally happen! He was being so cute while I was taking all of these pictures, that I started video taping with the camera and it happen! He sneezed! :) I tell him he sneezes like his daddy. Josh has always had an obnoxious loud sneeze and now he has passed it on to his son.

All in all Reed has been a great baby! I think we have adjusted pretty well. He seems to be getting on somewhat of a routine and he has yet to cry without us being able to fix him within a few minutes. Sometimes it may only be that he wants to be held, but we can normally get him satisfied pretty quickly.

Meeting Gracie & Zeek

For almost 5 years Gracie and Zeek have been our babies and they are very needy dogs both with their very own unique personalities. We were a little nervous what they would think about Reed, but mostly just nervous about having to take care of all 3. So for the first week Josh's parents kept them. When they did come home the transition was a lot easier than I ever dreamed it would be. They could have cared less about Reed. Finally one night while Josh was changing a diaper Gracie and Zeek followed him into the nursery and layed down on the rug in his room. When Josh was done he laid Reed down with the dogs and it was like they final realized he was a human. Zeek kept trying to snuggle up to him and put his arm across him. Gracie still continued to ignore him, she would rather chew on her ball. The last picture is really dark, but if you look you will see Gracie with her favorite ball in her mouth. Reed was 2 1/2 weeks old in these pictures.

Bottles & Pacifiers

When Reed was 10 days old I got really curious what he would think about a paci, he had not needed one at this point, but I wanted to see what he would do. I tried three different brands (Nuk, Mams and Soothie). He would only take the Soothie, he gaged so hard with the other two. At 5 weeks he still doesn't take the paci very well, we basically have to hold it in if we use it at all. We use the paci here and there to help calm him down when we know he doesn't need anything.

1st time with the paci!

Since Reed was born I made a goal for myself that I would breastfeed exclusively for one month. I don't know where or how I came up with this time frame, but I knew breastfeeding was going to be a difficult task around the clock and I wanted to give it my best to always be the one feeding him. Well, we made it, so for a few days I had been anticipating seeing what Reed would think about a bottle. Mother's Day night we came home and Reed was still in his car seat. I knew it was time for him to eat so I quickly pumped a bottle for him and handed it to Josh. Reed didn't seem to know the difference! He sucked it down in no time. Since this night I have even fed him a bottle and he didn't mind that either. As long as milk is involved I guess he doesn't care who or what it is coming from.

Daddy feeding me my first bottle!

Going on a Walk

We finally took Reed on his first walk! We said almost every day Josh was home that we were going to go on a walk, but something always seemed to come up or we were just to tired. The night before Josh went back to work we took a family walk together. This is another day I have been anticipating for a long time! I finally got to use my AMAZING stroller!

Reed all ready to go in his gym shorts! Yes, I had to get him dressed up for his first walk!

Reed in his cool shades!

Funny side note! In the middle of the walk Josh was playing around and popped a wheely (seriously nothing big at all) and right after he landed Reed spit up the most he had ever spit up and only the 3rd time ever. It was a little scary for a minute because he was all strapped down with spit up everywhere. We quickly got him out and he was completely fine. We laughed when it was all over, I think Reed taught Daddy a lesson.

Meeting the Greats....

After Reed's Pediatrician appointment we headed to Sheridan for Reed to meet his Great Grandmas and Great Aunts! Reed is the first grand baby on both sides so everyone has been anticipating his arrival.

Great Aunt Joan

Great Aunt Fern

My Mamaw

My Nanny

I have so many great memories with each and everyone of these special people, so this was a very exciting day for me to see them all with Reed.

Daddy goes back to work

Unfortunately, Josh had to go back to work and our all day family time came to an end! On the first morning Josh went back to work Reed was wide awake, it was like he wanted to tell Daddy bye. Reed had never been awake in the morning at this time. Reed was also wide awake when Josh got home from work. It was so neat to see them together after being apart all day!

We were so sad to see Daddy go!

Trying out all the toys!

First time on the play mat. Reed loves the bright colors! He will lay for 15 to 20 minutes just looking around.

Tummy time mat! Making the neck strong!

Swinging away! This was the first time that he fell asleep in the swing. Normally he will ride for a little while, but normally gets fussy when he is ready to get out.

I had to add this picture. This is Josh reading the first book! On this page Josh told Reed that one day he will teach him how to shoot the fawns! :)

1st week home

We were so lucky in the fact that Josh was able to take a little over 2 weeks off from work. It was beyond helpful having Josh home every day and the 3 of us had the best time together, hanging out has a little family. I can honestly say it was probably the best 2 weeks of my life.

We had a first great week! Reed continued to eat great and he did as good as could be expected sleeping at night. He averaged 2 to 3 hours between feedings around the clock. He also did great sleeping in his pack n' play in our room.

I tried my best to capture every day of Reed's first week home. He had several cute newborn onesies that I looked forward to seeing him in my whole pregnancy. Due to the scratches he gave himself on his face in the hospital we kept him layered with hand covers.

Monday-Little Squirt!

Monday we just enjoyed a day at home, after having Easter the day before.

Tuesday-"Woof" onesie

Tuesday I begged Josh to let me get out of the house. He finally agreed that we could go to Wal-Mart neighborhood to get a few groceries that we needed. I was excited to get out and also to try out my sling. Reed slept through it all of course!

Wednesday-Totally Cuter Than Daddy!

Wednesday we had another day at home as a family!

Thursday-I'm a Really Big Deal!

Thursday we got out again! Josh needed to go to Lowe's to get a few things.

Friday we had the photographer that took maternity photos come and take some of Reed. He woke up right before she got there and this is me trying to keep him awake. He is too cute in these pictures! :)

Going to Church

I am happy to say that the three of us have been able to make it to church every weekend that Reed has been home. I never knew what a great feeling of accomplishment it is to be able to get somewhere on time with a little one!


At the end of church Reed was getting hungry so I went to feed him and when we were finished we realized we had forgotten to take a picture and we were the only ones left in the church. So this is the only picture we got....we were even in such a rush we didn't remove the blanket.

I snapped a picture of Reed at his first restaurant trip after church.

These are pictures of Reed before his second trip to church. I didn't want to miss how cute he was again so I took them before church.

Josh laid down to take a nap with Reed after church and he was wide awake....SO CUTE!! This is one of my favorite pictures of them!