Our friends Mark and Shannon McMillan came to the Pacific Northwest recently to check out the sites and enjoy the land of no sales tax and gas that is pumped for you (that one is still strange to me).  Mainly, they just wanted to hang and check out our new baby boy Marshall.  The best part?  Getting to see my godson Charles Watson, who’s now 18 months old.

We shot a little video of him talking about one of his favorite things…the Gee-Bawm.  Charles tells us all about it, while the two dads discuss their typical nerd topics, such as the latest Steve Jobs keynote.

Yes, we are nerds.

Enjoy.

Charles Watson and “the Gee-Bawm”

As Marshall passed the 6 week mark, momma and I have been excited in listening to Marshall’s new sounds, and new faces (he started smiling!). The best part?  It was just in time, as Marshall’s ‘Mawmaw’ and ‘Pawpaw’ flew in from Texas over the Labor Day weekend to see their grandson for the first time.  Needless to say, I think they took to him rather quickly.

Always the video director, I of course shot some footage.  Enjoy!

Labor Day Weekend with Mawmaw and Pawpaw

Today … MJ turned 3 weeks old.

He’s had a wonderful life so far. He’s seen many people who’ve all said how darn cute he is. He loved meeting “Honey and Papa” Karcher and thinking that his uncle TK calling him “Jimmy” is awesome! He’s looking forward to meeting his Maw Maw and Paw Paw Rhodes when they come for a visit at the beginning of next month. 

He has absolutely no schedule … loves eating and being swaddled … is getting so big and strong he amazes his Momma and Daddy everyday. He has the cutest little smirk that crosses his face right before he falls asleep in our arms - not to mention all the other faces he makes when sleeping. His eyes are blue and he loves looking at the wedding picture of Momma and Daddy that’s behind the nursing chair … this is the one …

He loves the songs that his Daddy sings to him while they hang out (mostly about the boob which is, of course, his favorite subject). He recognizes our voices and is starting to focus on our faces - we are working on sticking out tongue out at each other and making funny faces …

Everyday there are amazing things that occur in our home … and everyday we’re so grateful for the wonder and joy that has come into our life with this little guy! We look forward to what will happen next!

My apologies folks.

Some of you may have recently tried to go to the site, but were denied due to a plugin issue with a video embedding feature I tried to add to show off some footage. Something to do with Internet Explorer not liking the plugin too much.

I have now added the videos as a link that will open in a separate browser, so we should be good now.

Next time I’ll try not to be so fancy shmancy.

Welp - I’m breastfeeding. It’s been … challenging and rewarding. We had some ups and downs - luckily OHSU has amazing lactation resources so more ups than downs. 

So far the biggest obstacles were a two hour marathon feeding that thrashed my nipples and the day he was circumsized and didn’t want to feed for nothin! The marathon session (as I like to call it) was due to receipt of information from someone at the hospital who said - if he wants to nurse - nurse him. So … I did … for 2 hours … back and forth … right boob - left boob. And in the morning - VERY sore nipples … cracked, bleeding, scabbing … ugh. It was horrible. Luckily one of the nurses on duty the next day was wonderful and helped me overcome with the use of nipple shields … among other things. The next day was MJs circ - and he just wouldn’t latch. For a kid who I couldn’t PRY off the boob the night before … it was so hard for me to get through. The lactation consultant that came to help me the next day helped me with pumping and using nipple shields … she was a lifesaver!! We got him to latch and nurse and with a little formula to supplement my breast milk we got his weight up that day. Whew.

Needless to say - it took almost 2 weeks to recover from that marathon nursing session … today I had another meeting with a lactation consultant and things are back on track! He’s nursing like a champ - gaining weight - latching on well … they say after 4 weeks I can pump and we can give him a bottle when needed. YAY for breastmilk!

Some people thought we were crazy … but we did it anyway. At 2 weeks old … we took our beautiful new son and went out for breakfast!

He was an angel … and though it was a totally different experience … it was nice to be out and about. 

If only they’d had eggs benedict it would have been perfect!