Saying 'Good-Bye'

This past week has been particularly hard on all of us in family members, as our beloved Grandma H. has passed away.  It's hard to lose someone that has individually and collectively touched so many people's lives. She was truly an amazing woman, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother,  friend and person. I feel very blessed to have gotten to know her and for all the time that Kevin and I spent with her.

Her death reminds me of what is important in life - FAMILY, FRIENDS and your LOVED ONES.  I am so grateful for those in my life especially my husband and my Maxwell.  They both make me smile everyday and I couldn't imagine a world without either of them.  Grandma Herman understood these things and she understood true love.  She was married twice, losing her first husband when my father-in-law was still a young adult - 21 I believe.  She remarried the wonderful, outspoken and 'wordy' Harold Herman. Their story is a true love story, best told by Grandpa H. himself so I won't steal his moment or his words - ask him to tell it he'd love to!  I am blessed to be living my own love story and will cherish it everyday just as she had!

Earlier I posted some pictures of Grandma & Grandpa H. and Maxwell, I'm re-posting below along with an updated photo of our family from our 'memorial' dinner the other night and a few other photos from the past week. It's sad to see Grandma gone but for those of us who believe and have faith we know that she isn't really gone, she's just moved on to the her next big journey! Hopefully she's met my Grandma Marsh by now, I think they'd like each other and she can brag to her about having gotten to meet Maxwell!

Grandma & Grandpa H. - RIP Grandma - We Love You!

Max and Uncle Derek!!!

Kevin, Derek and Grandpa H.

Everyone

Grandpa and his Grandchildren - Dawn, Derek, Kyle and Kevin

Maxwell's Smile

The Hoppy's had a very exciting past few weeks. First last week was spent at Grandma and Grandpa N.'s house which was lots of fun. Aunt Sam even helped out mommy and daddy and watched our little Max for a few hours so we could go golfing.  We had so much fun and I golfed well!! Naturally talk about Max's future career was a topic of much excitement! We figure with my natural talent and daddy's physical strength Maxwell will a pro in no time!  Especially if both Grandpa's have anything to do with it!  I always wanted to go to the Masters so that sounds like fun to me... but whatever Max wants to do is fine by me and daddy agrees!

Now about Max's smile!! So as anyone with a baby will tell you their first smile is perhaps the best feeling ever.. but their first real smile the one where you know it's meant for you breaks your heart!  Well the other night, after our 10 p.m. meal, I put Max's on my shoulder to burp and he wiggled his way down a little bit and turned his head to look at me... just like the second photo down.  I was naturally admiring my little angel and talking him down for the night, when he opened one eye looked directly at me and smiled from ear to ear. My heart broke and I couldn't help but shed a tear. It was absolutely amazing!  Now I'm sure he may have smiled at me before this moment but there was something so perfect about it that I will never forget even when he's a teenager and I'm so not cool anymore (well unless I'm making cookies or something like that)!

Below are some pictures I took with our iTouch... the quality isn't great.. but they are good photos!!

Max and Daddy -- Two Peas, One Pod! Exactly the same!

Max is FULL!

Look Mom I can hold my head up!! Love this photo... it's the E-Trade Baby!

My favorite "Smiling" Face!

Holy "Pisser"

Oh how I love my little "pisser"... haha!  It's funny I can't remember anyone telling me - okay well stressing to me  - how many times I would get pissed on / at, but my little Max surely loves to do so. I'm estimating now that we change his outfit at least 4 times a day.   So we've resorted to putting him in the easiest to change clothes ever - onesies.  Not only do they come in many fashionable varieties now, but they are the easiest to get on and off in a pinch - especially when he is hungry.

You see we try to make it a point to change him before every feeding - mostly because he's just waking up and chances are he's wet, pooped or done both in his diaper, usually both, so we try and change that quickly before he eats. So fancy clothes don't seem to work!! For night night time we love love love "Sleep and Plays" with zippers. Makes getting in and out quick, so hopefully you don't get peed on. I love it when Daddy comes back from changing him before his night feeding and Max has on new clothes. I know then that Daddy got peed on. Even if I am half asleep I can't help but laugh my ass off.

I also find it funny because you never know how to react when he does pee on you. I find myself jumping away and trying my best to cover up his "thing", because I'm so damn shocked. It's like where did that come from.  The other day Aunt Alex was changing his diaper - I was assisting - and he peed all over the place. Her expression was priceless. Even if she is a nurse, being startled by a little "pisser" is hilarious and shocking. It's one of the moments that you wish you had the candid camera set up.  Hmm that's a great idea... when is Uncle Kyle coming over next so I can set up the camera and give Max lots of milk before hand.  What a great idea!! Kyle if your reading this ignoring the above statement.

Daddy and Max!! How I love my boys!! :)

Max sleeping - second outfit today!

Back-up clothes for when he pees himself.

His pack-n-play set up at Grandma N.'s house. Lots of supplies!

Cousin Time!

What a great time we had last week!  Bradie and Kaleb - the Florida Crabbs - were up from sunny florida staying with their Memaw and Papa, so Kevin and I took little Max over to visit them almost everyday and they came over to our house to see us as well. Max loves his cousins and they love him! It was a fun week. I think Bradie and Kaleb half expected Max to be able to go outside and play football with them or at least move and were quite surprised to see such a little baby. However, after the initial shock they were so cute and in love with him!  They took tons of pictures and took turns holding him!! Bradie especially couldn't get enough - love her! My favorite part was when I would go into the other room to feed Max - at Memaw and Papa's house - and she wanted to come in there with us and hang out - hiding of course when he was latching on so she didn't see my boobie! She just wanted to hang out with Max and I, and truthfully it was nice having the company. She would make the bed and we would just have girl time.  It was nice. Kaleb tried to come in, but Kevin kicked him out. It wasn't like you could see anything, I was covered up, but he was curious as to what was going on.  However, he's a boy and so Kevin kicked him out. Ha! 

Another fun surprise for Max was when his cousin Austin came to stay with Memaw and Papa and the kids.  Austin - who has a little sister - was so good with Max, actually enamored is the word.  Again priceless. I love kids with babies! So cute!  Austin is 10 and Kaleb is 9, I can't wait until they are 16 and 15 and Max is 6.  It's going to be cute, when they are begging Papa to borrow his car so they can take Max to get ice cream or whatever. It's going to be great!! Hopefully they still find him as cool as they do now... I'm sure they will be super annoyed when he wants to play with the big boys... and he's holding them back. Awe it's going to be so much fun! 

I personally feel a little bad. I love my niece and nephews sooo much but I am sooo tired with all the work associated with taking care of baby Max that I can't play with them as much as I used too. It breaks my heart, but Uncle Kevin really stepped it up. It's like practice for when our kids are older, or at least that's what I say. He took Bradie on numerous four wheeler rides and took the boys all over the place on the golf carts.  One day when we were over visiting, Kevin was working and Bradie wanted his attention so she followed him around for like 5 minutes. I was laughing so hard - it was adorable!  We all miss them so much already! And are looking forward to visiting them over Christmas in Florida! Bradie is excited because she really wants to walk and hold Max and I told her that maybe by then she can do that! :) 

I'm so glad that the kids were able to meet their new cousin when he is as little as he is now!! They are going to have so many stories to tell him and embarrass him with when they are older. Not that we don't have lots of blackmail on them... because we do!

Miss you guys!! Thanks again to Kerry and Derek & Dawn and Dan for letting them visit!

More photos coming soon!

The Incredible Sleeping Baby?

Okay the past four weeks have been absolutely incredible! It amazing how the human body can adjust to the lack of sleep and changing sleep patterns. I've got to say - with my fingers crossed mind you - that all and all Max is a pretty good sleeper (okay fingers are crossed and I am also knocking on wood at the same time), but yes all and all he's not too bad. We almost even have a schedule, which is exciting.  However, the other day my little man decided he wanted to show me how other babies can be.

So this past week my lovely, beautiful and well behaved niece and nephew were in Ohio visiting - up from SUNNY FLORIDA.  So we were over at Grandma and Grandpa C. visiting all week and on Wednesday Max decided he'd like to sleep the entire time we were over there.  No matter what we did - he wanted to sleep.  Not good for Mommy! So by the time we got home at 10 p.m. he was ready to be up and stay up, while Mommy was ready to sleep and stay asleep. Max voted "No" and Max always wins! So I got a combined 4 hours of sleep total on Wednesday - Thursday! It wasn't a good situation for mommy!

So needless to say after one night of that - I'm bound and determine to avoid another situation similar to this. Seriously not an easy thing to do! I'm doing my best to keep Max up during the day - with the exception of naps etc. Sometimes that's easier said than done! Currently our little guy is in his pack-n-play moaning and groaning about waking up, oh yea did I tell you he moans and groans now much like his father.  I've determined nap time is over and he's debating whether or not he's ready to be awake. Oh I love the little challenges of being a Mommy!

No don't wake me up Mommy!! 

Fighting it still!!

Night night time for daddy and Max!! :) Don't they look alike! Haha!

Next post I promise to post some pictures of Max and his cousins!! 

Bringing Home Baby!

"Bringing Home Baby"

As I promised... to be continued... After a wonderful 3 day stay at the hospital it was time to go home. As I previously said our stay was wonderful - the staff and doctors were the best, but we had to go.  So on Sunday, July 10th we made the trip home. However, we had one quick stop to make first.  We had to stop and visit Grandma and Grandpa H., since they couldn't visit us in the hospital and it was very important to us to visit them.  The "boppy" pillow made it very easy for everyone to hold Max - and if I can say so myself grandma was going to hold him whether we had that pillow or not.  It was so nice to see them and Max was super excited - okay he slept the entire time but I know if he was able to understand he would have been super excited.

After our trip to the Herman's we headed home, to meet our first born - Guinness.  Kevin and I weren't the least bit worried about this meeting, but everyone had been asking us over and over again about it so the anticipation was killing us. Guinness was a little mad at his mommy and daddy as he didn't understand why we hadn't been home for the past few days and why Grandma and Grandpa had been. At first he was a little weary of the car seat, but when I set it down on the ground & took little Max out Guinness instantly understood - it was his baby!! He ran over and kissed Max all over! Best friends forever!  Well mostly Guinness ignores Max, when he's crying he checks him out and kisses him, but mostly he just does his own thing and watches over his baby.  When new people are holding Max he checks them out first and kisses his baby. I can't wait to see how this relationship grows as Max becomes mobile. Right now, it's mostly eat, sleep, poop, talk, etc etc... pretty simple.

The first few days at home were pretty easy to be honest. Max slept pretty good at night and well pretty good during the day too. It was nice because my mom stayed with us those first few days while we settled... we really appreciated it and are excited for her to come back.  :) Anytime you want G-Ma!  

My mom (G-Ma N.) a week after Max was born.  It's funny when she left I said to her that all hell was going to break lose now that she was gone - and boy was I right....

"The Infection"

I woke up the first morning after my mom had left - FREEZING!! I actually ran and grabbed Max another blanket because I figured if I was cold he had to be.  I then called my mother to ask her for advice as my boob was rock solid (I'm breastfeeding so I figured that there was something wrong there). She told me to take a shower and see if I couldn't "work it out". Well that barely helped.. I was still feeling AWFUL. So Kevin took my temperature and we called the doctor.  Her nurse - Missy - talked to Dr. P. and we determined that it was most likely a boobie infection - Mistetius - it's very common among us breast-feeders. It was horrible, but they called in an antibiotic for me and I was put on Tylenol.

Thankfully G-Ma C. was free that day, because she came over and together her and Kevin cared for Max while I rested and re-cooperated.  It was a very emotional day for me, but I made it through and all is well now.  Still anyone who has had a boobie infection will tell you - it's horrible - and I understand why people give up breastfeeding after I had this experience - however, I strongly suggest you work though it and continue with it because the bond you form from feeding is amazing and it's very beneficial to babies. I wouldn't have it any other way... I know several friends who are / have breastfed and all of their babies are beautiful and let's be honest people - it saves you a TON of money and in this economy any savings you can get is awesome - breast milk is free milk! Although it's a choice and everyone has the right to decide what they want to do...No judgement here! I get it!!

Mommy's First Post

Okay this is my first blog posting - let's see how this goes!! My little angel - Max turns 4 weeks this Thrusday! I can not believe it. It feels like yesterday I was huge and carrying him around in my belly!! He's truely the best little baby ever! I should probably begin this post with a short recap of the past nine/ten months plus the past 3.5 weeks.

It all started nine/ten months ago... Kevin and I decided that it was time to expand our family beyond just us and our little/big puppy- okay dog - Guinness. And so our little angel was conceived.  It's funny you never know what to expect with these things because you've never done it before, but I can tell you without a doubt that I swear I knew I was pregnant before I even took the test.  I think I knew right away... haha... but the true first sign for me was my midnite wake up with extreme stomach pains. I almost made Kevin take me to the hospital.  Months later we now look back at this as our little Max was burrowing into my uterus.  Making himself comfortable for the next 39 weeks.

After we took "the test" Kevin and I decided that we would keep our little miracle a secret until Christmas... as we wanted to be sure everything was okay.  Anyone who knows me knows that secrets aren't exactly my fortay but I did it and didn't tell a soul except for Missy at work because I had to tell someone and I needed advice and I needed to know what was normal and what wasn't.  It was actually fun keeping a secret and we were excited to surprise our parents and families at Christmas with the best present ever -- news of our little miracle.

Christmas went off without a hitch and we were able to tell everyone and definitely surprise them all. I actually think my mother was pissed that I hadn't told her.. haha.. love you mom!! Mom and Dad C. were shocked and their reaction was priceless:) The only parent to not be surprised was my dad -- haha he proudly announced that "He Knew It" because I hadn't been drinking!! But he was beeming with pride... not knowing that the best surprise was yet to come -- his first Grandson -- that's right a little boy... haha!!

"Our Little Boy"
So by the time 18 weeks came along I was definitely scared out of my mind to figure out what we were having.  At this point I was pretty sure we were having a girl because I desperately wanted a little boy... you see I have 3 sisters and I know what girls are like - besides I wanted to remain the princess around my house a little longer!! So when we went in for our ultrasound I was so nervous.. Kevin however was certain that we were having a boy... you can imagine my surprise when we found out he was right!! I cried... and Kevin was  so proud of himself... :) The first person we called was my dad -- the way I figured it he's never heard anyone say to him "It's a boy!!"  so we had to call him first... However, he remained doubtful until he saw Max with his own eyes... sure that his "girls only" curse would continue! Whopps did I say curse I meant blessing!!

My entire pregnancy was wonderful!! Okay wonderful except I was huge!! So many people kept asking me if I was having twins, to which I responding nope... my little boy just takes after his daddy!! Here we are at 30 weeks or so... end of May... as you can see I was huge... below you will also see some other photos of me through-out the pregnancy!! As you can see I stopped taking photos as I started to get really big!! Haha!!

30 weeks or so...

13 weeks or so

18 weeks or so

21 weeks or so..

I know this will be hard to believe but I worked out my entire pregnancy all the way up until mid-June when my doctor told me I had to stop. We're talking 30 minutes on the eliptical or 1.5 mile walk... depending on the weather!! I was determined to keep my weight in check... Max however had other ideas!! He wanted to be big and grow grow grow!!

In fact Max grew so much that by our June ultrasound he was measuring 7 lbs.. At this point we still hadn't decided upon a name.. this is when I threw out the name Max as a joke really because he was well "Maximum" size.. hence Max!! Kevin said nothing - so I knew that this name was a serious contender... I love it!! 

Over the next few weeks, I had to start seeing the High Risk doctor because Max was so large and twice a  week I had to get NST (Non-Stress Tests) taken. They were annoying but part of the process like all the tests we took - we always passed. It was determined that I was carrying alot of emboynic fluid.. to which I attributed to Max peeing alot... something Kevin and I consider to be true.. considering he is quite the pisser - literally!!

"The Big Day" 7/7/11

Because of Max's size, Dr. P - my doctor she's wonderful - and Kevin and I decided that a C-Section was the best way to go.. Thank GOODNESS!! What a wonderful experiece.. okay I'm getting ahead of myself. The day before my C-Section my parents came up to stay with us and Kevin's parents took us to lunch.  So we got to see everyone.. I'll post a picture when I steal one from Mom C. -- I was huge, uncomfortable and ready to have our baby!!  So Kevin put me to bed at 10 p.m. telling me I needed my rest tomorrow was going to be a big day.. boy was he right.. 

On our way to the hospital - 4:45 a.m. I look horrible and have no make up on .. One of the rules.

Kevin and I -- like I said I look really bad. My face is huge, I am huge.. but hey I'm not huge anymore!!

So we get to the hospital - 2 hours early - and get ready for baby. I strip to the hospital gown and am hooked up to the baby monitor and an IV is started. The families arrive around 6 a.m. - with 1 hour to go. How I love my rock Kevin - he was an angel. Holding my hand and watching over me.. love him!! Each doctor that will be working on me today comes and visits.. they are all wonderful!! Everyone!! The answered all my questions - and trust me I had alot.. when I'm nervous I tend to be very talkative and ask lots of questions!! Next thing I know I am wisked down the hall to the OR.  Baby H is minutes away from arrival -- we've decided upon the name Max by now but still haven't told anyone!!

In the OR they hook me up to the devices and give me the wonderful Spinal Block. I was so nervous but it didn't hurt nearly as bad as I thought it was going to. Besides for a little jerk when the block went in it was nothing. They laid me down and the anesthesiologist went and got Kevin. He walked in and I was smiling from ear to ear, my baby was on his way and I couldn't feel a thing.  It smelled really bad when they were opening me up but that was the most of my worries.  I tell Kevin that it's going to be like 10 minutes until we see baby - Dr. P informs us it's going to be much sooner. She tells me she's going to be breaking my water and Kevin asks if he can stand up and watch. The doctor says yes... next thing I know they are holding up our little baby Max - who peed all over the place immediately upon coming out - Kevin looks at me and says "Oh my god he's blonde" I'm in shock and when I see him I can't believe it - he looks like me. I had expected Max to look only like his dad and nothing like me!! I'm shocked!! He's perfect and beautiful and scores a 9 out of 10 on his first test. A nearly perfect score!! Noone get's perfect!!

The experience was wonderful!! I loved having a C-Section and told Kevin when we were in recovery that I was ready to have another one!! And truthfully I am... not now but when Max is 1 or so... we'll try again!! I love my Max -- he's my little miracle.

Our hospital stay was wonderful!!! It was a great place to give birth and I suggest that to all my Ohio mom's-to-be... The staff was great and the rooms were nice!!! The next 3 days were great and we didn't want to leave.. but we did!! And so the next chapter in our lives had begun!!!

Next up... parenthood!  To be continued....